in need, as well as every one touching there in future, would have been, and might be, amply provided for.  The influx of American vessels, and ships from the East Indies, has recently suffered a very considerable diminution; the former, at one period, nearly supplied the colony with articles of almost every description, at very reasonable prices, but, from some cause or other, vessels from the United States seldom now arrive at the settlement with merchandize for sale; the Indian vessels have also ceased to arrive in the same numbers as formerly, and the supplies have consequently fallen off materially, which naturally injures all descriptions of persons, not only by preventing an immediate intercourse between those countries, but also by lessening very considerably the consumption of stock, grain, etc. so that the settler, in planting his land, has now no other views than to raise a sufficiency of grain for the consumption of his own family, and the liquidation of his debts.  He has no longer a stimulus to labour; he calculates that the time and toil are wasted which are spent in raising an article for which he has no vent; his industrious disposition is consequently cramped; his present exertions are without hope of reward; and his prospects are divested of the supporting promise of future comfort or competence.  Such a system as this evidently and rapidly tends to ruin; these symptoms are the obvious marks of a diseased economy; and, if decay appears in the present unripe state of the country, with what propriety—­with what hope—­on what grounds, can the mind calculate upon future prosperity?

The vessels of neutral powers ought to be encouraged, in my opinion, to trade to the settlement; they would serve the colony, by giving encouragement to the settlers; there would once again be a beneficial competition; there would be a channel for the carrying off the surplus produce of the country, and industry might again look forward with joyous expectation to the harvest of its toil.  These vessels might be laden back with spermaceti or other oils, seal skins, coals, ship-timber, fustic, or any other articles the produce of the settlements and the Southern Seas; and thus a traffic might be established and carried on with reciprocal benefit, and the independence of New South Wales must be greatly aided in consequence of these beneficial regulations.

It may perhaps be argued, that the indiscriminate admission of the trade of neutral vessels might tend to injure the British ships trading to this colony; but such a consequence, I think, may easily be averted, since the governor has power to prevent those ships from selling any such articles as he may deem it expedient to prohibit; and no injury could consequently be sustained, while it would hold out the necessity of selling the European goods at a reasonable rate, or the wants of the colony might be supplied from another market.  The arrival of neutral ships with merchandize would