256 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



quently occur, when there has been no sign of bad weather on the 

 coast ; but storms of rain occur seventy or eighty miles in the interior, 

 which raise the streams thirty or forty feet, doing great damage. 



On the way up the Hunter, a steamboat was seen building. The 

 best ship-timber is said to be the flooded gum tree. The steamboat 

 stopped at Green Hill, and they rode to Maitland, about three miles. 

 Maitland is a widely-scattered village, with many neat dwellings, 

 stores, and shops, &c, built of brick and other materials, and much 

 better than could have been anticipated. Near Harper's Hill, a place 

 noted for the fossils which have been found there, a chain-gang was 

 seen at work on the road, with their attendant guard. They were 

 generally young and hearty-looking men. 



Some natives were passed who were quite naked, but they did not 

 attempt to approach. There are no wild tribes in this vicinity. These 

 poor creatures are becoming rapidly exterminated by the whites, who 

 are not over-scrupulous as to the means. The natives have now and 

 then committed a murder, but in general they are more sinned against 

 than sinning. It is remarkable that they do not complain of their 

 lands being taken from them, but confine their lamentations to the 

 destruction of the kangaroos by the whites ; and they think it very 

 hard that they should be punished for killing the white man's kangaroo, 

 (a sheep or a bullock.) 



Mr. Hale made a journey to the Wellington Valley, about two hun- 

 dred and thirty miles to the northwest of Sydney, and on the frontiers 

 of the colony. It was first occupied, seventeen years ago, as a military 

 post, when several small brick buildings were erected, and some of the 

 land, which is considered the most fertile in the colony, brought into 

 cultivation. It was afterwards converted into a penal station, for a 

 description of convicts called " Specials," or such as were superior in 

 education and social rank. 



In 1832, it was granted by government to the Church Missionary 

 Society, in trust for the aborigines, with an annuity of five hundred 

 pounds, in part as the support of a mission establishment on the 

 grant ; and ever since, there have been two ministers of the Society 

 resident at the place, employed in endeavouring to convert and 

 civilize the natives. 



The only conveyance is the mails, unless ja vehicle is purchased, the 

 outlay for which would be about four hundred dollars. The mail was 

 taken in preference to this mode, both as avoiding cost and as less 

 liable to the dangers of journeying alone. On account of the numerous 

 Bush-rangers and runaway convicts, travelling in New South Wales is 

 not considered safe. 



