elected to take cognisance of any breach of the rules, with the power to strike the name of any offender off the list of the members of the society. The institution was to be related to the Agricultural Society, and any dispute arising as to prices was to be referred to that body. The number of notes issued by each member was to be limited to fifty, and a defaulter would immediately be excluded from the privileges of the society.
This project, although not fully realised, initiated the system of barter, which became so general throughout Western Australia in after years. Exchange or barter was carried on to the mutual satisfaction of private individuals. Vegetables were exchanged for stock or clothes according to the special conditions of the persons interested. The Barter Society was warranted to afford some relief in the internal trade of Western Australia, but could not claim nor seek to alleviate the great difficulties which confronted settlers in their want of capital to purchase stock, &c. Some encouragement was given to the proposed institution by leading people, although its rules and regulations were so awkward as not to be easily applied. It was esteemed difficult to ascertain the actual circumstances of any man, and the necessity of making distinctions between men of real property and those of straw was calculated to encourage jealousies and mortifications.
In 1833 the system of parcelling out allotments of land to labourers was initiated. A settler on the Swan, near Guildford, subdivided some of his grant to labourers in lots amounting to from 20 to 100 acres. The labourer thus had his plot of ground which he could till or use for gardening purposes; in the slack months he could go out to work for others. It was an excellent departure, but not a great success. Not only was a district expected to be supplied with a fairly regular labour market, but it was warranted to give the poorer people an opportunity to lay the foundations of a certain livelihood. There was still much ill-feeling between the servants and their masters. Many of the employers were hardly suitable for their position, and could not command a number of men with any degree of dignity. A proportion of the servants had become unconscionably precise in their appetites, and objected to food and drinks when they were not justified in doing so. They demanded to be supplied with rations which they could never expect in the old country, and when tea was at a high price, and the employer desired to give them cocoa in lieu of their allowance of the general beverage, they murmured and clamoured so loudly that tea had to be brought at enormous prices to satisfy them, even when the master could not afford it for himself. Their propensities for strong drink in no way diminished. There was much talk at this time on the question of emigration, for the settlers needed reliable servants and increased power to develop their holdings. But through the misrepresentations which had been going on for years, the colony was viewed askance by people in Great Britain who were in a position to migrate, and they believed that other colonies offered better inducements to them.
It would be thought that the peculiarities of life in a new country would have dispersed many of the traditions of character which clung to the mother-land. But in one regard at least settlers, according to an early writer, retained up till now all their old manners, habits, and prejudices. As instances of the popularity of litigation, Mr. Moore had on 5th February no fewer than fifty cases before him; on the 13th March, forty-two; and in the first week of May, forty-nine. The unsatisfactory condition of the community probably precipitated litigation, and caused an irritability of nature which led towards the same end. Moore sat in the Civil Court twice a week, and his cases sometimes lasted the week through. All day long his mind was concentrated on the fine legal points which were laid before him, and we learn that at night, so rough was his life, he slept on a brick floor with a carpet bag for a pillow. The judge was not surrounded with that opulence which is usually associated with the position, and when the court rose he went home and worked on his farm cutting wood, sinking wells, digging potatoes, minding his stock, or carrying produce to market. He did this not for relaxation, but in obedience to the necessities of an enterprising agriculturist. One feature, however, showed that there were difference already apparent in the character of the colonists, for it was a considerable period before any person could be got to act as a sheriff.
Even the insensate practice of duelling was brought to Australia, and there was more than one instance of duelling in the colony in the early days. One of these took place between two men of some importance at Fremantle. As no harm was done it caused only amusement.
There were numerous distressing cases of fire in 1833. One in February presented to the settlers at Swan River a magnificent scene. It was started by the carelessness of natives while cooking their food. The flames seized upon the dry vegetation round their camp, and rushed over surrounding country, particularly around the banks of Melville Water. Some damage was suffered by neighbouring settlers, and herbage was destroyed. In March fires destroyed hay near Perth, and a bungalow was razed to the ground, causing a loss of about £700. People turned out in large numbers to help to extinguish the conflagration. They were warned by the loud sounding of a bugle throughout the streets of Perth. Other fires took place in different parts of the settlement.
Pastoralists near the Darling Ranges and those beyond them on the Avon suffered the loss of numerous sheep in this year. A strange fatality seemed to have found its way into the flocks, and none could divine the explanation. There was consternation among the settlers. Some considered that the herbage contained a poisonous plant, while others scouted the idea. Mr. J. Harris, who possessed some experience of sheep, was asked by the Government to compile a report on the matter. He did so, and his conclusions were published in the Perth Gazette on the 1st December. In the light of subsequent developments his report has some interest. "What I say," he writes, "I hope will remove the serious apprehension entertained that the natural grasses of this country contain some herb or shrub obnoxious to animal life. . . . I have come to the conclusion that the animals did not die of poison, there being no indications of the kind." He considered the disease was that which Clayter called "zesh," or blood striking—a malady well known and successfully treated in Europe—and occasioned by the animals eating large quantities of young grass. He advised blood-letting and saline purgating with stimulants, as the cure, but, though settlers followed his advice, it did not afford relief, and fatal trips continued to be announced till the end of the year.
The pioneer horse race meeting was held in the colony on the 2nd October. The captain of a trading vessel imported several Timor ponies, and he, with Messrs. J. Gaevell and C. Smith, was the moving spirit in arranging for the gathering. The race took place near the beach at Fremantle, and was attended by numbers of enthusiastic sportsmen, who were pleased at the planting on Australian shores of the fine old English sport.
The exploit of two fishermen caused some excitement in August, and led the minds of Swan River people to dwell upon the subject of forming a whaling company. These men, Messrs. Keats and Cockroll, while between Carnac and Garden Islands observed three whales a short distance from them. Although totally unprepared, they had the temerity to venture in pursuit, in the face of a strong southwest gale, and succeeded in capturing a five weeks' old calf.
