were not materially enhanced. Well-grassed lands were observed near Esperance Bay, and approaching King George's Sound an improvement in scenery took place.
On his return to Adelaide Eyre was received with enthusiasm. He was appointed Police Magistrate on the River Murray, in South Australia, and a protector of natives, who obtained his earnest sympathy. In 1865, as Governor of Jamaica, he quelled a rising among the natives there in such a manner as to cast England into a fever of excitement. Wylie was made much of at King George's Sound, and to this day local people talk proudly of the faithfulness of their black boy.
A new and important settlement was established in the colony in 1841. Although previous Western Australian history was marked with disappointment, and doleful and unwarranted reports were circulated as to the destitute condition of the inhabitants, there were still numbers of influential gentlemen in England who consistently believed in the productivity of local soils. Even when the colony was dangerously near an unhappy consummation, they persistently asserted that the land resources were in no way to blame. Attempts were, therefore, frequently made to form companies to take up land on a gigantic scale, and it was only through lamentable ignorance of local affairs among the general mass of investors; and their readiness to listen to annoying and untruthful canards, that some of them were not launched. Those bad reports initiated in 1829-30 did incalculable harm to Western Australia, and caused her to miss golden opportunities for at once becoming brightly prosperous, even beyond the early success of her sister colonies. The distance of Western Australia from the large centres of English population, and the consequent tardy means of obtaining information, returns from products, and answers to correspondence, were infelicities which prevented a few isolated people from utilising the land as it deserved. The colony did not contain such magnificent resources of soil as Eastern Australia, but her convenient position and wide pasture lands should have more than counterbalanced any weakness in that regard.
Several instances have already been narrated where companies were projected to form settlements in Western Australia, and were allowed to fall through. The application of Mr. Thomas Peel, which resulted in the subsequent foundation of the colony, was the first. Had it been successful an immense impetus would have been given the colony. Numerous other projects were announced in England and in India. In 1839 a company was formed, which, while its fate was unhappy, served to announce the confidence placed by certain English circles in Western Australia. This was the company which formed the settlement at Australind, in the Wellington district. It was misreport which really consummated its failure.
Late in 1834 and early in 1835 several gentlemen actively agitated in England to form a company which should purchase a large area of land in Western Australia, and despatch an army of settlers and labourers to cultivate it. It is believed that Colonel Lautour was among its most energetic advocates, and proposals were made that his grant of 103,000 acres on the Leschenault Inlet should be purchased, or that land be obtained from Mr. Thomas Peel.
The nascent scheme slumbered for some time, but found new life and new advocates in 1837 and 1838. In those years the gentlemen whose names are mentioned in a preceding part of this chapter formed themselves into a committee, termed the Western Australian Committee, and sought to obtain privileges from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. One of their objects after land was purchased was to apply certain principles of colonisation recently enunciated by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, which were popular among a coterie of thoughtful gentlemen in London. Upon Lord Glenelg refusing to meet the wishes of the committee, nearly every member abandoned the scheme.
Mr. Wakefield advocated colonisation by means of Companies, which should acquire land, and carefully choose a class of settlers and labourers for its cultivation. Areas were to be cut up into small sections and sold to the settlers. His great object was to keep a constant balance between capital, land, and labour. The colony of South Australia was largely founded on the views, at this time published, of Mr. Wakefield.
A very short time elapsed after the failure of the Western Australian Committee and another company was projected by one, at least, of its members—William Hutt, M.P. The name of the Western Australian Company was taken, and under its supervision the settlement of Australind was established. Mr. William Hutt did not abate one jot or title in his interest in the prosperity of Western Australia, and with several other prominent gentlemen, including the Clifton family, he again entertained the desire to apply to some part of the colony the principles of colonisation and emigration proposed by Mr. Wakefield. The latter gentleman himself assisted in forming a company.
While touring on the Continent with Colonel Lautour, Mr. Robert W. Clifton, then in his teens, was asked by the returned West Australian to proceed to this colony in the interests of his property at Leschenault. The idea was attractive to the young man's mind, and upon his arrival in London he mentioned the proposal to his father, Mr. M. W. Clifton, and other gentlemen. Colonel Lautour was anxious to sell his grant, and now offered it to those gentlemen who were seeking a field where their intended company could begin operations. Mr. R. W. Clifton twice called upon the Secretary of State for the Colonies to acquire information about the property, and negotiations were entered into with Colonel Lautour for the purchase of his land. The question arose as to whether the grant had been apportioned under the first or second land regulations. If under the first it was not liable to resumption for twenty-one years, but under the second it was liable ten years after the allotment in 1830. This question was decided by Lord Glenelg declaring on 23rd November, 1839, that it was held under the first regulations, and in his communication he stated that he had advised Governor Hutt to that effect.
Terms of purchase were arranged with Colonel Lautour, and then the parties interested proceeded to form a company, to consist of 100 shares of £500 each. This was no difficult matter, and on the 12th May, 1840, the Western Australian Company was formally constituted, and on the same day the shareholders appointed directors and officers. The directors were William Hutt, M.P. (chairman), John Chapman (deputy chairman), T. H. Brooking, Captain M. H. Sweny, R.N.; Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Henry Buckle, Chas. Enderby, Jacob Montefiore, Jas. Irving, and Geo. Robt. Smith, M.P.. Thos. J. Buckton was elected Secretary, M. Waller Clifton, F.R.S., Chief Commissioner in Western Australia, and his son, Robt. W. Clifton, Secretary to the Chief Commissioner.
Sir James Stirling and others described the country in Colonel Lautour's grant as eminently suited for the purposes of
