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weather was favourable, and colonists attended the functions from various centres. The bridges over the Swan spanned three distinct channels; the Helena Bridge was 1,600 feet long, and, as the others, was built of jarrah timber. The only unpopular act of Governor Hampton in public works was the practical abandonment of contracts. Under his regime the Convict Establishment and experienced draughtsmen undertook nearly the whole work. The saving was considerable, and enabled the Government to negotiate more work (with the same amount of money) than previously. Public works were pursued with energy in 1868. In that year the last convict ship arrived.

The eastern colonies, particularly South Australia and Victoria, had shown almost since its inception an uncompromising antipathy to convict immigration. Their opposition was sometimes bitter, sometimes unfair, but was justified, nevertheless. They desired that Australia should be inhabited by a peaceable and crime-abhorring people, who should enterprisingly devote the whole course and market of their time to developing those resources which their land contained. It was their very natural fear that by a continued introduction of convicts to Western Australia, the whole continent would be overrun with men whose crimes were so heinous that they were banished from the United Kingdom. Hence they considered that their wishes deserved weighty consideration from the Imperial Government, and they constantly sought to put an end to the influx of civic corruption. Eastern people also contemplated taking up land in the new northern district, but objected to do so while convicts were being sent there. Western Australians did not view the matter in exactly the same light, and once or twice they murmured against outside interference. They denied that Victoria and South Australia suffered from an influx of Western Australian felonry, and again contended that where conditional-pardon men did migrate they became law-abiding. But, generally, they took small notice of the eastern movement. Repeated representations of the rights of the eastern colonies were finally taken into serious consideration by the Imperial Government, and met with the desired end. Schemes were also being mooted for a revolution in the convict system. Thus, as early as 1864, and irrespective of Western Australians themselves, it was finally decided to discontinue transportation after a given period. The local authorities had proposed to forward batches of convicts to the new settlements formed in the north, but the Secretary of State refused to grant his assent. In a despatch dated 9th November, 1864, he prohibited such a course, and, moreover, said that after a period of three years convict transportation to Western Australia must cease altogether. He explained that the Government was led to this determination in deference to the earnest remonstrances of the eastern colonies:

This decision was hardly appreciated at first, and some doubt existed on the question. The Chamber of Commerce at Perth, with characteristic confidence, made bold requests for compensation. It resolved that "No time should be lost in asserting the claim of the colony to compensation; that free emigration at the expense of the Imperial Government should be continued for ten years; that the Home Government should furnish a steamer for coast communication; that, as the convicts have been employed in the erection of buildings for their own occupation, and that now when the buildings are completed we are to be deprived of that labour which should be available for roads, a grant of £250,000, paid annually in sums of £25,000, from the Imperial funds, be asked for." Colonists and their friends in England also asserted the claims of Western Australia to be treated with some special consideration. Mr. (Major) Sanford and Mr. Mangles interviewed the Secretary of State and asked what compensation would be awarded. They were vaguely informed that some allowance would be made, but were advised not to ask for money. Certain people proposed to take over the whole Establishment for a lump sum.

Confirmatory news of the Imperial Government's intentions was soon received. The House of Commons was informed early in 1865 that convictism to the colony would cease in three years' time, and on 12th May, 1865, the Secretary for the Colonies wrote the Governor that "the present intention of the Government is to send out two ships containing from 270 to 280 convicts, in each of the years 1865, 1866, and 1867, at the end of which period transportation will cease." This was accordingly done. It was found impossible to despatch 1,000 men a year, as was formerly intended. From 1861 the colony was kept well supplied with convicts. The closing of other doors to them, and the evident desire of local colonists to welcome them, warranted the committee to suggest and the authorities to perform, the equipment of as many bands as were available. Ships arrived in the following order from 1861 to January, 1868, when transportation ceased:

These figures are taken from the records in the Convict Establishment, with which other records do not agree. A report made to the Legislative Council in July, 1868, gives the total as 9,680. By special ordinance the Colonial Government was allowed to incarcerate locally-convicted men in the Establishment, which caused an accession to Imperial men of 202, thus giving a grand total of 9,923 men up to January, 1868. It may be of interest to mention that, according to Rusden (History of Australia), 137,161 convicts were shipped from England to Australia, made up of 59,788 to New South Wales, 67,655 to Van Dieman's Land, and 9,718 to Western Australia. Mr. Rusden's Western Australian figures evidently do not include those two or three convicts transported by sentence of court martial from India, which would make the total 137,164.

The discontinuance of the polluted influx was commemorated, seemingly, by no manifestations of pleasure or disappointment; its