Frederick Chidley Irwin

“ SIR,—In laying before your Excellency our third Agricultural Report for the colony, we cannot but remark, that though the total amount of live stock in the colony may appear small, and though a great many farmers have as yet been able to procure but a very limited supply—yet, when we reflect, that only the fifth year of our existence as a community has passed, and look at the same period of any other colony on record, it will be found that we stand very far before them in this respect, as well as in the extent of land in cultivation. ”

“ The scum and refuse of the civilized nation (men whose education in their own country has only served to render them adepts in villainy) have been let loose upon the natives—for it seems an almost inevitable result of a penal settlement, that some of the most desperate and depraved of the convicts will, from time to time, escape, and lead on the native tribes to the commission of every enormity that malignant ingenuity can devise. ”

“ What is it better, that, instead of a household, it is a whole people we have so brought together, and are so keeping up?—that it is the wide society of the whole world, and not of a single country, against which the nuisance is committed? ”

“ To the ladies generally, of the settlement, the meed of praise is due. Some of them are highly educated as well as most amiable women. They have not neglected to cultivate and maintain, as opportunity has occurred, those elegancies and accomplishments in which they have excelled; and music, especially, forms a most pleasing part of the evening recreations of several families. The good sense and intelligence of the sex have been strikingly displayed in the readiness with which they have borne many privations, and encountered the difficulties incident to a new colony. ”

“ This has been experienced, in the beginning, by every new colony; and might have been expected to occur here, as well as elsewhere. The greater part, incapable of succeeding in England, are not likely to prosper here to the extent of their groundless and inconsiderate expectations. Many of the settlers who have come, should never have left in England a safe and tranquil state of life; and, if it be possible to discourage one set of people, and to encourage another, I would earnestly request that, for a few years, the helpless and inefficient may be kept from the settlement ”

“ The daily employment of settlers in a new colony demands and engrosses their attention to a degree that people at home, who have always been used to a long-established and completely organized state of society, are but little prepared to conceive. The occupations of such persons being pastoral as well as agricultural, lead to their distribution over a considerable extent of country. A colony also like the one proposed, though happily not intended as a penal settlement, will have its ports open to all who have the means and inclination to find their way thither ”

“ The entire change of habits, and the wider range which a new settlement involves, not to mention the contact and neighbourhood of tribes in the lowest state of barbarism, have more or less a relaxing tendency as regards the moral texture of such minds; and, if the laws of the colony into which they are transplanted are not strictly maintained, but, on the contrary, impose little or no restraint, society must of course deteriorate, and the entire community ultimately suffer. ”

“ Those who may be about to emigrate cannot be too often reminded that judgment, perseverance, and fortitude are as essential to their success as good climate and soil, and moderate means. It is true that the colony having attained to its present position, much of the difficulty of the enterprize is removed, and many may now prosper who would not have done so originally; but without some portion of those valuable qualities above specified, the emigrant, under the most favourable circumstances, ought not to expect success. ”

“ The state of society among the agriculturists themselves is, in general, of the most friendly description. A kind and cordial feeling is that which for the most part prevails, and a readiness to do good offices for each other. Much social intercourse is kept up, and the laborious occupations of farming are combined with a refinement of manners and taste, which has surprised and delighted many who have visited the colony. To the hospitality which is so generally practised, the writer has already borne testimony when treating of the Swan River District. ”

“ After adverting to the amount of capital and live stock, and the number of labourers introduced by the first settlers, it is asked, what has become of all that capital, and all those labourers? Then comes the following passage:—“Why this failure, with all the elements of success—plenty of good land, plenty of capital, and enough labour?—The explanation is easy;—in this colony there never has been a class of labourers. Those who went out as labourers no sooner reached the colony than they were tempted, by the superabundance of good land, to become landowners.” ”

“ Should it be the means of rightly directing any of his countrymen who may now be looking out for a field of honourable and successful enterprize, he will consider himself amply recompensed for any labour the task has imposed. In his judgment—on a calm and deliberate review of the whole subject—the colony of Western Australia is calculated to yield a rich return to capital, industry, and perseverance, and appears to be destined by Providence to take a distinguished rank among the dependencies of the British Empire. ”

“ If, after what has been said, it be granted that Western Australia, as far as natural advantages go, is well suited for the purposes of colonization, still it will be apparent, from the principle on which the colony was founded, that its success must be greatly dependent on the capital and exertions of the settlers. The charge of maintaining a military and a civil establishment being all his Majesty’s Government was pledged to, every other expense was to be borne by the emigrant; such as his outfit, voyage, and settlement in the colony. ”

“ Surely the man who should he mad or wicked enough to bring together this monstrous family, and to keep up its numbers and character by continual fresh supplies, would be scouted from the society he so outraged—would be denounced as the author of a diabolical nuisance to his neighbours and his country, would be proclaimed infamous for setting at nought all morality and decency. ”

“ Each cottage is surrounded by its garden, and has fields neatly fenced contiguous.
The Helena river, flowing from the east, joins the Swan at Guildford. It takes its rise in an elevated plain, within the Darling range, and pursues a course of from fifty to sixty miles through a valley which is in many parts rocky, and singularly beautiful and romantic. As this river approaches the Swan, its banks present some of the richest alluvial soil hitherto found in the country. Here Sir James Stirling has a farm, extending across from one river to the other, and which has been highly improved. ”

“ In the mean time he congratulates the colonists of Western Australia, that no such visionary experiment is operating there.
Whenever that colony shall have arrived at the point at which it can be fairly considered capable of providing for its own establishments, no principle can be more equitable than that it should be called upon to do so; but, till then, if the colony is to be suitably maintained as a part of the British dominions, it is essential that the mother country continue to extend her aid. ”

“ For fear that these remarks should be attributed to a disposition, which is common amongst colonists, to praise their own settlement at the expense of other settlements, this opportunity is taken to express an opinion, that Western Australia is, as respects soil and climate, one of the finest countries in the world, and one of the most fit for supporting a prosperous colony. That the colony there settled is not prosperous, is, we believe, owing not at all to any defects of climate or soil, but entirely to a bad system of colonization, which may be reformed ”

“ Besides his own trade of brick and tile-making, he has a competent knowledge of farming, gardening, bricklaying, lime-burning, and brewing, in which various occupations he employs himself. Such is his industry, that he has been seen working for hours in the garden by moonlight, after spending a long day at labour in the field. His wife is a regular dairy woman. One of the sons is a carpenter, and another a ploughman, besides having each a knowledge of their father’s trade; and the rest of the family, dawn to the youngest, are training up in habits of industry and labour. ”

“ It has every right to expect that a benevolent line of policy will be pursued; but, on a professedly Christian country, it has a peculiar and irresistible claim that the blessings of Christianity should be extended to it. Let it not be said that a nation which includes among its far-famed institutions, Missionary establishments, designed to promote the conversion of the heathen in general, passes by or neglects a country on whose shores it has planted a colony for its own convenience and advantage. ”

“ But, if difficulties deemed almost insurmountable have hitherto stood in the way of all attempts to benefit Australia from that side on which alone we had till lately gained a footing, it must be encouraging to the Christian philanthropist to learn, that, on its western coast, an opening is now presented for missionaries to the native tribes, unaccompanied by any of those peculiar obstacles and discouragements, which are so deeply to be lamented on the opposite side. ”

“ They began by nominating to the honourable office of captain or leader of the colony one of the chief men, if not the chief man of the state,—like the queen bee leading the workers. Monarchies provided a prince of the blood royal; an aristocracy its choicest nobleman; a democracy its most influential citizen. ”

“ Harris, a physician who is settled on the Swan, and has ably written on the disease alluded to, thus addresses the Agricultural Society of the colony:—“No country in the world can boast of grounds more favourable for sheep than the York district of this colony (only about fifty miles from the coast) , where some flocks have been for some time established with such success, as to dispel every doubt, and cheer the prospects of the settlers at large.” ”

“ Experience has shown that the system of free grants, which was the first adopted in Western Australia, is decidedly injurious to the prosperity of a settlement, from the facility it affords to persons possessed of comparatively little capital, to acquire extensive tracts of land, the greater part of which, for want of means, they cannot use for agricultural or pastoral purposes. It also occasions the too wide dispersion of the settlers ”

“ Bland, one of the largest flockmasters in the colony, says, “With regard to the land in this district, my opinion is, that it is as healthy a sheep-run as can be found; we have resided here with a flock of sheep for nearly three years, and have not had any disease amongst them, excepting the foot-rot, which has been brought up from the Swan. Both sheep and lambs require clipping early in the spring, to prevent a grass-seed with a barbed point from working into the skin. We find the grass certainly increase where it has been most fed off. ”

“ The ‘penal settlement’ character of these colonies is a millstone round their necks, which effectually prevents their obtaining their rights of free institutions. Look at Swan River. Depend upon it that, poor as that colony is, her composition being free from penal settlementship, she commands infinitely greater attention in Britain, than does either this, or the great sister colony, with all its wealth. ”

“ If the emigrant last described intends to be a sheep-farmer, he should take out two or three Merino rams, and some sheep-dogs.
With respect to servants, the emigrant should have two men understanding arable and sheep farming, or what would be better, a married man, with one or two sons above the age of ten. Much of his comfort and success will depend on his servants; the settler therefore cannot be too scrupulous in his inquiry into their character for integrity, and fidelity to the masters with whom they have lived. ”

“ The fine condition of the herds, the last time the writer visited the district, showed the pasture to be good. Indeed, so very nutritious is the herbage, that a farmer there assured him, he gave no other food than the hay of that country to a team of English horses, which appeared in excellent condition, although employed in drawing heavy loads across the Darling Range.
But the interior of Western Australia is particularly valuable for its sheep pastures. These are extensive tracts of undulating surface, covered with a short sweet grass, and are found to be admirably suited for Merino flocks. ”

“ Potatoes produce very fair crops, and, in the alluvial soils, good ones, without manure.
The sandy lands, which have more or less of loam in them, are becoming more valued every year, and heavy crops of wheat and barley have been had from them with the aid of very little manure. Some of the land which gave this return, bore, when in a state of nature, the grass-tree only, and was cultivated solely from its being near the farmer’s residence. ”