erwards bear an abundant crop of fruit. So
plentifully do they grow, that they are commonly used to fatten hogs,
for which purpose they answer very well, after having been laid in
heaps, and allowed to ferment a little; cider also of a pleasant and
wholesome quality is made from the same fruit.

The chief wealth of Australia consists in its flocks and herds, and
nothing in the progress of our settlements there is more astonishing
than the rapidity with which these primitive riches have increased.
Sixty years ago there was not a single sheep in the vast island of New
Holland; and now, from a few narrow strips of land upon some of its
coasts, millions of pounds of wool are annually exported to England. The
fine climate of Australia is especially suited for sheep, and it would
appear to have an improving effect upon the quality of that animal's
fleece, which nowhere reaches greater perfection than in New South
Wales. Cattle also thrive and increase very much in the Australian
settlements, and animals of all kinds in New South Wales are exceedingly
dainty: if shut up in a field of good grass they will starve themselves
with fretting rather than eat it, they are so anxious to get out upon
the sweet natural pastures. Although it is to be hoped and expected
that, under judicious management, these colonies will always be able to
supply their inhabitants with bread, still it is confessed on all sides
that pastoral riches form their natural source of wealth, and that it is
to these chiefly, together with their mineral productions and commerce,
that they must look for a foundation of permanent and continued worldly
prosperity.

The form of government is the same in all the British Australasian
colonies, and while the governor's authority is supreme, by virtue
of his being the representative of the British crown, his power is
restrained by an executive council and by a legislative council. The
former body, whose office is to assist the governor in carrying the laws
into execution, is composed of the colonial secretary and treasurer,
the bishop and lieutenant-governor, (if the last-named office is not
abolished,) under the presidency of the governor himself. The
legislative council consists of the same persons, with the addition
of the chief justice, the attorney-general, the chief officer of the
customs, the auditor-general, and seven private gentlemen of the colony,
who are appointed by the crown for life, and for whom, in case o