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Published in The Albany Observer 24 May 1890 Written using the pen name "Joe Swallow"

West Australia is at present the land of promise in the south; but whether it will ever be anything else than a land of “promise” depends mainly on its people, and on those who are coming here to make homes — not those who come to “make fortunes”, a fact which is disregarded by the well-meaning but mistaken persons who are now industriously “puffing” West Australia in the other colonies.

Fortune-hunters have been the curse of the eastern colonies; but, like some other classes, they are often more sinned against than sinning. Some years ago lying reports of prosperity in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland were spread in the old countries, whereby inducing great numbers of young men to immigrate. Many of these people were fortune-hunters, no doubt, but it was only natural that the bitterness of their disappointment should turn their hearts against the land to which they had been enticed by foul means, and rob them of any desire to settle down, like good colonists, and by years of hard work and self-denial make themselves a home and the colonies a nation.

The statement that these false reports were spread in England is not made recklessly. The writer knew a young Englishman who had in his possession a copy of a circular which had been scattered broadcast throughout London and the counties, and on which was printed what purported to be the scale of wages and the cost of living in Australia. It is needless to say that in this circular the prosperity of the colonies was grossly exaggerated. Amongst other equally false, and I may say criminal, representations it was averred that the daily wage of the labouring class averaged from fifteen shillings to a pound. We would not like to say that this circular emanated from the governments either of the colonies or England, but a great many believed it did. It was published surreptitiously.

But to come to the point. Reports equally false and exaggerated as the one quoted above are now being spread in the east with regard to West Australia, enticing to this colony numbers of people who are but one remove from being paupers, and who have no intention of settling down and helping in the development of the country by the labour of their hands. Their sole idea is to “make money” and then “clear out”, returning to the enjoyments of the pleasant eastern cities.

Before leaving New South Wales I heard a resident of West Australia — then on a visit to Sydney — declare that labourers in Albany and Perth were receiving fourteen shillings a day; and were so independent that it was impossible to get a man to carry your luggage from the wharf. Of course, we did not believe this report, but many do, and come on the strength of it, and afterwards by unfavourable accounts they prevent many really desirable colonists from coming.

Those interested in the development of West Australia seem to think that the only thing necessary is to get people here — and to get people by fair means or foul. This is a false and injurious theory. As far as population goes it should be a question of quality, not quantity. True colonists and pioneers need no other inducements than those offered by a new and fertile country, and fortune-hunters will flock round them like birds of prey. When the good colonists have made the country what it will be, the population will come soon enough.

In the old days, when the new lands lay thousands of miles from “home”, the fortune-hunter was forced to stay, for some time at least, in the land to which he had recklessly hurried. There were no short passages, and cheap fares “home”, and, ten to one, by the time the immigrant was in a position to return, he would have settled down, reconciled to his position, and thus become a great colonist.

But it is different with West Australia. The eastern colonies from which (let us suppose) she derives the population are too near; and when the new comer finds he has “made a mistake” it goes hard with him if he does not rectify it by returning whence he came, within six months — often by the next boat. And even when the fortune-hunter has made a little (West Australian) money, those pleasant eastern cities gleam too brightly and too near for him to resist the temptation to return; and so he goes on taking with him his, or West Australia’s, gold, and leaving the colony poorer, if anything, for his visit.

What we want in West Australia more than anything else, and what we must have before this country will follow, not say lead, on the others, and that which will be the colony’s salvation is patriotism. It is very common to hear people who are in the habit of “taking notice” of things, say, on arriving here from the eastern colonies: “There seems to be something wrong with the country.” Most thinkers agree with them in this; many are positive that there is “something” wrong; but there is the widest divergence of opinion regarding the nature of this all-important “something”. One might think that there is an atmosphere of conservatism about the people; but, even the conditions necessary to the existence of conservatism seem to be wanting. In short, if I may use metaphor to express our meaning — the people of West Australia have no existence. Thousands inhabit the country, it is true, but as a class they take no interest in the land further than that conducive to a selfish individual welfare. The people do not seem to realise that this country has got to be made a home for a nation, or at least a great part of one, by the future great Australian nation, and, more than this, the people in (I was going to say of) this country do not seem to realise that the coming nation are to be of their own children. No doubt the responsibility and exertion of self-government will raise the minds of the West Australian people to a recognition of these things; but when, in the name of Heaven, is this Responsible Government to be brought about? The cynic answers, “When, after a year or so, England shakes up West Australia and tells her that her sleepy request has been listened to, and that she must rouse up and mind shop!”

Somebody, who evidently does not believe that “God helps those who help themselves” complained in the columns of a local paper that the other colonies took little or no interest in the welfare of West Australia. This is false. Upon this subject there has been more straight decisive writing in one Sydney paper, and more serious talk at one Sydney street corner than there has been in the whole of West Australia. The gist of public opinion in the East respecting this matter is: that West Australia must have Responsible Government; that it is to the interests of the eastern colonies, as well as of West Australia, that this should be brought about; and, that if the western people do not make a decisive movement in the matter soon, it will be necessary in the interests of Australia as a whole for the other colonies to take the matter up.

This country should become something better than a camp for adventurers, who will “fold up their tents like the Arabs and silently steal away” (to Arabia). There is a great deal said about the barrenness of the land and its unfitness for settlement, but the same thing was said of the eastern portion of the continent, which is now on a fair way of becoming a paradise for agriculturists and graziers. Read the early despatches sent “home” when shortly after the settlement of Botany Bay the colony was described as a desert where nothing would grow, and yet when we left New South Wales a few weeks ago its driest and hottest towns were being washed off the land, and rescue boats were being sent up by the dozen right to the centre of the site of that imaginary “Great Australian Desert” of our grandfathers. The rising generation will yet see their inland seas of flood water curbed and stored in great artificial lakes, reservoirs, and canals, and the same thing can be done in the west. Some people say we want a Ballarat or two to make the colony. A couple of Ballarats would give us a good start no doubt, but that is all; Ballarats don’t last, and we want something else to keep the country going.

Let the natives of the colony stand up in its interests, if only because they are natives — that is if that grand old love for one’s native land still exists in these unromantic days. Let the people who have adopted this as their country try and forget the old one — which could not have treated them well, as their continued presence here proves — and do the best for the country that affords them an asylum. And let the people, one and all, irrespective of class, creed, or nationality, do their utmost for the advancement of West Australia because — for the noblest of all reasons — because it is to be the land of their children.

And afterwards, in the years that are to come, when the West will be rich in farms and pasturelands, and dotted with cities as fair as Adelaide, and as busy as Sydney or Melbourne; when mighty steamers glide in through the waters of the Sound, to discharge their cargoes at great bustling wharves, and travellers land to stroll through our parklike streets, that shall rival those of Ballarat, and to view our mansions and galleries of art, then — when there shall be streets of noble stone warehouses, and the heights shall be crowned by public buildings and palaces of art — then in the centre places shall stand the monuments, and from honoured niches in our art galleries shall smile the unforgotten faces of “Our country’s pioneers”, the men who shall have earned the title of good colonists.