Page:History of West Australia.djvu/133

Rh chronicled. In March an attack was made at the Halfway House on two men who were driving stock to York. They were both severely wounded, and one of them subsequently died from his sufferings.

At the end of May a robbery was committed in the store of a merchant in Perth. The merchant, when he discovered his loss next day, took his gun and went to the native camp. He suspected a native lad named Gogali of the offence, and while wrestling with him to punish him his gun went off and shot the boy in the leg. The Government, to carry out the proclamations of 1829 and 1833 to protect the natives, arrested the merchant, pending the recovery or otherwise of the black. The latter died, and the authorities were then doubtful whether to try the merchant for murder or manslaughter. He was afterwards released on the ground that the shooting was the result of an accident.

Except for the arrest and punishment of natives for slight offences, nothing of interest occurred during the remainder of 1835. The institution at Mount Eliza was only partially established.

HE significant animation infused into pastoral pursuits in 1834-35 was more pronounced in the three following years. It was the dawn of a distinct era in Western Australian industry. Grazing assumed a greater importance in the minds of settlers than farming. Substantially, from 1835 the colony became wedded to the rearing of sheep, and thenceforth relied mainly on wool export for her prosperity.

A pastoral people was at work and obtaining returns. At Northam, York, Beverley, King George's Sound, Augusta, and the Swan River flocks depastured over large areas. Journals of previous exploration related that an immense proportion of the country discovered was more suitable for grazing than for farming. To keep flocks of sheep was not nearly so expensive as to till the soil, and the profits from the exportation of wool were surer and larger than those of wheat; nor was the work entailed so severe. For to clear the land and prepare it for cultivation without powerful implements the people had to work hard and work long. It must not be construed that agriculture diminished, but it was generally conceded that owing to natural difficulties settlers could expect little wealth from it. They desired to produce sufficient grain for their own consumption, but they believed that it would be foolish to expect to favourably compete with old established countries, where the ground was already under cultivation, where powerful teams and implements were at work, and where settled modes of transport and settled markets were possessed. Colonists increased the area under wheat, but they looked to wool to be their chief resource.

Strenuous efforts were made in 1886 to import more sheep, but owing to the absence of a regular line of trading vessels flocks were not materially increased. There were many settlers anxiously waiting to purchase animals, but for months they waited in vain, and great was the disappointment in March when, after long expecting a large consignment from Sydney, a vessel arrived with but twenty-five on board. She took ninety days to make the passage and consequently lost nearly all her sheep. The year's increase was mainly made up of the natural increase of the flocks already held. In 1837 the same difficulties were experienced; but in 1838, owing to new arrivals and the determination of old colonists to test their convictions, there were large purchases. By that year considerable new tracts of country were brought into use, and settlers were scattering over the outside districts of the colony. Their flocks roamed the Avon valleys, and the country for many miles around; drifted up the Hay River, in the King George's Sound (Plantagenet) district; wandered over the banks of the Blackwood, Vasse, and Williams Rivers; dispersed over the lands at Leschenault; and grazed on the herbage on the Murray River. Heavy losses were sustained among the old ewes and early lambs in 1838 from the deficiency of succulent grass at the beginning Of the lambing season, and from the sudden and fatal disease which still baffled all attempts to diagnose. A drought was experienced over most parts of the colony in the autumn and early winter.

A comparative return of sheep in the colony for the years 1834 to 1888 exhibits the increase. The numbers were, in 1834, 3,545; in 1885, 5,138; in 1836, 8,119; in 1837, 10,271; and in 1838, 15,590. The increase ran to about 350 per cent. It was roughly estimated that during the year 1837 21,120 lbs. of wool were exported, valued at £1,684. In the year 1838 the value was set down as £1,935. The total exports in 1837 were £6,906, and in 1838 £6,840; the imports in 1837 £45,107, and in 1838 £46,766. The revenue in 1837 was £4,578, and the receipts in aid £6,692; the revenue in 1838 was £4,551, and the receipts in aid £7361. The expenditure in 1837 was £11,038, and in 1838 £12,277. Within these two years the receipts from the sale and rental of Crown lands amounted to £745.

That the pursuit of agriculture did not materially stagnate during the same period figures will show:—Acres under wheat in 1834, 564; 1835, 1,156; 1836, 1,363; 1837, 1,253; and 1838,