_4th_, Capitalists of L.1000 and upwards can make, apart from
wool-growing, twenty per cent. on their money without being in trade,
chiefly by buying at the government land-sales, and subdividing the
section into small allotments, or by building houses, shops, &c. The
average of rental returns the capital in four years. But this can only
be done if emigration continues--and emigration with a sprinkling of
holders of L.50 to L.200. If this stops, there can be few purchasers.
Should a fixed price be put upon government land, there might be a
difference in the way in which capital could be turned to profit; but
L.1000 and upwards can find so many favourable investments in a new
colony, that a living could be secured without much trouble or
anxiety.
_5th, Population_.--By the census just completed, there are 78,000
inhabitants in Victoria (Port-Philip); County of Bourke,
44,000--including Melbourne, the capital, 20,000; County of Grant,
12,000--including Geelong, its capital, 8000. Warnambool, Belfast, and
Portland, along the coast, only number hundreds, and Kilmore, forty
miles inland, nearly 2000: there are also various villages--on
paper--so called, numbering ten to fifty houses each.
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