and their Development. 155 



a paste, a large quantity of extract is obtained. The seeds 

 are not medicinal, but are fattening food for fowls. 



But there are niany reasons why we the colonists of Vic- 

 toria should not confine our exertions to Victoria. Victoria 

 is the leading colony of Australia, and a. very large propor- 

 tion of the capital and enterprise of this continent are pos- 

 sessed by us. Now there are some articles which might 

 become great staples of Australasian trade, which the climates 

 of New South Wales and Moreton Bay only would produce. 

 I refer more particularly to cotton and indigo. From time 

 to time enterprising individuals have imported small quanti- 

 ties of cotton seed from America; and cotton, as you all 

 know, I doubt not, of most excellent quality has been pro- 

 duced by white labour along from 500 to 700 miles of the Aus- 

 tralasian coast to the north of Sydney, water carriage being 

 everywhere available. To England, of course, the cotton 

 would be sent; but our distance from England is not a great 

 obstacle, as our freights for wool are only about £d. to |d. 

 per lb., and cotton is easier packed. While cotton from New 

 Orleans to Liverpool costs |d. per lb., and though the 

 American cotton is raised by slave labour, I am convinced 

 Australian -grown cotton could compete in the English market 

 with it. Our wool has competed many years in the Eng- 

 lish market with wool grown in the cheap countries of 

 Spain, France and Germany; and though within the last few 

 years the rates of wages here on account of the gold disco- 

 veries have been more than doubled, yet our wool competes 

 now even as successfully with the wool of the cheap countries 

 as before ; and if this is an eloquent fact in regard to wool, 

 it would be equally so with regard to cotton, in all probability; 

 and the mere cost of labour on an article worth 2s. per lb. 

 would prove insignificant. It is a well known fact that slave 

 labour is not economical, the labour of a white man being 

 always reckoned as worth the labour of several slaves, besides 

 the fact that appliances in the slave states are generally of 

 the rudest kind. 



In many respects the example of the United States will be 

 instructive to lis. Sixty years ago their population was only 

 three millions; they have now a population of twenty-six 

 millions, and now they manufacture nearly everything they 

 require. 



In the cycle of human affairs events often repeat them- 

 selves; and the rapid increase of population and manufactures 

 in America may be equalled by a corresponding increase with 



