liv 
PERIODICAI. DROUGHTS, 
the Doomot. Generally speaking, the persons 
who reside in those distant parts, pay little at- 
tention to the comfort of their dwellings, or to 
the raising of more grain than their establish- 
ments may require ; but there can be no doubt 
this part of the interior ought to he the granary 
of New South Wales; its climate and greater 
humidity being more favourable than that of 
Sydney for the production of wheat. 
The most serious disadvantage under which 
the colony of New South Wales labours, is in 
the drought to which it is periodically subject. 
Its climate may be said to be too dry ; in other 
respects it is one of the most delightful under 
heaven ; and experience of the certainty of the 
recurrence of the trying seasons to which I 
allude, should teach men to provide against their 
effects. Those seasons, during which no rain 
falls, appear, from the observations of former 
writers, to occur every ten or twelve years ; and 
it is somewhat singular that no cause has been 
assigned for such periodical visitations. Whether 
the state of the interior has anything to do with 
them, and whether the wet or dry condition of 
the marshes at all regulate the seasons, is a ques- 
