settlement with merchandize for
sale; the Indian vessels have also ceased to arrive in the same
numbers as formerly, and the supplies have consequently fallen
off materially, which naturally injures all descriptions of
persons, not only by preventing an immediate intercourse between
those countries, but also by lessening very considerably the
consumption of stock, grain, etc. so that the settler, in
planting his land, has now no other views than to raise a
sufficiency of grain for the consumption of his own family, and
the liquidation of his debts. He has no longer a stimulus to
labour; he calculates that the time and toil are wasted which are
spent in raising an article for which he has no vent; his
industrious disposition is consequently cramped; his present
exertions are without hope of reward; and his prospects are
divested of the supporting promise of future comfort or
competence. Such a system as this evidently and rapidly tends to
ruin; these symptoms are the obvious marks of a diseased economy;
and, if decay appears in the present unripe state of the country,
with what propriety--with what hope--on what grounds, can the
mind calculate upon future prosperity?

The vessels of neutral powers ought to be encouraged, in my
opinion, to trade to the settlement; they would serve the colony,
by giving encouragement to the settlers; there would once again
be a beneficial competition; there would be a channel for the
carrying off the surplus produce of the country, and industry
might again look forward with joyous expectation to the harvest
of its toil. These vessels might be laden back with spermaceti or
other oils, seal skins, coals, ship-timber, fustic, or any other
articles the produce of the settlements and the Southern Seas;
and thus a traffic might be established and carried on with
reciprocal benefit, and the independence of New South Wales must
be greatly aided in consequence of these beneficial
regulations.

It may perhaps be argued, that the indiscriminate admission of
the trade of neutral vessels might tend to injure the British
ships trading to this colony; but such a consequence, I think,
may easily be averted, since the governor has power to prevent
those ships from selling any such articles as he may deem it
expedient to prohibit; and no injury could consequently be
sustained, while it would hold out the necessity of selling the
European goods at a reasonable rate, or the wants of the colony
might be