background and, if this want be supplied, it seems far from improbable that in the course of a few years more she may be able to prove, to those who have hitherto despised her, that though she cannot compete with New South Wales or Victoria as a wool-growing or cattle-raising country, she is nevertheless rich in some valuable products in which those colonies are deficient.
To the wealthier class of settler, the owner of a hundred thousand sheep or fifty thousand head of cattle, West Australia would not seem to offer many attractions. The runs are upon a much smaller scale than those to which he has been accustomed, and he would probably consider the character of the trade carried on in the colony to be uninteresting and contracted, tending too much both to small profits and slow returns. But to the smaller class of capitalist, who possesses only a thousand or fifteen hundred pounds, the country presents a different aspect. He will find many small properties now in the market, and at a price within his reach, upon which he would have a fair prospect of doing well and making a comfortable home for his family. He must be ready to turn his attention to anything which seems likely to increase the profits of his farm, to set up a steam-mill, for instance, if the district seems to afford a fair opening, or to establish a store, if one appears to be wanted in his neighbourhood, or to take a share in a contract for horsing the mail cart in his part of the country if it seems likely to yield a return; he must not be content to sit still and to let others get ahead of him in the race for success, but must keep his eyes open and be ready to make the most of all the openings which may fall in his way.
