NEW HOLLAND. 
times been made an inftrument to gain popularity, than 
the means of rewarding exemplary condudd by a well- 
deferved extenfion of his majefty’s mercy. Your com¬ 
mittee therefore fugged, that no pardon whatever, real or 
conditional, he granted hut through the fecretary of Jlate. 
This may create a delay perhaps of a year, in obtaining 
the pardon of any convift; but that inconvenience will 
not be great; for, by granting to him a ticket of leave, 
the convidd will in the mean time be entirely relieved 
from the preflure of his fentence. Upon the fubjeft of 
tickets of leave, your committee feel that the power of 
granting them ought to remain in full force with the 
governor; but it is a power which they would wiih to fee 
i'paringly and cautioufly made ufe of; and with this view, 
they recommend that an annual return be made to the 
fecretary of date's office, of the number of tickets of leave 
iffued in the year, with a datement of the grounds upon 
which each was granted. 
“ No difficulty appears to exid, amongd the major part 
of the men who do not widi to remain in the colony, of 
finding means to return to this country. All but the 
aged and infirm eafily find employment on-board the fliips 
vifiting New South Wales, and are allowed to work their 
paffage home; but fuch facility is not afforded to the 
women : they have no poffible method of leaving the 
colony but by prodituting themfelves on-board the ihips 
whofe maders may choofe to receive them. They who 
are fent to New South Wales, that their former habits 
may be relinquiffied, cannot obtain a return to this coun¬ 
try but by relapfing into that mode of life which with 
many has been the fird caufe of all their crimes and mif- 
fortunes. To thofe who dirink from thefe means, or are 
unable even thus to obtain a paffage for themfelves, tranf- 
portation for feven years is converted into a banidiment 
for life ; and the jud and humane provifions of the law, by 
which different periods of tranfportation are apportioned 
to different degrees of crime,’ are rendered entirely null. 
To fee this defeat in the puniffiment remedied, is the 
anxious widi of your committee; and they trud that 
means may be devifed to facilitate the return of fuch 
women as have paffed their time of fervitude, and are 
unwilling to remain in the colony, either by affording 
them a fufficient fum of money, or by fome dipulation in 
their favour with the maders of veffels touching at the 
iettlarnent. 
“ It will be feen by the accounts laid before your com¬ 
mittee, that the expenfes of the colony are confiderable. 
The bills drawn in the year 1810 amounted to 72,600b 
being a great increafe upon any preceding year; and the 
expenditure of the year 1811 promifed to be dill greater: 
in addition to thefe, a great annual expenditure is in¬ 
curred in the tranfmiffion of dores and merchandife, and 
in the freight of tranfports. Your committee trud that, 
when the buildings abfolutely neceffary for the public 
fervice (hall be completed, as the commerce of the colony 
ffiall profper, the duties become more productive, and, 
from agricultural improvement, the fupply of dores to 
its prefent amount fliall be difcontinued, this expenfe 
will be materially diminidiecl; and it is their opinion, 
that it might even now be confiderably reduced by the 
removal of part of the military force in the colony, which 
appears to them to be unneceffarily large. The wjiole 
population does not amount to 11,000, and of thefe 1100 
are foldiers. 
“ Such i? the view taken by your committee of the 
colony of New South Wales; and it is, in their opinion, 
in a train entirely' to anfwer the ends propofed by its 
edabliffiment. It appears latterly to have attrafted a 
greater ffiare of the attention of government than it did 
for many years after its foundation ; and, when the feveral 
beneficial orders lately fent out from this country, and 
the liberal views of the prefent governor, fiiall have had 
time to operate, the bed eft'eds are to be expedited. The 
pernrijjion of diftillation within the colony, and the reform of 
the courts of jujlice, are two meafures which your com¬ 
779 
mittee, above all others, recommend as mod neceffary to 
dimulate agricultural indudry, and to give the inhabitants 
that confidence'and legal fecurity which can alone render 
them contented with the government under which they 
are placed.” 
To thofe who know how very limited a traft of country 
had been hitherto occupied by the colonids of New South 
Wales, extending along the eadern coad to the north 
and fouth of Port Jackfon only eighty miles, and wed- 
ward about forty miles, to the foot of that chain of moun¬ 
tains in the interior which forms its wedern boundary, it 
mud be a fubjedit of adonifhment and regret that amongd 
fo large a population no one appeared within the fird 
twenty-five years of the edablifliment of this fettlement 
poffeffed of fufficient energy of mind to induce him to ex¬ 
plore a paffage over the Blue Mountains; but when it is 
confidered that for the greater part of that time even this 
circumfcribed portion of country ad'orded fufficient pro¬ 
duce for the wants of the people, whild on the other hand 
the whole furface of the country beyond thofe limits was 
a thick and in many places nearly an impenetrable fored, 
the furprife at the want of effort to furmount fuch dif¬ 
ficulties mud abate very confiderably. 
The records of the colony only afford two indances of 
any bold attempt having been made to difcover the coun¬ 
try to the wedward of the Blue Mountains. The fird 
was by Mr. Bafs, and the other by Mr. Caley; and both 
ended in difappointment; a circumdance which will not 
be much wondered at by thofe who have lately eroded 
thofe mountains. To Gregory Blaxland and William 
Wentworth, efqrs. and lieutenant Lawfon, of the-Royal 
Veteran Company, the merit is due of having, with ex¬ 
traordinary patience and much fatigue, effected the fird 
paffage over the mod rugged and difficult part of the 
Blue Mountains. 
Governor Macquarrie, being drongly impreffed with 
the importance of the objedl, had, early after his arrival 
in this colony, formed the refolution of encouraging the 
attempt to find a paffage to the wedern country, and 
willingly availed liimfelf of the facilities which the dis¬ 
coveries of thefe three gentlemen afforded him. Accord¬ 
ingly, in November 1813, he entruded the accomplidi- 
ment of this objedt to Mr. George William Evans, deputy 
furveyor of lands, the refult of whofe journeys was laid 
before the public through the medium of the Sydney 
Gazette in February 1814. 
From this account we coflledt, that, on the 19th of 
November, 1813, Mr. Evans left Emu Ifland in the Nepean, 
and returned on the 8th of January, 1814, having per¬ 
formed a journey of 154 miles nearly wed. At the end 
of forty-eight miles, he had cleared the ranges of moun¬ 
tains, which he fays are granite, with loofe flints and 
quartz pebbles drewed on the furface; and here, for the 
fird time, he fell in with a fmall dream running to the 
wedward. The farther he advanced, the more beautiful 
the country became ; both hill and dale were clothed with 
fine grafs, the whole appearing at a little didance as if 
laid out into fields divided by hedge-rows; through every 
valley meandered trickling dreams of fine water, all fall¬ 
ing down towards the Fifth River, fo called by him from 
the vad abundance of fine fifli refembling trout, which his 
party caught with eafe whenever they had occafion for 
them. Many of the hills were capped with fored-trees, 
chiefly of the Eucalyptus; and clumps of thefe, mixed 
with Mimofas and the Cafuarina, were interfperfed along 
the feet of the hills and in the valleys, fo as to wear the 
appearance of a fucceffion of gentlemen’s parks. The 
river, which at fird confided of a chain of pools, con- 
nedled by fmall dreamlets, had affumed, in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Macquurrie's Plains, the character of a confi¬ 
derable dream, and had become unfordable; which made 
it neceffary to condrudt a bridge of large trees to tranf- 
port the people, the horfes, and baggage. Evans fays, 
the country was now more beautiful than he had ever 
feen. A fine river running in a deep channel over a 
4 gravelly 
