We reported that there was good country along the coast, and I am glad to say that in the course of a year a telegraph line will be run across the route we travelled. (Cheers.) I hope it will tend to unite more closely than they are at present united the whole of the Australian colonies, and especially this colony with our own. (Cheers.) There is a very great deal of good country inland from the south coast; and if only water can be procured, I am quite certain it will be the finest pastoral district of West Australia. (Hear, hear.) I have no doubt the establishment of telegraphic communication will tend to the settlement of that part of the country, and I am very glad indeed that the Government of South Australia have acted so liberally as to join with our Government in erecting the line. (Cheers.) After this my exploration experience still increased, and I tried very hard to get up another expedition; but, not being a wealthy man, I had to depend upon others. I often represented that I would like to go, and people talked about the matter, and then I thought I would make an offer to the Government, which they might accept or not as they liked. We have the good fortune to have in our colony a Governor--who, I am sorry to say, is leaving shortly--who takes a great interest in exploration. He had been an explorer himself, having, as he has often told me, travelled across New Zealand with his swag on his back. (Cheers.) He has always been a great supporter of mine, and done all he could to forward exploration; and about two years ago I laid before him, through the Commissioner of Crown Lands, a project which I was willing to accomplish if he would recommend the granting of the necessary funds. In a very complimentary reply he quite acquiesced with what I suggested, and promised to lay it before the Legislative Council with the support of the Government; and in 1873 the matter was brought before the Council. All I asked was that the Government of West Australia would grant me some 400 pounds, and I would from my own private purse, and those of others who had agreed to assist me, stand the remainder of the cost. (Cheers.) If they granted me that sum, I was willing to undertake an exploration from Champion Bay up to the Murchison, the head of which we did not know, and strike the telegraph line for Port Darwin, it being left to my discretion which course should be pursued. Four hundred pounds seems a paltry sum, but there was some bitter opposition to its being granted, although by the aid of the Government and other members it was voted. Last year was the year when I should have undertaken the exploration, and I was, of course, quite prepared to do so; but in the meantime a whole host of expeditions from South Australia had come into the field. Mr. Giles, I saw, had started from some part of the telegraph line westward, and I heard afterwards that he had through some misunderstanding--I do not know