the earnest pioneer administrator. Bills were drawn on the Imperial Treasury to the extent of £20,908 9s. 11d. to administrate the affairs of the colony. This was the largest sum drawn in one year for many years in Western Australian history.
The Governor and his Council, by the powers given them in the Imperial Act of 1829 and the Order in Council of 1880, decided on 10th February, 1832, to establish a Court of Civil Judicature, to be called the "Civil Court of Western Australia." It was constituted a Court of Record, with jurisdiction in all pleas and cases as full and ample in the settlement as had the courts of the King's Bench and Common Pleas and Exchequer in England. It could hear and determine questions of idiocy and lunacy, appoint guardians and committees over the persons and properties of infants, idiots, and lunatics, and grant probates of wills and letters of administration. Anyone dissatisfied and aggrieved with the decision of the court in cases exceeding £100 could make an appeal to the Governor and Executive Council, whose judgment was final. In the mesne process a debtor could be prevented from leaving the colony by the creditor swearing affidavit before the Commissioner of the Court, who could issue a warrant for his arrest. The pleadings were oral, and a jury was empanelled in cases exceeding £20 according to the option of either party.
Mr. G. F. Moore was sworn in on 17th February as the Commissioner of the Civil Court, and, having few technicalities and short forms to confront him, he conducted the affairs of the court in an exceedingly simple manner. The court was opened in March, and in the second week in June the first jury was called for in Western Australia. It was an action brought by one merchant against another for defamation of character. The damages were laid at £1,000. The trial lasted two days, and a verdict for £39 was entered.
Extensive additions were made to the buildings of Perth and Fremantle in 1832. The Government decided that their old buildings were too small to cope with the pressure of public business, and they therefore arranged to sell them to private people. More commodious buildings were erected in St. George's Terrace, and quite a pretentious square was formed, with a church as one of its most important structures. Persons who required to reside for long periods in Perth replaced their original wooden buildings by brick ones. Bricks early in the year were purchased a £2 4s. per thousand, but later, as the result of more competition they sold at 30s. per thousand. Cartage by bullock drays was charged at the rate of 7s. per hour. Mr. Brockman's house was burnt down early in the year, and all his household effects were destroyed. This circumstance stimulated settlers to erect more substantial residences. Inns and hotels now appeared in greater numbers, not only in Perth and Fremantle but also in the more populated farming districts. In Perth the fronts of allotments were surrounded by paling fences; in Fremantle the most marked progress was probably evident. Its bare, barren appearance, with shrubs cut down for firewood, and herbage trodden to the ground, its few wooden houses and ragged tents, were superseded by a town laid out in regular streets. Stone houses with low walls and pretty porticoes reared heir heads behind stone palisades, and presented a more comfortable and prosperous view to the new arrivals at the port.
There was some talk of cutting channels over the flats in the Swan above Perth. It was apparent that this work would greatly assist navigation, and even facilitate agricultural progress, for by channels the farms on the upper reaches of the Swan could be more easily reached. Plans were drawn up and the work was subsequently commenced. Mr. Reveley was erecting a water mill on the Swan at Perth on the lines of the water mills so common in Italy. Other water mills soon sprang into existence in various places, but all suffered by the absence of a rapid stream of water.
Among the proposals formulated in 1832 was that of the establishment of a Bank. The difficulties of currency and the requirements of advances and discounts were really serious in the colony. In May a prospectus was submitted to the Governor by settlers soliciting an advance of £5,000 on the security of twenty-five solvent and responsible individuals. It was pointed out that if the Governor advanced money on the discount of bills at five per cent, "the colony would be served in an inconsiderable degree." Settlers were often obliged to borrow at twenty-five per cent. There was a good opening for the capital of moneyed men. His Excellency had not the power to meet the wants and wishes of settlers, and suggested the expediency of raising the money required, by subscription among the colonists. The discussions were renewed in August, and proposals were made to establish a Bank, but nothing further was done in 1832. There were numerous borrowers but no lenders.
Beyond the settlers who went to York in 1831 very few people merged to that important district for some time, and those already there were as isolated as Robinson Crusoe on his island. They were not able to make any material progress. On the Murray more activity was evidenced, but at Augusta and King George's Sound the populations remained very much as they were, and the pioneers were overcoming the initial difficulties of settlement. Those at Albany began to cut a road towards Swan River, and some fourteen miles were completed in 1832. The winter there was rainy and boisterous. The crops were good; the few settlers were timid and somewhat disheartened at their prospects.
The native troubles absorbed the attention of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Executive Council, and the settlers in 1832. From the beginning of the new year a lapse of some months of immunity from their depredations occurred. But their unpleasant experiences in 1831 caused the people to look with suspicion on their dark neighbours, and to prepare methods to oppose their onslaughts. Captain Stirling, in order to protect property, established a police force about the middle of the year. This body was composed of military, private people, and, eventually, of several natives themselves. Colonists pledged themselves and their property to support it. In a letter to Lord Glenelg, Captain Stirling mentioned as among his reasons for forming this organisation, "that unless a police force be established and maintained for the purpose of protecting, controlling, managing, and gradually civilising the aboriginal race of this country there will be a fearful struggle between the invaders and the invaded, which will not cease until the extermination of the latter be accomplished to the discredit of the British name." The corps had specific duties to perform when any serious situation arose. The natives enrolled in it proved themselves to be trustworthy, and, by their remarkable tracking propensities, to be invaluable adjuncts in the work.
About the month of May the first violence in 1832 was shown by natives. Two settlers, named Gaze and John Thomas, were sowing a small field on the Canning River near the subsequently formed Canning Road. Their whole attention was devoted to their occupation until they were aroused by the painful howling of their dog. They glanced towards the animal and saw that its ear was pierced by a native spear. Looking towards the knoll which rose from their small field they observed a party of natives led by the redoubtable Yagan. The aboriginals seemed greatly excited, and cautiously drew near in a most hostile manner. It was impossible
