1788-6 WooMnfrom tlMlaUuids. Chinese. Trade with ther Wool Anti-emi- giatlonlstB. A naval PLANS FOE COLONISma with two companies of marines and abont twenty artificers^ who are all the emigration required from the parent State/' These men could be left at the new settlement to prepare for the reception of the intended settlers. The ships conld take in a supply of live stocky seed^ and fruit-trees at the Cape of Good Hope. 5. One of the ships might be despatched from the colony to New Caledonia^ Otaheite^ and the neighbouring islands^ to procure a few families thence, and as many women as may serve for the men left behind.'* Sir Joseph Banks was of opinion that " any number of useful inhabitants might be drawn from China, " agree- ably to an invariable custom of the Dutch in forming or recruiting their Eastern settlements.*'* 6. The proposed colony would improve the trade with China, and open up commercial intercourse with Japan, Korea, and the Moluccas. The timber and flax of New Zealand might become articles of commerce, of great importance to the naval interests of England. "There is also a prospect of considerably extending our woollen trade." 7. " Those who are alarmed at the idea of weakening the mother country by opening ychannel for emigration " might console themselves by reflecting that " it is more profitable that a part of our countrymen should go to a new abode where they may be useful to us, than to the American States." 8. The geographical position of New South Wales might give it "a very commanding influence in the policy of
- The employment of Chinese in the settlement of new oountries was a
familiar idea down to a much later period. Dr. Lang, for instance, pro- posed a settlement of the kind for the cultivation (S the tea-plant *'at one of the northern settlements of New South Wales, as, for instance, at Port Macquarie . . . The Dutch have long been alive to the benefits likely to result to their nation from the settlement of numerous families of Chinese in their colonial territories. Chinese are very numerous in the city of Batavia." — Historical Account of New South Wales, 1st ed., 1834, vol. i, pp. 386-7. Digitized by Google
