2 
Every new-comer proved a consumer. Even the settlers 
deserted their farms and rushed to the arid interior in quest of gold. 
Famine prices were offered and given for all products of the soil. 
Then a new current set in, and whilst the main stream of popula- 
tion continued to pour into the Coolgardie and the Murchison gold- 
fields, a smaller stream spread over the moister coastal districts. 
Gold was to be won from the ploughed fields as well as from the 
quartz reefs. 
A great many may claim to have first discovered that Western 
Australia was teeming with gold, but the pride of having discovered 
that the State was teeming with latent horticultural and agricul- 
tural wealth must belong to the proprietors of the West Australian 
newspaper. At their instigation, the late Mr. L. Lindley-Cowen set 
out on a voyage of discovery through the agricultural districts of 
what is known as the South-West Division of Western Australia— 
a province covering an area of country 350 miles from North to 
South by 100 to 200 miles from West to East. From every point 
of that territory which he visited Mr. Cowen, in a series of articles 
which at the time attracted attention, as well as enlightened the 
settlers, old and new, described the achievements of the pioneer 
agriculturists of the country, and prognosticated the era of wonder- 
ful development which every branch of agriculture bas since entered 
upon. 
That Western Australia bids fair to eclipse the other States of 
the group as a fruit-producing territory is firmly believed by all who ' 
have paid any attention to the cireumstances which favour or retard 
fruit-growing as an industry. Its soil is virgin, and for ages with- 
out number has supported gum trees and shrubs of various sorts 
without a rest, and been fouled by their residues, until at last it 
welcomes fruit-trees, with the same eagerness as does a corn sick 
’ field some other crop in the course of the rotation. 
Its climate is consistent and not capricious. When going be- 
yond well-defined and moist zones for the purpose of starting fruit- 
growing, the settler has himself to blame for courting failure unless 
he can counteract the unreliable rainfall by artificial irrigation. 
Anyhow, his crops are not periodically threatened of destruction by 
hail-storms, such as are at times experienced in other parts of 
Australia, 
Untrammelled by errors which, in the Eastern States, have 
defeated the aims of the earlier fruit-growers, and proved a source 
of loss to them, Western Australian growers start with the experi- 
ence of others, and are reaping the fruit of the knowledge dearly 
bought. Thus they are able with comnaratively few faults to start 
a clear course on embarking into fruit-growing on commercial lines. 
This State besides possesses amongst all Australian States the 
incalculable advantage of being from 1,200 to 2,000 miles nearer 
the European markets; or, in other words, its perishable fruit 
