INCONVENIENCE OF WANT OF ARRANGEMENT IN EARLY COLONIZATION.

The inconvenience of a want of plan for roads and streets is strikingly obvious at Bathurst.  A vast tract had indeed been reserved as a township, but then, no streets having been laid out, allotments for building could neither be obtained by grant nor purchase.  The site for the town was therefore only distinguished by a government house, jail, courthouse, postoffice, and barracks; while the population had collected in 60 or 80 houses built in an irregular manner on the Sydney side of the river, and at the distance of a mile from the intended site of the town.  The consequence of a want of arrangement became equally apparent in the line of approach to the township, for the only road in use being very indirect, and passing through a muddy hollow, named The Bay of Biscay, could not be altered because the adjacent land had been granted to individuals.  Thus when the good people of Bathurst prayed in petitions for delivery from their Bay of Biscay, and a dry and more direct line for the road had been easily found and marked out, the irregular buildings and private property lay in the way of the desired improvement.  All these inconveniences might have been obviated by due attention to such arrangements in the first instance, when any plan was practicable; whereas subsequently it has been found possible to remedy them only in a limited degree.  The streets having now been laid out a church and many houses are in course of erection and a new road, leading over firm ground to the site of the intended bridge, has been opened with the consent of the owner of the property.

SMALLFARMERS.

Part of the reserved land of the township has been given to smallfarmers—­a class very essential to the increase of population, but by no means numerous in New South Wales, and least of all at Bathurst, where the land is laid out chiefly in large sheep farms.

INTENDED BRIDGE.

A bridge across the Macquarie has long been a desideratum.  This river, although in common seasons fordable, and in dry seasons scarcely fluent, is liable, after heavy falls of rain in the mountains, to rise suddenly to a great height, and cut off the communication between the public buildings on the one side, and the peopled suburbs and great road from Sydney on the other.  The country beyond the Macquarie affords excellent sheep-pasturage, the hills consisting chiefly of granite.  A number of respectable colonists are domiciled on the surrounding plains, and the society of their hospitable circle presents a very pleasing picture of pastoral happiness and independence.

DEPARTURE FROM BATHURST.

April 4.

It was not until two o’clock that I could conclude my correspondence with the road-making, land-measuring world, and join a very agreeable party, assembled by my friend Rankin, to partake of an early dinner and witness my departure.

CHARLEY BOOTH.