f 1000 feet and
upwards, have produced abundant crops of wheat of very superior quality;
and, but for the non-completion of the roads between these districts and
the capital, in consequence of the withdrawal of convict labour, the
progress of agriculture in its adaptation to the soil and climate, and,
as a field for the employment of British immigrants, had been much more
advanced than it is there.

The roads which were opened by the above means, or proposed to be opened,
have become almost impassable, or remain wholly so; and it is, therefore,
the less surprising that the colonists look to the possible introduction
of railways with much interest. In a country like that around Sydney,
where extensive tracts of inferior land must be traversed by roads in
order to arrive at lands which are productive and settled, the value and
importance of a railway would be greatly enhanced; and calculations have
been made to show that a railway between Sydney and the southern
districts would pay, even from the traffic at present along that line.
The town of Goulburn, 124 miles from Sydney, in an open undulating
country, at a considerable height above the sea, is rapidly growing into
importance; and, by making either a good road or a railway, between that
town and Sydney, access would be gained to very extensive tracts of
valuable territory, easily traversed, and to which Goulburn is a sort of
centre.

On the whole, it may be said that the difficulty of access to the best
lands, from the want of good roads to them from the principal port, has,
of late years, greatly impeded the introduction of immigrants to the
rural districts, and added to the population of Sydney many individuals
who had been brought to the colony at the public expense, for the
assistance of settlers in the country.

CONCLUSION.

The employment of convicts on useful public works was, twenty years ago,
a primary object with the government of New South Wales. The location of
settlers on their grants by the measurement of their farms, then much in
arrear, and the division of the territory into counties, hundreds, and
parishes, in order to complete the deeds of grant to settlers, altogether
rendered necessary a general survey of the colony, which work I commenced
in 1827, EX OFFICIO, and, pursuant to Royal Instructions, sent to the
colony in 1825. The time between the years 1827 and 1837 was the most
prosperous in the history of the colony of New South Wales, when con