Page:History of West Australia.djvu/206

 160

on 1st May, with 296; the Robert Small, on 19th August, with 309; and the Phoebe Dunbar, on 31st August, with 295 men. This number (1,129) was the largest landed in the colony in one year. The men on the Robert Small were almost exclusively Irish prisoners.

Upon the arrival of the Phoebe Dunbar certain dangerous prisoners managed to rid themselves of their irons, and became abusive and violent. Order was not restored until some of the ringleaders were bayoneted by the military. Six men escaped from a working party near the Establishment in September, but were recaptured next day. In November four men escaped from a bathing party on the beach at Fremantle. They proceeded to the Canning, where they robbed several houses and obtained firearms. The police came upon them next morning, and after several shots were fired by both parties the fugitives laid down their arms. Three were sentenced to five years in irons, 100 lashes, and three weeks' bread and water each. The first man to surrender was more leniently dealt with, and was sentenced to three weeks' bread and water and 100 lashes.

The introduction of convicts came at an opportune moment. Late in 1851 news reached the colony of the gold discoveries in Victoria, and when confirmatory reports were received a mania to proceed to the goldfields spread far and wide over Western Australia. In March, 1852, thirty-nine men went east, and other bands left the colony at intervals. The migration promised to attain such proportions that Governor Fitzgerald placed as many difficulties in the way of the gold-seekers as lay at hand. Since earliest days it was necessary to give notice to the Colonial Secretary when leaving the colony; a debtor about to leave could be arrested. It is said that these regulations were applied with severity at this time. Had the finds been made a few years earlier, it is doubtful to what lengths the migration would have gone. It was too much to hear of poor men picking up a fortune by merely arching their bodies. In these and subsequent years Western Australia lost many of her most useful settlers. The Governor was fearful; the newspapers decried the migration (as Victorian papers decry the western migration to-day); in brief, a spasm of apprehension seized upon the larger settlers. Nor was Western Australia alone in this. The other colonies suffered in a more serious degree. South Australia, New South Wales, and Tasmania were temporarily depopulated. Waving crops of plump corn were left to rot in the fields, and industry of all kinds stagnated almost to annihilation. Victoria in four years attracted hundreds of thousands of people from the four corners of the globe.

Western Australians hoped to find a goldfield in this colony, In December, 1852, two or three parties of young men went out into the eastern country and prospected, but though the gold was actually not far away, it was not for them to discover it. Intermittent prospecting was carried on in following years.

The population of Western Australia was not materially affected by the goldfields up to 1853. One record gives the departures at about 400. There were 5,886 freemen and convicts in the colony in 1850, and in 1853 there were 9,334. By the end of the latter year 2,598 convicts had been introduced, as well as nearly that number of free emigrants, pensioners, and soldiers. In 1853 there were several arrivals of free emigrants, some of whom took the first opportunity of proceeding to Victoria.

The particulars of revenue and expenditure naturally token an increase. In 1850 the revenue was £12,365 14s. 9d., and the expenditure £11,154 9s. 4d. The Parliamentary grant in aid brought the revenue to £19,137 14s. 2d., and the expenditure on services, &c., was £16,656 16s. 1d. There was a large increase in revenue in 1851 and following years. The general receipts in 1851 totalled £18,108 10s., in 1852 £25,688 10s. 9d., and in 1853 £28,812 3s. 9d. With the Parliamentary grant the revenue in 1853 was £37,353 6s., and the expenditure £38,052 15s. 9d. The revenue expanded to such an extent as to warrant the erection of numerous public buildings. The enormous increase of imports and the renewed activity in landed interests were chiefly answerable for this expansion. The imports in 1850 were valued at £62,351 7s 9d., in 1851 at £56,598 7s. 9d., in 1852 at £97,303 16s. 7d, and in 1853 at £126,735 8s. 3d.

The conditions of the colony were undergoing singular alterations. This refers to the export trade. The export of sandalwood diminished instead of increased. In 1848 the value of sandalwood export transcended that of any other commodity, but after 1850 it showed a remarkable falling off. In 1850 the figures were £1,220, in 1851 £1,593 15s., while in 1852-3 sandalwood is not mentioned in the list of exports. This was due in a slight degree to the local demand for hardwoods, which were required in the building of houses, and particularly to a large fall in prices at Singapore and elsewhere. Under the heading of timber the figures exhibit an increase. Convict ships took in as much cargo as they could procure, which they conveyed to England or to India. In 1850 timber valued at £1,048 was exported, in 1851 £268, in 1852 £806, and in 1853 £5,520. The sandalwood toll was reduced in 1849.

Several conditions crept in to explain the lack of interest in export. Taken substantially, the total exports did not increase in equal proportion to the increase in previous years. The chief reasons were a small sandalwood export, and an improved local market for stock and products of the soil. The consuming power was greater, and settlers turned their energies to increasing the breadth of their fields in crop. The total exports in 1849 were £26,156, in 1850 £22,134 15s. 3d, in 1851 £26,869 15s. 8d., in 1852 £24,181 5s., and in 1853 £29,510 16s. 4d., or (with a quantity of imported goods re-exported as not needed), £31,645 8s. 4d. The areas under crop, the statistics of stock in the colony, and the birth of new industries, help to explain these peculiarities. In 1850 there were 7,419 acres of tilled land, of which wheat occupied 4,416 acres; in 1851 the total area was 7,294 acres; in 1852 7,634 acres, and in 1853 10,299 acres. The statistics of stock show that in 1850 there were 128,111 sheep, 13,074 horned cattle, and 2,635 horses, and in 1853 157,968 sheep, 20,265 cattle, and 3,986 horses.

Broadly speaking, all these figures would suggest that the introduction of convicts, free emigrants, and "foreign" capital had for a time almost paralysed colonists with surprise. It seemed to take them some time to grasp the situation, and to clear and break the ground in their new fields. There is no doubt that they instituted innumerable improvements in farming and in gardening. Even so early as 1850-53 farmers were not able to compete with the eastern producer, and hence large shipments of flour were introduced. Sheep and gardens returned them their best early profits. The production of potatoes and other vegetables rapidly increased, and the accession of population brought a more ready sale for mutton. So far as sheep were concerned, although the number slaughtered for local consumption was considerably increased, the export of wool held its own. Thus in 1850 wool to the value of £15,482 14s. 10d. was exported,