SOMETHING LIKE A COLONY.*
WHEN the histories of our colonies shall be written, that of this, the youngest of the sisterhood, will not be the least interesting in the series. There will be seen a very considerable per-centage of the official apathy, and selfish cupidity on the part of private speculators, which have made all the colonies of a nation that reputes itself the most practical and common-sense in the world, mere drains upon the energies and resources of the mother country, instead of feeders to her revenue, besides providing a field for the useful employment of the surplus energy and Hardihood of her children. While Spain, Holland, and even Portugal and France (where the lust of conquest of the latter has not interfered with the legitimate working of the general principle of colonization), draw wealth from their colonies, besides spreading far and wide the blessings of European civilization, we, the straightforward, practical, commercial race, are compelled to maintain expensive armaments to protect our colonies, while we draw not one shilling in return to defray present outlay, or even uphold our own prestige among our own children.
The colony of Queensland, formerly known as Moreton Bay, was till within the last year and a half subordinated to New South Wales, and the entire government of the district was, therefore, transacted at Sydney, seven hundred miles distant. The consequences were what might have been expected. Squatter law prevailed in its most repulsive form, and it was only by the most strenuous exertions that a few clear-sighted persons, our author very prominent among the rest, who had the permanent welfare of the country at heart, suc- ceeded in saving this noble tract from becoming a convict-station! Fortunately they gained their point, though not till after a most baffling contest with the Home authorities and the Colonial Legis- lature, for their adversaries had both purse and prescription on their aide; they were the "aristocracy" of the country, and they also knew how to play upon the blind side of the New South Wales Government, which seems to have been more than usually imbued with the insane reluctance to part with territory, which is a marked characteristic of all colonies.
Let us now see what was the prize the respective parties were contending for. The new colony will extend from lat. 30° S. to Iat. 11° S., or over fifteen hundred miles from south to north of well-broken sea-coast, besides extending westward from long. 150° E. to either the 141st or the 129th meridian, or in the latter hypothesis over twenty-one degrees of longitude, including in this space the vast Gulf of Carpentaria. Our author inclines to this limit, but we m. ust candidly confess we think 141° E. would be quite a sufficient limit, as even then the colony would contain above six hundred and fifty thousand square miles. But Dr. Lang seems inoculated with gOwastand, Australia ; a highly eligible Field for Emigration and the Future Ilotton-geld of Great Britain. By Rev. J. Dunmore Lang, D.D., A.M., M.C.I..., de. One volume. Stanford. the same mania for extensive territory which he is so prompt to re- buke in the government of New South Wales. His proposed addi- tion would make Queensland contain above one million, five hundred thousand square miles, or five-sevenths the size of Europe ! This magnificent country is the best-watered portion by far of the Australian continent, and presents what are for Australia lofty ranges of hills, between which are rolled out enormous breadths of luxu- riant pasturage, such as could supply the whole world with wool, of a quality far superior to the ordinary Australian wool. It possesses mines, minerals, gums, coal, honey, among its natural products, while its inexhaustible fertility admirably adapts it for producing the sugar-cane, tobacco, and a variety of other plants usually cultivated in or near the tropics. Nay, owing to certain remarkable physical fea- tures of the southern hemisphere in the meridian between which Australia lies, it possesses generally, and Queensland in a very marked and special de°,,ree, an elasticity of atmosphere which renders it eminently suitable for English constitutions, and for the growth of northern vegetables. The extreme cold frequently felt in Australia after a hot day, and which, without producing any violent reaction, tends to brace and reinvigorate the frame exhausted by labour under the hot sun, is extremely well marked in Queensland, notwith- standing it is the nearest to the tropics of all the Australian colonies. But it is especially to its eligibility as a field for growing cotton that the attention of the public has been of late drawn to this re- markable region. What a singular destiny would seem to be re- served for our Australian colonies—that of being among the foremost, if not the very foremost, producers of the two great staples of the manufactures of the world—wool and cotton. As regards the former, Dr. Lang speaks in warm praise of the capabilities of Queensland, though we cannot help thinking we see peeping out a little of the disdain of the educated man and legislator against the ignorant " purse-proud aristocrat," the squatter, the good doctor's old anta- gonist. But it is when he speaks of the capabilities of Queensland as a cotton-producing country that his enthusiasm transcends every- thing. He states as a fact—and gives chapter, verse, and date—that a sample of the first cotton, grown from some seedlings of Sea Island cotton, was valued by an eminent Glasgow cotton-broker at is. per lb., and it was further stated that it would have fetched much more had the staple, which was long, not been rather weak, a result not to be wondered at under the circum- stances, and which we can well believe, with the gentle- man who passed this opinion, would certainly and speedily be remedied, so soon as the plant itself became acclimatized, and additional experience was acquired italic cultivation. When we add that certain of the cotton-plants, instead of dying down to the root each year, are prolific for five, six, and seven years without any tendency to coarseness, it is evident that our author has not overstated his case when he claims for his prof* an eminent adaptability for the growth of this all-im ortant plant. Indeed it is hardly possible to cast the most hastyglance at the map, without being struck with the simi- larity trace le between the Sea Island barrier off the shores of South. ai
Carolina and the low rich-soiled islands of Strad broke, Moreton, Bribies, Great Sandy, Curtis, &c. &c.
We have said enough, we trust, to arouse the curiosity of the reader who, in addition to the purely statistical details which we have been considering, will find much useful and amusing information in this very pleasant volume. The worthy Doctor seems occasionally to have borrowed from some of his Calvinistic discourses, and at other times lets his pen ran away with him till he gets downright fussy, but we overlook the manner in the matter, and, moreover, it is but just to say these blemishes are few and far between. We have read the book with interest, and trust it may have the success its philan- thropic author hopes for it, in at last arousing the slumbering sym- pathies of the various Cotton Supply Associations, and also in making the wilderness to rejoice with the songs of teeming myriads of happy prosperous British men, women, and children.
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