was nearly obliterated, and the Government took over the establishment. Beyond a few score men who were still under the control of the authorities, and the monuments which had been erected during the epoch, the colony was like unto others. Felons were criminal to be sent to a gaol; not convicts branded by their country with dishonour, and cast out of it. The Comptroller-General of Convicts disappeared, and was succeeded by the Sheriff of the colony; the road parties, as previously understood, were no longer to be seen in the woods: the ticket-of-leave man had almost gone, and the "curfew," commanding that lights be put out, sounded for the last time in the towns. Those who had been convicts—the surviving stragglers of the great army—were pursuing respected careers amid the rural districts and as owners of large stores, or were eking out their shattered lives in debauchery and misery. Comparatively few of the original men now lived in the colony, and death diminished the number every year. The Western Australian people emerged from the penal settlement cloud, which did them both good and harm.
During the terms of office of Governor Robinson and Governor Broome, a bulky correspondence took place between the Imperial and Western Australian Governments respecting the closing scenes of this dubious connection. The Governors had hitherto been the "head gaolers" of these waifs and they were not sorry to be relieved of an objectionable task. Her Majesty's Government in 1880 decided to disband the Pension Force; but, in the interests of public safety, they promised to contribute £4,000, in addition to their shares of the Magistracy and Police vote, for the protection of the people. In 1883 they agreed to transfer the Lunatic Asylum, inaugurated to accommodate convict lunatics, to the colony on basis of a vote of £42 pet head per annum for each Imperial lunatic. Then, on 31st August, 1883, Governor Broome wrote the Secretary for the Colonies, pointing out that, as the convict prison at Fremantle, built to accommodate 600 persons, now contained but seventy-five men, the time had arrived when the Colonial Government should entirely take over the Imperial Convict Establishment and all belonging to it. Such a course would especially relieve the Home Office of the administration of a department which had become a husk without a kernel. He considered that the local Legislature would accept the transfer on such conditions as payment at the rate of £45 per annum for every Imperial prisoner maintained at public expense, payment of £42 per head for lunatics (as already agreed), and the transfer to the colony, free of charge, of all Imperial property, including stores—all buildings to be placed in good condition before being handed over. Imperial officers, he also suggested, should be at once pensioned, and their pensions paid them irrespective or their re-employment by the local Government. Sir William Harcourt, in reply, asked for a clear statement, complete in all points, of what the Colonial Government would propose, and of what they and the Colonial Legislature would be prepared to carry into effect.
A Committee of the Legislative Council was appointed on 7th November, 1884, to consider terms, and a report was tendered on 13th July, 1885. Its members thought that the Imperial Government should make good all claims respecting moneys advanced between the years 1881 and 1885 for the payment of Water Police and that the Imperial proportion of the grant for magistracy, police, and enrolled guard should continue and cease as already arranged. Finally, they proposed that the whole establishment should be transferred at the end of 1885, in accordance with the views expressed by the Governor. The colonial prisoners immured in the establishment were paid for by the local Government at the rate of £42 per head, and this sum the Lords of the Treasury considered to be a liberal basis upon which each Imperial convict should now be transferred to the colony. It was ultimately arranged however, to make the transfer on the £45 basis; the prison invalid and lunatic buildings were handed over without charge to Western Australia. The sum advanced for Water Police was paid, but the Imperial Government refused to incur any liabilities in regard to repairing buildings. The transfer was formally made on 31st March, 1886.
It needs but a few words to dismiss the convict question from local history. Within these last years the men under the control of the department had been engaged on public works as before. In 1887 there were 158 Imperial convicts as follows:—Fremantle, 52; other districts, 9; conditional release holders, 37; ticket-of-leave men in service, 50; ticket-of-leave men idle, 6, with 4 in hospital or lunatic asylum. The crime list in each year, was fairly large, and paupers were numerous. The Sheriff, Mr. J.B. Roe, in his report in 1887, said that the majority of the men in gaol were the vagabond portion of the ex-convict class, men who knew no home except the gaol or depot, who would probably be a burden on the colony to the end. This prophecy has proved correct to the present (1897). There were in 1896 twelve Imperial convicts in the Fremantle prison, while sixty-three were scattered about the country. The Establishment at Fremantle has, since 1886, been put to a beneficent use. It is from there that the town obtains its water supply. Governor Broome had frequently referred to the importance of obtaining an efficient supply of pure water for the centre, and in that year the Legislative Council voted £7,000 towards his object. Additional wells were sunk within the prison grounds, large tanks were built, and strong engines erected for pumping purposes. All this work was carried out by prisoners under the direction of the prison authorities. Fremantle now has a constant supply of excellent water, obtained by unusually cheap methods, and worked by prison labour.
When Governor Broome opened the Council in 1886 no mention was made of autonomy in his speech. Disappointment on this point was expressed by Mr. Crowther in the debate on the Address in Reply. In the meantime the House and colony had lost the services of a distinguished representative. On 26th May 1886, Sir Luke S. Leake who, ever since the inauguration of Representative Government had occupied the position of Speaker, died in London. No more fitting tribute to his memory could be published than that recorded by Governor Broome and the members of the Legislative Council. In a message to the House, recommending a public funeral and a monument to the deceased, the Governor says:—"The position he occupied in the Legislative Council and the colony was a general tribute to a personal character remarkable for its simplicity, sincerity, loyalty, and truth.... His public life was a single-minded and successful endeavour to discharge an honourable duty, the approval of his own conscience and of those towards whom that duty lay." The Acting Colonial Secretary, Mr. H.M. Smith, moved and carried a resolution expressive of the sorrow of the House and of condolence with Lady Leake, and, on the motion of Sir T.C. Campbell, it was unanimously agreed to accord the late Speaker a public funeral and to erect at public expense a suitable monument to his memory. Sir L.S. Leake, though he had been relegated to the comparative inactivity of the Speaker's chair, was a strong supporter of liberal legislation.
Mr. J. G. Lee-Steere, was elected Speaker, and Dr. E. Scott succeeded to the deceased knight's seat in the Perth constituency. Other changes took place among the representatives. In May 1886, Mr M. Brown was succeeded by Mr. R.F.Sholl, and Mr.
