From Not Having Before Seen
An Opening Of Such Extent For The Last Three Years, This Struck Us As Grand
And Capacious.
The beautiful diversity of the ground (gentle hill and dale)
would certainly be reckoned pretty in any country.
Continued our walk,
and crossed the old field, which is intended to form part of the main street
of the projected town. The wheat in this field is rather better, but not much,
than in the large field before mentioned. The next field is maize,
inferior to what we have seen, but not despicable. An acre of maize,
at the bottom of the marine garden, is equal in luxuriancy of promise to any
I ever saw in any country.
[*The best crop of barley ever produced in New South Wales, was sown by
a private individual, in February 1790, and reaped in the following October.]
[**As all the trees on our cleared ground were cut down, and not grubbed up,
the roots and stumps remain, on which account a tenth part of surface
in every acre must be deducted. This is slovenly husbandry; but in a country
where immediate subsistence is wanted, it is perhaps necessary. None of these
stumps, when I left Port Jackson, showed any symptoms of decay, though some
of the trees had been cut down four years. To the different qualities
of the wood of Norfolk Island and New South Wales, perhaps the difference
of soil may in some measure be traced. That of Norfolk Island is light
and porous: it rots and turns into mould in two years. Besides its hardness
that of Port Jackson abounds with red corrosive gum, which contributes
its share of mischief.]
The main street of the new town is already begun. It is to be a mile long,
and of such breadth as will make Pall Mall and Portland Place "hide their
diminished heads." It contains at present thirty-two houses completed,
of twenty-four feet by twelve each, on a ground floor only, built of wattles
plastered with clay, and thatched. Each house is divided into two rooms,
in one of which is a fire place and a brick chimney. These houses are designed
for men only; and ten is the number of inhabitants allotted to each;
but some of them now contain twelve or fourteen, for want of better
accommodation. More are building. In a cross street stand nine houses
for unmarried women; and exclusive of all these are several small huts
where convict families of good character are allowed to reside.
Of public buildings, besides the old wooden barrack and store, there is
a house of lath and plaster, forty-four feet long by sixteen wide,
for the governor, on a ground floor only, with excellent out-houses
and appurtenances attached to it. A new brick store house, covered with tiles,
100 feet long by twenty-four wide, is nearly completed, and a house
for the store-keeper. The first stone of a barrack, 100 feet long
by twenty-four wide, to which are intended to be added wings for the officers,
was laid to-day.
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