It would therefore be highly gratifying and Satisfactory to Me, if Your Lordship would have the goodness to honour me with a Communication of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent's Sentiments on this Subject which I consider as one of the greatest possible Interest and Importance to the Welfare, Prosperity and Happiness of this rising Colony; which, as it was originally settled for the Reception, Punishment, and eventual Improvement of Convicts, appears to Me to require that their Improvement, Welfare and Happiness should form the first and chief Object of Attention in the important Duties entrusted to the Governor of it.
This Despatch will be delivered to your Lordship by Lieutenant Richard Lundin of the 73rd Regiment, to whom I take the liberty of referring Your Lordship for any particulars relative to the Colony that may have escaped my recollection in my Public Despatches; and I further beg leave to recommend him to your Lordship's Favour and Protection.
+Source.+--The State and Position of Western Australia, by Captain Frederick Chidley Irwin of H.M. 63rd Regiment; late Commandant of the Troops, and Acting Governor of the Colony, 1835, pp. 32-37, 42-46.
The settlement of Western Australia was undertaken in 1825, with the purely philanthropic idea of relieving the overcrowded population of Great Britain. The early difficulties were due to the ignorance of conditions in the country, and the unsuitability of the emigrants. Mr. Peel was chief promoter of the scheme.
The reader's attention will now be drawn to some of the mis-statements with respect to the colony, which have appeared in recent publications. Under this head he would especially notice a work entitled "England and America." At page 33, Vol. 2 of the work in question, there is said to be, in Western Australia "abundance of good land and of land, too, cleared and drained by nature." After adverting to the amount of capital and live stock, and the number of labourers introduced by the first settlers, it is asked, what has become of all that capital, and all those labourers? Then comes the following passage: "Why this failure with all the elements of success--plenty of good land, plenty of capital, and enough labour? The explanation is easy: In this colony there never has been a class of labourers. Those who went out as labourers no sooner reached the colony than they were tempted by the superabundance of good land to become landowners."