95
“Having been in this part of the world now seven months, including great part of the winter and also the summer, I am convinced of the capabilities of the colony for the growth of fine wools, also as to the superiority of the climate, soil, and grasses, &c., for the prevention of diseases and the general health of sheep. I have visited the farms &c. on the Swan several times, and was much pleased with the progress made, as also with the growth of all sorts of fruit, vegetables, corn, &c. I am now just returned from an excursion into the interior of the country in the “York District,” having been sixteen miles beyond York with a young man who has settled there as a sheep farmer. I proceeded on four or five miles more to the southward; and also, when I returned to York (to remain a few days, as per invitation, to Messrs. Bland and Trimmer’s), I made a tour to the northward: thus travelling over an extent of near thirty miles of splendid country, well watered, with an abundance of grass, and a very superior feed for sheep, or that may be ploughed without almost any clearing, and very properly described by some parties in former journals as having more the appearance of a gentleman’s park in England. I was highly gratified with the country. Messrs. Bland and Trimmer’s flocks, and in fact all the farmers’ sheep here, I cannot but speak of in the highest terms; and Mr. Arthur Trimmer informs me, that it is a very rare occurrence to lose a sheep, and they are particularly fortunate in the lambing season.
All parties now having money to invest, are about doing so in sheep, as they begin to see that wool will be the staple article of the country. I think the settlers here may congratulate themselves when they look back to Sydney in 1806. That settlement then, after being established about fifteen years, exported “one” bag of wool, and this colony, next shearing time, will have been established about six years and a half, when I calculate, with imports of sheep, and their increase, there will be from “thirty to forty” bags exported from here, all done by individual enterprize and private capital, free labour, &c, without having our “Society” contaminated by “Convicts.”
Towards the expenditure of the civil service of the year 1834, amounting in all to 12,175 l. 12 s. 10½ d., the sum of 6290 l. 19 s. 6½ d. was provided by parliamentary grant.
