Sydney was much improved and enlarged since my last visit in 1829; provisions were abundant and exceedingly cheap, the shipping being supplied with fresh beef at one penny a pound, and even less; vegetables are also very abundant, except in the most arid of the summer months; and fruit is, during the summer months, plentiful, and a great portion of excellent quality, consisting of several varieties of peaches, apricots, apples, pears, water-melons, loquats, grapes, plums, and strawberries, &c. Fruit of a superior kind obtains a high price, but the common kinds are very cheap; peaches for preserves or tarts being hawked about the streets at a penny a dozen. Gooseberries will not succeed in the vicinity of Sydney, but this fruit has been produced in the Argyle and Bathurst districts. Grapes have lately been perfected in the colony in great abundance, both as to size and flavour; and much attention is now devoted by the colonists to the cultivation of the vine; for which, from its prolific and early bearing, the Australian soil seems to be exceedingly well calculated. Several enterprising individuals have introduced the different species and varieties of vines from Spain, France, Portugal, &c. &c. producing grapes, valuable in the manufacture of wine, as also for the dessert; and we may hope that the time is not distant when grapes will abound in Australia as they at present do at the Cape, and that wine both for home-consumption and exportation will be made from them. The immense increase of grapes in the colony during the last two or three years, leads one to suppose that the above opinion will speedily be confirmed.