252 
ON COLONIAL WINES. 
and I honestly admit that, while there might have 
been more experienced judges of wine and abler 
analysts than myself, I could hear, in 18G0, of hardly 
one who knew anything of the young, unmatured 
wines of Europe, and not one, who at the same time 
could bring a chemist's knowledge to bear upon our 
produce. And, furthermore, I thought the vignerons 
would trust my statements, seeing that I had a 
character and public position to maintain, and, also, 
that I had not a pennyworth of personal interest in 
any vineyard, or its produce. But I had another 
motive for taking up this subject — one not unworthy 
of a clergyman. Many years' experience had impressed 
on my mind that wine-producing countries, where wine 
is plentiful and cheap, are invariably remarkable for 
sober, healthy, and cheerful populations ; that 
drunkenness is all but unknown, and many distressing 
diseases, common among drinkers of beer and spirits 
in warm climates, utterly unheard of. 
It must also be conceded that there is a freshness 
and charm about the first investigations of objects, 
such as wines, which are liable to indefinite and 
almost innumerable varieties. In- the circumstances, 
under which the vine has been introduced into 
Australia, on one hand from old vineyards in the south 
of Spain and south of France, and on the other by 
Swiss and Germans from their own countries, mainly 
the Rheingau and the Tyrol, changes in the produce 
must of necessity occur. Change of climate, perhaps, 
more than anything else, affects the vine and its pro- 
duce. Vines, introduced by the Messrs. Macarthur, of 
Camden, into New South Wales, and Mr. Gilbert, of 
Pewseyvale, into South Australia, originally from near 
