the territory from Germany, in the following letter; which was written, at my suggestion, to the Chairman of the Immigration Committee of the Legislative Council, by the Rev. Christopher Eipper, for several years a missionary to the Aborigines of Moreton Bay :

LETTER from the Rev. CHRISTOPHER EIPPER, Presbyterian Minister of Braidwood, to the CHAIRMAN of the IMMIGRATION COMMITTEE, 18th September 1845.

SIR,-Understanding that a Committee of the Honourable the Legislative Council has been appointed to take into consideration the important subject of Immigration, and having been apprised, by one of its members, that it would not be unwilling to receive suggestions from persons possessed of local or other information on the subject to come before it, I beg leave to submit to you the following observations, on the eligibility of the District of Moreton Bay for the settlement of numerous families and individuals of the humbler and middle classes of the soil-cultivating population of the south of Germany, who, I am satisfied, could be induced, by a very little encouragement, to emigrate partially or entirely at their own charges, and settle permanently either in that District or in other parts of the Colony. I am a native of Wirtemberg, in the south of Germany, myself, and have, besides, some acquaintance with the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Baden, Switzerland, and Alsatia. In the District of Moreton Bay I have resided, as a missionary to the Aborigines, from the month of April 1838, till October 1843, when the mission was broken up.

The climate of Moreton Bay I have found peculiarly salubrious, and more equable than that of the Colony generally; the severe drought of 1839, for instance, not having been felt in that district. Its soil, from its very variety of lightness on ridges with a substratum of clay, and of richness on flats of black loam, produces, in great abundance and perfection, sweet potatoes, maize, wheat, pine apples, peaches, bananas, plantains, mulberries, sugar-cane, pumpkins, melons of every sort, arrow-root, yams, limes, lemons, citrons, oranges, nectarines, coffee, tobacco, millet, every sort of vegetables; and, from its proximity to the tropics, it would doubtless be found capable of producing most of the plants growing in tropical parts.

The observation of its capabilities has frequently led me to reflect, how well it would answer the various branches of culture peculiar to the south of Germany-such as the vine, tobacco, flax and hemp, millet, rape, and poppies for oil, krapp, and other weeds for dyeing, thistles for carding cloths, &c. And as many of these productions, and chiefly the vine and tobacco, are not raised in the British Isles, immigrants from Great Britain and

Ireland are less likely to turn such a soil and climate to proper account. With a view, therefore, of developing the capabilities of this Colony, it would seem desirable to introduce such immigrants as would, from their practical knowledge of the culture of new branches, be best fitted to accomplish so desirable an object. Without fear of being accused of partiality, I may say, that the Germans have generally been found to make good colonists, on account of their industrious and frugal habits, their intelligence and perseverance, in which assertion I am borne out by the flourishing condition of the German settlements of South Australia. This Colony would therefore unquestionably derive great benefit from the formation of one or two settlements of German agriculturists and vine-dressers at Moreton Bay, or in other parts of the Colony, or from the general dispersion of such throughout the Colony, should such a plan appear to be preferable. They might, if successful, not only lead the way to others of their countrymen, who might wish to follow them, but also set an example of the culture of various new branches to British immigrants.

I am not aware that the disposition to emigrate has at all declined in the south of Germany, or any where in that country, as the same causes by which it was engendered-oppressive taxation, over-population, and want of religious and civil libertyare, to the best of my knowledge, still in existence. Emigrants have, hitherto, chiefly gone to the United States; but other parts of the world-Poland at one time, the south of Russia at another, and Algiers at a later period, all within the last forty years— have attracted great numbers of emigrants from my native country; in the Southern provinces of Russia, the Krimea, Bessarabia, Grusinia, the Caucasus, and Astrachan, there are upwards of thirty parishes of Germans, many of whom are Wirtembergers. Every opportunity, indeed, which offered, was eagerly, but often to their bitter regret, embraced by many individuals and families of my countrymen ; no matter what country they went to, if they had but the means of reaching it, or of purchasing or otherwise acquiring a small farm. Of the general eligibility of this Colony, and its superior salubrity, my countrymen are, I may say, entirely ignorant, with the exception of the few who may have received some information either from myself or other German missionaries. The main hinderance, however, to their emigration hither is its distance from Germany. The length of the sea-voyage, as in itself it deters many, renders the expenses of the emigrants so great as to cause them to dismiss every thought of emigrating to this country from their mind; for, on an average, there will among ten emigrants not one half be found who reach the place of embarkation with funds in their possession amounting to fifty pounds sterling--a sum hardly adequate to defray the cost of a passage to New South Wales for a man with a wife and one or two children. His prospects, on landing, would consequently be only starvation in a strange land, or ser

vitude; a condition which, of course, is not his object or aim to attain to, in leaving his country and kindred. But I have no doubt emigration to this country from Germany, and the Continent of Europe in general, would at once commence, if its general advantages and eligibility were properly known, and some such encouragement were offered to the emigrants, as ensuring to them the remission of the purchase-money of whatever land they might buy on their arrival, at the present minimum price up to the actual cost of their passage out. Thus, if a family of a husband and wife, and one or two children, had paid fifty pounds for their passage out, they should be allowed to purchase fifty acres of land at the minimum price, and receive the same, free of cost, with six months' rations. There are, however, numbers of the labouring agriculturists and vine-dressers of Germany who, after selling all they are possessed of, would not have sufficient means to defray the cost of their passage out, especially if they have large families, but who would, nevertheless, from their practical knowledge of various new branches of culture, be a great acquisition to the Colony. The majority, indeed, of the emigrants from Germany to the United States land in New York without any funds in their possession; and, having neither the means of proceeding to the back settlements in the west, nor, if able to proceed through the assistance of some friends or relatives, of purchasing land at the low price of that country, drag on, either in the towns or in the interior, a miserable life, and are scarcely able to subsist. It would therefore be sufficient inducement if, to such as have no means to defray their own passage, a conditionally-free passage to this country were offered, that is, with the understanding, that on their landing in the Colony they were to hire with the settlers as farm-servants or vine-dressers for a period of three years; of their first year's wages their employers should be required to pay in advance the one-half, which should go towards refunding the expenses of their passage out. Considering the benefits which the country would derive, the sacrifice would not be great, if the other half of the cost of passage were remitted to the foreign immigrant, while the granting an unconditionally-free passage to the British subject would still show that, as such, he was considered as entitled to greater advantages than a foreigner, who might be equally if not more useful to the Colony, but who was bound to servitude for a period of three years, and after the lapse of that period might, with the savings from his wages, purchase a small farm of twenty or thirty acres.

It is chiefly from the smaller and Protestant German States that the stream of emigration has hitherto flowed; the larger States, Prussia and Austria, which are not bound by constitutions, having till very lately successfully, because tyrannically, shut up their subjects in their dominions. The majority of emigrants have been, I believe, Protestants of the Lutheran and

Reformed Churches, and I am satisfied there would be no difficulty in finding in Wirtemberg, Baden, Switzerland, and Alsatia alone, large numbers of emigrants, not only Protestants but truly pious men, which, in a religious point of view, would be a great acquisition to this country. They would consist partly of such as are possessed of funds adequate to defraying the cost of their passage out, on the understanding that such outlay would be made good to them, by the remission of the purchase-money of such land as they may acquire, and that they were to form one or two separate settlements; and partly of such as would embrace the offer of a conditionally-free passage, half the cost of which was to be refunded from their first year's wages, by settlers hiring them on their arrival in the Colony; this latter class would, by their dispersion through the Colony generally, benefit it at once, and perhaps even more than the former by the formation of separate settlements.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

CHRISTOPHER EIPPER,

Presbyterian Minister, Braidwood, St. Vincent.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SQUATTING SYSTEM. ITS EFFECTS AND PROSPECTS IN

COOKSLAND.

"And they went to the entrance of Gedor, even unto the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks. And they found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable; for they of Ham had dwelt there of old."-1 CHRON. iv. 39, 40.

ALTHOUGH it is the principal object of this work to point out the capabilities of the territory of Cooksland as a field for the emigration of a numerous and industrious population of the agricultural classes, from the mother-country, it would be inexcusable not to devote some portion of it to the description and development of its superior capabilities and prospects as a Squatting district, or, in other words, as a pastoral country, peculiarly adapted for the grazing of sheep and cattle. This has doubtless been done to some extent already, in pointing out the adaptation of the country, in its natural state, for the rearing of flocks and herds; but the Squatting System is of too much importance to the future colony of Cooksland, not to demand a separate and distinct notice.

It was a favourite theory with the infidel philosophers of the last century, that man originally existed as a wild hunter, eating the fruits and roots which the