ing a strong log store-house at Cascade-Bay,
and making the landing place there more easy of access; which,
from the increased number of the inhabitants on the island, was
now become absolutely necessary; especially as landing there is
much oftener practicable than in Sydney-Bay: indeed, I should
have got this business done, but that it would have been a great
hindrance to cultivation, which I ever thought was the principal
object to attend to. The other buildings which I meant to erect,
were barracks for the soldiers, of 54 feet long by 16 feet wide;
a granary, 36 feet long by 20 feet wide, and a store-house, 60
feet long by 24 feet wide; all which, I hoped, would have been
completed by the ensuing December.

Respecting the flax, although we made repeated trials, yet,
having no person conversant in the preparation of it, I found it
could not at present be brought to an useful state: but I may
venture to say, that if proper flax-dressers could be sent to New
Zealand, to observe their method of manufacturing it, they might
render it a valuable commodity, both to furnish the inhabitants
with cloathing, and for other purposes.

It was my intention to have built an house and a shed on
Phillip-Island, and, after landing three or four months water on
it, to have sent six convicts with a boat to catch and cure fish;
this would have been a great resource for Norfolk-Island; but the
fish must have been cured from April to September, on account of
the fly.

I apprehend, from the goodness of the soil, that
Norfolk-Island is very capable of maintaining at least one
hundred families, allowing to each an hundred acres of ground,
and reserving two thousand acres for fuel: with industry, they
would have in a short time, all the necessaries of life, except
cloathing, and that must depend on the flax of the island, or the
growth of European flax.

The want of a safe harbour for vessels to lie in, is a very
great inconvenience, and renders it difficult to have access to
the island; indeed, vessels may load and unload, by going to the
lee-side, and embracing other favourable opportunities, but
unfortunately the vast quantity of coral rocks which cover the
bottom, render anchorage very unsafe.

However, should the settlement at Port Jackson be continued,
in the course of a few years these difficulties will scarcely be
thought on, when compared with the advantages arising from the
quantity of grain that there is every reason to supp