The Settled Portions Show A Picture The Reverse Of That I Have Been
Compelled To Exhibit In The Course Of My Travels.
The Colony altogether covers no less an area than 975,920 square miles, a
little over eight times the area of Great Britain and Ireland.
It
occupies the whole of the continent West of the he 129th east meridian.
In 1826 a party of soldiers and convicts formed the first settlement at
King George's Sound. Three years later a settlement was established on
the banks of the Swan River. From this modest beginning the progress of
the settlement, which at first was slow in the extreme, came with a rush
on the discovery of gold. The population of the Colony now exceeds
150,000 souls, and there can be no doubt that this population will be
substantially added to annually, when the advantages which the country
possesses, over and beyond its auriferous districts, come to be more
generally known and recognised.
The progress of prosperity and civilisation undoubtedly runs parallel
with railway progress, and since the Government of the Colony became
autonomous that progress has been rapid. Seven years ago the total
mileage was 193. There is now, as I write, a total length of 1,200 miles,
1,000 of which have been constructed during the past six years. Of these
1,200 miles, 923 belong to the State and the balance to a private
company, whose line runs from Perth, along the coast northward, to the
port of Geraldton.
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