Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/420

Rh resources which are offered by the colony, the question naturally arises as to what judgment I have formed of the country as a field for emigration. It is a difficult question to answer, since the prospects of the new-comer must depend so completely upon his own character and his own position in life.

The man of capital and of enterprise will find but little scope for his energies at present, unless he be contented to work almost single-handed. The struggle merely to live has been so hard and so continuous, that but few amongst the settlers have acquired a sufficient amount of realized and superfluous capital to induce them to enter upon speculative pursuits, however promising they may appear. The timber trade, the whale fisheries, even the pearl fisheries if upon any but the most moderate scale, have hitherto been compelled to look to the other colonies or to England for the capital needed for their development.

The only joint-stock company formed for carrying out any public work of which I have heard since we left the colony, is one for the establishment of a telegraphic communication between Perth and Fremantle, a distance of fifteen miles. I believe that this company has succeeded in obtaining the small amount of capital which it required, and that it hopes to extend its wires into the Eastern districts before the end of the present year; but this instance of the Perth and Fremantle merchants having banded together to carry out a common object is almost a solitary one.

With the exception of the West Australian Bank, which was formed on joint-stock principles many years ago and which has always paid excellent dividends, I do