# Handbook of Western Australia/Part 4

GLENGARRY.
PART IV.
PROGRESS OF THE COLONY—FINANCIAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND MATERIAL.
Western Australia has not, like the other Australian Colonies and New Zealand, had any rapid increase of population, either from immigration, under associations having large capital at command, or induced by the discovery of gold fields. The progress has therefore been slow, but it has also been regular; the only stimulus it has received has been from the introduction of convicts in 1850; in other respects it has been dependent on the industry of its small population.
| In | 1849 | the value of Imports was | £28,531 | and of Exports | £26,516. |
| " | 1850 | """ | £52,451 | "" | £22,134. |
| " | 1854 | """ | £90,465 | "" | £27,224. |
| " | 1859 | """ | £125,315 | "" | £93,027. |
| " | 1869 | """ | £256,729 | "" | £205,502. |
| " | 1876 | """ | £386,036 | "" | £397,292. |
​In the years 1854, 1859, and 1869, statistdcal tables were made and published with the Census Papers, and those years have therefore been selected for comparison.
The trade is carried on principally with the United Kingdom, the Imports from which were, in 1876, to the value of £205,845, and the Exports to £186,566. Victoria, South Australia, Mauritius, China, and Singapore follow in order of importance, but the Exports to South Australia are greater than to any of the others, amounting, in the same year, to £81,139. This trade, in the year 1876, employed 145 vessels of 40,159 tons, exclusive of the monthly mail steamers, and was thus distributed: —
| Shipping entered at | British | British | Foreign | Foreign | Total | Total |
| Shipping entered at | Ships | Tonnage | Ships | Tonnage | Ships | Tonnage |
| Albany … | 80 | 10376 | 7 | 1976 | 87 | 12352 |
| Bunbury … | 4 | 1335 | 3 | 774 | 7 | 2109 |
| Champion Bay … | 5 | 1816 | … | … | 8 | 1816 |
| Cossack … | 23 | 1171 | 2 | 428 | 25 | 1599 |
| Fremantle … | 58 | 17564 | 2 | 760 | 60 | 18324 |
| Vasse … | 10 | 3509 | 1 | 450 | 11 | 3959 |
| Totals … | 130 | 35771 | 15 | 4388 | 145 | 40159 |
The number of mail steamers entered at Albany, during the year, was 28, of 38,949 tons burden, making a total of 173 vessels and 79,108 tons. The export trade of the year employed 129 vessels of 36,069 tons, or, including the mail steamers, 157 vessels of 75,018 tons. The coasting and fishing trade was carried on by one steamer of 320 tons, carrying the mail, and by 65 vessels of 3058 tons, distributed as follows:—Albany 4 vessels, of 369 tons; Fremantle 5 vessels above 150 tons, 1426 tons; 24 from 25 to 100 tons, 998 tons; and 33 vessels of less than 25 tons, 970 tons, in all, 61 vessels 2908 tons. There are, besides, two steamers plying between Perth and Fremantle of 62 and 24 tons respectively, with several ​steam flats and lighters, which carry cargo as high as Guildford, and occasionally some miles beyond that town; there is also a small steamboat plying regularly to the Vasse; there are also several small yachts, both at Perth and Fremantle.
The Revenue and Expenditure of the Colony has kept pace with the trade, and the Expenditure with the Revenue, as will appear from the following table:—
| Year. | Colonial. | Imperial Grant-in-aid. | Total Revenue. | Expenditure. |
| 1849 | £9,596 | £7,134 | £16,781 | £17,061 |
| 1854 | £26,781 | £5,434 | £32,216 | £33,694 |
| 1859 | £48,754 | £9,191 | £57,945 | £54,918 |
| 1869 | £88,652 | £15,610 | £103,662 | £103,124 |
| 1878 | £147,335 | £14,853 | £162,169 | £179,484 |
This is exclusive of the expenditure incurred by Great Britain for the Convicts, Pensioners, &c., which in 1876 amounted to £55,773, making the total expenditure for that year £235,257. The cost of the Convict Department has, however, much decreased, the amount expended in 1868 for Military and Convicts was £115,628.
The Colonial Expenditure (with the exception of £655 19s. 5d. in 1876 for the Volunteer Corps), is for Civil Services, including Schools, Clergy, &c. By the Ordinance "to provide for the establishment of a Legislative Council" (No. 13, 1st Session 1870), the sum of £4,480 was made payable, out of the Revenue of the Colony, to the Crown for the maintenance of the Executive, and thus appropriated:
| Governor … | £700 |
| Private Secretary and Clerk of Executive Council … | £250 |
| One Clerk … | £80 |
| Chief Justice … | £1000 |
| Colonial Secretary … | £800 |
| Surveyor General … | £600 |
| Attorney General … | £500 |
| Treasurer … | £550 |
​In 1877 the salary of the Attorney General was raised by vote of the Legislative Council to £600, The principal items of Expenditure were, in 1876, Police Department £23,442 16s. 5d., Postal and Telegraph Department £16,321 19s. 10d., Administration of Justice £9,374 3s. 5d, Works and Buildings £11,425 11s., Survey Department £7,584 17s. 6d.
The principal sources of revenue are the Customs, which in 1876 produced £85,177 13s. 10d., the Land Revenue £23,706 Us. 3d., Land Sales £8,460 15b. 6d., and Postages and Telegrams £8,988 14s. 9d.
The Revenue of the Customs is derived principally from duties on spirits, which in 1876 produced £28,564 11s. 6d., Tobacco, Snuff, Cigars, £11,018 5s. 3d., Wine and Beer £9,493 11s., and on goods ad valorem £20,543 13s. 7d. As all might be produced in the Colony, these duties, amounting to £69,619 19s. 4d., must be considered as an unnecessary drain on its resources, which may be removed by change of habit in the consumption of colonial produce, and by greater industry in the manufacture of the articles which now produce nearly one-half the Revenue of the Colony.
Western Australia is, however, less taxed in proportion to her population than most other countries. The amount per head being £3 6s. 7fd. This is owing, in a great measure, to the smallness of her public debt, which is only £135,000, being £12,305 less than the Colonial Revenue for 1876; the amount per head is only £4 8s. 9|d., while in other Australian Colonies it varies from £14 to £45. This, however, must not be considered altogether in favor of Western Australia, since a judicious expenditure of borrowed money on remunerative public works and immigration might greatly increase both her population and productiveness, and therefore her prosperity.
​Banks.—There are three banks in the Colony. The Western Australian Bank, established in 1841, a Joint Stock Company managed by a Board of Directors in Perth, having a capital of £50,000 in 5000 shares. It has a branch at Geraldton and an Agency at Fremantle. Its agents in London are the Bank of South Australia, 54 Old Broad Street, as also in South Australia; the Bank of New South Wales in that Colony, Victoria, Queensland, and New Zealand; the Oriental Bank Corporation in India, Mauritius, and Singapore; the Commercial Bank of Van Dieman's Land, and the Chartered Bank of India at Batavia. In the times of financial difficulty in the Colony, previous to the introduction of convicts, this Bank assisted the Government with loans.
The National Bank of Australia, was established in Victoria and South Australia in 1858, and in Western Australia in 1866. This is also a Joint Stock Company under the management of a Board of Directors at Melbourne, having a paid-up capital of £750,000 and a reserve fund of £250,000. The London Office is 149 Leadenhall Street, E.C., where there is also a Board of Directors. It has branches at Fremantle, Geraldton, and Albany within the Colony, as also 40 Branches and Agencies in Victoria, and 39 besides the head office at Adelaide, in South Australia, where also are Local Directors. Its Agents are the National Bank of Scotland; in Ireland the Provincial Bank, the National Bank, and the Ulster Banking Company; in New South Wales the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney; also the Queensland National Bank, the Bank of New Zealand, the Commercial Bank of Van Dieman's Land; in India and China, the Chartered Mercantile Bank of India, the Agra Bank, the Chartered Bank of India; also the ​London and Soath African Bank; at Valparaiso F. Huth Groning & Co.; San Francisco, Hellman Bros.; and the English Bank of Rio Janeiro.
The Union Bank of Australia has now (1878) established branches at Perth and York. It is, like the others, a Company, having a paid-up capital of £1,250,000, with reserve funds amounting to £460,000, and was established in 1837. The principal office is at 1 Bank Buildings Lothbury, London. Its Bankers in London the Bank of England, and Messrs. Glyn & Co., and in addition the National Provincial Bank of England, and the London and County Bank. It has also Agents at Liverpool, Lancaster, Carlisle, Manchester, Warrington, York, Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford, Boston, Birmingham, Nottingham, Dudley, Stafford, Northampton, Leighton-Buzzard, Cambridge, Colchester, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bristol, Glamorganshire, Gloucestershire, Chester, Devon, and Cornwall, in the latter at Penzance, Truro, Redruth, Launceston, and Hilston; the principal Banking Companies in Ireland, and Scotland; the Bank of British North America; the Chartered Banks of India, London, and China, Mid of India, Australia, and China; the Mauritius Commercial Bank; the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation; the Standard Bank of British South Africa; the New London and Brazilian Bank; the London and River Plate Bank; the London and San Francisco Bank, and at San Francisco as well, Messrs. Hellmari Bros. & Co., and the Anglo-Californian Bank; Messrs. F. Huth Gruning & Co., Valparaiso, and the Bank of Rotterdam. It has branches at Melbourne, and 12 other principal places in Victoria; at Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Hay, and Deniliquin in New South Wales; at Brisbane and ​Rockampton in Queensland; at Adelaide, and Port Adelaide in South Australia; at Hobart Town, Launceston, Oatlands, and Latrobe in Tasmania; and at Auckland, and 21 other principal places in New Zealand.
The banks issue notes, discount bills, keep cash accounts, give letters of credit, and transact all ordinary banking business.
The average weekly amount of notes in circulation in the Colony, is £18,000. The coin now in the Colony is estimated at £75,000.
English money is current in West Australia.
Imports and Exports.—The principal Imports, besides those already mentioned, are apparel and "slops," boots and shoes, showing the want of skilled labor; drapery, millinery, and haberdashery, grindery, hardware, and cutlery, ironmongery and iron in bars, &c., oilman's stores, oils, paint, and colors, saddlery and harness, soap and candles, apothecary's wares; cheese, which might be produced in the Colony, as well as corn, grain, and meal; tea and sugar, bags and sacks, agricultural implements, steam engines; flour was imported in 1876, to the value of £19,302 12s.
The principal Exports are horses, whale oil, copper and lead ore, pearls and shells, sandalwood, timber, and wool.
Generally speaking, all articles necessary for food, and all materials for industry, as well as machinery, enter duty free; but potatoes, rice, salt, and tea pay duty, and there is a duty of ten per cent, ad valorem on all goods not excepted by 40th Victoria, No. 6.
An export duty of one shilling is levied on every kangaroo skin, of five shillings per ton on sandalwood, £2 per ton on pearl shells, and a royalty of ten shillings per ton on guano.
​The Internal Revenue is levied on the transfer of landed property, by licenses under the Wines, Beer, and Spirit Act, to sell by auction, to keep dogs, to collect bark, cut timber, cut or remove sandalwood from the Waste Lands of the Crown, for boats and boatmen, and for boats and ships engaged in the pearl shell fishery, also from judicial fines. Fees are also taken at the different public offices, for registry, copies of official documents, applications, searching records, taking affidavits, &c., in the Sheriff's Office, the Small Debts' Court, and the Insolvent Court.
Industries.—The progress of the different colonial industries will appear from the following comparative tables. The agricultural produce was gathered from the area of acres under cultivation, thus distributed:—
| | Year 1849. | Year 1876. |
| Albany or Plantagenet … | 258 | 521 |
| Champion Bay … | … | 1314 |
| Fremantle … | … | … |
| Greenough and Irwin … | … | 13017 |
| Murray … | 473 | 738 |
| Perth … | 158 | 1512 |
| Sussex … | 216 | 1050 |
| Swan … | 1747 | 3390 |
| Toodyay … | 873 | 9113 |
| Wellington … | 595 | 3006 |
| York … | 1559 | 8991 |
| Williams … | … | 3276 |
| Totals … | 6027 | 45933 |
The proportions of the different crops cultivated were, in acres, wheat 18,769, barley 6,245, oats 1461, rye 731, potatoes 370, maize 70, vineyard 784, kitchen garden 628, beans, &c. 19, hay or green crop 16,856, from ​which it will appear that 27,206 acres were cultivated in cereals or what might be used for bread to nearly an equal number with the population.
The number of stock in the different districts was:—
| | Horses. | Cattle. | Sheep. | Goats. | Pigs. |
| In 1849 | 2340 | 11741 | 144033 | 804 | 3129 |
| In 1876 | 83502 | 54058 | 899494 | 5561 | 18108 |
They were in the latter year distributed thus:—
| District. | Horses. | Cattle. | Sheep. | Goats. | Pigs. |
| Albany … | 1242 | 1671 | 67759 | 34 | 377 |
| Champion Bay … | 3282 | 2738 | 125920 | 949 | 736 |
| Greenough … | 1861 | 1840 | 71928 | 681 | 2223 |
| Murray … | 1572 | 3491 | 11029 | 457 | 553 |
| Perth … | 1577 | 8773 | 4126 | 785 | 1489 |
| Sussex … | 2029 | 9681 | 10127 | 29 | 452 |
| Toodyay … | 7346 | 7138 | 155125 | 1322 | 5403 |
| Wellington … | 3458 | 11160 | 25861 | 278 | 1054 |
| York … | 3685 | 2545 | 148259 | 332 | 3425 |
| Williams & Kojonup … | 2111 | 1347 | 122164 | 55 | 1223 |
| North District … | 2116 | 3201 | 134540 | 236 | 14 |
The average of produce is low, that of wheat being to the acre 14 bushels, barley 17, oats 17, rye 11, maize 22, and of potatoes 2½ tons to the acre; the crop of hay scarcely averages 1 ton to the acre, but this is, unquestionably, the result of want of capital, scarceness of labour, and bad cultivation. The averages in the early days of the Colony were much higher, as is the yield in many cases now. The average price of wheat in 1876 was 6s, 3d. a bushel, of barley 5s., of potatoes £9 2s. a ton, of hay £6; but when the cost of cartage is increased by distance, or bad roads, the prices are much higher, as wheat 7s., barley 6s., potatoes £11, and hay £9.
Horticulture, where land has natural springs to provide water in summer, is a most profitable though not largely increasing industry. The first colonists introduced nearly all the vegetables and fruits now under cultivation, which include almost all those of temperate ​regions, such as are cultivated in the open garden in England, and many tropical fruits. Those most to be noted at present are the grape, fig, olive, as producing articles of export, to which tobacco might well be added from the experience recorded at New Norcia, and the mulberry, as affording food for the silkworm.
Wine.—Since 1870 the acreage of vineyard has increased by 59 acres, which may represent the production of from 2000 to 3000 gallons. The demand for colonial wine is much increasing, and, as the produce has been spoken highly of in England and gained prizes at the exhibition at Sydney, this may be looked to as not only a future source of domestic supply, but of exportation also. The same may be said of dried fruits, raisins, figs, and of olives, all of which may be cultivated and cured to advantage.
Sericulture.—The mulberry is now being largely cultivated, with the view to sericulture. Silk exhibited at Sydney, 1873, which had been cultivated for amusement by John and George, sons of Mr. H. R. Strickland, obtained certificates, and immediately afterwards a Government plantation was formed as a nursery near Perth, at first under the care of Mr. Dale who was succeeded by Mr. Clayton, from which many thousands of young trees have been distributed. A nursery for the worm was also established, and cocoons and seed sent from thence to Europe have been highly approved. In 1876, M. Beurteaux exported the first bale of cocoons, weighing 1cwt. It may, therefore, reasonably be expected that sericulture will become an important industry in West Australia, and more especially because it may be considered as a domestic labour, affording employment for women and children.—Vide Appendix B.
​Wool.—The great staple of the Colony is wool. Of this, in 1876, 2,831,174 lbs. were exported, which at 1. 2d. per lb. would be in value £165,161 16s. 4d. The increase of this pastoral industry will appear, not only from the increase in the number of sheep already noted, but still more clearly from the fact that in 1860 the number of pounds exported was only 656,817, and in 1869, 1,880,426, or more than double, while in the six years following it had again increased by one-half. The great extension of area taken up for sheep runs during the last few years, promises as large an increase of produce for the future.
Horses and Cattle.—The export of horses and cattle may also be expected to increase with production. Up to the year 1870 for ten years there is no export recorded. In 1872 the value exported, at £12 each, was for 427 horses £5124; in 1876 the number exported was 773, and the estimated value, at £14 each, £10,822. These are mostly sent to India for remounts for the army, and, at the contract price £45, should yield a good profit. Horses of high blood and lineage were, as has been already noted, introduced by the first colonists. Governor Stirling selected his stud from that at Petworth, and his horse Greylegs was own brother to Château Margeaux; and from that time many colonists have imported stock of equal character. There can be no lack of good blood among the horses of the Colony. Besides the blood stock imported from England, Ireland, and the other Australian Colonies, several high-bred Arabs imported from India, have assisted to give character to the West Australian horse. Mr. Maitland Brown, M. L. C, is the only ​colonist who has as yet made the breeding horses for the market a specialty, though many valuable animals are bred yearly by other colonists; his stables at Neu-marra-carra, some 18 miles East of Geraldton, contain six sires of unquestioned form and lineage, and in his paddock of 20,000 acres there are about 200 mares, many of which would not disgrace any stud in Europe.
As for the horse so for cattle, much good stock has been from time to time introduced, and, climate and soil considered, with butter at 2s. a pound, dairy farming should be, as indeed it is, a most profitable occupation in the Southern districts of the Colony.
The Timber Trade is, at present, confined to the South-west and South districts of the Colony. There are timber companies with trains and railroads at the Canning, Rockingham, and on the East and West sides of Geographe Bay. Timber is also cut near to, and exported from Albany, but that on the South Coast to the West of Tor Bay, is as yet untouched, as is the Pine timber of the North Coast and the Victoria District. There are six steam saw-mills, and three water saw-mills at work. The value of timber exported was, in 1860, £4,932; In 1865, £15,693; and in 1869, £14,274; in 1872 it had decreased to £2,590, but in 1874 it rose to £24,192; in 1875 it was £23,965; in 1876, £23,743, thus showing a steady demand and a sufficient supply.
Sandalwood, although one of the largest exports of the Colony, is not so much to be depended upon for continuance, either of supply or demand, for as the cutter has to go back farther from the place of export, so his expenses increase, and his profits diminish, these ​latter seem now reduced nearly to a possible minimum in consequence of the cost of transport. As those employed in it pass their time in the woods, on the roads, and in the towns when delivering their loads, the trade is not favorable to the moral development of those engaged in it. In 1860, the value of sandalwood exported was £16,360; in 1863, it rose to £35,265; in 1869, to £32,998; in 1873, to £62,916; in 1874, to £70,572; in 1876 it declined to £65,772; these estimates are made at £10 a ton, but the price has varied considerably with the demand.
The Fisheries of Western Australia should be more productive than they are, although no doubt the number of whales and seals on the coast is much less than formerly. In the early days of the Colony the whale fishers of the United States were constantly on the coast, making use of its harbors, and carrying on a trade, profitable to both, with the colonists. It was not uncommon to see six or seven large vessels in King George's Sound; the Vasse was also much frequented; sealers also searched every inlet and island for their prey, but in 1854 only 3 tons of whale oil were exported, valued at £25; in 1860, the value of the oil exported was £717; in 1865, £2,950; in 1869, it had fallen to £495; in 1873, it rose again to £1,872; the following year it was only £128; in 1874, £347, but in 1876, it rose to £6,673, showing that whales are still to be had for the seeking; this rise is probably due to the opening of the fishery on the North Coast. Another valuable oil is that of the Dugong, a marine animal found on the Coast from Shark's Bay Northward, but of this only to the value of £3 was exported in 1876, and none the preceding year. The abundance of fish and salt, on all parts of ​the coasts of the Colony, would suggest that the curing of fish, both for home and foreign consumption, would be a profitable industry. Small quantities are cured, but of no importance to the trade of the Colony. Tortoise shell is also exported, but this trade is at present inconsiderable, though in 1869 to the value of £483 was exported. The most important fishery is that for pearls and pearl shells, which commenced, as has been noted, in Sharks Bay, and was carried to the North-West Coast, where the supply of the pearl oyster seems inexhaustible; banks, supposed to have been worked out one year, having been found replenished the next; yet the time seems to be approaching when some regulation of the fishery, to prevent waste, will prove essential. In 1862, the pearl shells exported were valued at £250; in 1865, there were not any; in 1869, the export was to the amount of £6,490; in 1872, £25,890; in 1873, £28,388, with pearls to the estimated value of £6,000; in 1874, shells £62,162, and pearls £12,000; in 1875, shells £64,642, pearls £12,000; and in 1876, shells £75,292, and pearls £8,000. These amounts, though not probably showing the true market price, yet sufficiently prove the importance and progress of the trade. The shells at Sharks Bay are of small value compared with those of the North Coast. The trade was formerly carried on by means of Malay divers, but, the cost of these having debarred them from use, it has been found possible to continue it with native divers only.
Guano was exported from Sharks Bay as early as the year 1840. Grey, when in the bay, found several vessels loading; the supply, however, was soon exhausted. In 1876 the export of guano from the Lacepede Islands off the North-West Coast commenced; £357, at 10s. a ton, ​represented the value exported that year, but six vessels were wrecked in a hurricane; now however as an officer in charge is located there, it may be presumed that the trade will be regularly prosecuted. Vide Appendix E.
Lead Mining is one of the most promising industries of the Colony, but is at present only carried on in the Champion Bay District; its commencement has been noticed in the history of the Colony, and the early progress of it as well as of copper mining, will be found in Appendix F. The proposal for a line of railway from the centre of the Mines district at Northampton to the port at Champion Bay gave fresh impulse to this industry, of which the following returns from the two principal mines will show the present state; there are many other lodes worked, and many still untouched equal to them in value; the want of capital in money and labour alone limits the quantity produced.
The actual shipments from the Narra Tarra mine have been 862 tons, within the twelve months ending December, 1877; but the yield has been much larger, and might be still increased, if greater facilities for exportation were afforded, as it has now a sufficient plant of machinery.
The produce of the Wheel Ellen is about equal to that of the Narra Tarra; but 3,000 tons could be easily raised within the year, if it could be exported. This mine was first opened in 1872, and has in six years produced 4,300 tons of ore, with an average number of twenty-one miners. The lode, which bears about 35° East of North, has been laid open for about 300 fathoms in length, and the deepest point reached is 14 fathoms, so that only surface machinery on a small scale has been required. Of the ores of lead, Galena is the ​most abundant, but other ores are worked to profit. The percentage is from 68 to 82¼, and the highest price obtained for one whole shipment £14 14s. per ton. The strike of the lode and quality of the ore may be taken as generally applicable to all the mines in this district. The number and extent of the known lodes make the extension of this industry dependent on the demand for the ore in the market and the supply of capital in money and labour introduced into the Colony; and as the railway from Northampton to Champion Bay, when opened throughout its entire length, which it will very shortly be, must reduce, as it does even now, the cost of transport, the profits on this industry will be proportionately increased.
The population of the Colony was, in 1876, calculated at 16,166 males, and 11,155 females, in all 37,321 persons; the births during the year were 918, and the deaths 383, giving a natural increase of 535; the arrivals by sea were 727, and the departures 650, giving an addition of 77, making the actual increase during the year only 612. When this is compared with the increase in other colonies from immigration, there can be no surprise at the comparatively slow progress of West Australia.
Nearly one-fourth of the population is collected on the lower valley of the Swan, Perth having a population of 4,606, and Fremantle of 3,303 in 1876. So small a population, scattered over so large a surface, has required the construction of roads to a much greater extent than would otherwise have been needed. Roads, passable for wheel carriages and, in many places excellent, in all with the rivers and gullies bridged, extend from Perth to Albany, by Bannister, Williams, and Kojonup; to the Vasse, by Pinjarrah and Bunbury; ​to Guildford, and from thence to Newcastle, York, and Northam, and by Bindoon to Victoria Plains, and to Fremantle. The Swan is navigated by passenger steamers to Perth, and by lighters beyond Guildford.
The Electric Telegraph is carried to all the principal centres of population, from Perth to Albany on the South coast, with stations at Williams and Kojonup; and from Albany to Eucla the line is now completed for connection with the South Australian lines, and so with Great Britain and the rest of the world; from Perth also to the Vasse on the South-west, and Geraldton on the North, by the Victoria Plains, Dongarra, and Greenough, and from Geraldton to Northampton, by the line of railroad. There is a Post Office in every town and village. There is only one line of public railroad in the Colony, now in the course of completion, viz., between Geraldton and Northampton. Its length is 34 miles, the gauge 3ft. 6m.; there are thirteen bridges of timber, varying from 1 span of 10 feet to 5 spans of 30 feet. The cost has been considerably more than £3,000 a mile. The stations will be at either end, with intermediate platforms at which trains will stop by signal.
Mails.—The Colonial steamer carries the mails and passengers monthly to and from Geraldton to Albany, touching at Fremantle, Bunbury, and Vasse, and making short intermediate trips with passengers and cargo, &c. Passengers to or from the Colony by mail steamers can be transhipped to any of those ports. The mail is carried overland from Perth to Albany twice a month, and to Geraldton once a week; a passenger-van runs once a month from Perth to Albany and returns in time for the mail; and the mails are carried in vans with passengers twice a week to the Avon Valley and Bunbury, and daily to Fremantle and Guildford.
​Perth, the capital, beautifully situated on the estuary of the Swan, is gradually assuming the appearance of a considerable city, with an area of about one mile and a half in length by half a mile in breadth, and consisting of three principal and several cross streets. Government House, the Town Hall, the Public Offices, and the Cathedral of the Church of England lying in the centre, and the Barracks and Roman Catholic Cathedral at either end; the Wesleyan and Congregational Chapels are also conspicuous buildings. It has a cemetery, public garden, park, and recreation ground, and a rifle range on Mt. Eliza above the town. It has institutions for mechanics, working men, and for young men of the Church of England and Rome; two hospitals, two orphanages, a native mission house; nine inns, hotels, and public houses; a gaol, a poor house, and manufactories for coach building, boiler-making, iron-founding, soap-making, brewing, tanning, and boat-building. There is a Club named after Governor Weld, a Freemasons' hall, a market under the Town Hall, and a museum attached to the Mechanics' Institute. The road to Guildford is carried over the Swan and its islands above Perth water, by bridges and causeways 4,109 feet in length.
Fremantle, built on both banks of the Swan, is connected by a bridge 954 feet in length. The principal part of the town is on the South side of the river, where a bay is formed by Arthur's head—a mass of limestone, on which is a lighthouse, gaol, and court house, where boats can put ashore at all times, and where two jetties are placed for landing and shipping goods. Fremantle has many public buildings, and is dominated by the Convict Establishment, which has accommodation for 800 prisoner with the necessary staff; it has a marine ​residence for the Governor, a lunatic and a convalescent asylum, three churches, schools, several inns, hotels, and public houses, equal to its wants as a seaport, a Freemasons' hall with club attached, and barracks for the Pensioner Force. Both Perth and Fremantle are fully supplied with stores and shops.
There are four newspapers published in Perth. The West Australian Times twice a week, and the Inquirer once, the Catholic Record and St. George's Journal monthly; at Fremantle, the Herald weekly; there are, besides, the Temperance Advocate, and the Christian Herald. A Government Gazette is published weekly. Telegrams from all parts of the Colony, public, commercial, and meteorological, are posted at the chief office daily.
In all the towns, both small and large, in addition to churches and schools, there will be found inns, as also in many places by the roadside, especially on the Sound road; mechanics' institutes, and various societies; there are agricultural societies and turf clubs, with exhibitions and races, in all the principal districts, also cricket clubs in most; at Perth, Fremantle, and Geraldton there are yacht clubs; total abstinence and temperance societies exist in all parts.
Assisted Immigration has been made during the last two years; £1,690 was expended in 1875, £999 in 1876, and £7,000 was voted for 1877. In 1875, 262 males and 156 females arrived from England, and 26 males and 3 females from the other colonies. In 1876, 515 males and 212 females arrived in the Colony. The vote for 1878 will increase the number, but not in proportion to the wants of the Colony. The conditions regulating immigration will be found in Appendix G.
​Assisted immigration has, of course, only reference to the so-called laboring classes, mechanics, agricultural laborers, shepherds, grooms, gardeners, domestic servants &c. For these the demand among so small a population must necessarily be limited, but to persons having small money capital at their disposal Western Australia offers advantages which the more populous colonies do not. There are in the mines district near Champion Bay many lodes of lead ore, some worked, and others not yet touched, which require only the application of simple machinery and additional labor to make them highly productive. The pastoral areas of the Colony are by no means fully stocked, and there are numerous localities in which the industries already noted might be carried on with profit, if there were sufficient capital to commence with. On reference to the Land Regulations, it will be seen that land for any such purposes may be obtained on such terms as will not exhaust the capital which may be more profitably applied to its improvement and cultivation.
* ↑ In 1887, 3,909,487 lbs. were exported, of the estimated value of £199,624; but for Exports of 1877 see Appendix C.
* ↑ Vide Appendix D.