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ressort, like the workhouse to the poor in England, affording ready employment, a rough home, and a bellyfull of food. It is also notorious that a bush life, even if begun in the greatest poverty, will in a few years lead the industrious, persevering, self-denying settler to honourable independence. Many of the most wealthy colonists thus commenced their colonial career, and all who deem the isolation and privation more than counterbalanced by the enjoyment of health in a salubrious climate, and the certainty of fast-augmenting wealth, will experience but little hardship in the wild life of a bushman.
The boiling-down process, first resorted to about ten years back during a monetary panic, when nearly all the squatters were insolvent, and sheep fetched but one shilling a-head in Sydney, and sixpence a-head at the station, proved to the settlers that stock must always be worth the value of their tallow in England, minus the expenses of their freight and boiling down. The former charge is but trifling, and the latter, sixpence per head for sheep, and five shillings per head for cattle, besides the value of the skin and the lean parts of the animal.
In some boiling-down establishments the skin and the lean parts of the animal are taken for the trouble of boiling down; the rounds of beef are salted; the legs of sheep are converted into mutton hams, and other lean portions of the carcases are preserved in hermetically-sealed tin cases, to be used as fresh provisions at sea. Many thousands of sheep and cattle are now annually boiled down.
Their tallow, wool, skin, bones, &c., are exported to England; herds of pigs are fed with the refuse, and the legs of mutton are sold from fourpence to sixpence each. The average weight of tallow from a sheep is 27 lbs., and by boiling the hoofs, pelt, horns, sinews, &c., 4 lbs. of excellent glue may be obtained. An ordinary four year old ox yields 184 lbs. of tallow, worth generally 70s., hide, horns, glue, soup, meat, and refuse, 14s. 84s.
The following statistics, exhibits the present flourishing and advancing condition of the province.
The total population of Ynw South Wales, not including Victoria, was, in 1.46, 154,534 ; in 1851, 887,243. The number of married and single persons were as follows : 'In 1940,
, married, 51,057; single, 103,477. Of the single persons, 66,816 were males, and 36,661 females. In 1851: married, 60,365 ; single, 126,888. Of the single persons, 76,227 were males, and 50,651 females. Hence it appears that since 1846, the number of single males has decreased, and that of single females increased, in the proportion of 45 in each 1,000 of the unmarried population.
Although the convict system ceased in 1840, individuals who had passed their probation in Britain were forwarded till 1843. The convict element of the population is fast melting away. In 1846 it was 10,565 ; in 1851, 2,693. The number of hands has thus decreased in five years by 7,872 persons, and from 68 to 14 in each 1,000 of the population. In 1846 the number of convicts in private assignment was 928 ; in 1851 it was only 35, of whom 26 were males and 9 females.
The religious dnominations in 1846 and in 1851 stand a: follows:
The number following the respective occupations in the whole colony in 1846 and 1851 are thus shown:
8,027 12,316 9,025
12,423 11,898 11,449
2. Agriculture 3. Shepherds
Here are some anomalies which can only be accounted for by referring them to the emigration to California, or by questioning the accuracy of the returns. The number of persons engaged in agriculture appears to have declined by 418, that of stockmen by 166, that of mechanics by 2802, that of lawyers by 14, that of almshouses by 886, that of persons whose occupations are not specified by 333.