Government to increase the minimum price of waste lands. It remarked that colonists were being made the victims of theoretical schemes, and apprehended that evil would arise from the latest variation in the land laws; which forced upon the people that profitable but demoralising occupation—squatting, or grazing on unlocated land.
This last remark of the Gazette was much talked about, and settlers considered the advisability of following the nomadic occupation of squatting. It was an attractive life. Sheep and other stock were travelled over virgin areas, and when some fertile alleys and well trussed plains were reached they there remained. They scattered over No Man's Land, and could more than successfully compete with the landed proprietors. There was one difficulty as yet, namely, the impossibility of getting servants to go back beyond the remote stations into unknown country, and live the primitive and rough life thus entailed. Hence squatting was not popular for some years.
No further changes were made in the land laws in 1840. The Governor, in his speech at the opening of the Legislative Council, in May, 1840, stated that. £1,500 had been derived from fines and sales of land. In June, 1841, the Imperial Government ordered the raising of the minimum price at which Crown lands were sold to £1. In addition, the minimum acreage to be sold was fixed at ten acres, with, on the boundaries of Crown lands, a right of commonage.
In 1840-1, also, the Emigration Commissioners recommended a tax of 3d. per acre on land. The settlers opposed the recommendation, and contended that their vicissitudes were already so numerous that they could not bear so heavy an impost. In April a strongly and firmly-worded memorial was drawn up, widely signed, and presented to the Governor, remonstrating with him and the Emigration Commissioners. The land tax was not imposed.
A primary consideration in all these changes and agitations concerning the land laws was the pressing demand for labour in the colony. With more servants at their command, more development work could be carried on by agriculturists and pastoralists, and the prosperity of the colony could be stimulated. This, indeed, was a most serious drawback. The dearth in the labour market announced in previous years was, if anything, more keenly felt during the period 1839 to 1842. Great forward strides could not be made until more labour was procured. The Imperial authorities, as seen, were willing to experiment to encourage the importation of emigrants; the colonial authorities were much exercised in mind to devise means by which they could be obtained; and private persons were practically endeavouring to obtain them from India and from England.
In 1839 enquiries for labourers were conducted in England at the instigation of leading Western Australian gentlemen, and Mr Louis Samson offered to refund the passage money within two years of as many emigrants as any ship would undertake to carry to the colony. While discovering that there were numbers of people willing to emigrate, no definite arrangements and terms were come to. The wages ruling in the colony for farm servants and shepherds were £30 to £36 per year, with board; for female domestics, £12 to £18 per year; country carpenters, 8s. a day; and labourers, 5s. to 6s. per day.
In January, 1840, the directors of the Agricultural Society proposed to send home for servants, but deferred doing so until they saw what steps the Government intended to take. The Governor was seriously considering whether to make an appropriation for their importation. A few weeks later common labourers in the Perth environs struck for 7s. a day wages, and some classes of mechanics for 15s. a day. So great were the inducements held out by employers that for many months sailors were frequently deserting their ships at Fremantle and the other ports in order to participate in the high prices ruling.
While delivering his speech at the opening of the Legislative Council in May, 1840, Governor Hutt stated that the amount received from fines and land sales—£1,500—was to be devoted to introducing labour into the colony. A vote to that effect was passed on 20th May. Of the £1,500, £1,000 was to be spent in obtaining labour from England, and £500 was to be applied to maintaining any such imported labourers in the colony until they became self-supporting.
The labour market was afforded some relief during the succeeding two years, but not sufficient to meet the demand. The Australind settlement served to introduce numbers of men, and the Government and private people obtained the remainder. The Government devoted the money to the purpose assigned, and by one boat, in 1841, about 100 labourers were introduced, and another, in 1842, carried over 200. In August, 1842, the British Government introduced eighteen boys from the Parkhurst establishment as Government juvenile emigrants under the guardianship of Mr. J. Schoales. The boys were over-applied for, and this semi-convict experiment was described as being successful. The statistics of population afford a proof of an increase in immigration. The small increase in population during the nine years from 1832 to 1841 exhibits the stagnation which characterised Western Australian affairs during that period, and the comparative absence of immigration. Thus in 1832 there were estimated to be 1,511 Europeans in the colony, exclusive of military; in 1841 there were but 2,760, but in 1842, when batches of Australind settlers and emigrants had landed, and other servants were introduced by the Government and private people, the number had risen to 3,476. The annual report submitted to the Home Government for the year ending 30th September, 1842, shows this number to be dispersed as follows :—Perth, 1,137; Fremantle, 470; Swan (above Perth), 529; York district, 310; Albany and King George's Sound district, 213; Murray district, 93; Canning, 55; Toodyay, 134; Wellington distract, 371; Vasse district, 126; Williams district, 5; outlying settlers, 33.
Immediately after Governor Hutt's arrival he began a comprehensive study of the natives, and being instructed to follow a settled policy with regard to them, hoped that he would soon make them amenable to civilisation, and cause them to abandon their depredatory instincts. He preserved a kind, but firm, demeanour, and believed, when he understood their ways, he would be able to establish peaceful relations. To this end he drew up a list of enquiries concerning them, which he forwarded for reply to various interested persons in the colony. He also carried on a voluminous correspondence on the subject with the Home Government, which was published for the benefit of a Parliamentary Committee.
Though in 1838 Rottnest was used on one or two occasions as a native prison, it was not until the 1st of July, 1839, that it was proclaimed a Government Penal Establishment. All persons holding interests there were requested to send statements of their claims to the Government. A Mr. Welsh was appointed first superintendent, but not long afterwards two native instructors,
