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 the day when the news of Mr.Forrest's success reached Perth.