Mr. C. D. Ridley suggested in April that an export trade in eucalyptus timber (under the name of jarrah) be opened up on a substantial scale. He proposed that a company with a capital of £9,000 be formed for that purpose. Numerous supporters were found. A public meeting unanimously agreed to establish a company. The Gazette was delighted, the public enthused, but after making an attempt to find shareholders the projectors were compelled to abandon their hopes. Later in the year Mr. A. Stone sent various Western Australian woods to London and had them made up into cabinets, cases, and other contrivances. This again attracted limited attention to the timber resources. At the same time Mr. W. Cowan was erecting saw mills at Guildford, which, when opened early it 1844, performed such satisfactory work that hopes were entertained that with similar works an export trade would soon be established. To follow out the export sentiment a shipment of sheep was sent to the Mauritius in October, 1843, where the animals realised 28s. per head. This return caused gratification to settlers. Potatoes valued at £300, wool at £6,124 15s, and oil at £300 were exported, which, with other articles, totalled £7078 15s. for the year. One shipment of potatoes sent to the Mauritius was sold at 16s. per cwt. In December there was no money in the market, and the prices of stock were, if anything, below those ruling some months earlier. The press was made the medium of complaint, and numerous letters from colonists were published referring to the situation, and particularly advocating the encouragement of the wool industry.
In this early stage of the depression the Governor was exercising rigid economy in the finances to balance revenue and expenditure. The receipts during the financial year 1842-43 from colonial sources were £9,544 0s. 1d., a falling off of £536 18s. 6d. on the previous year, caused principally by a decrease in the amounts obtained from land sales and duties on wines. The expenditure was £10,246 15s. 11d., without reckoning what was paid out of the commissariat, and the labour fund established in previous years. His Excellency resolved to still further retrench in order to balance the amounts. He proposed an increase in the duties on imported spirituous liquors, and a bill was passed by the Legislative Council for that purpose. Mr. W. Tanner had retired from the Legislative Council, and his place was temporarily filled by Mr. F. C. Singleton, Government Resident on the Murray. Mr. W. H. Mackie had also temporarily occupied the seat of Mr. T. V. Yule while the latter was out of the colony; then he succeeded Mr. Lennard upon that gentleman's resignation.
The Surveyor-General's Department was meanwhile busy, and completed some valuable work. Hitherto a proportion of the survey boundaries of alienated lands had not been fixed, but with such vigour did the small department apply itself to this task that 208,181 acres were determined on in 1842-43. Governor Hutt's strong land policy had the effect of instituting order and simplifying transfer. So successfully did he apply the regulations dealing with improvement conditions that in 1843, out of 1,500,000 acres recorded in the Survey Office in the names of private people, there were not 100,000 for which the fee simples had not been issued, or were ready to be taken out.
A bill important to land administration was passed by the Council. It provided that no waste lands of the Crown should in future be alienated except by sale, and made gratuitous grants of land absolutely illegal, except where the public at large had a direct interest; other bills for simplifying land administration were also passed, as well as a bill for licensing boatmen, a bill for further regulating public houses, an Insolvent Debtors bill, and a bill to enable natives to give evidence in Courts without taking the oath.
The chief item of interest at the year's end was the harvest. Good returns were obtained, but, alas, in January, 1844, the Agricultural Society feared that, on the presumption that the colony now produced more wheat than was required for local consumption, a fall in prices must take place. There were eight hundred more acres under crop than in the previous year. In 1845 more attention was devoted to general culture. A splendid class of grapes was produced, and wine manufactured in the colony was exhibited at the annual meeting of the Agricultural Society. The planting of olive trees was warmly advocated. The report stated that labour was less scarce than previously. It regretted the discreditable and shortsighted policy of some pastoralists in carelessly washing and packing wool for export. During the year sheep had increased by one-fourth their previous number; York, Toodyay, the Swan and Plantagenet showed the largest progress in this regard.
One settler took enterprising steps to encourage production. Captain Swanston, a large landholder, subdivided his estate in 1843 and let it out to men of small means on a most liberal principle. Instead of exacting rents he allowed tenants to make up the first year's rent in improvements, and even offered each man a cow and four steers as an encouragement to stock the land. A few people took advantage of this magnanimous offer.
That the colonists fears of a depression were not groundless was abundantly proved in 1844. Gloomy pictures of the future of the colony were drawn, and a cry of depression sounded far and wide. A comparative statement of the prices of articles of food in 1839 and 1844 exhibit a wide difference. Thus in 1839 a 2 lb. loaf of bread sold at 10d., and in 1844 at 5d.; beef per lb., 1s. 6d. and 4d, respectively; mutton, 1s. 4d. and 4d.; lamb, 1s. 6d. and 8d.; potatoes per cwt., £1 4s. to £1 10s. and 10s.; and fresh butter per lb., 4s. and 2s. respectively. Within the same period rents and agricultural labour fell by 25 per cent.
Each progressive week seemed to lend a more serious aspect to the depression. Money was so scarce, prices so low, and hope so far away that the people unconsciously made the situation seem worse than it really was. The producer despaired of obtaining a payable price for his products; his land was mortgaged to the storekeepers or the banks, who in their turn restricted their operations; the labouring classes were compelled to accept large reductions in wages. The Governor was greatly concerned at the quarterly diminution of revenue, and the dearth of specie in the colony. The Commissariat Department was watched with keen scrutiny by him. Tenders had previously been issued for the supply of wheat to the department to militate against chances of famine, and for other purposes. They were now issued with a different object. Treasury Bills were offered by Government in exchange for specie, and for wheat grown in the colony, not so much because of a serious want of specie as to prevent, if possible, the continued export of specie. Tenders were accepted on 2nd of July, 1844, to the extent of £4,200, varying in the exchange from par to 1½ per cent. premium. Tenders opened earlier in the year were too low.
The revenue for the year 1843-44 showed a decrease on that of the previous year. The imports within the same period represented £46,880, and by adding 25 per cent. for freight the amount was brought up to £58,600. The exports represented only £13,609 10s. 0f the latter amount the chief item was wool, the quantity exported being 178,800 lbs. A small trial shipment of timber was exported during the year and sold at £10 a ton. The other exports were:—Sperm oil, 30 tons, £1,800; black oil, 60 tons, £1,800;
