Page:History of West Australia.djvu/97

Rh members of the tribe, for answering smoke soon rose responsive from two distant places. The white men went away without coming into collision with the natives.

After the horses were sufficiently rested at Mount Bakewell, the same party started out north-west. For eighteen miles they went some distance from the Avon over pastoral lands, and then again struck the river and continued along its course for twelve miles. Numerous blacks were met and communicated with. The valley of the Avon became contracted and the hills more precipitous. Finally, after crossing a rocky district, they reached a ridge which abruptly sank into a "large and beautiful valley." "This view," says one recorder, "elevated our spirits again. 'Worcestershire,' cried one; 'Shropshire,' cried another; 'Kilkenny for ever,' roared Sheridan. Headlong we rushed into the valley, through grass to the horses' knees, hoping to find the river, but this valley proved to be only an extensive swamp of soil not so good as it appeared at a distance." Thus were entered and discovered the valleys of Toodyay (Newcastle) and Culham. There were marks of cattle observable in the valley, which showed that escaped stock were led by instinct to these luxuriant pastures. When, according to their reckoning, they were fifty miles from Mount Bakewell, they turned to the west. Lennard Brook, where Mr. Lennard possessed a grant, was crossed, and on the 8th October the party arrived at Guildford.

Messrs. Hardy, Clarkson, Bland, and other settlers had taken charge of their grants during this while. To every isolated settler the Government allowed two soldiers as a protection against the natives. The pioneers proceeded to erect huts and prepare for the reception of their stock. The place specially chosen for the first settlement was nearly two miles south of the summit of Mount Bakewell. Mr. Johnston had charge of the Government party. The results of opening up the Avon River country were wide-reaching, and finally affected to a considerable extent the destinies of the Swan River Settlement. It was not at first intended to devote attention so much to agriculture as to pastoral pursuits and one and all, from the Governor down, believing Western Australia was more suited to the latter industry, drifted towards it, to the detriment of farming.

In this year a change was determined on in the land system. Since the inception of settlement that progress in development had not been made which was anticipated. The colony was projected on fulsome hopes, not on definite and mathematical lines. The surmounting of the heavy burdens of the first few months, the after influx of people, the discoveries of additional expansive fertile tracts, and the munificent liberality of grants, begat little real prosperity, and as a colony Western Australia was in the deepest depression. The local Administration, the energetic and thoughtful settlers, and the Imperial Govermnent at home, agreed that there must be serious causes for such an unhappy result.

The causes, they soon recognised, were not far to find. No system, no principle, was woven into the original constitution. In order to save expense the British Government offered to present great areas of land indiscriminately to anyone willing to introduce petty investments to the colony. No distinction was made between the fit and the unfit, the sluggard and the toiler, the enterprising and the impotent. Magnificent prizes were tendered to all and sundry who took the trouble to migrate to Western Australia. A general was appointed to allot awards to an army which might be composed of the veriest raw recruits, men who had never shouldered the spade or handled the plough, for all the British Government cared. Instead of having well-drilled hardy soldiers, experienced in battle, ready to fight and force the earth to yield forth its fruits, to whom he could apportion individual work, this general was merely able to present his gift, and watch what each man did with it. Colonisation under such circumstances was risky, and wholly depended on the chance of the best men being attracted, who would apply their bodily vigour and brains to the most practicable ends. A company would not have made so many mistakes, and would have concentrated capital and strength to secure quick returns and permanent prosperity. Combination of labour was quite unknown in the settlement.

Moreover, the Lieutenant-Governor and his civil officers were confronted with administrative difficulties that were not at first apprehended. Although the population was small, the expenses of governing were comparatively large. The unlimited size of grants, and the regulations, were baneful in several ways. The settlers were dispersed over large areas, and the cost of military protection and of conferring requisite privileges on each remote farmer or pastoralist was enormous. Hundreds of miles separated the settlers of Swan River, Augusta, and King George's Sound from each other. Had the community been concentrated within a small radius of Perth, and had each man been doing effective labour, different results would have been attained. The regulations by which the Surveyor-General was compelled to mark out the country in counties, hundreds, towns, &c., occasioned great confusion and waste of time. It was impossible to perform so comprehensive a task as this without a large staff, and each year the Surveyor-General's Department became larger. Nor was it possible in so unknown a country, and amid so many unpropitious circumstances, to carry out this work with any degree of success. The amount of bills drawn on the Imperial Treasury in 1829 was £3,140 4s. 4d.; in 1830, £17,485 9s. 7d.; and in 1831, £20,379 12s. 9d., which, considering the limited assistance the State allowed to Western Australia, is large.

Again, by the system of large grants, a comparatively poor man could take up, and many did, vast stretches of country. There was no hope that he could ever properly cultivate them, and he was as one with a fertile field to labour in without implements to begin with. He could not apply capital or labour, hence the land was valueless to him, and contributed nothing to the general prosperity. Several people of substantial means, such as Mr. Peel and Colonel Latent, introduced armies of servants, but through want of organisation or practical experience in colonisation, they did not put the land to its best use. At the end of 1831, over one million acres were allotted to settlers, but of this enormous tract, only the ridiculous area of 200 acres was cultivated. No more convincing proof against a liberal land grant system without picked labour could be required by the authorities than this.

The short history had shown the number of inexperienced men that had been attracted to the Swan River, and the result. The implements introduced were not at all suitable for the settlers; capital was lavishly invested in articles of no possible value to the colony; and there was no ready money to tide colonists over unremunerative toil. A settler, writing a few years after the foundation, asserts that this was caused by Government regulations admitting of the assignment of land only on the introduction of property and labourers. As a consequence, people invested nearly to the full extent of their capital so as to obtain a large grant, which they anticipated would soon rise in value and bring them immense profits by sale. Experiences of a few