Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/263

234 State has recommended the appropriation of a considerable sum, now in course of payment, as due to the Crown for provisions, &c. supplied to individuals; and it will be for the colonial legislature to keep it up by the imposition of such duties as it is customary to collect in other British colonies. The first charge on this fund will be the equipment of a mounted corps for protecting, and, at the same time, controlling the aborigines. The subsequent charges will be for the construction of roads and public works; the erection and support of schools; relief to destitute persons; and such other appropriations as may seem most conducive to the general welfare. The Legislative Council, at present existing, will be extended, so as to comprise a portion of settlers unconnected with the government. The land regulations under which assignments were made to the earlier settlers, will be modified for their benefit, and the same assistance which has been given as to passage money by the emigration committee, to labourers proceeding to Van Diemen's and Sydney, will be extended to Western Australia, so soon as she can offer the same security which has been required from the other colonies. The appropriation of a ship of war to services exclusively connected with the new colony cannot be afforded; but it will be visited at proper intervals by ships belonging to the station, and for the purpose of enforcing the port regulations, the colonial vessel will probably be armed.

The foregoing sketch includes an outline of the arrangements which I have reason to think will be adopted in the future management of the colony. In making these several concessions, the Government considers it will have accomplished all that the settlers ought to expect. In the advancement of their particular pursuits, in the cultivation of the soil, and in the conversion of its natural resources into a productive state, the colonists could not derive any solid or permanent benefit from the assistance of government, and in all such matters they must therefore rely upon their own means and industry. They will be protected by a local government; they will enjoy the benefit of English laws; their interests will be superintended by a Legislature composed in part