resh bankruptcy, and the heaviest yet has just taken place. I
cannot but believe that if more emigrant laborers come out just now, they
must starve. Any man with ten or fifteen thousand pounds could buy half of
the district for ready cash. The moneyed men are making fearful hauls as
it is. Let emigration stop for a time, and the markets must look up again.
At the present moment every thing is selling cheaper here than in England;
men's wages are down to the ordinary English rate. So long as the banks
afford seven per cent for deposits, moneyed men will lie in wait for
bargains, and until such present themselves, will lock up the capital
which at first was in circulation through the immense speculations in land
and stock. The men who saw no end to speculation are gone and floored,
every one of them. Will you believe that Messrs ---- sent out three
thousand pounds worth of brandy to Sydney, and so glutted the market that
part of the cargo was bought low enough to make it a good spec to reship
it for England. Such is the fact. There never was a better moment than the
present for a _hit_ in land--sheep are at so low a figure, and settlers so
hard run. The former I still believe will gradually rise; for, on the
Sydney side, the process of boiling down sheep for the sake of the tallow,
has commenced, and if it succeed, as I believe it will, the standard value
of a sheep will be fixed at something like eight shillings. So much for
the fleece and skin, so much for the bones, so much for the kidney fat,
and so much for the tallow or fat recovered by boiling the carcass. The
great object of this colony must be to increase the export produce, and to
bring capital in its place. Wool no doubt is, and will prove to be, the
staple commodity; and in time, the settlers will pay more attention to the
getting up of it, and to the packing. But above all they must speedily rid
themselves of their bloodsuckers, a set of men who charge enormous
commissions for anticipated sales, and what not, amounting to thirty and
forty per cent; a sum that is nothing short of utter ruin to a poor fellow
who has nothing but his wool to depend upon. Had Judge Willis remained
amongst us, he would have rooted out whole nests of these hornets. I have
no fear of the ultimate success of the colonist, if they will but be
faithful to themselves. They have a splendid country, and its capabilities
are now only beginning to be known. Before the end of the present year,
o