Anniversary Address. 3 



unknown or undeveloped ? Shall I remind you of the golden 

 treasures which can never be exhausted by the hardy miners, 

 and to which each improvement in machinery will give an 

 easier access ? Shall I remind you of the still greater and 

 more lasting riches which husbandry in future will raise from 

 our dormant soil ? Shall I remind you that Victoria, with 

 its transparent sky, with its genial, delightful clime — a coun- 

 try free of feudal bond, and not enslaved by any institutions 

 unworthy of the genius of this enlightened age — presents a 

 combination of elements of wealth and sources of prosperity 

 for which it would be vain to search in many other countries, 

 even if by nature equally endowed. And still how vastly 

 might we not increase these gifts of Providence through our 

 exertions ! Might not the vegetable treasures from every 

 zone, except the torrid, be nourishing around us, ministering 

 to our necessary wants and to our luxurious enjoyment? 

 Might not the pastures of our silent Alps, might not our 

 grassless forest-ranges, like the Andes or the Himalayan 

 mountains, yet be enlivened by the alpaca or the Cashmere 

 goat ? Might not the desert game of Southern Africa yet 

 roam in lively sport throughout our inland solitudes, and 

 render them more hospitable, perhaps betraying to the wea- 

 ried wanderer, by their path, the water-pool on which his life 

 depends ? Might not the camel's track across the continent 

 guide with their flocks the harbingers of new colonization to 

 the oases of our inland wastes, and lead them on and on, 

 until by peaceful conquest we raise another Indian empire in 

 continental Oceania ? Might not the scenes of enterprise, of 

 which the South has been a recent and astounded witness, 

 soon be renewed on our northern shore, and the symbols of 

 Neptune, Ceres, and Minerva be planted by Britannia on a 

 coast of wide extent, now lying desolate ? Might not the 

 chain be closed by which, in harmony, civilisation should 

 link one country to the other, by which young, vigorous Aus- 



