SYDNEY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 232, 27 February 1865, Page 3

SYDNEY.

The following extract is from the Si/dnei/ Mail ; — Thursday was the annual holiday in celebration of the founding of New South Wales, and, indeed, of the colonisation of Australia, ft is a day that ought to be kept by ail the colonies, but that sectional prejudices, for the present, override national feelings. If ever the colonies become confederated into one nation, and the people come to regard themselves as Australians rather than as Tasmanians, Victorians, Queenslanders, and New South Welshmen, the 26th of January will ho regarded, from Capa York to Cape Leemvin, as the nation's natal day. At present each colony celebrates the day of its own foundation. It is seventy-seven years since tho first landing was made in Port Jackson, The age of the colony is rapidly outstripping the terra of human longevity, liurflig this terra the original colony lias been twice dismembered ; but it still retains a population of three hundred and fifty thousand souls, while, hi conjunction with the other colonies to which it lias given birth, there is a-population of over a million, resulting indirectly from the settlement Captain Phillip effected at Sydney Cove. The advance, though slow at first, was rapid afterwards. Two causes have specially promoted this advance—first, the discovery of the value of the grass on the surface of the land, and secondly, the discovery of gold beneath the surface, lioth these causes are still in operation. Pastoral industry is extending every year, and gold mining is anything but exhausted. So far as our own particular colony is concerned, however, we cannot boast of the past year as having been one of progress. There may have been a small increase in the population, but if so that has been the only perceptible advance. We may hope that next anniversary day will see us in more prosperous circumstances. So far as can be at present ascertained, we have garnered, or are garnering, a fair average harvest, and this is a very decided improvement upon last year. We shall not have to send away so much money as we did for brcadstulfs. The price, too, will be remunerative to the grower. Our gold mines are not very prosperous, but in the far west there is a considerable increase of pastoral occupation in the salt bnsh country, which it is hoped will prove profitable. Thei’efore, if our immediate prospects are not brilliant, t hey are at least brighter than they were. If we could only put down bushranging, and clear our moral reputation, it would be as great a gain to us as a commercial advance. For it would not only save expenditure and re-move-the embarrassment under which inland trade is carried on, but it would make our colony available in the eyes of the world as a suitable place for emigrants to come to.