Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/112

 climate, the servants of the Company are anxious to enjoy society resembling that which they have left behind them, or look forward to mix with, in England. On this head, Colonel Hanson, in his pamphlet, bears a most favourable testimony to the colony, where he found various families, including near relations of both sexes of his friends at Madras and in England, no way their inferiors in refinement of taste and suavity of manners. Recent accounts from Madras state that the Colonel had left that Presidency for King George’s Sound, where he has a small grant, intending to reside there for a couple of years while on leave of absence.

The Calcutta Company, in selecting Western Australia as their place of abode or retirement, appear also to have had in view its eligibility as a place of residence for their families when in ill health, or for the education of the children of such members as continued to fill situations in India. Perhaps the most painful circumstance connected with the India Service is the separation of families. How many ladies are obliged to tear themselves from their husbands, either on account of their own ill health, or that of their children, on whose tender frames the deleterious climate soon begins to operate! These separations are often prolonged for years, and the same causes have obliged many a delicate female to make the long voyage a second time home and to India without any relation to protect her. Another frequent cause of separation is the anxiety to obtain for their children a suitable education. In Dr. Milligan’s Report on the climate the following passage occurs:—“The favourable opinion I have already expressed of the influence of this climate on European constitutions, and of the place as a residence for invalids from India, is strengthened by a further experience of two years.” The Doctor