Papers recently received from Sydney contain copies of the first
speech of Sir GEORGE GIPPS, the new Governor of New South Wales, to his Council. The following are the chief passages.
"In meeting you for the first time, I am happy to be able to congratulate you on the general tranquillity which reigns throughout the colony, and on the success with which the efforts of industry continue to be rewarded in this rising land.
" On the subject of immigration, so deeply interesting to the inhabitants of this colony, I shall lay before you, without loss of time, some important com- munications which have been addressed to my predecessor and to myself by her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. It will be seen, on a perusal of these documents, that this subject continues to occupy the attention of her Majesty's Government, and that extensive measures have been adopted for introducing into this colony as large a supply as can be obtained of mechanical and agricultural labour. /*Fifteen large ships with emir grants, selected by Government agents, may be expected to reach the colony in the course of the next twelve months ; and this supply will be independent of the emigrants who may be expected to be introduced by private individuals, under the system of bounties. I am fully impressed with the vital importance of immigration to this colony, and ready to give it every encouragement in my power ; I will, moreover, freely lay before you all the information of which I our in possession respecting its progress.
" I cannot, gentlemen, conclude this address without acknowledging to you, that in a matter of far higher importance than the mere increase of wealth—I mean the moral condition of the people—a residence of three months among you
has caused me to form a far more favourable estimate of the colony than that
which I entertained when I left England. 01 your wide agricultural and pas-
total district 1 am not yet in a condition to offer an opinion ; but in respect to Sydney and its immediate vicinity, I feel happy to be able to avow, that I have found a far greater degree of decorum and propriety of conduct to prevail, than, from some accounts of the colony published in England, I had been led to expect." The Government which sends emigrants from England into such a state of society as exists in New South Wales, incurs a heavy responsibility. Sir GEORGE GIPPS finds the moral condition of the people better than he expected. What his previous ideas were, cannot be told; but the evidence of persons who have spent a great part of their lives in the colony, must necessarily carry more weight than the opinion of Governor GIPPS after three months' residence, and probably not the best opportunities of observing the worse parts of the social system.
The natives in the vicinity of Fort Philip had murdered several settlers, and ravaged the country. A strong body of police had been sent from Sydney for the protection of the settlement.
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