Note 108 — Chapter VIII

It may not be out of place to quote in support of this opinion the sensible words of an Australian writer. “I confess I like to hear of high wages, and of good prices of provisions—of the productions of the country,—for where they prevail for any length of time, the country must be prosperous. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is no less true, that the poorest country is always that where provisions are sold at the cheapest rate. To the same purpose is the testimony of Sir G. Gipps, the present Governor of New South Wales, appointed by Lord Melbourne in 1837, who says:—‘The total amount of the grain’ (imported) ‘even at these prices, amounted to the fearful sum of 246,000l.; but that, it must be remembered, was only the prime cost in the countries where the wheat was grown, and to that must be added the charges for freight, insurance, and commission, probably as much more, so that in two years the colony would expend upwards of half a million of money for foreign bread. The distress of the colony was owing to these immense importations.”—See Speech of Governor Gipps in Council. Australian and New Zealand Magazine, No. iii. p. 163. See also Ross’s Van Diemen’s Land Almanac and Annual, 1836, p. 177.