Wentworth's New South Wales. 
mrich longer duration ; and the moun¬ 
tains, with which this island abounds, 
are covered with snow during the 
greater part of the year; but in the 
valleys it never lingers on the ground 
more than a few hours. Upon an ave¬ 
rage the mean difference of temperature 
between these settlements and those on 
New Holland, (I speak of such as are 
to the eastward of the Blue Mountains, 
for the country to the westward of them, 
it has been already stated, is equally 
cold with any part of Van Diemen’s 
Land,) may be estimated at ten degrees 
of Fahrenheit at all seasons of the 
year. 
SOIL, &C. 
In this island, as in New Holland, 
there is every diversity of soil, but 
certainly in proportion to the surface 
of the two countries, this contains, 
comparatively, much less of an indif¬ 
ferent quality. Large tracts of land 
perfectly free from timber or un¬ 
derwood, and covered with the most 
luxuriant herbage, are to be found in 
all directions; but more particularly 
in the environs of Port Dalrymple. 
Result of a Bluster taken in New South 
JVales and its Dependencies 
in Novem- 
her, 1818. 
Number of souls 
25,050 
Acres of wheat . 
•20,100 
- of maize 
8,435 
-of barley 
1,140 
-of oats 
292 
- of pease and beans 
432 
- of potatoes . 
730 
of garden and orchard 
995 
-- of cleared grouud 
49,600 
Total held . 
290,600 
Number of horses . 
3,675 
- of horned cattle 
55,450 
-- of sheep 
201,240 
- of hogs 
24,822 
Bushels of wheat . 
15,240 
.-of maize . 
41,916 
FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 
It must be almost superffuous to state, 
that, when this colony was formed, it 
was composed, with the exception of 
its civil and military establishments, 
entirely of convicts. It was conse¬ 
quently impossible that a body of men, 
Avho were all under the sentence of the 
law, and had been condemned for their 
crimes to suffer either a temporary sus¬ 
pension, or total deprivation of the 
civil rights of citizens, could be ad¬ 
mitted to exercise one of the most im¬ 
portant among the whole of them—the 
elective franchise; and to have vested 
this privilege in the civil and military 
651 
authorities, both of whom then, as at 
present, were subject to martial law, 
and were besides at that time without 
landed property, the only standard I 
conceive, by which the right either of 
electing, or being elected, can in any 
country be propevly regulated, would 
have been equally improper and ab» 
surd. 
Until, therefore, the free inhabitants 
of the colony had increased to a sufft- 
cient number to exercise the elective 
franchise, and until its productive 
powers had outstripped its consump¬ 
tive, and it became necessary either to 
create new markets for its produce 
within, or to direct a portion of its 
strength to the raising of articles for 
exportation to other countries, the 
establishment of a free representative 
government would not have been ex¬ 
pedient had it even been practicable. 
On the expediency of appointing a 
council, His Majesty’s ministers are, l 
believe, themselves agreed ; and I will 
not, therefore, enter at great length on 
the subject. The arbitrary and revolt¬ 
ing acts which the want of a controlling 
body of tliis nature has already occa¬ 
sioned, furnish the most convincing 
proof of its necessit)'. No power, in 
fact, could be established, which would, 
at one, and the same time, prove so 
firm a defence to the subject, and so 
stable a support to the executive. A 
council in the colonies bears many 
points of resemblance to the House of 
Lords in this country. 11 forms that just 
equipoise between the democratic and 
supreme powers of the state, which has 
been found necessary not less to repress 
the licentiousness of the one, than to 
curb the tyranny of the other. Besides, 
it at all times provides a remedy for the 
inexperience or ignorance of governors ; 
and is a sort of nucleus, round which 
all new bodies may easily agglome¬ 
rate. 
The last measure, which 1 consider 
necessary to the prospeiity of this co 
lony, is a radical reform in the courts 
of justice. It lias long since been no¬ 
ticed, that at the principal settlement 
and its dependencies there are live 
courts,—one of criminal—and the other 
four of civil judicature, viz. the crimi¬ 
nal court, the governor’s court, the 
supreme court, the court of vice admi¬ 
ralty, the high court of appeals, all ol 
which are held in Sydney, and the lieu¬ 
tenant governor’s court, which is held 
in Hobart Toyvn. 
It 
