November was about the largest seen up to that date. At a banquet extended to the explorers Mr. Giles declared:—"If on our departure we leave among you a name worthy to be ranked among your own explorers, we shall be amply repaid for all the weariness and anxiety of our journey." He described the country traversed as an undulating bed of dense scrub, except between the 125° and 127° long., near lat. 30°, where the track was crossed by an arm of the great southern plain, which, though grassy, was quite waterless.
Not yet satiated, Giles returned to South Australia overland by another route. On 13th January, 1876, he departed from Perth, pushed north to the Ashburton, thence passed through the desert to Rawlinson Range. His course was north of that of Forrest, and considerably south of Warburton's. Water was obtained in native wells, and no serious difficulties were experienced. The camels proved invaluable agents in exploration. Mr. Young, the astronomer and naturalist to the party, furnished considerable information respecting the regions traversed. He reported that there is a large tract of country extending from the Great Australian Bight to Jeffry's Bay in the north-east entirely covered by tertiaries. This tract, he believed, was probably the bed of an ocean which at one period separated Western Australia from the rest of the continent. The land seen by the party was of little interest to the pastoralist, but the knowledge obtained was of the highest possible value from a scientific point of view. Thus the sullen central deserts had been penetrated in four different places and the old problems of inland seas and the nature of the interior were solved. The men who first accomplished this task must rank among the illustrious in history.
CHAPTER XIX.
PUBLIC WORKS; CONSTITUTI0NAL AGITATION; GOLD DISCOVERIES.
1879 To 1888.
DEPRESSION AND CAUSES—GOVERNORS—FREMANTLE AND GUILDFORD RAILWAY—GUILDFORD TO CHIDLOW'S WELL AND YORK—POLICY OF ECONOMY─YORK TO BEVERLEY, SPENCER'S BROOK TO NORTHAM, CLACKINE T0 NEWCASTLE, AND GERALDTON TO GREENOUGH RAILWAYS—ROEBOURNE TO COSSACK TRAMWAY—PROPOSAL FOR RAILWAY TO BUNBURY AND BUSSELTON ABANDONED─LAND GRANT RAILWAYS—VARIOUS SCHEMES—A LINE PROP0SED BY A. HORDERN FROM ALBANY TO YORK AND FROM PERTH TO CAMBRIDGE GULF—OFFERS TO BUILD LINES TO EUCLA, HAMPTON PLAINS AND KIMBERLEY—CONTRACT FOR LAND GRANT RAILWAY BETWEEN BEVERLEY AND ALBANY LET TO MR. HORDERN—OTHER SANGUINE PROPOSALS OF MR. HORDERN—HIS DEATH—LINE TO ALBANY COMPLETED—EUCLA AND OTHER LINKS ABANDONED—MIDLAND RAILWAY CONTRACT LET—TELEGRAPHIC EXTENSIONS—BROOME TO BANJOEWANGIE CABLE—TELEPHONIC CONNECTION—HARBOUR AND COASTAL MATTERS—FREETRADE versus PROTECTI0N—FINANCIAL—RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT—CHANGES AM0NG OFFICIALS—ELECTIONS—MEMBERSHIP OF COUNCIL INCREASED—MR. S. H. PARKER AND RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT—FORLORN DEBATES—LORD DERBY'S VIEWS—GOVERNOR BROOME'S DESPATCH—SEPARATION—ELECTIONS—EXECUTIVE—LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP—CONVICT ESTABLISHMENT TAKEN OVER—FREMANTLE WATER SUPPLY—DEATH 0F SIR L. S. LEAKE—J. G. LEE-STEERE NEW SPEAKER—OFFICIAL CHANGES—MR. HENSMAN AND THE GOVERNOR—IMPORTANT DEBATE, 1886—CONSTITUTIONAL AGITATION MORE VIGOROUS—PETITION, 1887—GOVERNOR BROOME ON RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT—MR. S. H. PARKER CARRIES RESOLUTIONS—OTHER DESPATCHES WRITTEN BY GOVERNOR—SIR H. HOLLAND ON THE MATTER—LOAN REFUSED—MR. HENSMAN'S AND MR. PARKER'S PROPOSITIONS—LORD KNUTSFORD IN COLONIAL OFFICE—A CONSTITUTION BILL INTRODUCED AND DEBATED—GOVERNOR BROOME'S TROUBLES—QUARREL WITH CHIEF JUSTICE —LATTER SUSPENDED—PRIVY COUNCIL REPORT, AND SIR A. ONSLOW REINSTATED—WEST AUSTRALIAN AND CHIEF JUSTICE—PETITION—SERIOUS STATEMENTS—LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL THEREON—END OF TROUBLE—FEDERAL COUNCIL—ALEXANDER FORREST DISCOVERS KIMBERLEY DISTRICT; HIS EXPEDITI)N TO PORT DARWIN—PASTORAL REGULATIONS FOR KIMBERLEY—SETTLEMENT AT KIMBERLEY—SURVEYS BY JOHNSTON—JOHN FORREST ON LAND LAWS; HIS LIBERAL P0LICY—REVISION 0F LAND REGULATIONS OF COLONY IN 1882—JOHN FORREST ADVOCATES NEW REGULATIONS—REGULATIONS OF 1887; DEBATE—EXPANSION 0F PASTORAL INDUSTRY—EUCLA—E. T. HARDMAN ON GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS AT KIMBERLEY; AND DISCOVERIES OF GOLD THERE—EXCITEMENT, AND NUMBER OF PEOPLE—RICH FINDS—GOLDFIELDS ACT—DISAPPOINTMENTS—REEFING—PARTIAL ABANDONMENT—GOLD DISCOVERIES AT YILGARN—REPORTS BY GEOLOGISTS—DISCOVERIES AT PILBARRA—GOLDFIELDS PROCLAIMED—POPULATION—CHINESE; IMMIGRATION—EXPORT—PEARLING RETURNS, RESTRICTIONS, AND DISASTROUS STORMS—GUANO—C. E. BROADHURST ON ABROLHOS ISLANDS—SANDALWOOD AND HARDWOODS—LEAD AND COPPER, COAL AND TIN—WHALING—EXHIBITIONS &C.—PUBLIC HEALTH ACT AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT—DEATHS—NATIVES—NEW NORCIA—MR. FAIRBAIRN AND SETTLERS—REV. GRIBBLE AND NATIVES—LIBEL ACTION.
ONCE again, for a time, Western Australia was in the throes of depression. With the recent expansion of export trade had come an unreasonable stagnation in vested interests. The decadence of agricultural enterprise, and the increased expenditure of British capital, were most seriously felt during the years 1879 to 1883. Local history was leaving its mark upon the energy of the people, whose languorous pulse now wasted a strong dynamic stimulant to rouse them from their torpor.
The disastrous inactivity even crept into Parliament. Some members of the Council evinced a hurtful lack of enterprise. The rigour with which they oppose all railway proposals was astonishing. When the line from Fremantle to Guildford and thence to the eastern districts was advocated they rose in their places and oracularly proclaimed that such a tremendous undertaking would spell ruin, and leave an incubus on the finances that would render the colony bankrupt. They opposed the progressive party with the ardour of a bigot. They ridiculed advanced ideas with superior disdain, and seemed to prefer perpetual stagnation than risk the construction of transit facilities which admitted a doubt as to whether they would cheapen production and enhance land values. It was only after unremitting agitation that these people were convinced that it was advisable to build a railway to the eastern agricultural centres.
Representative government, although not all that could be desired, had at least been responsible for many advantageous innovations. The various lines of telegraph, the railway from Geraldton to Northampton, the decision to build a second line into the country from Fremantle, and the improved harbour facilities, were obtained through the eager advocacy of elective councillors. Had the nominee Council continued in existence, there is no telling how long colonists would have had to wait for these works. The progressive party advocated railway construction as a way out of their troubles, and they had, at first, to fight restlessly before certain
