on Christmas Day 1836, ' I think on the eve of dissolution. It will be deserted by everyone except Mr. Turner, who feels himself bound to the spot by the costly nature of his improvements, consisting of fences, buildings, etc. For him, as he went there encouraged by Government, a small number of soldiers will be stationed there. Captain Molloy is dark and mysterious in his actions. He upholds the prospects of a devoted settlement in the presence of one or two labourers who cling with hopeless perseverance to the small improvements they have effected with great labour; but like a skilful general he has provided for his own retreat. Leschenault has been added to our district in order that the Government Resident may move to his grant on the Vasse, without incurring the odium of absenteeism.'

VI

COLONIAL ECONOMY

COLONISTS of a 'new' country must of necessity recapitulate, in so far as they provide for themselves, the stages by which social men' have reached their latterday skill in getting a living. At first they hunt and fish like the savage around, living from hand to mouth, one carnivorous animal amongst many. Thence to a pastoral life, more thoughtfully sparing the beasts of the field, treating them as plant for the conversion of fodder into a regular supply of animal food, and by selection improving the efficiency of the said plant. Your pastoralist, the man of exceptional foresight, is inevitably a patriarch, a leader round whose herd and example followers and dependants gather, and receive either in kind or through some form of currency, their share of the regular supply in return for aid in guarding its sources. The herds grow, new pastures are found, and new patriarchs arise. The first group dissolves and the community multiplies in the land. At favoured spots agriculture increases the supplies of fodder, and supplements animal food with grains and fruits, while the production of a surplus enables the community to supplement its subsistence farming by purchasing the surplus products of other lands enjoying other advantages. That, roughly, is the formula of economic growth in any colony beginning in a wild land. A glance at the phases of the village life at Augusta and Busselton may, for Australian students at least, lighten the dark places of Celtic and Saxon economy.

One of the first things for which the Bussells requisitioned their mother was a seine fishing-net, an asset very productive on the shallows of the estuaries that abound along the S.W. and South coasts of Western Australia. It arrived early in 1832, and relieved the colonists from a tedious, time-swallowing line-fishing which had paralysed progress on many a' location 'during the previous months. In the following autumn the supply-ship having failed them, it was the means of saving the little colony at Augusta from starvation. Of the 1831-32 summer scarcity John wrote: This part of the colony has recently been in an almost starving state, caused by some delay in the arrival of the "Sulphur ", which has now been many months absent on a voyage for provisions. We have been less inconvenienced than the rest, from our distant situation and uninterrupted power of procuring game. Having, however, exhausted our store of ammunition, Vernon and I walked down from "The Adelphi " about 14 miles through the bush, to obtain powder, leaving Alfred and Pearce the boat for fishing, till we should return. Our first view of the sea after emerging from the dense forests, presented to our delighted eyes, a schooner anchored in the bay. Once more we hoped for tidings from England, and felt a certainty of being filled with the flour of wheat. After living on half a gill of peas a day as the only farinaceous food, without garden vegetables, such a sight was more pleasing than those who have never known want can well conceive.' The autumn brought even shorter commons. On 30th May, John reported to the Rev. C. Wells, Reeding Priory, we have for the last month been reduced to the greatest extremities. The fishing net sent us from England proved an instrument in the hands of Providence to save not only ourselves but many of our

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fellow colonists from absolute starvation. Our subsistence has been grass and fish, for the latter of which night and day I have of late been toiling. Constant employment, gutting, scaling, salting, smoking, hours spent wading about shoals, hauling the seine during a rainy and miserably cold month, conveying the produce of my " swink and moil" to my brothers in the bush, where they with a soldier remained to guard our little retreat from the savage rangers of the forest, have so engrossed all my time that the ship at length arriving has found me as unprepared as usual to forward aught worth the attention of my best and earliest friend.

A sort of diary of our last three days is all I can find time for here. Saturday was the day when I calculated that their last supply would fail the backwoodsmen, Vernon, Alfred, Pearce, and Molony, a soldier. At midnight on Friday I hauled the seine, but, alas! nearly in vain. The produce was scarcely enough for some soldiers, my assistants, for Charles and myself for breakfast. After two hours in the water I went to bed. The next day I barrelled up what salt fish I had prepared the week before, to start early for a sixteen miles row, with a heavilyloaded boat consisting of wine in casks, hammocks, a biddy trunk of dried fish, a barrel of salted ditto, a keg of rum, windows for my house, alias hut, alias library. Charles and I, and Car, another soldier, were the crew. Before we went we proposed another attempt for fish. Captain Molloy had that morning a good haul of salmon. Corporal Madill with one more soldier came to my assistance. It rained hard. The seine was stowed, off we rowed for the most likely spot, by the side of some granite rocks that edged an extensive flat. We made a large round that we might not disturb what fish might be there. When we

arrived within the depth where a man can use his strength, out jumped Rahill the tallest and strongest of the party with one hauling line. I took an oar, the Corporal another. Car paid out the net, we made a large half-circle, and when within the proper depth I left the boat to assist Rahill, 20 yards from land. The net gradually came in and in it about 50 lb. of mullet. The division of fish is in this wise: the net appropriates one third, the haulers divide the rest. On this occasion, however, the men were to receive nothing. It is surprising the attachment these fellows have shown for me and mine so different are we from the characters they have been taught to look up to in their gay and fashionable officers..

'It was three o'clock when we started. We arrived at nine, and found that the former supply of provisions had held out, but would have failed had not their guns been successful in providing one or two dinners of cockatoos.

'On Sunday I kept the Sabbath more strictly but not as meritoriously as the one before, for on that day I had been employed in hauling fish for the women and children of the colony, some of whom were literally in a starving state. The married men had, however, the use of my net in my absence, the first time it had been used without my superintendence. The single men were to use it the next day, in the evening of which I was to return to my occupation on the waters. After evening service, I went early to bed intending to rise early to put in some seeds in the garden on Monday. About four in the morning the sound of a gun awoke Vernon.

'Pearce sounded a horn at the landing placenecessary in the dark. The party proved to be three soldiers who came to tell me a ship had hove in sight on Sunday evening. At nine we started for Augusta, at one we arrived