ine wool, which the parent
country will before long receive from the colony, will amply
repay her for the care and expence she has bestowed on it during
the protracted period of its helpless infancy. The exportation of
this highly valuable raw material, is as yet but very limited:
last year it only amounted to about L8000; but when it is
considered that in the year 1817, there were 170,420 sheep in the
colony and its dependent settlements on Van Diemen's Land, and
that the majority of the sheep-holders are actively employed in
crossing their flocks with tups of the best Merino breed, it may
easily be conceived what an extensive exportation of fine wool
may be effected in a few years.

The whole annual income of the colonists inhabiting the
various settlements in New Holland, cannot be estimated at more
than L125,000, and the following sub-divisions of it may be
taken as a very close approximation to the truth:

Money expended by the government for the pay and
subsistence of the civil and military establishments,
and for the support of such of the convicts as are
victualled from the king's stores, L 80,000
Money expended by shipping not belonging to the
colonial merchants, L 12,000
Various articles of export collected from the adjacent
seas and islands, by the colonial craft, consisting
principally of seal skins, right whale, and elephant
oils, and sandal wood, L 15,000
Wool grown in the colony, L 8,000
Sundries, L 20,000
--------
Total L125,000
--------

The imports levied by the authority of the local government
form two distinct funds, one of which, as has been already
casually mentioned, is called the "Orphan Fund," and the other
"the Police Fund." The former, it has been seen, contains
one-eighth of the colonial revenue, and is devoted solely to the
promotion of education among the youth of the colony; the latter
contains the other seven-eighths, and is appropriated to various
purposes of internal economy; such as the construction and repair
of roads and bridges, the erection of public edifices, the
maintenance of the police, the cost of criminal prosecutions, and
the pay of various officers,