All these were made under
many difficulties; but they answered the purpose of showing what might be
done, with proper tools, at a future period. There was not any doubt, but
that the flax plant would considerably improve by cultivation; and the
manufacture of woollens promised to be of great benefit to the
settlement, whenever a sufficiency of the raw materials was collected.
Necessity has been long known as the parent of resources, and the poverty
of the public stores in the article of clothing had prompted these
experiments of the wool, the flax, and the bark.
The discovery of the vast strata of coal must be reckoned among the new
lights thrown upon the resources of the colony. The facility that this
presents in working the iron ore* with which the settlement abounded,
must prove of infinite utility whenever a dock-yard shall be established
here; and the time may come, when the productions of the country may not
be confined within its own sphere.
[* Some of this iron ore, which has been smelted in England, has been
reported to be equal, if not superior, to Swedish iron.
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