AUSTRALIND.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 14, 16 September 1842, Page 3

AUSTRALIND.

(From the Hobart Town Advertiser), To the Editor.

A few months since a letter appeared in the Colonial Times newspaper, calling on Captain Grey, the Governor of South Australia, to explain how it happened that he should have recommended, when at home, the exchange of land purchased of Colonel Latour, Sir James Stirling, and others; and situate in the district of Leschenhault, Western Australia, for land to the noitliward of Swan River. In that letter, Captain Grey is charged in veiy plain, but sufficiently respectful terms, with having described minutely, a port, and tract of country he had never seen, “ Port Grey” being, in fact, a creation of his own brain, and the fine alluvial' pastures fit for colonisation, nothing more than a few hundred acres of mud deposit, occasioned by the periodical ovei flowings of some of the swamps, or shallow, lagoons, far cher inland. In consequence of this recommendation of Captain Grey, the settlement at Australind was to have been abandoned, but fortunately Mr. Clwcon, the principal agent, decided on visiting this newly discovered Paradise “ Port Grey,” before he broke up his establishment. He'returned to Australind quite satisfied that his employees, and the public, had been either wilfully or' undesignedly imposed upon, and, that such is the fact, has since been confirmed, by the Officers in command of more than one of Her Majesty’s ships. The consequence, however, of Captain. Grey’s exaggerations do not rest here, many thousands of pounds have been sacrificed, and great, inconvenience incurred by Colonel Latour, Captain Sir James Stirling, and others, and also, by those already in these colonies, who were deeply interested in the success of Australind. Many thousands of p6unds, which were to have been promptly paid to sellers of land to the Australind Company, have there been swamped in the bubble of ‘‘ Port Grey,” and hundreds, nay, thousands f settlers, would have been totally ruined, had

not the Rubble - immediately after it had left the great ”( ? ) projector's colony manufacturing Van my opinion, ISfr. vEditorj there, . has been• nothing : lifc;e) this Port Grey, speculation; since tjie, time Poyais hoax; in thje lattef; as inspects good, land; and abundaheeriof, watery,wa%hot-a ? hoax; ror. it was not the ; land, or the climate, which* were .objectionable,, but Sin Gregor M’Gregor, and the way, he went to work, to carry out his scheme of colonisation* . It is: consistent with my knowledge, Mr. Editor, that Colonel; Latour has been compelled to forego, great advantages, and to leave his agent here subject to' great privations (such as I have no right without his sanction farther to dilate upon)—by this break up of the original sale by him, and surely it is not too much to ; expect that Governor Grey, under such circumstances, should offer to him,, and other sufferers, some explanation of his conduct. When we reflect on the privations, the ruin, and , misery, which these colony manufacturing , speculatprs occasionally inflict on thousands of their fellow men—on the broken hearts, and constitutions of many not able to bear up against the bitter reflections induced by adverse circumstances —I cannot but think, that the author ought to be made to feel, by the just reproaches of the whole human race—some portion of the pain, wliich, either from heedlessness, base, or self-aggrandizing motives, they have been the cause of* inflicting. The injury to the Colony on the. Swan River, by this projected move to the northward, would also have been, great, and I question much, if the settlers there have done their duty to themselves, by having in public meeting omitted to draw the attention of the Secretary of State to the subject of Captain Grey’s report on the capabilities of the country to the northward of the previously-explored territory. Governor Grey may rest assured, that a day of reckoning will yet come, and that the lives ahd property of men, are not to be tampered with wholesale, or with impunity. I have, Sir, looked for months in vain, for some explanation of this Port Grey bubble, iii the South Australian newspapers, but no—not one word. Is not this extraordinary ? does his Excellency fancy that his rank shelters him from enquiry ? If so, it is a fatal delusion. Perhaps, however, the insertion of a second letter may produce some kind of notice of this, and of tlie letter already alluded to, and, although your mere insertion of it will oblige me, any comments of your own, likely to- produce an explanation, will still farther, perhaps assist the object in view—namely, that of opening the eyes of those who are deeply interested , iii the question (of whom I am one) to its r6al merits. . . Governor Grey is openly charged with hav r ing either wilfully, or undesignedly, misled the public by the most fatal", and extravagant. misrepresentations of the countiy about Port Grey, and he owes if, nbt only to.the sufferers, hut to himself, to remove this reproach from his character.

We regret that from unavoidable circumstances, we are obliged to postpone the publication of the details of the meeting of the Burgesses which took place* on Wednesday evening, at Barrett’s Hotel. A full and correct account of the meeting, will however, be given in our next publication. -

A Yankee captain once sung out in a squall, to a raw hand newly shipped on board his craft, “ Let go the jib, there! let go that jib !” “ I aint touchin’ it!” squalled out the simple lubber in! return.