J. Giles Powell

“ But the interest of the Colony is not to be promoted by the mere proprietor of an estate, but by him who has both the inclination and the means to increase its value by cultivation. As land is granted only to the possessor of capital, so it is properly required that this capital be invested or kept upon it. Every encouragement will be given to the industrious settler, and it is reported, that even the expence of making a ditch as a boundary to an allotment, will be permitted to be entered into the settler's account of improvement. ”

“ But in Western Australia the newly arrived settler obtains his land merely by the possession of capital,—he is permitted to take possession of that unoccupied part, which in his own judgment is best adapted to his purpose: and this too in one of the finest climates in the world, where the Winter's frost never impedes the labours of the husbandman, where a navigable river runs by his door, and the produce of his farm can, in a few hours, be put on board-a-ship. ”

“ Will he think them incumbrances, when sinking under a day's fatigue, he and his people homeward plod their way, received and cheered with gladdened eyes, kind looks, and silent but eloquent welcome of a comfortable fire and well-cooked meal beneath the bark roof of their wigwam? and when he is prostrated upon the bed of sickness far from medical assistance, when the dew of agony is wiped from his forehead by a female hand, and when that hand lifts the cup to his burning lips and raises his feeble emaciated frame to the refreshment of the evening breeze, will he then find a wife an incumbrance? ”

“ I am fully persuaded that by this system he would, at the expiration of twenty years, be a much richer and more extensive proprietor than any of those who possessed equal capital and industry, but who at first grasped at every acre they could claim, and for the period of probation found their best exertions must be devoted not for the comfortable support of their families, or for the acquisition of wealth, but to make those trifling yet general improvements, without which their land will be forfeited. ”

“ For several years, the settler must content himself with ploughing those parts of his farm which have the fewest obstructions, and even these, perhaps, very imperfectly, till roots and stumps can be removed, and large stones carried away. A portion of land which is made a field by the erection of posts and rails, will certainly be considered to be "brought into cultivation," and that upon which trees and bushes have been partially cut down, "improved." In fact, a liberal construction will be made of the term "improvement," in those cases where industry deserves it. ”

“ It may perhaps appear hard that the settler, whose means will only authorize him to claim less than 640 acres, should be obliged to take it wherever it may be marked out for him, while the greater capitalist is permitted to select his grant. But here, as in other cases, private interest must give place to public good. Great injury to the community would be sustained if the allotment of extensive grants were impeded by patches of small estates, and these, doubtless, consisting of the choicest spots which could be found. ”

“ In order therefore to promote as much as possible the importation of that class of persons which is so indispensably necessary, Government have offered, by this Rule, a bonus of no trifling encouragement to those who are disposed to carry with them that assistance, without which their grants must remain uncultivated and useless. No reflecting person can for a moment deny that, even if no remuneration were made to the settler for the expence of taking out labourers, even then he would derive no small profit by so doing. ”

“ The fictitious statements of the "dreadful accident-makers," who more than once caused accounts of the starvation of the settlers to appear in the public prints, and the report of those settlers who were chagrined and disappointed at not meeting with all their too sanguine expectations induced them to anticipate, have led the public to look upon the Settlement rather with an eye of pity, than with a generous satisfaction at its promising success. But, notwithstanding all this, the Colony not only exists, but it increases. ”

“ The landed proprietor rarely considers that his estate was purchased at a lower rate, in consequence of this legal incumbrance upon it. The tithe-payer does not seem to be aware, that if tithes were abolished the public would derive no advantage, and that he himself would only be nominally benefited, for his landlord would undoubtedly increase his rent to the amount of the payment from which his farm would be relieved. If a landlord raises his rent, little is said, unless it be to a greater extent than the yearly value of the land. ”

“ Again, if the adventurer were to be supported at the public expense, the stimulus to labour would be blunted, the indolent would stroll about at their ease looking to Government for subsistence, and full of complaints if luxuries were not provided, and powder and shot liberally supplied so as to enable them to kill the kangaroo, and amuse themselves with parrot shooting, as some consolation for their absence from the pigeon matches at Battersea or Chalk Farm. ”

“ When the settler is building a log house to shelter himself and family, when all his goods are exposed to the open air, when nothing is done—but all remains to do, he will find that the women who are watching the cattle, cooking the provisions and caulking the seams of his house with moss and grass, are any thing but incumbrances. ”

“ The drill, the hay-making machine, the double plough and scuffler, which the English farmer employs, with the no small reduction of labour and the dispatch of business, will be totally useless upon land from whence the stumps of trees have not been removed, and every obstruction cleared away. And admitting that some spots may be found which present no impediment to these machines, yet it must be remembered that the freight out is expensive, that they are liable to be out of order from time, accident, or carelessness ”

“ Any land, thus allotted, of which a fair proportion, at least one-fourth, shall not have been brought into cultivation, or otherwise improved, to the satisfaction of the local Government, within three years from the date of the Licence of Occupation, shall at the end of the three years be liable to one further payment of 6d. per Acre for all the land not so cultivated or improved, into the Public Chest of the Settlement ; and, at the expiration of seven years more, so much of the whole grant as shall still remain in an uncultivated or unimproved state, will revert absolutely to the Crown. ”

“ Another erroneous opinion has arisen from an unfair interpretation of this Rule—that the wife and children of a settler intending to become an agriculturist will be considered as labouring persons for whose passage an allotment of land might be claimed in proportion to their number and ages.
The wife and children of a farmer in England are never considered "labouring persons," and as these Rules are drawn up in England for the information of those proceeding to an English Colony, we cannot suppose that any expression in them is to be understood otherwise than in the idiom of the country. ”

“ The reservation of land for general and county purposes, is, in fact, a bonus to the settler to the value of the charges from which he will be thus exonerated. As population increases, and land is progressively taken up, the Government reserves may readily be let upon leases, and as they expire, may he re-let upon rents which will meet the increasing expenses of the county. ”

“ Intelligent men have gone out to form their own opinions upon its capabilities — several very opulent persons have emigrated thither—ships have gone out, and returned without sustaining any damage— letters have been received from persons of sound judgment, expressing their opinions of the ultimate prosperity of the Colony, and hence emigrants are still anxious to sail for the Swan River, though they know well that they cannot obtain land upon terms half so favourable as if they had arrived there in the year 1830. ”

“ The estates which are on the banks of rivers are very valuable in themselves, and will be rendered more so in proportion to the improvement of the navigation of rivers by which they are bounded, and the increase of traffic upon them; and it is only reasonable that every estate should be charged with a fair proportion of the expence of the improvement which has so greatly added to its value. ”

“ The reservation of land for the endowment of schools will be extremely gratifying to every benevolent and pious mind, and ought to excite the gratitude of each inhabitant of the Settlement. During the infancy of a colony, the means of instruction to children are generally very limited. Schoolmasters are established in few situations within any convenient distance of several families. Parents are too frequently so unavoidably engrossed in raising the necessaries of life, as to have little leisure for cultivating the minds of their children ”

“ Persons who are employed in the Colony under Government enjoy great privileges from being permitted to take grants on the same terms as those who hold no official situations. And though, from the attention they are required to pay to their duties, they are not permitted to reside upon their allotments, they may, by means of a faithful steward, improve their land to advantage, greater perhaps than if they superintended it themselves. ”

“ Admitting that all the good land is already taken up on both sides of the Swan and Canning Rivers for twenty miles, still much of that which the epicures in land reject might be cultivated to very beneficial purposes. Many thousand acres in England, which forty years ago were considered scarcely worth occupation at almost a nominal rent, are now, from cultivation, manure and draining, considered perhaps as profitable to the husbandman as any in the kingdom. ”

“ I say recently, out of humanity; for it must indeed be miserable for a woman with a numerous family of young children to undergo the perils, confinements, privations and hardships of a long voyage.
Women will not be found the "incumbrances" which they are called, by those who are great politicians in their own eyes. ”

“ It is of no small importance to the settler that those whom he may take out should become attached to him, and desirous of continuing with him after the completion of the term for which they engaged to serve. Now an unmarried man having no incumbrance feels that there is no obstacle to prevent him from removing from one master or place to another,—on the contrary, the husband and father of a family has in most cases some little property which he cannot without inconvenience remove ”

“ If a person of this description can only land in the Colony with his clothes and his tools, he will find immediate employment, on such terms as will enable him, if he has common prudence, soon to save a little capital, by which, if he is desirous of becoming a farmer, he will be entitled to an allotment ; and by the employment of this capital, and the exercise of his trade, he will doubtless become a prosperous man. ”

“ But, strange to say, money will not be considered as "capital;" for otherwise, a number of settlers going up in succession with the same bag of sovereigns, might take up half the land in the Colony.—When the claimant has ascertained the number of acres to which he is entitled, he may select his grant in any district which may be opened for location, wherever the land be not reserved by Government or taken up by prior applicants. ”

“ It is a great object, that the land taken up by settlers should be brought into cultivation as soon as possible, or, at least, if it has been entrusted to the management of those who, from indolence or ignorance, do not make a good use of it, that it may revert to the Crown, for the benefit of some worthier occupant. ”

“ On examining this Rule, it may be proper to observe that, in consequence of the expence attendant upon a long voyage, few among the labouring classes have the means of emigrating to our colonies,—and hence we perceive the cause of that scarcity of useful hands which must constitute such a bar to the cultivation of newly occupied districts, and presents an almost insurmountable obstacle to the acquisition of comfort, and the rapid improvement of the settler's estate. ”

“ It has at no time formed any part of the plan of His Majesty's Government to incur any expense in conveying settlers to the new colony on the Swan River. Government will not feel bound to defray the cost of supplying provisions or other necessaries, to settlers, after their arrival there, nor to assist their return to England, nor their removal to any other place, should they be desirous of quitting that colony. ”

“ The irregular boundaries of estates at home are attended with great inconvenience in many instances, and sometimes are the fruitful source of expensive litigation ; but here the division of the land into sections by straight lines, will at once benefit the owner of the property from its compactness, and also prevent the boundaries from becoming the cause of dispute. ”

“ The refusal to grant land beyond the limits of counties opened for location, will be attended with the three-fold advantage of making the march of colonization advance in regular order—of condensing the population to their mutual protection and assistance—and preventing land being taken up in spots in the interior of the country to the inconvenience of those who might come up to them in the general progress of allotment. ”

“ But if land were to be thus granted, as is erroneously supposed, so far from its being a benefit, it would be a serious injury to the labouring person. How can he cultivate a hundred acres of land without a capital ? or support himself till his allotment produces the means of subsistence ? He may, it is true, obtain liberal wages for working for other settlers, but then his own land must be neglected ”