The price of provisions is about on a par in the two colonies, or if there be any difference, it is somewhat lower here. Horses three or four years back were considerably dearer than at Port Jackson; but large importations of them have been made in consequence, and it is probable that their value is before this time completely equalized.
The wages of ordinary labourers are at least thirty per cent. higher, and of mechanics, fifty per cent. higher than in the parent colony; a disproportion solely attributable to the very unequal and injudicious distribution that has been made of the convicts.
The progress made by these settlements in manufactures, is too inconsiderable to deserve notice, further than as it affords a striking proof in how much more flourishing and prosperous a condition they are than the parent colony.
The commerce carried on by the colonists is of the same nature as that which is maintained by their brethren at Port Jackson. Like these, they have no staple export to offer in exchange for the various commodities which they import from foreign countries, and are obliged principally to rely on the expenditure of the government for the means of procuring them. Their annual income may be taken as follows:
Money expended by the government for the pay and subsistence of the civil and military, and for the support of such of the convicts as are victualled from the king's stores, £30,000 Money expended by foreign shipping, 3,000 Wheat, etc. exported to Port Jackson, 4,000 Exports collected by the merchants of the settlement, 5,000 Sundries, 2,000 ------ Total, £44,000 ------
The duties collected in these southern settlements, are exactly on the same scale as at Port Jackson, and amount to about £5,000 annually, inclusive of the per centage allowed the collectors of them.
A general Statement of the Land in Cultivation, etc. the Quantities of Stock, etc. as accounted for at the General Muster in New South Wales, taken by His Excellency Governor Macquarie, and Deputy Commissary General Allan, commencing the 6th October, and finally closing the 25th November, 1817, inclusive; with an exact Account of the same at Van Diemen's Land.
Acres in Wheat 18,462 Ground prepared for Maize 11,714 Barley 856½ Oats 156¾ Pease and Beans 204¼ Potatoes 559 Garden and Orchard 863 Cleared ground 47,564¼ Total held 235,003¼