In the year 1886 an Act (50 Vic., No. 10) was passed, increasing the number of members of the Legislative Council to twenty-six, nine. to be nominated, the northern portion of the Northern District being taken to form the new "6 Kimberley District." In this year also certain by-elections took place, and as a result the party of reform secured a small majority in the House-a majority which it was evident would go on steadily increasing, and would, in the event of a general election, become very strong, perhaps even overwhelmingly so. The Conservative party, therefore, had to consider what position they should take up; whether the absolute opposition to constitutional change should be persisted in now that the reformers had practically won the battle, or whether an approachment should be made to them. It was eventually decided no longer to oppose the popular wish, but. to join with the moderates in endeavouring to obtain the best form of Constitution that experience could suggest. As a result of this. decision, Mr. S. H. Parker, in the winter session of 1886, moved a series of resolutions in favour of Responsible Government, and these passed the House by a large majority, only one elected member voting. against them.

While the agitation was in progress for free political institutions, the attention of Western Australians, and of the miners of the eastern colonies, was directed to the gold-fields of the north. Hardman's reports had begun to attract attention, though he cannot be said to have been the original discoverer of the precious metal in the two Kimberleys. Shortly before he began his geological researches, some wandering prospectors had found indications of the presence of gold in the country at the head-waters of the Margaret and Ord Rivers. Nevertheless, Hardman's report was of great value. and he never led astray those who were careful to follow his directions. Soon after his return from his second expedition, prospecting was engaged in with some vigour; towards the end of 1885, specimens were brought into Derby from the vicinity of Mount Barrett by several fortunate gold-hunters; and this incident led to the disastrous "rush" that took place in the following year. Mount Barrett was too far distant from a base of supplies to prove anything but the scene of hardship, misery, and failure. It was 300 miles distant from the Port of Derby, and 250 miles distant from Wyndham, newly opened in the Cambridge Gulf. No tracks existed, and a rainy season was certain to cut the diggers off from the coast. But men poured into Wyndham in hundreds, on the road to Mount Barrett, and the Government cautioned the reckless adventurers in vain. Some of the new arrivals were old hands on gold-fields, and came to the "rush" fully equipped and adequately provisioned, but the greater number were without experience-clerks, storemen, citizens, and city dwellers generally, unaccustomed to hardship, and altogether unsuspecting the difficulties, the dangers and the privations they must encounter in such a latitude as that of Mount Barrett. Disappointment met them as soon as they arrived; the alluvial workings had not turned out as expected,

K

and the gullies, where the first rich finds had been made, were soon exhausted. Luck, however, did not wholly desert a certain proportion of experienced diggers, although the majority of the gold-hunters made barely sufficient to pay current expenses; indeed, many were at the point of starvation. Then the note was sounded to retreat, and the rush back to Wyndham degenerated into a stampede. Nothing but the prudent precautions of the Government averted all sorts of excesses, lawlessness, and riot. By-and-bye the unsuitable portion of the population of the gold-fields was drafted off, and the few hundreds of gold-diggers who remained entered upon a systematic examination of the quartz-reefs described by Mr. Hardman as so full of promise. The purging of the field of the incompetent and the inexperienced was not, however, accomplished without cost. The army of the defeated beat a retreat under all the rigours of a cruel climate; great distress was suffered from drought and heat; terrible hardship and pain from lack of provisions; while, on the line of march, many deaths occurred from disease, starvation, sunstroke, and exposure. Those who remained were furnished with only the most rudimentary appliances for the extraction of the precious metal; but the success of the first primitive attempts exceeded the expectations of the most sanguine; while subsequent assays of parcels sent to Melbourne seemed to establish the fact that in the two Kimberleys were some of the richest reefing-fields the world had ever seen. The Government, at all events, showed its faith in the roseate visions of the future of these Northern gold-fields by hastening the construction of a telegraph line from Derby to the auriferous areas, and by adding to the conveniences for shipping at the settlements in King Sound and Cambridge Gulf. The line of telegraphic communication was subsequently continued to Wyndham. Indications of gold began to be found all over the colony; at the head-waters of the De Grey River; in the Darling Ranges, close to the Swan and Canning Rivers; at the Yulgan Hills east of Newcastle; at Paterwangy, near Champion Bay; at the Kendenup Station, near Albany; and at various other localities; but for some time Mount Barrett, Hall's Creek, and the fields reached from Derby and Wyndham in the two Kimberleys, were supposed to be the only payable finds in the colony.

In the month of July, 1887, it was resolved, by an almost unanimous vote of the Legislature, in affirmation of the principle of self-government, that His Excellency be requested to take the necessary steps to eventually secure it. Among the notable events of this year was a terrible hurricane that swept over a great portion of the colony, causing great damage to property; and (in the month of December) the discovery of gold at Yilgarn. The find was an accidental one, at a place called Mugakine; and was confirmed by a subsequent discovery at Golden Valley, in the same district. Southern Cross, one of the centres of the Yilgarn gold-field, was so named by the party who first prospected it, because they had been guided to the spot by night, while following the constellation so designated.

Affairs political were in the meantime trending towards the realization of the efforts made towards Responsible Government. In December, 1888, the Legislative Council was dissolved, and a general election took place in the month of January following, in order that the constituencies might have an opportunity of expressing their views upon the question of the new Constitution. When the Council re-assembled, the resolution favouring Responsible Government for the colony was again carried, this time without a single dissentient voice. The Legislature met in April, and a Constitution Bill, drafted by the Government, was at once brought forward, and, after amendment, was passed and forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Governor (Sir Frederick Napier Broome), Sir Thomas Cockburn-Campbell, and Mr. S. H. Parker being appointed by the Legislature to proceed to England to act as delegates on behalf of the colony when the Act came before the Imperial Parliament. These gentlemen experienced much difficulty in carrying the measure through its various stages, strong opposition having arisen in the centre of the Empire against the granting of Western Australia's desire for self-government. This opposition was mainly, if not altogether, the outcome of a misunderstanding relative to the control of the Crown lands of the colony. It was held by a considerable party in the mother country that such lands were the "heritage of the British people," and should be inalienably held by the central authorities for settlement by the surplus population of Great Britain and Ireland. So demonstrative was the opposition that it appeared for a time as if Responsible Government for West Australia was fated to be seriously jeopardised, and indefinitely postponed.

At the beginning of the year 1888, Perth was connected by telegraph with the far northern settlement of Derby, on King Sound; and in May of the year following, the cable connecting Banjoewangie, in Java, with Broome, in Western Australia (a little to the north of Gantheaume Bay), was laid. Another important gold discovery also distinguished the year 1889. This was the finding of the Pilbarra field, on the De Grey and Oakover Rivers, in the Northern District. The new field was proclaimed in the month of July, 1889, and by the end of the year it had exported 11,170 oz. of gold, valued at £42,446. During the year Yilgarn had produced 1,859 oz., valued at £7,062, making with 2,464 oz. sent from Kimberley, a total export of 15,493 oz., valued at £58,493. From this date the auriferous character of Western Australia was established, the gold increased from year to year, new gold-fields were successively discovered and proclaimed, and a great accretion to the population of the colony was gained from the eastern parts of the Australian Continent. Among the most famous of the continuous finds were the gold-fields known by the names of Ashburton, the Gascoyne, the Murchison, the Dundas, the East Murchison, the East Coolgardie, Coolgardie, the Yalgoo, the West Pilbarra, the Mount Margaret, the North-east Coolgardie, the Broad Arrow, the Peak Hill, the Kanowna, and the Kalgoorlie. One of the most sensational finds

148

was made in the Coolgardie field by Messrs. Bayley and Ford in 1892; it was christened "Bayley's Reward." One day Bayley, whose party was at the last extremity, appeared in the township of Southern Cross, loaded with several hundred ounces of gold and many rich specimens encrusted with the precious metal, but sadly in want of provisions. This incident led to a wholesale exodus to what is now known as Coolgardie, one of the richest fields in the colony.

Sir Frederick Napier Broome's Administration terminated on the 21st December, 1889, after a rule of six years and nearly seven months. During the Governor's absence on leave to England, from the 11th November, 1884, to the 16th June, 1885, the colony was administered by Chief Justice A. C. Onslow; and during a second absence, from the 1st January to the 21st February, 1888, by the Hon. Sir Malcolm Fraser, who again administered from the 21st December, 1889, to the 20th October, 1890, after Sir Frederick Napier Broome's departure from the colony, pending the appointment, for a third term of Governorship, of Sir William Cleaver Francis Robinson.

Thus was

In the meanwhile, the battle on behalf of Responsible Government was being waged at Westminster. The Bill providing for a new Constitution was eventually referred to a Select Committee, with the Baron De Worms as chairman, for the purpose of taking evidence. So impressed was this body, after hearing what the representatives of the colony had to urge, and after a calm consideration of the advantages likely to result from giving the Western Australians a free hand in their great national estate-so thoroughly was the Committee convinced of the errors underlying the British popular opposition to the measure, that the Bill was returned to the Imperial Parliament unencumbered by nearly the whole of the clauses to which the Legislature of the colony had previously objected, and a recommendation was made that the full and complete control of the Crown lands should be vested in the local Parliament which it was proposed to create. Western Australia-"one and undivided"-obtained for its colonisers ; a result due to the intelligence and broad-mindedness of a majority of the members of the Select Committee, combined with the untiring exertions of the colonial delegates, assisted by the knowledge and influence of Sir William Robinson, who, as it opportunely happened, was in England during the battle for Responsible Government. Considerable help was also given to the West Australian delegates by the Agents-General for the other Australasian Colonies at a time when, in consequence of delays due to the Imperial Cabinet, the Bill appeared to be in jeopardy. At this juncture the Agents-General, in a body, waited upon the leader of the Government in the House of Commons, and made representations which swept away all final obstacles, and the Bill, enabling Her Majesty "to grant a Constitution to Western Australia," passed its third reading in the Lower British Chamber on the 4th July, 1890, and meeting with no opposition from the Lords, received the Royal Assent on the 15th August following. The present

Constitution of Western Australia differs but little from those of the other Australasian colonies. The Executive power is vested in the Governor, who is appointed by the Crown, and who acts under the advice of a Cabinet composed of five Responsible Ministers. The Executive Council consists of the Governor (who acts as President), the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney-General, the Colonial Treasurer, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, and the Commissioner of Railways and Director of Public Works. Responsible Government was proclaimed in the colony on the 21st October, 1890, on which date the old Legislature was abolished. The new Parliament met on the 30th December following, with Sir John Forrest as Premier.

When the Forrest Ministry assumed office the flow of immigration from the eastern states, and, indeed, from distant lands, still continued, while the agricultural and pastoral industries were rapidly expanding to keep pace with the increased demand for their products. Other branches of primary production, such as timber-getting, also received an impetus from the general wave of prosperity. The output of gold had reached considerable dimensions in 1894, and this was coupled with a correspondingly large accretion to the population. Lack of sufficient water was the great drawback to the development of the gold-fields, and the problem of ensuring a supply occupied the serious attention of the Government. In 1894, the timber industry greatly expanded, and a trade sprang up in jarrah and karri, which now forms one of the main sources of revenue. The Kimberley district suffered, in February, from the most disastrous floods experienced in the history of the state, several lives being lost, and much valuable property destroyed. In June, the first Parliament under responsible government was dissolved, and, at the general elections which followed, the Forrest Ministry was again returned to power. During the ensuing session a dispute arose between the two Houses of Parliament in consequence of the Legislative Council amending a Loan Bill. After a lengthy discussion, the Council withdrew the amendments, but in so doing stated that "it desired it to be distinctly understood that it in no way surrendered any powers, rights, or privileges to which it was legitimately entitled." Fresh discoveries of gold and development of existing fields continued in 1895, and these were accompanied by a further influx of immigration. Although the pastoral and agricultural industries were steadily expanding, the production of food stuffs was still far below requirements, and a heavy deficiency in wheat and flour had to be made up by importation. In the timber trade, however, Western Australia, though the youngest of the states, found herself at the head of the list as regards exports, the demand for jarrah and karri growing more insistent as the excellent properties of these woods became more widely known. The increase in the gold output and the swelling of all the ordinary sources of revenue enabled the Treasurer to table a budget showing an excess of revenue over expenditure to the amount of £189,000. Sir William Robinson, who remained in the state till the