WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 135 



by the vast influx of convicts into Tasmania had shocked the British public, 

 and provoked a spirit of resentment and resistance in the Australian 

 colonies such as had never existed before. The whole of the eastern settle- 

 ments stood arrayed against the mother country, and the conclusion was forced 

 upon the Imperial Government that the system must be terminated. Earl 

 Grey, who was then in office, and who had initiated important improvements 

 in the management of convicts, endeavoured to find for the flood of British 

 criminals a new outlet where these plans could be tested. He addressed a 

 circular on the subject to the colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, 

 Western Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, the Mauritius, and Ceylon, 

 explaining the improvements it was proposed to make in the management of 

 the convicts, promising to send a free emigrant for every convict shipped, and 

 asking whether, under these conditions, the colonies would consent to receive 

 criminals. The answer was " No" in each instance, with the single exception 

 of Western Australia. Her reply was favourable, and a bargain was soon struck. 

 Western Australia entered into the contract upon the understanding that the 

 annual imperial expenditure should be sufficiently large to be of importance to 

 the colony, and in the hope that cheap labour would attract capital to it. 



The system was continued until 1868, when, in deference to the protests 

 of the sister states, and because also expectation had been greatly disappointed 

 as to the results, convict importation was finally closed and determined. The 

 protest was carried so far that it was proposed by one Government to exclude 

 from the ports of the free colonies ships that had come from the convict 

 settlement ; and this decision would have shut out the mail steamers. And 

 Western Australia found that, while it obtained convict labour, it frightened 

 away free men, while immigrants avoided the place as though it were a 

 plague-spot. Now it may be said the past is forgotten, the taint is dying 

 away, and Western Australia is awakening into life. 



The country is being opened to the northward, but up to within the 

 past few years the bulk of the settlement was in the south-western corner of the 

 colony, in the neighbourhood of the Swan River — a stream which possesses 

 the peculiarities of being short, broad, and shallow, and which, in consequence 

 of its bar and its flats, is well-nigh useless as far as navigation is concerned. 

 At the mouth of the river lies Fremantle, with a population of about 5000 

 — the seaport of the colony. Ten miles higher up is Perth, the capital 

 city, possessing 2000 more inhabitants than Fremantle. A like distance 

 farther on is pretty Guildford, and seventy miles from the seaboard, separated 

 from it by the Darling ranges, are the agricultural settlements in the Avon 

 valley. The town of Bunbury lies on the western sea-coast ; and Albany, 

 a settlement of equal size on the southern coast, is indebted for its existence 

 to its harbour — King George's Sound — being a place of call for the mail 

 and numerous other steamers. Geraldton and Roebourne are northern ports 

 — the latter the centre of the pearl fishery trade. 



