duals are personally known to me who
arrived here with small means a few years back, and who are now receiving
an income of fifteen hundred pounds a-year from houses, which they have
raised upon their profits and by not slow degrees. Their returns are
certain for, mark you, every tradesman pays his rent every Monday morning,
there is no delay. If it be not paid the hour it is due, the landlord is
empowered by law to send a bailiff to the house, to keep him there at an
expense to the tenant of three shillings per day--and to request him, at
the end of five days, to sell off the goods and chattels provided the
demand is still unsatisfied. I know no better investment for capital, be
it large or small, than that of which I speak. There are no taxes, no
ground-rents, and the tenant is bound to keep his premises in repair. If a
mistake has been made in the building of houses, it is because some have
overshot the mark, and built dwellings that are _too large for the
purposes required_; these large houses cost a large sum of money, and
neither let readily nor nearly so high in proportion, as the smaller
houses occupied by the working-classes.

I am unable to give you an accurate notion of the general appearance of
the country. Speaking in broad terms it is wooded, but not so densely as
on the Sydney side, Van Diemen's Land, or New Zealand. The peculiar and
beautiful feature of this country is the open plain which is found at
every ten or twelve miles spreading itself over a surface not less than
three miles in length and half the distance in breadth. It is as smooth as
a lawn. A magnificent tree rears itself to a great height here and there
upon the sward, on either side of which appears a natural park, the finest
that taste could fashion or art could execute. Nature has done in fact
what no art could accomplish. Gaze upon these grounds, and for a moment
imagine that the enormous bullocks before you, with their fearful horns,
are a gigantic herd of deer, and you have a sight that England, famous for
her parks, shall in vain attempt to rival. But against this royal
scene--set off a melancholy drawback, one which I fear may never be made
good even by the ingenuity and indomitable energy of man. The land has an
awful want of _spring water_. There are a few small holes, called lagoons,
the remains of ancient rivers, met with now and then; and strange to say,
one of such holes will be found to contain salt sea-water, whilst another,