rtheless be manifest, that no
law, in any country, can prevent an artful and unprincipled servant
(anxious to be rid of his engagement) from acting in so vexatious a
manner, that some masters, in preference to keeping such a one, would
forgo any benefit the indenture might offer. Such a course has been
adopted in the colony by some masters thus circumstanced. Those,
however, who had been careful to bring out men of good character, and to
whom they allowed an equitable compensation for their services, have
rarely had cause for complaint; and, on the contrary, have generally
been rewarded by the cheerful obedience of their servants.

The author is the more desirous of disproving the alleged lawless state
of society in the colony, as the implied reproach is totally unmerited
by the Governor, Sir James Stirling, who has been most indefatigable and
self-denying in his exertions for the public welfare; and it is equally
so by the magistracy, who have, from the outset, administered the laws
with vigour and impartiality.

With reference to the assertion that some individuals had perished with
hunger from not having been able to inform the Governor as to where they
had settled, the author can only say, that he did not hear of any such
circumstance while in the colony, and that he considers it very
improbable; as, with the exception of the people connected with Mr.
Peel, the settlers at the period alluded to were located on the Swan and
the Canning, by following down which rivers they could have reached in
the course of a single day the towns of Perth or Freemantle.

He has also to confess his ignorance of the colonists having, as stated,
petitioned for convicts--he knows that such a wish was not expressed in
their memorial drawn up in 1832, and laid before His Majesty's
Government by Sir James Stirling in person. The colonists having had
before their eyes, in the neighbouring penal settlements, the serious
evils inflicted on society by the employment of convicts (especially as
indoor servants) have firmly resisted the temptation to seek such a
remedy for their wants. The extreme difficulty, which it is notorious
respectable families there experience, to sufficiently guard the morals
of their offspring, and to secure their being brought up in the
necessary principles of virtue and integrity, is alone a consideration
which, it is believed, will keep the colonists in Western Australia
stedfast on that point. No mere worldly prosp