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 PREFACE.

in extent and varied in character as is that great district which is called by the general title of Western Australia, little has hitherto been known of it in England, and little interest has been felt either in its history or its progress. The intending emigrant who thinks of turning his steps towards New South Wales, or Victoria, or Tasmania, or Queensland, finds no lack of guide-books and histories by which to form an opinion of the merits or disadvantages of these rival colonies, and it is easy for him to decide which of these divisions of the great Austral continent appears to present the most favourable prospects in his own especial case. But with Western Australia, or, to use the name by which it is more generally known, Swan River, matters are altogether different. Until lately, no guide-book at all, of any later date than twenty years ago, was in existence, and all the information which could be of service to an emigrant was buried in parliamentary blue books and official pamphlets. The report of evidence which had been given before a Committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the merits of Western Australia as a convict settlement was the chief source from which we were able to learn anything