for of iron instead of stone; a deep sea telegraph suggested from Point Galle to Western Australia, with Cocos Islands for an intermediate station; a vote taken for the establishment of a high school; the ballot proposed as a preventative against bribery; and a jetty at Owen's anchorage determined upon. These many and considerable works occupied the period of Sir Wm. C. F. Robinson's Government, who left the Colony 1st September, 1877, to proceed viâ Sydney to his new Government at Singapore. He was succeeded by the present Governor, Major-General Sir Harry Saint George Ord, K.C.M.G., C.B.
THE ABORIGINES.
Any account of the Colony would be very incomplete without some notice of the aboriginal inhabitants, the effects which its occupation by white men have produced on them, and the influence they have exercised with respect to its settlement and progress; and as these cannot be appreciated without some knowledge of those things which have directed that influence, some account of their character, habits, manners, customs, and especially of the laws by which these are governed, becomes necessary in the first place.
The aborigines of the West are the same in origin, language, customs, and laws, as those of other parts of Australia. The evidence adduced by Sir George Grey is alone sufficient to establish this fact. It may be well, on the other hand, to record the opinion of Mr. J.
