Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2Grey, George
History
Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 2
Grey, George
Natural history -- Australia -- Western Australia; Western Australia -- Discovery and exploration
The tide of emigration coming in from the older colonies is a certain
sign of rapid success; those who arrive from these places are men who
have done well in the first country of their adoption; but to this they
had repaired when it was thinly inhabited, when land was of very low
value and to be procured near the capital; there they have realized
largely, but it appears to them that nearly all the good things have now
been picked up; property has attained such a value that it rises but
slowly, indeed is almost stationary in price; and the country is so
largely stocked that they are driven to establish their sheep-stations at
such a distance from the sea coast that the expense of the transport of
their wool thither greatly detracts from its value. Under these
circumstances once again do they emigrate, to repeat in a new land the
operations which have before yielded them so lucrative a return; and,
strong in past experience, they smile at the errors committed by the
younger settlers, from which they reap many advantages.
ITS EFFECTS UPON ALL CLASSES.
But time and intellect are all worth much more in Australia than they are
in England, and everyone can realize upon his capital and speculate
profitably upon his intelligence, activity, and strength; for all of
these he gets paid, hence but few men are willing to follow professions.
Clergymen too often turn farmers and speculators, even if they do not
altogether throw aside their sacred character. Medical men but rarely
pursue their practice, when such remunerating fields of enterprise are
laid open to them; soldiers abandon their calling; and the government
officers are all virtually farmers and stock-owners.
This is to be expected, from the character of man. In a new colony
everything increases rapidly in worth--a landed estate which can be
bought in the early stages of its existence at a mere nominal price grows
yearly in value without a penny being expended upon it; stock increases
in a geometrical ratio, at little or no cost, for there is plenty of land
to pasture them upon. Nothing of this kind either does or can take place
in England; and when the settler finds how changed his prospects are, and
how new means of acquiring wealth are opened to him, he too often devotes
his every thought and energy to the one object; and so far will this
passion lead men that I have known an honourable member of council and
leading magistrate in a colony take out a retail license, and add to his
already vast wealth from the profits of a gin shop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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