Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/132

 him to put his own hand to the work, the writer would still advise him to take part with his people in active labour, as well as to plan and superintend. This will prevent time hanging heavy on his hands, as he will soon become interested in the simplest operations, and the want of society will then be little felt. An additional advantage would be that the servants would work so much better from seeing their master not sparing himself. The occasional labour of the master may be safely reckoned equal, at least, to the work of an additional servant, even where his people are trustworthy; but if they are eye-servants, requiring to be watched, the employer’s superintendence will make a much greater difference.

It only remains for the writer now to point out the benefit the emigrant may derive from proceeding at once to the colony at the present juncture. A letter from a friend with whom he is in correspondence, dated January 24, after mentioning how severely the deplorable condition of the markets for the last four years had pressed upon many of the first settlers, obliging some to part with their farms, contains this passage—“In the end, I certainly think this change will conduce to the stability of the colony; inasmuch as the land is gradually getting into the hands of really practical and laborious farmers, who can produce more, and live at far less cost, than a superior rank of farmers.” Persons arriving now in the colony may purchase from an impoverished settler a grant of from 3000 to 4000 acres of good land, and well situated, in the district of York or elsewhere, for from 200 l. to 300 l. perhaps; but when this land is no longer in the market, the emigrant must purchase land from the Local Government, in situations beyond those at present occupied, and at the price of 5 s. per acre, being the minimum fixed by his Majesty’s Government.

It may be of importance to emigrants purposing to go out