s, the county increasing only 2510. Melbourne and Bourke
County are nearly in the same position.

There are seven or eight merchants in Geelong who import goods of all
kinds, twenty-two drapery establishments in a respectable way, besides
numbers of small ones on the outskirts; other trades are
proportionately overdone. Melbourne is, I am credibly informed,
equally crowded. These facts shew that there is no opening for people
in business. A great imposition is practised by stating the increase
of a town at so much per cent., or having doubled or trebled itself in
so short a time, the fact being that even its present condition may be
that only of a village. Interested parties too often talk their places
into notice; and if people do not deal in 'notions,' they all have
some allotment that will just suit you, which they don't care to keep
any longer.

An argument from the amount of imports is made use of unfairly. The
United States are set down at 30s. per head, Australia about L.7 per
head. This latter, they say, is the country to encourage, to emigrate
to--see how prosperous it is! being blind, apparently, to the fact,
that Australia, having nothing as yet but the raw material, tallow and
wool, it must barter all it has for what it wants--a proof to me as
much of necessity as of prosperity. Many more persons cannot engage
profitably in the wool and tallow trade; the field is therefore narrow
for general purposes of emigrants, and easily liable to be
overstocked, unless the government take prompt measures to open out
the abundant internal resources of minerals, &c. and give easier and
cheaper possession of land: then, though the imports might not be much
more, the prosperity would be much greater. America I believe to be in
this latter position, presenting a more varied field for the
operations of the small capitalist, though her imports may be
inconsiderable per head.

I ought to state, that a great many of the reported cases of success
are, from misapprehension of the real circumstances of the parties,
either quite false, or calculated to mislead. Doubtless many
successful hits will be made by purchasers of mineral land, and so are
successful hits made at the gaming-table. Successful men, besides, are
well known, while the unsuccessful have slunk away and are forgotten.
Few fortunes have been made by simple shopkeeping.

I ought not to conclude without referring to farming, although not
practically acquainted with