down, and may then
either chop wood to cook his meal, or go supperless to bed, as suits his
fancy. It is under these circumstances that those unhappy connections
are formed with native women, the offspring from which are invariably
killed by the mother. Against these connections, the present Governor
has very properly set his face, and positively interdicted them.
Although he may check, he cannot, however, do away with the evil; which
leads not only to the murder of helpless infancy, but to bloodshed and
wrangling between the whites and the blacks.

Sheep, when I arrived in Australia in 1836, were in great request, and
ewes with lambs at their feet were worth 30s. each, while wool was at
2s. 2d. per pound. In 1837-38 and 1838-39, stock of every kind rose in
price; and in the former year, I paid as high as 3l. per head for a
flock of four hundred ewes with lambs five months old at their feet.
This purchase was not a safe one; it was made when I knew but little of
the value of stock, but acted under the advice of others, and when the
colony was in the very midst of that wild career of mad speculation
which has since worked so much misery to thousands. I suffered in common
with many others who invested money in sheep at the same time, and who
left the Colony. Nevertheless, I look upon sheep as one of the best
descriptions of stock in which a man can speculate, provided that he
keeps within reasonable bounds as to price. Good ewes purchased from
20s. to 25s. per head, will, nine times out of ten, pay their proprietor
from fifteen to twenty per cent, for his outlay. To do this, they must
of course be properly tended, and be kept on what is here called, a good
run, _i. e._ fine dry pasture on rather an elevated tract of country.
The sheep-farmer ought to have a good homestead in an agricultural part
of the Colony, (this, in my opinion, is indispensable to his success,)
where he may grow grain sufficient not only to render him almost
independent of bad seasons and high prices, but, generally, to give him
a few hundred bushels of surplus wheat and maize with which to buy tea,
sugar, and clothing. Hundreds of sheep-farmers have of late been ruined
by having to purchase the actual necessaries for their stations on
credit. Cash they had none, being unwilling to part with even their
surplus stock at the miserably low prices alone obtainable.

Another error that sheep-farmers fall into from time to time, is, the
allowing their esta