ecember, 1870, took charge of the department, the greatest
economy was needed to make the revenue of the colony meet the
expenditure, and consequently it was necessary to reduce and lay upon our
oars; Mr. Fraser reorganized his department, putting it on a new system,
letting out work by contract instead of keeping up a large permanent
staff, and thereby effected a considerable annual saving; at the same
time he has been steadily working, as time and means have permitted,
towards certain definite objects, namely, in the direction of a
trigonometrical survey, by fixing points, by making sketch and
reconnaissance surveys of new and important districts, and by accurately
fixing by survey main lines of road: this will give a connexion to the
records in the Survey Office which has been hitherto wanting, and will
contribute to enable him to construct that great desideratum--a large and
accurate map of Western Australia, so far as it is settled or partially
settled. I concur with Mr. Fraser in thinking that, so soon as means will
admit, a considerably increased annual expenditure should be devoted to
surveys.

11. The joint survey of the coast will also aid in this work. The
Admiralty, in assenting to my proposal to undertake a joint coast survey,
which has been placed under a highly meritorious officer, Navigating
Lieutenant Archdeacon, R.N., have conferred a great benefit on this
colony, and promoted the interests of British commerce and navigation,
much valuable work having already been done.

12. In close connexion with the Survey and Lands Department is the topic
of exploration. So soon as possible after my first arrival, I took upon
myself to send Mr. John Forrest overland to Adelaide, along the shores of
the Great Bight, nearly on the line of Mr. Eyre's route in 1841. I did
this before the introduction of representative government, and it is
right to say that I knew that I could not have got a vote for it. I felt
that this was the last act of an expiring autocratic regime, and I
believe it was one of the least popular of my acts; but certainly no
small sum of public money has been expended with greater results--for, as
I hoped, Mr. Forrest's expedition has bridged the gap that separated West
Australia from the other colonies, has led to settlement on the shores of
the Great Bight, and to the connexion of this colony with the rest of the
world by electric telegraph. I never doubted of the future of West
Australia from th