thing else depends. If lands are not bestowed on the inhabitants and new-comers with a generous hand, the society endure the evils of an old and over-peopled state, with the superadded inconveniences that belong to a wild country. They are pinched for room even in the wilderness, are prevented from choosing the most fertile soils and favourable situations, and are debarred from cultivating that large extent of soil, in proportion to the hands at work, which can alone compensate, in quantity of produce, for the rude nature of husbandry in the wilderness. If, on the other hand, the land is bestowed with careless profusion, great evils of another kind are produced. Large tracts become the property of individuals, who leave their lands unsettled and untouched. Deserts are thus interposed between the industrious settlers; the natural difficulties of communication are greatly enhanced; the inhabitants are not merely scattered over a wide space of country, but are separated from each other by impassable wastes; the cultivator is cut off or far removed from a market in which to dispose of his surplus produce and procure commodities; and the greatest obstacles exist to co-operation in labour, to exchange, to the division of employments, to combination for municipal or other public purposes, to the growth of towns, to public worship, to regular education, to the spread of news, to the acquisition of common knowledge, and even to the civilizing influences of mere inter course for amusement. Monotonous and stagnant indeed must ever be the state of a people who are permanently condemned to such separation from each other. If, moreover, the land of anew country is so carelessly surveyed that the boundaries of property are incorrectly or inadequately defined, the government lays up a store of mischievous litigation for the people. Whatever delay takes place in perfecting the titles of individuals to lands alianatrd by the government, occasions equnl uncertainty and insecurity of property. If the acquisition of land, in whatever quantities, is made difficult or troublesome, or is subjected to any needless uncertainty or delay, applicants are irritated, settlement is hindered, and emigration lo the colony is discouraged, as emigration from it is promoted U very different methods of proceeding have effect in the same colon j', or in different parties of the same group of colonies, the object of some can scarcely fail to interfere with or counteract the operation of others; so that the operation of the government must somewhere, or at some time, be defeated And frequent changes of system are sure to be injurious, not oaly by probably displeasing those who either obtain land just before, or desire to obtain some just after, each change, but also by giving a character of ¡Regularity, uncertainty, and even mystery, to the most important proceeding of government. In this way settlement and emigration are discouraged, inasmuch as the people, both of the colony and of the mother-country, are deprived of all confidence in the permanency of any system, and any familiar acquaintance with any of the ¡temporary methods. It would be easy to cite many other examples of the influence of government in this matter. I will mention but one more here. If the disposal of public lands is administered partial ly-with favor to particular persons or classes-a sire result is the anger of all who do not benefit by such favoritism (the far greater number of course), and consequently, the general unpopularity of the government. 141 found the surveying department in Lower Canada so thoroughly inefficient in its constitution a3 to be incapable of any valuable improvement; and that Ï therefore abstained from interfering with it, trusting that the whole future management of the public lands would be placed on a new footing, calculated to remedy this, as well as all the other evils of the present system."
SOUTH AUSTRALIA. Mr. Dutton is of opinion, that South Australia is a colony similar to New South Wales, that is to say, a pastoral and not an agricultural country, and not a country to produce grain and huxtery. It appears to possess a droughty climate. The plain, on which Adelaide is situated, is of six miles extent, and so level, that in rainy years it may require some large drains to carry off the water, though now itisas parched up and as bare of grass as any part of New South Wales. It has a rotten limestone bottom in some parts, and there is no doubt hut that for gardens and orchards, being a light red loam, it is an excellent soil. Mr. Dutton, Captain Finnis, and Mr. M'Farlane have bought 4000 acres of picked land within 18 miles of Adelaide, as the crow flies, and twenty-five by the present road. They engaged as settlers or tenants on their new purchase; tile whole of the German emigrants wild arrived at Adelaide in one ©f the several Grèrman-loaded ships lately arrived there. They consisted of 39 families, or about 180 souls, men, women, youths, and children. These people emigrated from Germariy through a persecution raised against them on account of their religion (Luthern Protestant.) They are accompanied by their pastor, a gentleman about five-and thirly, and who is a scholar and eloquent preacher. Mr. Dutton heard him preach under a tree at his new purchase, on which they are now all settled, and pursuing their labours as farmers and gardeners. Next year they will supply Adelaide with potatoes, &c, butter, and cheese. In ten days after Messrs. Dutton & Co. had deposited the sum of 4,000¿. in the treasury at Adelaide for their 4000 picked acres, six other gentlemen or firms depositedtheir sums of 4,0002. (in all 24,000Z.) to procure Wee special surveys, and like picked estates, according to act of Parliament. And as Adelaide now abounds with tradesmen and laborers of divers trades and callings not in request, these broken down people will have to learnjarm ing occupations, and set io work, and thus rid Adelaide of their present idle presence. The population of Adelaide consists chiefly of Londoners; broken-down shop-men and tradesmen of habits, feelings, views, and knowledge, just the reverse of what are calculated to make them thriving colonists. Necessity, the mother of invention, and, we will add, change, if not reforma tion, will compel these people to go lo work in the country, in some shape or another. When they do so, they will be able to get a living; and not before. Many of them will no doubt be thriving settlers in ten years' time; but more (probably) will be a dissatisfied, ne'er do well class as long as they live. Mr. Dutton astonished the people of Adelaide by taking Mrs. Dutton with him to see his new purchase. Even the men at Adelaide (we speak generally of course) have a horror of " the bush."
As for the women, they think all who go ten miles out of the town will be murdeied by the blacks. Sydney Monitor, February 18. POUT PHILLIP. THE inhabitants of South Australia are indebted to our exertions for their seasonable supply of beef. They have remained crowded in a city, of which the bite, as chosen by themselves, has betrayed their lamentable ignorance, clinging together, and fancying themselves rich and honorable from the possession of a few uncultivated acres of land, while we have spread ourselves through the whole region, leaving not a foot of land unexplored or a resource untried; we have done more-we have t>hown them the way into their own bush, and we have set them an example which it will be better for them to study and endeavour to follow, than to be carried away with the conceit of their own enterpiise and knowledge. Let the public at home judge between the two settlements. In the sister-colony the inhabitants have shown their superior ardour and talent during three years of occupation, discovering but now -¿fresh water river, distant forty five mile&l!! from the city of Adelaide. The settlers in Australia Felix have traversed and occupied a country extending upwards of five hundred miles in every direction, and in the space of eighteen months, commencing with Mr. Hawdon's departure, will have driven over to South Australia about ten thousand head of cattle, in as many as twelve distinct expeditions.-Port Phillip Gazette, February 2.
VOCABULARY OF ABORIGINAL LANGUAGE OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
By Lieut. Grey, of H. M. 83rd Regiment.
After having devoted nearly twelve months to a careful study of the aboriginal language of this part of the Continent, I feel convinced, that if the pure dialect is spoken, but little difference exists between the dialects of the different districts; and this remark is confirmed by my; having lately received from Mr. Bussel of the Vasse district, a vocabulary of the language spoken there; this contains three hundred and twenty words, nearly every one of which is identical with those in use in this neighbourhood.
Such being the case, it appears that the publication of a vocabulary of the dialect generally in use cannot fail to be productive of much advantage, as tending to facilitate our future communications with the natives; either, in the first occupation of new districts, or in civilizing them, or obtaining information from them, in those parts of the Colony which have been for some time settled.
With this view, I have, previously to my leaving this part of the Colony, commenced the publication of the following vocabulary. Had I been able to bestow more time upon it, I could haye rendered it far more complete, but even in its present shape I trust it will be found perfectly adequate to the purpose to which it is intended, and it will, at all events, form a starting point to those who may have sufficient leisure time to complete a perfect history of this interesting language.
In order to have rendered this vocabulary really complete, it would have been necessary to have introduced a pronunciation of the different vowels and consonants, which was suited to this peculiar language, and I had actually begun a vocabulary with this view, upon a plan proposed by His Excellency Mr. Hutt, who also kindly assisted me in my undertaking, which offered the means of avoiding all the difficulties which had hitherto embarrassed me; yet, notwithstanding the facilities afforded by this plan, two reasons have induced me for the present to abandon it. The first is, that I doubt if this plan is the most convenient for a merely popular work, as it requires that before a person can make use of the vocabulary, he should leam a new system of orthography; and, secondly, I found that there would be a difficulty in at present procuring type suited to my purpose in the Colony.
It must be understood, therefore, that the pronunciation of the letters must be as nearly as possible that which is given to them in the English language, the only difference being that a final a must always be pronounced long. I have also necessarily been compelled to introduce the nasal "ng," which is of such constant occurrence in this language.
Without attempting to enter into any of the details of the grammar of a language which is yet but so imperfectly known, it is still necessary to give such a general outline of certain parts of it as will enable any person who employs the following vocabulary to use the plural number, to discriminate between the different degrees of comparison of the adjectives, to employ, when necessary, the different moods and tenses of the verbs-in fact, to give such short and general rules as will suffice for all ordinary occasions.
The plural number of nouns in general is formed by the addition of the common numerals as far as three, after which number the general term boola (much or many) is used. But all nouns which express human beings, such as uncle, sister, woman, &c., form their plural by the addition of "mun," or "gur-ra." Mun is an abbreviation of the word munda, altogether, or collectively, and gurra apparently means human beings, or things.
The general rule for using either "mun" or "gur-ra" is that those words which end in a vowel take the affix "mun," whilst those which end in a consonant take "gur-ra." A few examples will illustrate this. Kar-do, a married or betrothed person; ya-go, a woman; duko, a sister; kango, an uncle; ngoon do, a brother; form respectively in the plural kardomun, yagomun, dukomun, kangomun, ngoordomun; whilst goolang, a child, and mammul, a son, form in the plural golang gurra and mammul-gur-ra.
The genitive case of nouns is formed by the addition of either nk, or ung. This varies from district to district. The literal meaning of these words is of, or belonging to.
The accusative case is identical with the nominative, whilst the vocative is formed by affixing kau to the nominative; and I am inclined to doubt the existence of any other cases besides those I have here named.
The degrees of comparison of adjectives are very simple. The comparative degree is generally formed by the repetition of the word, whilst the superlative degree in all instances that I am acquainted with is formed by the addition of the intensitive jil; as gwabba, good; gwabba, gwabba, better; gwabba-jil, best.
The intensitive jil, the meaning of which is accurately rendered by the English word verily, is, however, equally applicable to substantives, interjections, and all other parts of speech; as "kardo jil," one who is in the direct line to be married to another; "kana jil?" eh, verily?
In forming the principal tenses of the verbs, but few difficulties present themselves. The present tense differs in but few instances from the infinitive mood. The preterite is nearly always formed by the addition of ga to the present, whilst the parti-
