Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/90

 additional duties that have been lately imposed on spirits may also contribute to this desirable result.

In taking a general view of the state of society, it will be requisite to make some further allusion to the natives. The writer, indeed, has a particular inducement to revert to them, having been favoured with a sight of an additional file of the Perth Gazette, which has reached the Colonial Office, since the early sheets of this pamphlet went to press. It has been already noticed as a leading circumstance affecting the state and progress of society in this settlement, that the aborigines are so inconsiderable in point of numbers. This will greatly facilitate the humane and enlightened policy that the Governor is adopting; and which, if successful (and the writer confesses that he is inclined to be sanguine on this head), will not only bring these tribes within the pale of civilization, but speedily render them useful and valuable members of a British community, sheltering them under its protection, and enabling them to participate largely in the general prosperity of the colony. The last arrivals state that the Governor has formed an institution at Mount Eliza, near Perth, for the immediate purpose of civilizing the natives in that district. Mr. Armstrong, a settler who has acquired a considerable knowledge of their language, and has associated much with them in their primitive haunts, has been judiciously selected to act as interpreter and superintendent. A main object proposed is to teach and encourage the natives to acquire the means of regular subsistence, whether by working for individual settlers, or by following up, and improving in, the various arts to which they are already accustomed. In fishing, for instance, a pursuit in which they combine great ignorance with much dexterity, they are to be assisted by boats,