Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/84

 New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land;” but pleads for convicts on the ground of the difficulties they have to encounter in opening proper lines of communication.

These few individuals, about half of whom appear to be among the recent arrivals, wish to get out of their temporary difficulties, by the adoption of a measure which cannot be too strongly deprecated. Once introduced to King George’s Sound, and the convicts would soon find their way, as bush-rangers, over the whole of the colony. Recent accounts state, that a party of settlers, attended by a Government Surveyor, had visited the Hotham, a river 100 miles south of the Swan. They are represented as having returned highly pleased with the country, more especially with that on the banks of the river. Mr. Tanner, it is added, had made arrangements to have his grant there located immediately. With a view of marking out a line of road through the interior, the Surveyor-General was to proceed,