unroofed, and we had to flee. I was scarcely outside when I was driven before the wind, knocked over, and rolled along, the roof of the building falling about me and small pieces striking me. Here I must have been struck heavily, but do not recollect it. When I recovered consciousness I was lying on my face with my fingers dug into the ground. While attempting to get to the bush, in the haze, with the rain beating in my face, I went in the wrong direction, and was finally blown back. While rolling along before the gate, I caught hold of a rock and with difficulty got under the leeward of it."
Within half-an-hour all the buildings in Roebourne, excepting two outhouses, were levelled. Many persons were injured, but none killed, although there were some very narrow escapes. The rain continued to pour down, and soon the rivers, or flood channels, overflowed, and the waters submerged the low country, sweeping away stock and damaging property. At Cossack houses were blown down and the high seas destroyed considerable property. Had the storm occurred at springtide all the buildings not on the sandy ridge would have been carried away. The rails and floors of the upper jetty were torn off, leaving nothing standing but the piles and caps. As on previous occasions,the cyclone had circumscribed limits and did not extend westerly beyond Maitland, nor did it reach the De Grey in the east. A pearling fleet was in great danger on the 16th March, but the wind moderated before any serious damage was done. Mr. Venn, at Nickol River, had a disheartening experience; upwards of 2,000 sheep were carried away by the floods, besides five horses, a cart, rations, &c; very few sheep were saved. Mr. R. Mackay lost about 1,500 sheep, and his house and its contents were swept on in the course of the flood. At East Harding Mr. Withnell lost 600 sheep, and some horses nearer Roebourne. A thousand sheep were destroyed on the Pyramid Station. Mr. Viveash's new house was blown down, as also was Messrs. McRae's wool and shearing shed—300 sheep were killed. Messrs. Hicks, A. Howlett, J. Lockyer, Hancock, and others also lost stock and property. Naturally such a terrible visitation retarded the progress of the districts mentioned; in a few days the increase and wealth of years were blown and washed away. This, culminating on a serious drought, caused considerable suffering; but upon the ruin of their homes the north-west people built new abodes, and rehabilitated their fortunes in defiance of the elements. They were of that pugnacious stuff which will not recognise defeat. The succeeding years were more fruitful, but the excitement which encompassed other industries allowed north-west settlement to fall in favour, an attracted enterprise into different channels. In 1878 Mr. John Forrest, Deputy Surveyor-General, made a trigonometrical survey of the whole of the settled portions of the north-west.
The Dempsters were joined by other settlers at Esperance Bay. In 1878 there were nine free runs, aggregating 760,000 acres, in the Eastern district. In the North district there were twenty-nine free runs, aggregating 2,663,000 acres, while in 1869 there were forty-two free runs, representing 4,159,000 acres. In 1874 there were 90,480 sheep, 1,380 cattle, 1,253 horses and 286 goats in the north-west. In 1878 there were 32,170 horses, 56,158 cattle, 4,924 goats and 16,762 pigs in the colony.
Unfortunately, the agricultural interests suffered during the years 1869-78 and a falling-off in acreage under crop took place. A few bad seasons disheartened the farmers, and they left their ploughs to exploit the forest for timber and the coast for pearls. No more disastrous decadence could take place; people got to think that wheat-growing was too risky, and, even in good seasons did not return the profits to be gleaned in other industries. For a few years they had begun to export wheat and flour, but plagues of red rust and dry years broke their faith in the resources of local soils, and thenceforth they allowed the wilderness to reclaim its own. Fields which with great trouble and expense they had cleared of bush and timber were abandoned, and bush and timber were only too eager to usurp their primeval place. The industry and enterprise which recent successful years had stimulated, had a short and sorry existence; so that they might raise enough corn to subsist themselves numerous farmers were content. Too many of them at this time showed a lamentable lack of the virility and persistency which so distinguish Britishers all over the world. The profits to be obtained in other channels of energy, although affording some excuse, do not justify the stagnation which took hold of members of this class. While they still continued to live upon their farms, they showed little of the energy of the brave man. From about 50,000 acres under cultivation in 1868, the area fell in 1878 to 23,008 acres in wheat, 8,377 in other grains, 341 in potatoes, and 614 in vines. With several thousand more people in the colony the difference should have been the other way.
There is no doubt that primitive processes of husbandry had beggared some farms, and caused a falling-off in the yields. Large tracts of land were reduced by inefficient cultivation and overcropping; the results to the owners were melancholy and sad. The system of farming was likened to that of the ancient Romans in its exhaustive consequences—the more the soil was worked the poorer it became. There was no restitution, and in obedience to nature's law, exhaustion begot sterility. Life in the farming districts, except in the best and among the large farmers, was not all that could be desired. The farmers were miserably housed; they had forgotten what the term luxury meant, and lost much of the desire to secure a competence. Some of the small centres began to resemble the village of Goldsmith's poem. Trade was largely carried on by barter—an obnoxious and even pernicious system that was fatal to wholesome competition or to the desire for acquiring wealth. A flock of sheep, half a dozen bullocks, a few horses, a shaded plot of land, are worth nothing more in the eyes of their owner than what they represent in specie; when they merely represent other stock and land a vital impulse is lost. The farmer sold his wheat for flour and household goods, the gardener exchanged with the storekeeper, the woodcutter was content to gain credit at the store for his load, however heavy the labour to obtain it may have been. It is no wonder that the agricultural districts stagnated—with good land calling for tillage the consequences to the future of Western Australia are not easily appraised. The barter system was joined to another, equally obnoxious—the credit system—by which the storekeepers furnished their customers with cheque books to draw orders on themselves. The Inquirer said the results were "morally and pecuniarily bad. "A flight of paper kites pervaded the regions of traffic; specie and bank notes almost disappeared from the rural districts, and their places were taken by scraps of dirty paper known as "orders."
In 1869-70 red rust and drought disheartened farmers, but only temporarily. Colonel Bruce spent £3,064 in 1869 in distributing seed wheat to the most distressed in the Victoria district under a bond providing for repayment after harvest. In 1871 lower prices for sandalwood caused the people to return to their ploughs, and they placed more land under fallow than in any previous season. In the Champion Bay and Irwin districts, however, red rust again scourged the land. The rest of the colony fared better, and though prices for flour and wheat were lower than in previous years, there was an export of 321 tons of flour, valued at £4,822. There was a still more severe visitation of red rust in the Victoria district in
