ue of Land, &c._

I was told that an estate of 10,000 acres might be obtained for a mere
trifle. This was true. I have got 20,000 acres, and they did not cost
me more than 2s. per acre. But I imagined that a domain of that extent
would be very valuable. In this I was wholly mistaken. As my estate
cost me next to nothing, so it is worth next to nothing. It is a noble
property to look at; and "20,000 acres in a ring fence," sounds very
well in England; but here, such a property possesses no exchangeable
value. The reason is plain: there are millions upon millions of acres,
as fertile as mine, to be had for nothing; and, what is more, there
are not people to take them. Of my 20,000 acres I reckon about 5,000
to be woodland, though, indeed, there are trees scattered over the
whole property, as in an English park. For my amusement, I had a rough
estimate made of the money that I could obtain for all this timber,
were it growing in any part of England. The valuation amounts to above
L150,000.

_Building_.

Having fortune enough for all my wants, I proposed to get a large
domain, to build a good house, to keep enough land in my own hands for
pleasure-grounds, park, and game preserves; and to let the rest, after
erecting farm-houses in the most suitable spots. My mansion, park,
preserves, and tenants, were all a mere dream. I have not one of them.
When, upon my first arrival, I talked of these things to some sensible
men, to whom I was recommended, they laughed in my face. I soon found
that a house would, though the stone and timber were to be had for
nothing, cost three times as much as in England. This was on account
of the very high wages required by mechanics; but this was not all.
None of the materials of a house, except stone and timber, are
produced in the colony. Every pane of glass, every nail, every grain
of paint, and every piece of furniture, from the kitchen copper to the
drawing-room curtains, must have come from England. My property is at
a distance of nearly seventy miles from the sea, and there is no road,
but a track through the forest, for two-thirds of that distance. The
whole colony did not contain as many masons, carpenters, glaziers,
painters, black and whitesmiths, and other mechanics, as I should have
required. Of course, I soon abandoned all thought of building a
mansion. As for a park, my whole property was a park, and a preserve
for kangaroos and emus.

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