most abundant, but other ores are worked to profit. The percentage is from 68 to 82¼, and the highest price obtained for one whole shipment £14 14s. per ton. The strike of the lode and quality of the ore may be taken as generally applicable to all the mines in this district. The number and extent of the known lodes make the extension of this industry dependent on the demand for the ore in the market and the supply of capital in money and labour introduced into the Colony; and as the railway from Northampton to Champion Bay, when opened throughout its entire length, which it will very shortly be, must reduce, as it does even now, the cost of transport, the profits on this industry will be proportionately increased.
The population of the Colony was, in 1876, calculated at 16,166 males, and 11,155 females, in all 37,321 persons; the births during the year were 918, and the deaths 383, giving a natural increase of 535; the arrivals by sea were 727, and the departures 650, giving an addition of 77, making the actual increase during the year only 612. When this is compared with the increase in other colonies from immigration, there can be no surprise at the comparatively slow progress of West Australia.
Nearly one-fourth of the population is collected on the lower valley of the Swan, Perth having a population of 4,606, and Fremantle of 3,303 in 1876. So small a population, scattered over so large a surface, has required the construction of roads to a much greater extent than would otherwise have been needed. Roads, passable for wheel carriages and, in many places excellent, in all with the rivers and gullies bridged, extend from Perth to Albany, by Bannister, Williams, and Kojonup; to the Vasse, by Pinjarrah and Bunbury;
