Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/105

 of accomplishment, and yet related so circumstantially, that however chimerical the writer must confess it appears to him to be, yet considering the channel through which it is communicated, he feels called upon to give it publicity in the note below. At all events, the suggestion alone, the bare idea of so arduous a plan being in contemplation, and the mention of so large a sum offered by the people of Sydney for such an object, afford additional proofs that a considerable revolution of opinion respecting Western Australia has taken place there. The following is an extract from the Western Australia Journal, of the 27th of last December, and is taken from an article headed “Overland expedition from Sydney to Swan River.” “A scheme, having for its object the conveyance overland from Sydney to this colony, of sheep, horses, and cattle, on a very extensive scale, has been set on foot in the neighbouring colonies Dy Captain Bannister and Mr. Clint, both late residents in this colony,—and our Government, we are informed, have been solicited to extend their aid and countenance to the enterprize. No pecuniary aid is required; but in consideration of the magnitude of the undertaking, and the capital risked in the endeavours to accomplish this desirable object, a recompense is sought in a grant, in fee simple, of a certain (we believe moderate) number of acres of land, in proportion to the capital embarked, and the several persons engaged in the expedition. The capital is rated at 10,000 l., and the persons comprising the expedition, it is estimated, will amount to about 24.” Should this intelligence prove authentic, the author fully concurs in the inference drawn from it by the Editor in the following paragraph: “The proposition, emanating as it does from Captain Bannister, who was the first to penetrate through our distant wilds, affords an assurance, were further confirmation required, to our neighbours and the friends of the colony, that this country possesses advantages of a high order for the purposes to which this expedition is directed; and further establishes the fact of the absence of pasturage on the eastern coast for their rapidly extending flocks. The flocks and herds of New South Wales, it now appears, are driven as far as the Morumbidgee river for pasturage, and are increasing beyond the capabilities of the country to support The sheep-owners, it is represented to us, are constantly and anxiously looking for districts more advantageously situated.”

It is satisfactory to learn from the W. A. Journal, that almost the whole of the crop of wheat is free from smut and