now left out, and the appointment of the Governor and the mode of administering the affairs of the Colony are left entirely at their discretion.
"The only ground upon which I can conceive that an objection will be raised to the plan, as at present submitted, would be to the inexpediency of increasing our colonies, and thereby producing, to a certain extent, the very dispersion which the principle of colonisation seeks to prevent. To this objection, however, should it be urged, it may, I think, be answered that the mode of administering the affairs of the other colonies in Australia has effectually prevented concentration for a long period, and that there are circumstances in all the other Australian Colonies which will prevent for some time capitalists from embarking their property in the purchase of land there, especially with a view of settlement. The establishment, therefore, of a colony to which the reasons restraining such an employment of capital do not apply, would have the effect of creating a fund for the purposes of emigration, rather than of diverting to a new spot a fund which otherwise would have been employed in one of the colonies. The circumstances which prevent to a certain extent the emigration of capitalists to the other colonies may be stated to be, in addition to the dispersion already produced, the existence of the convict system in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, and the want of labour and of a harbour at Swan River, together with the inconveniences which must result from the divisions of that colony consequent upon the settlement formed at King George's Sound.
"There are, however, points to which the attention of the Government should be called in relation to the regulation of the colony which it has been deemed imprudent to insist upon as indispensable to the formation of the colony, and which must therefore be left to the decision of the Ministry. Of these, the most important is free trade.
