Educating the young is a pronounced characteristic in West Australia. The schools are maintained by the State, are free, and attendance is compulsory from the age of six to fourteen years. Twenty-one dollars is the sum the State fixes for the schooling of a scholar. Scholarships of the value of $250 a year are offered annually for competition among pupils between the ages of 11 and 13 years. Other inducements are made to bring out the best that is in the growing generation. In sparsely settled farming districts, where ten or more children are to be found, the State reaches out a beneficent hand to qualify the child for the battle of life. In addition to appropriations for their schooling, and where the children must ride to school, 12 cents a day is paid to the person in whose vehicle the children are carried to and from the schoolhouse. Where a railroad runs through these sections, and the children ride on trains to and from school, no fare is charged.
Very liberal inducements are held out to persons taking up government land. Twenty years' time is allowed the settler in which to pay for his farm, and the interest charged is four to five per cent. Residential growth and improved conditions, of course, result from the transaction.
To prevent destruction of crops by rabbits, which do a great amount of damage to growing grain in some parts, the government has gone to the expense of building rabbit-proof fences about tracts of land it has for disposal. The quality of wheat, oats and other cereals is of the best, meriting the awarding of first prizes at world expositions where they have been on exhibition. Sheep-raising is another great asset of Western Australia.
The rich gold fields of this State are located from 300 to 350 miles east of Perth, in the heart of a desert, of which a large area of West Australia is composed. In 1884 gold was discovered in this section of the Commonwealth, but a greater rush to the mines occurred in 1890-92, when the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie finds became known. In this industry a hundred thousand persons are engaged. Before a railway was built over this barren stretch of country from the coast to the mines, many an adventurous soul perished during his journey in quest of the precious metal. No water is found in this district, that needed in homes and for treatment of the ores being "imported," pumped from a dam near Perth through pipes of 30 inch diameter for this great distance. Besides gold, copper, tin and coal are mined. Black workers are excluded.
Wages paid are more equalized than in other countries. Laborers receive a minimum of $2 a day, and mechanics from $2.50 to $3 a day. Eight hours is a day's working time.
Newspapers are fully abreast of this hustling city. Printers receive $21 to $25 a week, the hours of work on newspapers seldom exceeding six. I had been offered work in Perth, but, my destination being Melbourne, I continued eastward.
We had traveled 4,300 miles from Durban to Fremantle, and 1,700 miles separate Perth from Melbourne. Twelve hundred miles of that distance was to be across the Great Australian Bight.
Fourteen hours' sail east from Fremantle, Cape Leeuwin was reached, the most westerly point of land of the Australia continent, and one of the most dangerous points for ships in the world. The distance traversed to clear the Leeuwin is 25 miles.
Dutchmen were early explorers in Australia, and parts touched bore the names of the head of the exploring parties, and sometimes the captains of the ships. Some of the names were Eendracht Land, Nuyts Land, De Witt Land; but of all the places given names by the Dutch, Leeuwin Cape is the only one well known. That part of Australia was early known as New Holland. The Dutch set foot on West Australia 200 years before Fremantle became a settlement.
Across King George's Sound, on which Albany is located, we sailed, when the Bight was entered. The Bight is famous for its rough sea; accounts of the vengeance it has wreaked on mariners, travelers and ships would fill many pages.