Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/82

 opinion does Sir James Stirling entertain of this south-east part of the colony, that he has chosen almost all his large grant there. Sir Richard Spencer, a Captain in the navy, who has been Government Resident at King George’s Sound for nearly two years, is a very active and enterprising colonist. He and several members of his large family have commenced, with considerable means, in agriculture and sheep-farming; and, some of them, with an intention, it is said, of combining therewith commercial pursuits. Mr. Cheyne is an old and highly respectable settler here, and has been joined from time to time by several of his relatives, who went out on his report. His views are understood to be chiefly commercial. It is a circumstance in favour of this part of the settlement, that uninterrupted amity with the natives has been maintained since it was transferred to the Western Australian Government. Recent letters from settlers among the latest arrivals there, complain of the high price of provisions and the failure of their crops of vegetables; but the accounts of some of the old-established settlers continue favourable.

Whatever difficulties this part of the colony may have hitherto presented, the writer ventures his opinion with some reluctance, that all has not been done by the settlers, with perhaps two or three exceptions, that might have been expected. Whether this has been occasioned chiefly by their limited means and the paucity of their numbers, or by a want of union and co-operation, in order to bring their actual strength and resources to bear upon particular points, and thus to avail themselves of the peculiar advantages which that station, even now, holds out, he will not venture, at this distance, to determine; but he cannot but fear there is much truth in the view which the Editor of the Western Australian Journal takes of this subject. The following extract is from an article in that paper, inserted in November last.