Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/106

 drake. Taking the quantity of land cropped with grain last year to have been as stated in the Report, it is probable that it has not fallen much below a twelvemonth’s consumption. To guard, however, against the recurrence of a scarcity, the Government will in future retain a corrective supply of flour in the Commissariat stores, which will be thrown open to the public whenever the price rises beyond a maximum fixed upon. As the want of seed alone has limited the aggregate of the harvest to the amount of acres stated, and the Government has begun to apply the above expedient, the expectation of the Agricultural Society, that there will be “a very considerable increase in the extent of land under cultivation next year,” is likely to be fulfilled. This cannot fail very materially to bring down the price of bread in the colony. The price of fresh meat also seems likely to experience a great reduction. The Colonial Journal computes that about 700 wethers will be brought to market in the ensuing year, besides an increased number of bullocks, pigs, poultry, &c. Add to this the fresh importations and accumulating stock, and in the following year “we may reasonably calculate,” continues that journal, “upon a very considerable fall in the prices.” Though an infant colony must always be prepared for more or less of fluctuation in the price of the necessaries of life, yet the causes for uneasiness on that score, in a country where soil and climate are propitious, may be expected rapidly to diminish.

No apology can be necessary for introducing the following extract from a letter, dated Fremantle, Jan. 29, 1835, and addressed by Mr. James Stokes to Messrs. F. and C. E. Mangles. It is peculiarly valuable, as being written by a settler, who has just established himself in the colony as a fellmonger and woolstapler, &c, and who states that he has had nearly twelve years experience in the wool trade. He fully corroborates, as far as he goes, the preceding statements.