performs this part of his functions very agreeably and acceptably; and if he has had to learn that it is not within the scope of his commission (as he supposed before he went out), to attend to the drainage of Coolgardie, he is probably, on consideration, all the better pleased. At the same time, it was fortunate for the colony, and particularly fortunate for its Premier, who had his trade to pick up, that the difficult period of transition, after self-government was granted, fell under the administration 'bf the late Sir William Robinson, who was possibly the best and certainly the most able of our old school of colonial Governors.
Western Australia, despite its rapid growth, is suffering, locally, from a severe depression, the reaction from the recent boom. From a variety of other circumstances, it is scarcely the place at present for the new settler. It only remains, therefore, to repeat that the output of gold has increased from 207,000 ounces, or less than £800,000, in 1894, to 1,050,183 ounces, or £3,990,697, in 1898; and £2,632,927 for the first six months of 1899; that most of the dividends come to England (wherefore the colonists will probably try in the future, like Victoria and Queensland, to keep their good things to themselves); and to add that, if some mines have been mutilated or mismanaged, that is perhaps largely because, while in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, the consumption per head per annum of liquor is the equivalent, in proof alcohol, of just about 2 gallons, and in Tasmania of 1½, in Western Australia it amounts to over 3.
It seems unlikely, on the whole, that this colony, whose history is entirely different from that of the other side of Australia, and whose population and economic conditions are so different, will join the Federal Commonwealth at once, or without holding out at least for some pledge in regard to the completion of the Trans-Continental Railway. It is
