Page:The Coming Colony Mennell 1892.djvu/150

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THE COMING COLONY.
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themselves. The contrary is the case altogether—all the coasting steamers of late months having been crowded with emigrants from the other colonies, anxious to invest their capital or turn their labour to profitable account in what their conduct shows they regard as essentially the "Coming Colony" of the Australian group. I mention this because I believe that the Australian people are much better judges of the attractions of their own continent than people at a distance can possibly be. If, therefore, the former are looking towards Western Australia as a likely arena for bettering their own fortunes (and I found a good many of this opinion even in New Zealand last year), I think the obvious conclusion is that the Englishman who may decide to throw in his lot with Western Australia is in no way flying in the face of the best kind of evidence in regard to its future possibilities.

In order to avoid all misapprehension it is as well to point out that, though in the course of the preceding pages I have dealt mainly with the territories of the two great land grant railway con1panies of Western Australia, I have done so quite apart from, and in total ignorance of, the position of either of them from a stock -broking and speculator's point of view. It seems to me useless for agricultural emigrants to settle at a distance from railway communication, and I have thus mainly confined my self to a description of the land available alongside of the recently and partially constructed lines. In doing so, I have given as far as I could a faithful account of the attractions of the country with just as little regard to shareholders' and debenture holders' interests as the future settlers need indulge in, so long as they have got a good climate, good land and cheap and easy access to a good market for the products of their labour.

It is now necessary to conclude what pretends to be nothing more than a very sketchy account of a very limited area of this land of large possibilities for "small men." Paraphrasing the words of the pious motto of the old Merchant Adventurers, I say, as regards all the new settlers who may venture their fortunes on her shores: Dieu lui donne bonne aventure.