New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia; Their Pastures, Copper Mines and Gold Fields. (2024)

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Title: The Three Colonies of Australia: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia; Their Pastures, Copper Mines and Gold Fields.Author: Samuel Sidney.* A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook *eBook No.: 1400441h.htmlLanguage: EnglishDate first posted: January 2014Date most recently January 2014Produced by: Ned Overton.Project Gutenberg Australia eBooks are created from printed editionswhich are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright noticeis included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particularpaper edition.Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check thecopyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing thisfile.This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictionswhatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the termsof the Project Gutenberg Australia Licence which may be viewed online.

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Production Notes:

The second edition of this work, arising from an extensiverevision of the first by the Author within a year, has beenchosen for inclusion here. The work captures the history of thethree colonies up to the initial impetus of gold discoveries,which transformed Australia.

Components of the first edition missing from the secondinclude a Chronology, an Introduction and a Table of Contents.Here, a Table of Contents has been added. This misnumbering ofChapters V and VI. and omission of a title for Chapter XXIX havebeen corrected. A few typographical errors have been silentlycorrected. The spellings of numerous place names (e.g., Diemen's,Maryburrong, Bellergen, Hansdorf) have been so retained.

NEW SOUTH WALES, VICTORIA,
SOUTH AUSTRALIA;

THEIR PASTURES, COPPER MINES, & GOLD FIELDS.

BY

SAMUEL SIDNEY,

AUTHOR OF "THE AUSTRALIAN HANDBOOK", ETC.

WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.

SECOND EDITION, REVISED BY THEAUTHOR.

LONDON: INGRAM, COOKE, AND CO.
______
MDCCCLIII.

{Page i}

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Since the 1st September, 1852, anedition of 5,000 copies of "The Three Colonies of Australia" hasbeen exhausted. In this Second Edition I have made materialalterations and additions. The work is now divided into twoparts—the first Historical, the second Descriptive. I havein preparation, as a sequel, another volume of less bulk, whichwill be a Practical Hand-Book to the South Sea Colonies,including Australia, Van Diemen's Land, and New Zealand.

The Historical section contains, in twenty chapters of 240pages, a sketch of the discovery and foundation of the ThreeColonies, and the principal political and social events in theirrespective careers, between the landing of the first fleet inPort Jackson and the opening of the gold mines at MountAlexander. In the preparation of the first seven chapters (83pages), I had, in addition to the oral information of oldcolonists and valuable MSS., the assistance of the works ofCollins, Wentworth, &c. The remaining thirteen chapters,which include the administrations of Governors Bourke, Gipps, andFitzroy, in New South Wales—the LandQuestion—Emigration Transportation—the ConstitutionalContests of the first Australian Representative Council, and thewhole History of the Colonisation of South Australia, are in thestrictest sense of the term original. The materials were diffusedthrough the votes and proceedings of the Legislative Assembly,English Blue Books, files of colonial newspapers, and othersources still more obscure and difficult of access. Whatever,therefore, be the demerits of this part of my work, it is theHistory of the Leading Political and Social Events of a periodnever before chronicled by any writer on Australia—a periodto which Australian colonists look back with as much interest aswe do in England to the struggles for the Reform Bill or for therepeal of the Corn Laws. In this Second Edition I have rewrittenand condensed the pages devoted to the all-important LandQuestion, and devoted an additional forty pages to theAdministration of Governor Fitzroy and the Colonial Policy ofEarl Grey; and I have endeavoured to throw new light on thegovernment of Sir George Gipps, by giving a chapter of politicalpoems from a Sydney newspaper, the "Atlas," which will bearcomparison with English compositions of the same kind from thedays of the "Anti-Jacobin" to the days of "Punch."

The Descriptive section has been rendered more complete by theaddition of a tabular view of the counties, towns, mountains, andrivers of New South Wales and Victoria, extracted, by permission,from Sir Thomas Mitchell's "Manual of Australasian Geography,"and by accounts of journeys to and from the various gold-fields,which I have in great part abridged from the able reports made byspecial correspondents of the Sydney papers.

As I have throughout the following pages expressed my opinionson colonial questions and colonial statesmen with a freedom whichmy friends may call bold and my opponents audacious, I mayperhaps, without incurring the charge of egotism, state what havebeen my opportunities for acquiring correct information oncolonial subjects.

In 1844 my brother, with whom I had previously kept up a closecorrespondence, returned from Australia, where he had passed sixyears, engaged in pastoral pursuits. He arrived in England in themidst of the furious contest, described in Chapter XI. of thisbook, between Governor Gipps and the squatters. In the cause ofthe squatters he enlisted me; and when the Pastoral Question cameto be discussed in Parliament, we contributed severalletters—criticising the pastoral regulations which thegovernment proposed to adopt, to which some of the leading Londonjournals gave a prominent place.

Up to that time I had been a disciple of the Wakefield systemof colonisation—Land Monopoly. It was, however, onlynecessary to investigate with a practical man the practicaleffects of this untenable system in order to become irresistiblyconvinced of its fallacy. In 1847-8 I wrote for my brother, whowas a close observer but no writer, a thin duodecimo, "A Voicefrom the Far Interior of Australia, by a Bushman."

In 1848 we sent forth the first edition of "The AustralianHand-Book." Shortly after its publication I had the pleasure toread an extract, quoted from the volume, in "Blackwood'sMagazine," by the then anonymous author of "The Caxtons," who waspleased to describe the "Hand-Book" as "admirable for wisdom andcompactness."

From attacking Wakefield's colonial land monopoly in print, Iventured, on every fitting opportunity, to attack it in public atmeetings held to promote colonisation. At a meeting in 1848,presided over by Earl Harrowby, I warned the promoters that theland monopoly was the great bar to the popularity of Australiaamong the working classes. At that period opposition to theWakefield system was considered wild and democratic; and the lineI took up excluded me from any part in the Colonisation Societyof Charing Cross, which, in spite of a great array of noblenames, never obtained the confidence of the working classes, butafter a brief existence, died of inanition. In the same year mybrother and I commenced our "Emigrants' Journal," with the viewof affording "plain, practical advice to intending emigrants." In1848, before the fifth number was published, my brother returnedto Australia.

While conducting the "Emigrants' Journal" I acquired a vastmass of information on colonial subjects. I was brought intodaily contact with colonists of all classes, as well as withemigrants, and in the course of twelve months I answered morethan one thousand practical questions on emigration andcolonisation.

It was during the progress of this Journal that my attentionwas called to the singular coincidence between the views at whichI had slowly arrived on colonial matters, and the evidence givenby Mrs. Chisholm before a Committee of the House of Lords onColonisation. On this evidence I wrote an article,* which led tomy making the acquaintance and acquiring the friendship ofCaptain and Mrs. Chisholm, to whom I am indebted for a great andrapid advance in what I may call my colonial education. In thesecond monthly series of my "Emigrants' Journal," in thefollowing year, I may be permitted to say I communicated to mycountrymen a valuable contribution in placing before them thefirst published account of the work done by Caroline Chisholm.This Memoir subsequently formed the staple of all the biographiesof that lady which have appeared, including one in "Chambers'Journal," and a paper I had the pleasure of contributing to"Household Words," entitled "Better Ties than Red Tape Ties."

[* No. 8, Sidney's "Emigrants' Journal."]

In January, 1850, I published "A Letter to the RightHonourable Sidney Herbert," on the need of protection for femaleemigrants, and the necessity for a more careful selection ofsurgeons in emigrant ships, illustrating my arguments withevidence from Blue Books. Subsequent events proved thereasonableness of my warnings in a very flagrant manner.

On April 17th of the same year a great meeting took place atSt. Martin's Hall to launch the last, the most improved plan forcolonising Canterbury, in New Zealand, under the Wakefieldsystem, which had so signally failed in South Australia and threeother New Zealand colonies. Having during the three precedingyears been engaged almost alone in dissecting and exposing thisantipodean form of protection and monopoly, I travelled all nightfrom Lincoln, in order to meet the colonising protectionists faceto face. I found a platform crowded with Bishops and dignitariesof the Church, Peers, Members of Parliament; in the body of theroom some two thousand Clergymen, many Members of the twoUniversities, and elegantly-dressed ladies. Except a small groupat the end of the room, all seemed firm believers in GibbonWakefield and model High Church colonisation. I had not had timeto obtain the company of a single friend; but when the Bishop ofNorwich, Dr. Hinde, ventured to point to Adelaide, Wellington,and Nelson as instances of colonies where "the Wakefield system"had been tried with eminent success, and when Lord Lyttleton,before putting the resolution, invited "the questions orobservations of any gentleman," I found courage to rise, and totell intending colonists that ruin had fallen on all whocolonised on the principles embodied in the bishop's resolution,to bid them refer to parliamentary documents for details of thesufferings of South Australian and New Zealand land purchasers,and to say—"I wish you intending colonists to understandthat this Canterbury Colony is founded on the principle ofcreating artificial advantages for those who work with their headand not with their hand that there is no instance of a colonistin any country employing his capital in agriculture as proposedat Canterbury, and obtaining either low-priced labour, or fairprofit on his investment—while in pastoral pursuits thepurchase of land is unnecessary, and concentration impossible;"and I concluded by observing—"If the colonisers wanted tohave the best bone and sinew of the country, they must not adoptan exclusive system, under which no man with less than £500 couldbecome the purchaser of fifty acres, for that, according to myexperience, the best emigrants were men with large families andvery moderate means, who could till land with their own hands toa profit, but were not willing to emigrate to become mere hewersof wood and drawers of water."

It would be difficult to give any idea of the effect producedby the incontrovertible facts and figures of my unexpectedopposition. The Bishop of Oxford made a most brilliant andamusing reply, in which rhetoric supplied the place of facts andarguments; Mr. Adderley, an amiable enthusiast—pretended tobelieve that I was recommending the wild, free grants of SwanRiver, or the churchless, school-less colonisation of New SouthWales. But not one of the whole array of model colonisers wasable to answer my simple question, "How are Canterbury coloniststo earn a living and obtain a return for capital invested afterthe rate of £3 an acre? Not by agriculture, for colonialexperience proves that except to the peasant proprietoragriculture will not pay. If pastoral pursuits are relied upon,no land will be purchased by sane men, and the assumed advantagesof concentration, with the funds for churches, bishoprics,schools and libraries, can never be realised."

The part I took on this occasion exposed me, as I expected itwould, to a good deal of petty persecution from the New Zealandclique—to an attack from the "Spectator," and other organsof Mr. Wakefield's last bubble; but it secured me, I rejoice toadd, the warm thanks of several intending colonists, and thefriendship of some men whose friendship is worth deserving.

My worst forebodings have long since been confirmed by theletters of unfortunate Canterbury colonists. They find all themoney spent on agriculture wasted, but have good hopes frompastoral pursuits on the fine grassy plains, which they oncedreamed of converting into Lothian or Norfolk farms.

My next exertions in the cause of colonisation were devoted tothe assistance of my friends, Captain and Mrs. Chisholm, in theirlabours to establish Family Colonisation. In this occupation Iwas enabled to extend still further my knowledge of Australia,and of the emigrating classes.

Thus, I claim the merit, if merit there be, of having writtena Hand-Book of Emigration in a style before unknown, but sincepopular and common, viz., a style plain and practical, candid asto the defects of the colony, and explicit as to the hardships ofthe colonist; * of having, during a series of years, criticised,exposed, and successfully attacked the fallacies and frauds ofthe Wakefield system—all the time unsupported by the press,and opposed by the powerful and unscrupulous vested interests ofcolonising companies since insolvent and defunct; of having saveda considerable number of most respectable persons from losingtheir money, their time, their health, and their hopes, in theCanterbury colony;—of having done my utmost to make, publicand popular those common sense principles of self-supportingFamily Colonisation, and to carry out those essential reforms inthe shipping department of emigration to which my excellentfriends, Captain and Mrs. Chisholm, have devoted six active yearsof their lives.

[* All Hand-Books of Emigration, previous to1848, whether of Australia. New Zealand, or America, were merepuffs, written in the spirit of a recruiting crimp.]

In conclusion I take leave to state, as misrepresentationshave been circulated on the subject, that except by the profitsof my books and literary contributions, I have never derived anybenefit, either directly or indirectly, from my share inemigration agitation. My "Emigrants' Journal" barely paid itsnecessary expenses. My pamphlets were, as pamphlets always are, asource of expense. From my "Hand-Book" and miscellaneouscontributions, I of course derived considerable advantage; but ithas been from hard work of another kind that I have been able toearn that moderate income which renders me independent ofcolonising companies and patronising shipowners, and indifferentto those official attractions to which so many who take part incolonial questions early succumb, and which has enabled me towait for the success that sooner or later crowns the reputationof those who struggle for truth and justice.

S. S.

London, 1st June, 1853.

[TABLE OF CONTENTS.]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Frontispiece

PART I.

HISTORICAL.

{Page 11}

CHAPTER I.

AUSTRALIA FROM 1520 TO 1770.

Australia—New SouthWales—Botany Bay. These are the names under which, withinthe memory of men of middle age, a great island-continent at theantipodes has been explored, settled, and advanced from thecondition of a mere gaol, or sink, on which our surplus felonrywas poured—a sheep-walk tended by nomadic burglars—tobe the wealthiest offset of the British crown a land of promisefor the adventurous—a home of peace and independence forthe industrious an El Dorado and an Arcadia combined, where thehardest and and the easiest best-paid employments are to befound; where every striving man who rears a race of industriouschildren may sit under the shadow of his own vine and his ownfig-tree—not without work, but with littlecare—living on his own land, looking down the valleys tohis herds, and towards the hills to his flocks, amid the hummingof bees which know no winter.

Under the genial variations of the climate of Australia allthe productions of southern and temperate latitudesflourish—the palm and the oak, the potato and the yam, theorange and the apple, wheat and Indian corn. Over her boundlesspastures millions of sheep wander—sheep of "noble race,"whose feet, according to the Spanish proverb, "turn all the earththey touch to gold;" cattle by tens of thousands, that maycompare with the best of Durham, or Hereford, or Devon; andhorses as swift and untiring as ever bounded over the stonydeserts of Arabia. In her mountain ridges and river beds gold isgathered in greater profusion than Cortes or Pizarro dreamedgathered without shedding one drop of blood. Peaceful seassurround—safe harbours give access to—this goodlyland, which may be traversed inland for hundreds of miles on footor horseback. No ravenous wild beasts threaten or affright thetimid. The aborigines are few, and quick to learn submission.

The hard work of colonisation has been done; the road has beensmoothed, and made ready; yet is there ample verge and roomenough for millions to follow in the track of the thousands whohave conquered and subdued the earth, and planted and reared, notonly corn and cattle, but an English race, imbued with Englishtraditions, taught by English literature, enjoying Englishinstitutions, and practising English love of order and obedienceto law while cherishing the firmest attachment to liberty.

With these elements of social and political prosperity, onlyneeding for full development a tide of population which thiscountry can well spare, it cannot be doubted that a very fewyears will transform what our fathers considered the meanest,into the greatest of Britain's dependencies; and that, at aperiod when Continental Europe seems retrograding into deeperthan medieval darkness and despotism; side by side in friendlyrivalry with the great American republic, we shall realise thethreat of the baffled statesman (when the rising liberties ofSpain were crushed under the armies of the soon-to-be-exiledBourbon), and "call a new world into existence to redress thebalance of the old" *—a new field for the employment ofable-bodied industry, which, overflowing from the crowdedcompetition of Europe, may there help on the march ofunrestricted commerce by digging capital out of the soil, or, atless exercise of strength, produce choice raw material for thetriumphs of machinery.

[* George Canning.]

For some fifteen years armies of emigrants have annuallyproceeded in greater or less numbers to the Australian colonies,yet it is but recently, that the general public have cared toinquire more than how bread was to be earned or how capitalinvested. Late discoveries have invested these dependencies withnew importance in the eyes of all who follow with interest theprogress of the Anglo-Saxon race. The time seems propitious forattempting not only to describe the features, the resources, andthe prospects of these colonies, but to trace the series ofpolitical, social, and commercial events by which aninsignificant penal settlement in the most distant quarter of theglobe, supported at great cost by the parent state, has givenbirth to a cluster of prosperous self-supporting colonies,largely contributing, directly find indirectly, to the imperialrevenues, by the production of wool and gold, by the consumptionof British manufactures, and by the employment of any amount oflabour that can be landed on their shores.

The name "Australia," now universally adopted to designate thewhole island-continent, was suggested by the gallant,unfortunate, and ill-requited Flinders, in his "Account of aVoyage of Discovery to Terra Australis," a work from which almostall writers on Australian geography have copied their outlines ofthe progress of discovery, previous to the voyage of CaptainCook.

The Dutch, who first explored the whole northern coast, calledit New Holland in their own language. Captain Cook, after sailinground the south-eastern coast, gave it the name of New SouthWales, from a supposed resemblance to that part of Great Britain,and by that name the whole island was known in English worksuntil other settlements were formed. But colloquially, until veryrecently, Botany Bay, the first landing-place of Captain Cook,was vulgarly and popularly the designation given to Australia,although no settlement was ever formed there; and it remains tothis day a swampy suburb, about an hour's ride from Sydney, fromwhich part of the water for the supply of that city is obtained,and where idlers resort, to drink, smoke, and play quoits.

Port Phillip, the name first given to the great bay on whichare the ports of Geelong and Melbourne,* after Captain Phillip,first governor of New South Wales, has been applied to the wholeprovince; and although, by the act of Parliament which created ita separate colony, the name of Victoria has been affixed to thisregion, it will be long before the old inhabitants will rememberor consent to give any other name than Port Phillip to thedistrict which Sir Thomas Mitchell endeavoured, not withoutreason, to designate as Australia Felix.

[* Melbourne stands on the Yarra Yarra River,navigable by steamers of two hundred tons. Larger vessels lie offits mouth, in Hobson's Bay.]

The act of Parliament that created the third colony fixed uponit the vague name of South Australia.

Official and parliamentary documents have superseded theoriginal name of Swan River by Western Australia. Van Diemen'sLand retains its old Dutch name, although also occasionally moreconveniently known as Tasmania.

Dutch, Spanish, and English have succeeded in affixing nominalmarks of their discoveries on Australia, which is almost the lastcountry peopled by an European race; but the French, in spite ofefforts of great pains and cost, have been generally superseded,although at one time they had appropriated all the discoveries ofMatthew Flinders.

The earliest authentic records of the discovery of any part ofAustralia are Spanish. The traces supposed to be found by somegeographers in ancient charts of "Jave le Grand," and in a mapattached to certain editions of Marco Polo's travels, are tooobscure to deserve serious consideration.

That Chinese navigators knew of the existence of NorthernAustralia at a very remote period, is more than probable, lookingat the unchanging habits of that people. They have formed asettlement on the Island of Timor, distant only 250 miles fromCape York, and are in the habit of resorting to the coast nearthe abandoned settlement of Port Essington, to collect a Chinesedainty, the trepang or sea slug.

Between 1520 and 1600 the Spaniards, in the course of theirvoyages from their South American possessions, discovered severalislands of the Australian group; and in 1605 Pedro Fernandez deQuiros and Luis Vaez de Torres made a voyage of discovery in twoships. After finding land, which they named Terra del EsperitoSanto, now known as the New Hebrides, the ships parted company ina gale of wind. Torres, the second in command, coasted along NewGuinea, and sailed through the dangerous straits which are stillthe dread of the mariner in stormy seasons, and still bear hisname. He passed two months in this difficult navigation,mistaking the portions of the coast of Australia which he sightedfor islands. Of this voyage he transmitted a full account in aletter to the King of Spain; but, in accordance with the jealouspolicy of the age, the record was suppressed, and the existenceof Torres Straits remained unknown until they were re-discoveredby Captain Cook in 1770.

During our war with Spain we captured Manilla by storm, and inthe archives of that city Mr. Alexander Dalrymple, thehistoriographer of the British Admiralty, discovered a copy ofthe letter to the King of Spain, which had been deposited thereby Torres. Dalrymple, with that right feeling which shouldinspire all men of science, did justice to the discoverer byinscribing on the official maps issued from his department,against the intricate passage between Australia and New Guinea,"Torres Straits."

About the same time that Quiros and Torres were pursuing theirinvestigation, the Dutch, then in the height of their maritimepower, were prosecuting voyages of discovery in the Indian andPacific Oceans.

From the instructions prepared for the guidance of Abel JanzTasman previous to his voyages in 1642 and 1644 (instructionswhich were signed by the Governor-General Antonio Van Diemen, andfour members of the council, at Batavia), in which the previousdiscoveries of the Dutch in New Guinea and the "Great South Land"were recited, it appears that a Dutch yacht, on a voyage ofdiscovery in 1605-6, discovered the "South Land," mistaking itfor the west side of New Guinea; that a second expedition, in1617, met with no success; and that, in 1623, a third, consistingof the yachts Pera and Arnhem, was despatched from Amboyna, bywhich were discovered "the great islands of Arnhem and Spult,"being, in fact, the north of Australia, which still bears thename of Arnhem's Land. Other records show that, up to 1626, theDutch had, either accidentally or by voyages of exploration,discovered and given names to about half the coast ofAustralia.

Many of these names are preserved to this day, for we have nota passion for re-naming after the standard of our ownlanguage.

The Gulf of Carpentaria is still called after General PeterCarpenter, who explored it. At that period military titles wereindifferently applied to commanders at sea as on land; andcaptains of ships then, as at present in the Russian navy, worespurs. The names of Arnhem, Tasman, De Witt, Endrachts, and Edel,cover the whole of the coast of Northern Australia as far asSharks' Bay.

It is curious that none of these explorations led to anypermanent settlement; and that in this instance, as in manyothers—in America, at the Cape, and in India—Englandhas reaped the fruits of Dutch industry and enterprise. Thatindustrious people have scarcely been more fortunate than theindolent, anti-commercial Spaniard. The Dutch, of all their richcolonial possessions, retain only Java, and the Spaniards Cuba.The two new gold-fields discovered by Dutch and Spaniards,Australia and California, have fallen into the hands of anEnglish-speaking race.

Of Tasman's voyage no account has ever been published. Therewas found on one of the islands forming the roadstead called DirkHartog's roadstead, at the entrance of Shark's Bay, in 1697, andafterwards again in 1801, a pewter plate, attached to a decayedlog half sunk in earth, which bore two inscriptions in Dutch, ofdifferent dates, of which the following aretranslations:—

"1616. On the 25th October the ship Endracht, ofAmsterdam, arrived here; first merchant, Gilles Miebais Van Luck;Captain Dirk Hartog, of Amsterdam. She sailed on the 27th of thesame month for Bantam. Supercargo, Janstins; chief pilot, PeterEcores Van Due. Year 1616."

The second inscription was—

"1697. On the 4th February the ship Geelvink, ofAmsterdam, arrived here; Wilhelem de Flaming,captain-commandante; John Bremen, of Copenhagen, assistant;Michel Bloem Van Estoght, assistant. The dogger Nyptaught,Captain Gerril Coldart, of Amsterdam; Theodore Hermans, of thesame place, assistant; first pilot, Gerritzen, of Bremen.

"The galley Nel Wesetje, Cornelius de Plaming, of Vielandt,commander; Coert Gerritzen, of Bremen, pilot. Our fleet sailshence, leaving the southern territories forBatavia."

In 1642 Tasman discovered and sailed along the coast of theIsland of Van Diemen's Land, supposing it to be part of the"South Land."

In successive investigations by Captain Marrion, of the Frenchnavy, in 1772; by Captain Tobias, of the British service, in1773; by Captain Cook, in 1777; and by the French Rear-AdmiralD'Entrecasteaux, the coast line to the south and east was furtherexplored; but the insularity of Van Diemen's Land, the harbour ofPort Jackson, and the Rivers Hunter, Brisbane, and Yarra, alldestined to be the outlets to important districts in futurecolonies, remained undiscovered.

The many hundred leagues of coast so frequently visited by theDutch, had afforded no encouragement for the plantation ofsettlements similar to those which they had founded with suchbrilliant results in the Indian Seas.

The Commander Carstens, sent by the Dutch East India Companyto explore New Holland, describes it as "barren coasts, shallowwater, islands thinly peopled by cruel, poor, and brutal natives,and of very little use to the company." Tasman's Land waspronounced to be the abode of "howling evil spirits." In thesediscouraging reports all mariners, until the time of CaptainCook, agreed; which is not extraordinary, considering that, afterthe time of Columbus, maritime discoverers sought lands in whicheither gold was to be had for gathering, or where rich tropicalfruits abounded in pleasant arbours.

In New Holland the natives were hostile and miserably poor, inthe lowest state of human existence. They built no huts, wore noornaments of gold or precious stones, cultivated no ground. Theirbarren, unfruitful coast, afforded no indigenous fruits forbarter; neither the yam, the cocoa, nor the pineapple, the lemon,the citron, the gourd, nor indeed any other fruit grateful toEuropean taste.

As the Spaniards were the first, so the British were the last,and (in their first attempts) the least successful; in exploringthe coast of Australia.

William Dampier, one of the boldest and most scientificnavigators of his age, author of a "Voyage Round the World," fromwhich Defoe drew many hints, visited New Holland threetimes—on the first occasion with his companions thebuccaneers; again as pilot of H.M.S. Roebuck when he spent aboutfive weeks in ranging off and on the coast of New South Wales, alength of about 300 leagues; on the third occasion he passedthrough Torres Straits as pilot to Captain Woodes Rogers, in1710, when he explored Sharks' Bay, the coasts of New Guinea, NewBritain, and New Zealand.

In July, 1769, Captain James Cook, after having observed thetransit of Venus at Otaheite (or Tahiti), and cruised for a monthamong the other Society Islands, sailed southwards in search ofthe continent Terra Australis Incognita, which geographersfor a preceding century had calculated must exist somewherethereabouts, as a counterpoise to the great tract of land in thenorthern hemisphere.

In this search he first visited the Islands of New Zealand,which had been previously discovered by Tasman in 1662; he spentsix months in investigating them, and ascertained that theyconsisted of two large islands.

Leaving New Zealand, and sailing westward, he sighted NewHolland on the 11th of April, 1770, and on the 27th anchored inthe roadstead to which he afterwards gave the name of Botany Bay.On the following day he landed, with Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph)Banks, President of the Royal Society, Dr. Solander, and a partyof seamen. They were all charmed with the bright verdure of thescene, in which all natural objects the kangaroo bounding throughthe open forest, the evergreen eucalypti, the grass-trees, thebirds—were unlike anything they had ever seen before in thecourse of their voyages in various quarters of the globe.

After exploring the country for several days, during which afavourable estimate was formed of the capabilities of thedistrict for supporting a colony,* and vainly endeavouring toopen a communication with natives, through Tupia, a South-seaIslander, Cook sailed to the northward, passing without visitingthe opening into Port Jackson: taking it for a mere boat harbour,he gave it the name of the look-out seamen who announced theindentation in the dark, lofty, basaltic cliffs which open apassage into that noble harbour.

[* The author of the narrative of Cook's firstvoyage says: "It was oft account of the great quantity of plantswhich Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander collected in this place thatLieutenant Cook was induced to give it the name of Botany Bay. Incultivating the ground there would e no obstacle from the trees,which are tall, straight, and without underwood, and stand asufficient distance from each other."]

On the 17th of May, Cook anchored in a bay to which he "gavethe name of Moreton Bay; and, at a place where the land was notat that time visible, some on board, having observed that the sealooked paler than usual, were of opinion that the bottom of thebay opened into a river;" but Cook came to a contrary conclusion;it was not until 1823 that the navigable River Brisbane, whichgives access to a fine pastoral country, was discovered.

Leaving Moreton Bay, Cook ran down the coast as far as CapeYork, taking possession in the usual form wherever he landed.Afterwards passing between New Guinea and Australia, he proved,as Torres had before him, that they were distinct islands.

Cook landed altogether five times on this coast—first atBotany Bay, on the 28th of April, 1770; secondly on the 22nd ofMay, when he shot a kind of bustard weighing 17 lbs., and namedthe landing-place Bustard Bay; the third time on the 30th of May,at a spot which, from the absence of water, he named ThirstySound. The fourth time was on the 18th of June, 1770 (seven daysafter his vessel, the Endeavour, had struck upon a coral rock),at Endeavour River, where they refitted. It was during his stayat Endeavour River that one of his crew came running to the boatdeclaring that he had seen the devil, "as large as a one-gallonkeg, with horns and wings, yet he crept so slowly I might havetouched him if I had not been afeared." This "devil" was agrey-headed vampyre. (See Engraving on next page.)

On the 21st of August of the same year, having passed andnamed a point on the mainland "Cape York," Cook anchored, landedfor the fifth time on an island which lies in lat. 10° 30' S.,and having ascertained that he had discovered, by ascending ahill from whence he had a clear view of forty miles, an openpassage to the Indian Seas, before re-embarking took possessionin the following words:—

"As I am now about to quit the eastern coast of New Holland,which I have coasted from lat. 38° to this place, and which I amconfident no European has ever seen before, I once more hoistEnglish colours; and, though I have already taken possession ofseveral parts, I now take possession of the whole of the easterncoast, by the name of New South Wales (from its great similarityto that part of the principality), in the right of my sovereign,George the Third, King of Great Britain."

His men fired three volleys of firearms, which were answeredby the same number from the guns of the ship, and by three cheersfrom the main shrouds, and, then re-embarking, he named the spotPossession Island.

These explorations of Cook completed the circuit of the islandcommenced and prosecuted from the beginning of the seventeenthcentury by the Spanish and Dutch, with the exception of the coast19 opposite Van Diemen's Land, which was reserved for theenterprise of Flinders and Bass.

In his exploration of Australia, Cook's usual sagacity andgood fortune seem to have failed him, although his contributionsto our knowledge of an important navigation were of the mostvaluable character. He selected Botany Bay, a dangerous harbour,which must remain for many years an undrained swamp. He passedwithout examination Port Jackson, the site of Sydney; MoretonBay, with its navigable river; and, concluding that Van Diemen'sLand was part of the Island of Australia, and the dividingstraits a deep bay, lost the opportunity of investigating thegreat bay of Port Phillip, on the shores of which the mostflourishing colony in the British dominions is now rising. InGod's good providence the discovery was reserved for a fittingtime.

{Page 20}

CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN OF TRANSPORTATION.

The accumulation of criminals in ourgaols at the close of the American war became an embarrassingquestion for the county magistrates and the government. Projectsfor the renewal of transportation, and its effect on criminals,became a subject of discussion among statesmen andphilanthropists.

Banishment, from a very early period, was an ordinarypunishment, which permitted the sentenced to proceed to anycountry he pleased. Thus, in Shakspere's "Richard II.:

"we banish you our territories!
You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of death,
Till twice five summers have enriched our fields,
Shall not regreet our fair domains,
But tread the stranger paths of banishment.
Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom!

*****

The hopeless word of never to return
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.

Even at the present day it is common, in Guernsey and Jersey,to "banish a criminal to England;" that is to say, to land him atSouthampton, and then leave him free to go where he will so longas he does not revisit the Channel Islands.

The first legislative trace of the punishment oftransportation is to be found in the 39th of Elizabeth, c. 4,authorising the banishment of rogues and vagabonds. This actJames the First converted into an instrument of transportation toAmerica, in a letter written in 1619, addressed to the council ofthe colony of Virginia, commanding them "to send a hundreddissolute persons to Virginia, that the Knight-Marshal woulddeliver to them for that purpose." These being the very class ofpersons against whose introduction the celebrated hero ofVirginia, Captain John Smith, had specially protested. In thesame year, as a kind of counterpoise to these dissolute persons,the Company sent ninety agreeable girls, young and incorrupt; andagain, in 1621, sixty more, "maids of virtuous education, young,and handsome." The first lot of females brought 120 lbs. oftobacco each, and the second, 150 lbs. each. 21

The first distinct notice of transportation is to be found inthe 18th of Charles II., c. 3, which gives the judges power, attheir discretion, to execute, or transport for life, themoss-troopers of Cumberland or Northumberland. The punishment wasinflicted very frequently, in an illegal manner, up to the reignof George the First, when its operation was extended andlegalised.

Defoe, who always drew the outlines of his stories from actuallife, no doubt gives a true picture of the life led by theconvicts in the American plantations in his "History of MollFlanders."

During the reign of James the Second, transportation, orrather reduction to slavery, was a favourite, and to certainparties a profitable, punishment.

Dr. Lingard quotes a petition setting forth that seventypersons, apprehended on account of the Salisbury rising ofPenruddock and Grove, had, after a year's imprisonment, been soldat Barbadoes for 1,550 lbs. of sugar a-piece, more or less,according to their working faculties. Among them were divines,officers, and gentlemen, who were represented as "grinding at themills, attending at the furnaces, and digging in that scorchingisland, whipped at whipping-posts, and sleeping in sties worsethan hogs in England." *

[* Lingard, xi. 143.]

After Argyle's defeat the planters were on the alert to obtainwhite slaves, and were successful, Some of the common prisoners,and others, who were Highlanders, were by the Privy Councildelivered to Mr. George Scott, of Petlockey, and other plantersin New Jersey, Jamaica.

After Monmouth's rebellion, Lord Sunderland wrote from"Winser, Sept. 14th, 1685, to Judge Jeffries," to acquaint himfrom the king that, of such persons as the judge should thinkqualified for transportation, the following individuals were tobe furnished with these numbers:—Sir Philip Howard to have200 (convicts); Sir Richard White, 200; Sir William Booth, 100;Mr. Kendal, 100; Mr. Nipho, 100; Sir William Stapleton, 100; SirChristopher Musgrave, 100; a merchant, whose name Lord Sunderlanddid not know, 100. Thus it was proposed to give away 1,000. TheKing directed Chief Justice Jeffries to give orders fordelivering the said numbers "to the above persons respectively,to be forthwith transported to some of his Majesty's southernplantations, viz., Jamaica, Barbadoes, or any of the LeewardIslands in America, to be kept there for the space of ten yearsbefore they have their liberty. In the end, eight hundred andforty-nine of Monmouth's followers, all from the west, weresold." ** Macaulay's account of the traffic between the maids ofhonour and the relatives of prisoners will be in the recollectionof all our readers, as well as the question of who was the Mr.Penn who acted as broker.

[** Roberts' "Duke of Monmouth," vol. ii. p.248.]

But the following Bristol legend of an incident in the life ofJeffries proves that he did not permit aldermen to follow theexample of the maids of honour: "On his return from Taunton,where his mornings were passed in sentencing to hanging andburning, and his evenings with a congenial soul, Colonel Kirk, indrinking, he stopped at Bristol. Now, the mayor, aldermen, andjustices of Bristol had been used to transport convictedcriminals to the American plantations, and sell them by way oftrade; and finding the commodity turn to good account, theycontrived a way to make it more plentiful. Their legal convictswere but few, and the exportation inconsiderable: when,therefore, any petty rogues and pilferers were brought beforethem in a judicial capacity, they were sure to be terriblythreatened with hanging, and they had some diligent officersattending, who could advise the ignorant, intimidated creaturesto pray for transportation, as the only way to save their lives;and in general, by some means or other, the advice was followed:then, without any more form, each alderman in turn took one, andsold him for his own benefit; sometimes there even arose warmdisputes among them about the next turn. This trade had beencarried on unnoticed many years, when it came to the knowledge ofthe Lord Chief Justice, who, finding upon inquiry that the mayorwas equally involved with the rest of his brethren in thisoutrageous practice, made him descend from the bench where he wassitting, and stand at the bar in his scarlet and furs, and pleadlike any common criminal."

This system, and the demand for labour, led to frequent casesof kidnapping of the poor and friendless, and of parties who hadmade themselves obnoxious to powerful and unscrupulousindividuals. Thus debtors disencumbered themselves of theircreditors, wives of their husbands, and guardians of their wards.Even in vengeance the commercial spirit of Britain was displayed:while the Italian stabbed or poisoned his enemy, the Englishmansold him for a soldier, a sailor, or a slave.

Before the commencement of the American war of independence,the introduction of the more docile and laborious negro hadrendered the American planters hostile to the importation ofwhite convicts. The war put a stop to the traffic in white flesh,and crowded our gaols. At the same period the prison labours ofHoward commenced. In his vocation he personally examined everyplace of imprisonment. He found the convicted prisoner, money inhis purse, revelling in debauchery, while the untried poor manwas half starved, lodged on damp stones, exposed, from unglazedwindows, to every blast, and crowded promiscuously with thevilest of mankind in deep dungeons, where fever and foulpestilence ever smouldered. Sometimes a black assize swept awayprisoners, gaolers, and even judges. The barbarity of the systemmay be appreciated from the circ*mstance that Howard consideredhe had achieved a great triumph, when he at length obtained anorder for a daily allowance of a penny loaf and small piece ofcheese for each untried prisoner.

Howard was anxious to establish reformatory prisons orpenitentiaries, but his humane schemes met with little favour.With the experience we have since had, we cannot imagine that hecould have had any success, except in establishing a clean andwholesome system of management.

The country was no more prepared then than it is at present,to permit desperate ruffians to be unloosed to renew their crimeson the expiration of their terms of imprisonment. But no one thencontemplated the construction of prisons like Reading, as costlyand comfortable palaces, in which the hard-labour test wouldconsist in composing moral essays, and collating texts ofScripture.*

[* Reading Gaol, Berks.]

The annual accumulation of roguery was to be got rid of! Thatwas the problem; and, so long as it was solved, few cared how.Hanging had been stretched to its utmost limits; transportationhad been checked by the revolt of a country which decided toemploy no slaves who had not at least 25 per cent. of black bloodin their veins, and to receive no rogues except those who hadescaped unconvicted.

Under these difficult circ*mstances, a proposition for"shovelling" out our criminals on the shores of the antipodes,recently re-discovered by Cook, was eagerly entertained. There itwas presumed, on very insufficient grounds, the place ofpunishment could be rendered self-supporting; at any rate, theprisoners would cease to be a nuisance to the life and propertyof this country. Howard opposed the project, but his oppositionwas fortunately unheeded, although founded on very sufficientgrounds.

When we now examine the population, the wealth, the commerce,the sources of annually increasing power and prosperity of theAustralian colonies, and the undeniable elements of empire whichthey enjoy, it is scarcely possible to believe that the firstsettlement was formed with the overflowings of our gaols and thesweepings of our streets; that, for a long series of years, itsvery existence was dependent on supplies of food, which thefamine resulting from a month's delay of a store-ship would haverendered useless, and on grants of money, voted at a time whenvotes, except on the grand field-days of contending parties, werepassed undiscussed in Parliament and unreported innewspapers.

At this day, when care for the health, education, andreligious instruction of criminals is carried to an extent whichshows, in painful relief, the neglect our peasantry endure, it iswith amazement and horror that we look back on the cool, carelessindifference with which the ministers of George the Third, in1797, set about founding a penal settlement at the opposite sideof the world.

Captain Cook and his companions had passed a few days on theintended site of the proposed penal colony, and had found a smallriver, a profusion of curious plants, and an indifferent harbour.They had not seen any plains of pasture fit to feed live stock;they had found no large edible animals, such as deer, orbuffaloes, or pigs. They had no means of ascertaining whether thesoil was capable of carrying crops for the support of aconsiderable population; and the nearest land at which live stockand dry stores could be procured was the Cape of Good Hope, acolony in the possession of the Dutch.

As little judgment, as little forethought, as little commonhumanity, was displayed in selecting the colonists as the colony.The first detachment consisted of the first governor, CaptainArthur Phillip, R.N., with a guard of marines, viz., amajor-commandant, twelve subalterns, and twenty-fournon-commissioned officers, one hundred and sixty-eight rank andfile, with forty women, their wives. These were the unconvictedsection of the intended colony. The prisoners were six hundredmen, and two hundred and fifty women, the latter being not onlythe most abandoned of their sex, but many of them aged, infirm,and even idiotic. This fearful disproportion of sexes wasmaintained, and even increased, until the proportion of men towomen was as six to one, and the results became too horrible tobe here recorded.

This "goodly company" was embarked in a frigate, the Sirius,an armed tender, three store-ships, and six transports, under thecommand of Captain Hunter. At the last moment, by anafterthought, one chaplain was sent on board. There was noschoolmaster, no superintendent, or gaolers, or overseers, exceptmarines with muskets loaded in case of revolt. No agriculturistwas sent to teach the highwaymen and pickpockets to plough, anddelve, and sow. No system of discipline was planned, nothingbeyond mere coercion was attempted. Even the supply of mechanicsrequired for erecting the needful houses and stores was left amatter of chance, dependent on the trades of the six hundredfelons; and, as it turned out, there were not half a dozencarpenters, only one bricklayer, and not one mechanic in thewhole settlement capable of erecting a corn-mill.

The "first fleet" sailed on the 13th May, 1787, and, after avoyage of eight months, during which they touched at the Cape deVerd Islands, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope, beingeverywhere received with the greatest attention and courtesy,anchored in Botany Bay on the 20th January, 1788.

Within four-and-twenty hours after landing, Governor Phillipascertained that Botany Bay was quite unsuitable for the site ofa colony, that a sufficient quantity of cultivable agriculturalland, and of fresh water, were wanting; and that the harbour wasunsafe for ships of burden. Without disembarking his charge, heset out with a party of three boats, to explore the coast to thenorthward, and particularly Broken Bay, an inlet favourablymentioned by Captain Cook, distant about eighteen miles fromBotany Bay; but, as he sailed along the barrier of cliffs whichline the shore, he decided to examine the narrow cleft which Cookhad named Port Jackson.

The day was mild and serene. The expedition sailed along thecoast near enough to see, and hear the wild cries of, theastonished natives, who followed them as far as the rugged natureof the land would permit. As they approached Port Jackson, thecoast wore such an appearance that Captain Phillip fully expectedto find Captain Cook's unfavourable impressions realised; but hewas destined to be most agreeably disappointed.

The first tack carried the expedition out of the long heavyswell of the Pacific Ocean into the smooth water of a canalprotected by two projecting "heads;" and soon they came withinsight of a vast land-locked lake, stretching as far as the eyecould reach, dotted with small islands, whose shores sloped,forest-covered, down to the water's edge. Black swans and otherrare water-birds fluttered up as the white strangers sailed on,charmed with a scene in which every feature was beautiful, yetstrange. They had discovered one of the finest harbours in theworld. Coasting round the shores of this great natural basin,Governor Phillip determined to plant his colony on a promontorywhere a small clear stream trickled into the salt water. Afterthree days spent in exploration, he returned to Botany Bay.

On the morning of the 25th January, as they were working out,the English fleet were astonished by seeing two strange ships ofwar sailing into the bay. These were the Boussole and Astrolabe,the French expedition of discovery under the command of M. de laPérouse, which had left France in 1785. La Pérouse "had sailedinto Botany Bay by Captain Cook's chart, which lay before him onthe binnacle. Having heard at Kamtschatka of the intendedsettlement, he had expected to have found a town built and marketestablished." Thus it was probably but by a few days that thehonour of discovering Port Jackson fell to England. The Frenchsquadron remained until the 10th March to refresh and refit, and,then departing, were never heard of more, until, in 1826, Mr.Dillon discovered at the Manicola Islands traces of arms andornaments which proved their mournful fate—shipwrecked, andmurdered by savages.

A monument has been erected to the memory of La Pérouse andhis crew in Botany Bay.

{Page 27}

CHAPTER III.

GOVERNOR PHILLIP TO GOVERNOR KING.

1788 TO 1806.

On the 26th January the English fleet,having been brought round, anchored in deep water close along theshore of Sydney Cove, so called after Lord Sydney, one of thelords of the Admiralty. A formal disembarkation took place adetachment of marines and blue jackets leaping from their boatsinto the shades of a primaeval forest. After hoisting Britishcolours "near where the colonnade in Bridge-street now stands,"the proclamation and commission constituting the colony wereread, a salute of small arms was fired, and the career of theprovince of New South Wales commenced. The whole party landedamounted to one thousand and thirty souls, who encamped undertents, and under and within hollow trees, "in a countryresembling the more woody parts of a deer park in England." Suchwere the accidents of the foundation, and such the founders, ofour colonial empire in Australia.

No sooner had the convict colonists been disembarked, and theerection of the necessary buildings commenced, than the want of asufficient body of artificers was experienced. The shipsfurnished sixteen, and the prisoners twelve, carpenters; and by apiece of unexpected good fortune, which caused much rejoicing,"an experienced bricklayer was discovered among the convicts. Hewas at once placed at the head of a party of labourers, withorders to construct a number of brick huts: in the meantime thegovernor occupied a tent."

This first example is a fair specimen of the manner in whichthe penal discipline in the colony was conducted for a longseries of years. A useful man was placed in authority, andallowed a variety of indulgences, quite irrespective of his moralqualities. The greatest ruffians became overseers, and occupiedplaces of trust. Men of no use—mere drudges—weretreated worse than beasts of burden.

In the month of May the entire live stock of the colony,public and private, consisted of—2 bulls, 5 cows, 1 horse,3 mares, 3 colts, 29 sheep, 19 goats, 74 pigs, 5 rabbits, 18turkeys, 29 geese, 35 ducks; 210 fowls. The cattle were of theCape breed, humpy on the shoulders, and long-horned—a factwhich it afterwards became of consequence to remember. In theensuing month it is recorded as a public calamity that two bullsand four cows wandered away from the pickpocket herdsman who hadthem in charge, and were lost in the woods. In the sequel it wasshown that the cattle were better colonists than theirowners.

The entrance to Port Jackson, as already partly described, isthrough projecting capes, or two heads, which conceal and shelterthe far extent of the harbour. A channel, about two miles inbreadth, opens a land-locked harbour, about fifteen miles inlength, of irregular form, the shores jagged with inlets, coves,and creeks, which, when the first adventurers landed, werecovered to the water's edge with the finest timber. At thewestern extremity a current of fresh water mingling with the seatide gave signs of the winding Paramatta River, navigable forvessels of small burden for eighteen miles.

The settlement was planted on the banks of an inlet or "cove,"about half a mile in length, and a quarter in breadth, whichreceived a considerable stream of fresh water at the upperend.

The native blacks, who then swarmed along the whole coast fromBotany Bay, and far beyond in either direction, came to meet thewhite strangers naked, armed with the shield, the spear, and theboomerang, which the settlers at first took for a woodensword.

From the circ*mstance of the aborigines not being subject tothe authority of any sort of government except that of thestrongest man, from the imperfection of their arms, and theirmental incapacity for combination, their communications andskirmishes with the white intruders do not occupy that place inthe history of the colony which is filled by the Bed Indiantribes in the history of North America, or the semi-civilisedPeruvians and Mexicans in that of Spanish South America.

On the 7th February, 1788, the king's commission for thegovernment of the "territory of New South Wales and itsdependencies" was read. By this instrument the colony wasdeclared "to extend from the northern extremity of the coastcalled Cape York, in the latitude of 10° 37', to the southernextremity of South Cape, in the latitude of 43° 39', includingall adjacent islands within those latitudes, and inland to thewestward as far as the 135th degree of east longitude." At thesame time were read the letters patent issued under the 27thGeorge III., cap. 56, for establishing courts of civil andcriminal judicature in the colony. Under these thegovernor—or, in his absence, the lieutenant-governor wasauthorised, whenever, and only when, he saw fit, to summon acourt of criminal jurisdiction, which was to be a court ofrecord, and to consist of the judge-advocate, and six suchofficers of the sea or land service as the governor shouldnominate by presents under hand and seal. This court wasempowered to inquire into and punish all crimes of whatevernature; the punishment to be inflicted according to the laws ofEngland, as nearly as might be, considering and allowing for thecirc*mstances and situations of the settlement and itsinhabitants; the charge to be reduced to writing; witnesses to beexamined upon oath; the sentence of the court to be determined bythe opinion of the majority; but the punishment not to beinflicted unless five members of the court concurred, until theking's pleasure should be known; the provost-marshal to cause thejudgment under the governor's warrant.

In this court the judge-advocate was president (there was noprovision that he should be a man of legal education); he wasalso to frame and exhibit the charge against the prisoner, tohave a vote in the court, and to be sworn like members of it. Themilitary officers were to appear in the insignia ofduty—sash and sword; they had the right to examinewitnesses as well as the judge-advocate; he alone centred in hisperson the offices of prosecutor, judge, and jury.

There was also a civil court, consisting of the judge-advocateand two inhabitants of the settlement, who were to be appointedby the governor, "empowered to decide, in a summary manner, allpleas of lands, houses, debts, contracts, and all personal pleas,with authority to summon parties, upon complaint being made, toexamine the matter of such complaint by the oath of witnesses,and to issue warrants of execution under the hand and seal of thejudge-advocate." From this court an appeal might be made to thegovernor, and from him (where the property exceeded the value ofthree hundred pounds) to the king in council. To this court waslikewise given authority to grant probates of wills, andadministration of the personal estates of intestate persons dyingwithin the settlement.

A vice-admiralty court was also established for the trial ofoffences committed on the high seas. The governor wascaptain-general and vice-admiral, with authority to hold generalcourts-martial, to confirm and set aside sentences.

Powers equal to those of the first governor of New SouthWales, if held, have never been exercised by any other officialin the British dominions. He could sentence to five hundredlashes, fine five hundred pounds, regulate customs and trade, fixprices and wages, remit capital as well as other sentences,bestow grants of land, and create a monopoly of any article ofnecessity. All the labour in the colony was at his disposal; allthe land, all the stores, all the places of honour and profit;and virtually all the justice, as the case of Governor Blighafterwards proved. The governor's subjects consisted of hissubordinates, officers—for, as captain-general, thecommandant of the troops was under his orders of the few whor*sorted to New South Wales to trade (whose profits were at hisdisposal), and the convicts—outcasts without civil rights.The distance from England, the few means of communication, theindifference of the English public to the fate of the inhabitantsof a penal or any other colony, rendered the governor, so far asthe control of law extended, actually irresponsible. As there wasno law, so there was no publicity and no public opinion torestrain the exercise of the despotism which was the onlypossible government in such a penal settlement.

The chief officers were naval and military, of the old school;not the school of Cook and Keppel, Nelson and Collingwood, Wolfeand Cornwallis, but of that school which, by its tyranny, itsabuse of power, its neglect of common honesty, of common decency,and common humanity in the treatment, the wages, the clothing,and the food of sailors, created the alarming mutinies ofPortsmouth and the Nore.*

[* Portsmouth, May; the Nore, June, 1797.]

The powers vested in the governor were exercised without therestraining influence of council or law adviser until 1822.**

[** The Charter of Justice was not formallypromulgated until the 17th May, 1824.]

Amazement and horror overcome us when we look back on theearly days of New South Wales. Under the absolute governmentdescribed, the settlers were crowded together on a narrow space apromontory cleared of a dense forest. The soil was a barren sand;every yard required for cultivation had to be gained by removingenormous trees of a hardness that tried the temper of the bestaxes, wielded in skilled hands. On one side was an unknown shoreand a shipless sea; on the other, an apparently limitlesscountry, inhabited by savages, in which not a step could be takenwithout danger of being totally lost; a country which produced nowild fruit or root fit for the sustenance of man; and, with theexception of a wandering kangaroo, or a shy, swift emu, no gameof any size fit for food.

The want of enterprise which marked the early career of thecolonists, and left them so long in ignorance of the richdistricts on which, after a long interval, the colony becameself-supporting, cannot but be attributed to the form ofgovernment and to the moral blight caused by the composition ofthe society. The mass of the community were slaves—slaveswithout the contented spirit of negroes or Russian serfs, forthey had been born in a free country, and could not learn tosubmit and be happy, even if, in the matter of food and lodging,they had been well provided, instead of being burned with heat,perished with cold, and always half starved. They were slaves,too, labouring hard, but scarcely producing anything.

The long voyage was a bad preparation for useful labour. Theconvicts were heaped on board ship without selection, the vilestand most venial criminals chained together. No classification ofdegrees of crime, or for the purposes of useful labour, wasattempted. The overseers were prisoners selected by favouritism,or for their bodily strength; and the work was divided betweenpersonal service on the officers, handicraft, and meredrudgery.

One chaplain of the Church of England enjoyed a salary forpreaching occasionally to an ignorant uninstructed multitude, ofwhom one-third were Irish Roman Catholics, transported forpolitical or agrarian offences. Religious teaching, the bedsideprayer, the solemn call to repentance, were seldom heard in thatmiserable Gomorrah.

Far from all civilising, humanising influences, in suchsociety the finest natures became brutalised into tyrants, whilethe criminals under their command dragged on a miserableexistence or rebelled with all the dogged ruffianism of despair.Although the chief records of the early days of the colony aredrawn from the writings and reports of officials, who werenaturally inclined to put the best face on a system of which theywere the paid instruments, and whose eyes, ears, consciences wereseared by constant contact with misery and tyranny, yet there ismore than enough testimony of the cruel and stupid despotismwhich prevailed.

We learn from the journals of Howard, and the reports of theparliamentary inquiries instituted through his influence, howfrightful were the abuses practised on tried and untriedprisoners at the close of the eighteenth century in England,where the gaols were visited by numerous individuals of variousranks, where the common-law rights of the subject had beenestablished, where what was considered in those clays a freepress flourished, where, from Sabbath to Sabbath, Christianministers assembled and led Christian congregations to prayer andpraise, where a parliament held its sittings whose orators madeEurope resound with their denunciations of tyranny, and wherelaws were administered by incorruptible, independent judges. Wemay more easily imagine how in New South Wales, where there wasno law but the law of the lash, tyranny became chronic, andcruelty spread through the whole body corporate of thecolony.

A singular succession of serious, pitiable, ludicrous, anddisgraceful incidents, mark the history of the settlement, fromthe day of proclaiming the king's commission to the end of theyear 1800, which has been minutely recorded by Collins. At onetime "a person named Smith, on his way to India, professing someknowledge of agriculture," is engaged by the government, andcreated a peace-officer at Rosehill, the site of the future townof Paramatta, the said Smith being apparently the only freemanwith any claims to the kind of knowledge on which the subsistenceof the colony was likely to depend. At another time one Bryant, aDevonshire prisoner, employed in his calling of a fisherman, isdetected in secreting and selling large quantities of fish, andis severely punished; but, "being too useful a person to partwith, and send to the Brick Cart," he is retained to fish for thesettlement. This man afterwards escaped with his family and aparty of other prisoners in an open boat to the Island of Timor;he was there captured by a mari-of-war, and carried to Batavia,where he died. His wife was conveyed to England, tried, andconfined in Newgate until the term of her original sentenceexpired.

Then we find convicts, "when little more than two years hadelapsed," claiming their discharge on the ground that the time oftheir sentence had expired, which was possible, as it would datefrom the day of their sentences. When, in answer to these claims,inquiries are made for the documents containing the particulars,"it is found that they have been left in England, and that,therefore, it is impossible to affirm or deny the claims."Consequently, the prisoners are told they must wait for an answerto a despatch to be sent by the first opportunity to England, aperiod of two or three years. One of the prisoners, not very wellpleased with the prospect of such delay, expresses himselfdisrespectfully of the lieutenant-governor in the presence of thegovernor. Thereupon he is seized, tried by a criminal court,found guilty, and sentenced to receive six hundred lashes, andwear irons for the space of six months. About the same time asoldier having been found guilty of a horrible criminal assaulton a female child, his sentence is commuted to banishment forlife to the auxiliary agricultural settlement of NorfolkIsland.

These are but a few gems of the judicial system by which NewSouth Wales was ruled for nearly the first quarter of a centuryof its existence.

In 1790, the third year of colonisation, four ships arrivedfilled with convicts, of whom the greater number were in a dyingstate: two hundred and sixty-one had died at sea; two hundredwere brought on shore in the last stage of exhaustion, fromscurvy, dysentery, fever, bad food, and foul air. In order tosave the parties in charge trouble, the men had been chainedtogether in rows, and confined below nearly throughout thevoyage. On board one of the ships, the Neptune, several of theprisoners had died in irons; their companions concealed theirdeaths in order to share the extra allowance of provisions, andso slight was the supervision, that the horrible fact was notdiscovered until betrayed by the offensiveness ofputrefaction.

Many years elapsed before a system was adopted by which thepreservation of the health of prisoners and troops became theinterest as well as the duty of the surgeon in charge. At thattime the more and the sooner prisoners died the more profitablethe transaction was to the contractor; so they commonly died likerotten sheep.

Those were the days in which transportation really was apunishment almost as terrible as death. New South Wales was thenan awful over-sea gaol, offering no prospect of advancement orliberation; where the will of a prisoner-turnkey was law, wheredeath was the punishment of the most trifling crimes, and areproachful look was punished with the lash.

A few days before the four ships landed one thousand male andtwo hundred arid fifty female convicts, the arrival of onestoreship, the Justinian, saved the whole colony from perishingof famine. The Guardian, laden with a great supply of provisions,stores, and live stock, under the command of Riou, "the gallantgood Riou," of Campbell's "Battle of Copenhagen," had struck onan iceberg, and, after almost all the cargo had been thrownoverboard, was with difficulty carried into the Cape of GoodHope. For weeks before the arrival of the Justinian, the wholesettlement had been put on short allowance, The governor, saysCollins, had thrown his store, 300 lbs. of flour, into the commonstock. The weekly allowance of each prisoner had been reduced to2 lbs. of salt pork, 2½ lbs. of flour, and 2 lbs. of rice."Labour stood suspended for want of energy to proceed; thecountenances of the people plainly bespoke the hardships theyunderwent." "Garden-robbing became prevalent; the most severemeasures were employed to repress the crime caused by, and yetincreasing, the effects of the scarcity, but in vain. A mancaught by the clergyman stealing potatoes was sentenced to threehundred lashes, to have his rations of flour stopped for sixmonths, and to be chained for that period to two others caughtrobbing the governor's garden; but this and many similarpunishments produced no more effect than the clemency of thegovernor, who remitted three hundred out of four hundred lashesto which one man was sentenced. The proverb that "hunger willbreak through stone walls," was exemplified night and day.

"So great was the villany of the people, or the necessityof the times, that a prisoner lying at the hospital from theeffects of punishment, part of which he had received, contrivedto get his irons off one leg, and in that state was caughtrobbing a farm;" but the historian reports that at Rosehill,where they had vegetables in abundance, no thefts werecommitted.

The Justinian, which brought relief from this state ofdestitution, was driven off Sydney Heads when within hail: it wasfor some hours doubtful whether she would not strike and become atotal wreck on the reefs of Broken Bay. Had that event occurred,and the twelve hundred and fifty additional convicts safely madethe port, death by starvation, or in a struggle for food, musthave been the fate of the whole settlement.

Could it be wondered if, under such a system of despotism,without discipline in the colony, and in the face of such neglectat home, the descendants of these men had grown fiercely disloyaland anti-British? But yet it is not so. The Australians are aloyal, order-loving, law-obeying race, as they have recentlyproved more than once. Even gold-digging has not corrupted theirhonest hearts.

It was not until five years after Governor Phillip's landingthat a temporary church was erected, and divine service performedon the 25th August, 1793.

The founders of New England—themselves tyrannical andintolerant, although flying from tyranny andintolerance—did not let a week elapse without makingpermanent arrangements for religious worship and education, whichendure to this day, and have spread their humanising influencesall over the wide empire of the American republic. In New SouthWales, under the rule of a sovereign which some, disparaging thepresent, are accustomed to glorify as the reign of a speciallyChristian king, the penalties of lash, the pillory, the gallows,were administered as freely as teaching and preaching wereneglected.

It sounds strangely in this age to hear that "the clergymancomplaining of non-attendance at divine service," which wasgenerally performed in the open air, alike unsheltered from windand rain, as from the fervour of the summer's sun, "it wasordered that three pounds of flour should be deducted from theration of each overseer, and two pounds from each labouringconvict who should not attend prayers once on each Sunday, unlesssome reasonable excuse for absence should be assigned."

In 1791 (April) we find Mr. Schaffer, a German, arriving fromEngland as a superintendent of convicts; but on discovery that ashe spoke no English he was unable to discharge his duties, heretired, and accepted a grant of land of 140 acres at Rosehill.One cannot help feeling curious to know under whose patronage andfor what services a German, not speaking' English, was sent assuperintendent of convicts at the antipodes. Is it possible thatMiss Burney's friend, Madame Schwellenberg, could have hadanything to do with this little appointment?

At the same time James Ruse received a grant of a similarquantity of land as a reward for being the first settler whodeclared he was able to support himself on a farm he had occupiedfifteen months, and to dispense with an allowance from thegovernment stores.

These incidents, with the arrival, in two detachments, of aregiment raised for the purpose of serving in the colony, underthe title of the New South Wales Corps, are the most remarkableevents during the latter years of the reign of Governor Phillip,who resigned his office to Lieutenant-Governor Grose,* andreturned to England on the 11th December, 1792.

[* Major Grose was a son of the celebratedantiquary.]

At that date there were sixty-seven settlers, holding undergrant three thousand four hundred and seventy acres, of whichfour hundred and seventeen acres were in cultivation, and ahundred more cleared. We have no means of ascertaining where allthese grants were situated, but the greater part is now occupiedas building land, and was miserably barren for agriculturalpurposes, although covered with gigantic gum-trees.

This summary of the cultivation by free or freedmen settlersis interesting, because it marks the first step towards renderingthe colony self-supporting. These settlers were, if theyrequired, victualled and clothed from the public store foreighteen months from the time of their going on their grants,furnished with tools and implements of husbandry, grain to sowtheir grounds, such stock as could be spared from the public,and, at the discretion of the governor, the use of as manyconvicts as they would undertake to clothe, feed, and employ.Every free or freed man had a hut erected on his farm at publicexpense.

On ground of ordinary fertility, with settlers of averageindustry, these terms would have insured early independence; butthe greater part of the district was and is as barren as thesea-shore, and the majority of the settlers who were not idlewere perfectly ignorant of agriculture. The difficulties ofcutting down and removing the forest were so great that, withoutthe use of compulsory convict labour for a quarter of a century,the Sydney district never could have been cleared.

During this period the government was obliged to carry oncultivation as well as it could on public account, although withindifferent success. A principle as old as the first step thefirst tribes made toward civilisation—which, however, manystatesmen and economists even now appear not tounderstand—was forcibly illustrated in the answer of asettler, reproached with not having worked so well for thejoint-stock account as he did on his own grant of land—"Weare working for ourselves now."

The following were the prices of agricultural stock andproduce at the close of 1792:—Flour, 9d. per lb.; potatoes,3d. per lb.; sheep (the Cape breed), £10 10s. each; milk goats,£8 8s.; breeding sows, £7 7s. to £10 10s.; laying fowls, 10s.;tea, 8s. to 16s. per lb.; sugar, 1s. 6d. per lb.; spirits, 12s.to 20s. per gallon; porter, 1s. per quart.

At these famine prices the mortality among the convictpopulation was fearful. Between the 1st January and the 31stDecember, 1792, there died two persons of the civil department,six soldiers, four hundred and eighteen male convicts, eighteenfemale convicts, and seventy-nine children.

Governor Phillip took with him to England two of theaborigines, with whom, throughout the period of his government,he had endeavoured to promote a good understanding—a taskinvolving great difficulties, arising from the brutality of theconvicts and the untameable nature of the savages. The tribesthat swarmed round Port Jackson and Botany Bay have, with oneexception, all died out; the character and customs of those whosurvive in less settled districts remain unchanged, or at anyrate not more changed than the fox chained in a courtyard, or apheasant reared in an aviary.

In September, 1795, Governor Hunter arrived, supersededLieutenant-Governor Grose, and remained the usual term of fiveyears. His difficulties were less formidable than those ofGovernor Phillip, which were not extravagantly rewarded by aretiring pension of 500. His office was no sinecure. He had had alarge body of convict colonists under his command who would notwork, who would drink, and who were therefore dependent forsubsistence on supplies imported from England and India. By everyship that left the harbour there was an attempt, generallysuccessful, to escape, on the part of convicts; fifty were takenfrom one ship at a time "when the loss of the labour of one manwas important." It was no wonder that all who could, endeavouredto fly from a colony where the population was annually put onshort allowance of food, and very often in danger of actualstarvation.

At this period, and for more than twenty years, spirits werethe ordinary currency of the colony. Almost all extra work waspaid for in spirits, and it was thought quite proper to stimulatethe diligence of prisoners, in unloading a vessel laden withgovernment stores, by giving half a pint of spirits to each.Among free and bond, drunkenness was a prevailing vice. Thetyranny of the prisoner-overseers was so great that thebest-inclined convicts were goaded to recklessness and crime.Criminal assaults on women were so common that "the poorunfortunate victims were designated by a title expressive of theinsults they had received."

The whole population, on the arrival of Captain Hunter, withthe exception of one hundred and seventy-nine, were dependent onthe public stores for rations, many of the exceptions beingreputed thieves, presumed to subsist on plunder from stores andgardens.

The most favourable feature of this epoch was the extension ofcultivation by settlers along the rich alluvial land on the banksof the River Hawkesbury, one of the first districts which seemedto yield a fair return to industry.

Among the events of this five years may be noted the use of aprinting-press, the discovery of the lost herd of cattle, and thefoundation of a settlement, called Newcastle, on the Coal orHunter's River.

A printing-press had been sent out with the first fleet, butno printers. All public and private announcements were made inmanuscript, or by the bellman, until Governor Hunter discovered aprinter among his convict subjects, and established a governmentgazette. In this age of newspapers, it seems incredible that anumber of officers and gentlemen should have been satisfied forso many years without something in the shape of a newspaper; butthe colony was divided into slavedrivers and slaves, who wereequally content to spend their time in feeding pigs and gettingdrunk.

The reports of the natives led the governor to send out asscouts men employed as hunters, to collect fresh provisions forpublic use; and they discovered, feeding on rich pastures on theother side of the River Nepean, still known as Cow Pastures, aherd of sixty cattle, the produce of the five cows and two bullslost in 1788.

To realise this sight, so pleasant to the eyes of mencondemned to perpetual rations of salt meat, rarely varied byfresh pork, the governor himself set out on an expedition, andtracked and viewed the herd with great delight. An old bull,fiercely and obstinately charging, was slaughtered inself-defence; he proved to be of the humpy-shouldered Cape breedof the lost stock, which left no doubt of the identity of theherd, and dispelled the notion of indigenous cattle. The partymade a delicious meal, and a few pounds were carried backthirty-eight miles, over a rough road, to Paramatta, the restbeing left to the native dogs and hawks, with deep regret, "asmeat, fresh or salt, had long been a rarity with the poor sick inthe hospital." Many an Australian within the last ten years,galloping through Cow Pastures to purchase the finest cattle at 2a head to boil down for tallow, has been reminded of the timewhen a bit of bull beef, that a well-bred dog would now reject,was a luxury to a governor and his suite!

These wild cattle were preserved, and increased greatly,dividing into "mobs," each under the charge of a victorious bull,until the general increase of stock diminished their value. Manywere consumed by surrounding small settlers, and the rest, beingfierce and a nuisance, were destroyed by order of the government,when beef ceased to be a luxury.

About the time these wild herds were discovered, threemiserable cows of the Indian breed sold for £189, and two yearsafterwards two colonial ships were employed eight months inbringing 51 cows, 3 bulls, and 90 sheep from the Cape, at a costexceeding the highest price ever paid for the finestshort-horns.

Governor Hunter, with the best intentions and an excusableignorance of the laws of political economy, more than onceendeavoured to fix the wages of labour, by a convention ofemployers, and mutual agreement not to outbid each other. Harvestwages were settled at 10s. a day; but we find, from frequentproclamations, that the rule of supply and demand prevailed, andlabourers when much needed obtained "exorbitant terms," althougha reward and indemnity were offered to informers.

At this period officers were allowed the use of ten prisonersfor agricultural and three for domestic services, and so on in adiminishing scale to every description of settler down to theemancipist, who was allowed the use of one prisoner toassist in tilling his grant. All these servants were fed andclothed by the crown.

In 1797 the first school building was erected for the benefitof three hundred children, and the chaplain, the Rev. Mr.Johnson, began to catechise them after the service on eachSunday.

That instruction was much needed among all classes there canbe no doubt; for on one occasion the sails of the public mill, bywhich the corn of the settlers was gratuitously ground, werestolen in the absence of the miller. On another, with asuperstition worthy of the middle ages, the authorities compelleda soldier suspected of murdering his comrade to handle the deadbody, in order to see whether it would bleed, and so accusehim.

In 1798 a great Irish expedition in search of China tookplace. We laugh at it, yet it was not more foolish than manyexpeditions and theories patronised in the nineteenth century. Itis also memorable for the foundation of the first brick church,built on the model of the stables of a citizen's mansion, withclock-tower.

A return made in this year shows 6,270 acres in crop withwheat or maize, a much larger quantity of arable land inproportion to the population than is now cultivated in any of theAustralian colonies. Among the more industrious settlers, GeorgeBarrington, the celebrated pickpocket, figures as the owner oftwenty acres of wheat, thirteen sheep, fifty-five goats, and twomares. He was a constable.

In the following year the colony was again threatened withfamine, partly owing to the deficiency of live stock, and partlyto the incurable barrenness of the Sydney district.

In 1800 Captain Hunter was superseded by Captain King.

Under Governor King the Female Orphan School was founded, andthe first issue of copper coin took place. The Sydney Gazetteand New South Wales Advertiser, the first Australian paper,was founded by a prisoner, George Howe, and published byauthority in 1803. An insurrection of prisoners, two hundred andfifty strong, armed with muskets, broke out at Castlehill, on the4th March, 1804, and was defeated in fifteen minutes by MajorJohnstone, of the New South Wales Corps, with twenty-four men.Sixty-seven insurgents fell on the field; ten were tried and fivehung.

A penal settlement was formed in Van Diemen's Land by CaptainCollins. In the first instance he proceeded to Port Phillip, butunfortunately landed on the eastern arm, where there was adeficiency of water; and being, as most military men are, a badcolonist, he abandoned it and proceeded to the Derwent. Had hemade his way to the Yarra Yarra River the probability is thatSydney would have become the second settlement; and, with theprofusion of white slave labour then available applied on thefine agricultural land of Port Phillip, by this time a populationof several millions would have been established there.

1806 was signalised by the great flood on the RiverHawkesbury, on the banks of which the principal grain cultivationof the colony was carried on. The Hawkesbury, in ordinaryperiods, winds in a strangely tortuous course through a deepvalley, between the precipitous banks above which, on theoccurrence of heavy rains, it rises as much as thirty feet in avery few hours. These floods are not periodical. Until 1806 noneof importance had occurred, and people had settled down on therich "interval" land, the deposit of former overflowings. Crops,houses, and many colonists, were all swept away in one night.Famine was the immediate result. The two-pound loaf rose to 5s.;wheat fetched 80s. a bushel, and every vegetable in proportion. Aserious flood had occurred in 1801, but this far exceeded it. Itis difficult to teach caution in such matters.

This great flood on the Hawkesbury caused eventually acomplete rearrangement of the cultivation and occupation of thatdistrict.

Calamities, according to popular prejudice, seldom comesingle. It was certainly the casein New South Wales in 1806, forthe clock-tower fell, and Governor Bligh arrived. Captain Kingresigned his command on the 13th of March.

RECOLLECTIONS OF PRISONERS.

On the Hawkesbury and its tributaries the first successfulagricultural colonists were planted, and there dwelt, in 1845, afew representatives of the first fleeters. These settlers, whoserecollections * do not exactly tally with, although they confirm,the history transmitted to us by Collins, are all in comfortablecirc*mstances—some positively wealthy. Among the last wasMr. Smith, who always spoke his mind to high and low. He had beenfree almost ever since he arrived in the colony, and had neverbeen "in trouble."

[* Extracted from the MSS., Voluntary Statementsof the People of New South Wales, collected by Mrs.Chisholm.]

"He was an old man, with a large-featured, handsome, militarysort of face, of a red-brown complexion, shaved clean. His dressconsisted of a red flannel shirt, with a black bandana, tiedsailor-fashion, exposing his strong neck, and a pair of fustiantrousers. Out of compliment to the lady he once put on a bluecoat with gilt buttons, but, being evidently uncomfortable,consented to take it off again. He refused to see the lady untilhe learned that it was 'the Mrs. Chisholm;' being usually roughto those he did not respect."

A Dr. ———, who had the reputation among theprisoner population of never having spared any man in his anger,or any woman in his lust, during the old flogging days, met Mr.Smith, face to face, coming out of the bank in Sydney; andholding out his hand said, "Come, shake hands, Mr. Smith, and letbygones be bygones: I am glad to see you looking so well." Smith,putting his hands behind him, answered, "I suppose, because Ihave got a velvet waistcoat, and money in the bank, you want toshake hands; but no! Dr. ———, it would take asecond resurrection to save such as thee." The doctor slunkaway.

Mr. Joseph Smith.

Macdonald'sRiver, County Of Hunter, 3rd Oct.,1845

"I arrived in the colony fifty-six years since; it was GovernorPhillip's time, and I was fourteen years old; there were onlyeight houses in the colony then. I know that myself and eighteenothers laid in a hollow tree for seventeen weeks, and cooked outof a kettle with a wooden bottom: we used to stick it in a holein the ground, and make a fire round it. I was seven years inservice (bond), and then started working for a living wherever Icould get it. There was plenty of hardship then: I have oftentaken grass, and pounded it, and made soup from a native dog. Iwould eat anything then. For seventeen weeks I had only fiveounces of flour a day. We never got a full ration except when theship was in harbour. The motto was 'Kill them, or work them,their provision will be in store.' Many a time have I been yokedlike a bullock with twenty or thirty others to drag along timber.About eight hundred died in six months at a place calledToongabbie, or Constitution-hill. I knew a man so weak, he wasthrown into the grave, when he said, 'Don't cover me up; I'm notdead; for God's sake don't cover me up!' The overseer answered,'D——— your eyes, you'll die to-night, and weshall have the trouble to come back again!' The man recovered;his name is James Glasshouse, and he is now alive atRichmond.

"They used to have a large hole for the dead; once a day men weresent down to collect the corpses of prisoners, and throw them inwithout any ceremony or service. The native dogs used to comedown at night and fight and howl in packs, gnawing the poor deadbodies.

"The governor would order the lash at the rate of five hundred,six hundred, or eight hundred; and if the men could have stood itthey would have had more. I knew a man hung there and thenfor stealing a few biscuits, and another for stealing a duckfrock.* A man was condemned—no time—take him to thetree, and hang him. The overseers were allowed to flog the men inthe fields. Often have men been taken from the gang, had fifty,and sent back to work. Any man would have committed murder for amonth's provisions: I would have committed three (murders) for aweek's provisions! I was chained seven weeks on my back for beingout getting greens, wild herbs. The Rev. ———used to come it tightly to force some confession. Men wereobliged to tell lies to prevent their bowels from being cut outby the lash.

[* J. Bennet, a youth 17 years of age, wasconvicted and immediately executed for stealing to the value of5s. out of a tent.—Collins, p. 27, History of New SouthWales.]

"Old ——— (an overseer) killed threemen in a fortnight at the saw by overwork. We used to be taken inlarge parties to raise a tree; when the body or the tree wasraised, he (old ———) would call some of the menaway—then more; the men were bent double—they couldnot bear it—they fell the tree on one or two, killed on thespot. 'Take him away; put him in the ground!' There was no moreabout it.

"After seven years I got my liberty, and then started workingabout for a living where I could get it. I stowed myself away onboard the Barrington, bound for Norfolk Island, with eighteenothers; it was not a penal settlement then. Governor King wasthere. I had food plenty. I was overseer of the governor'sgarden. Afterwards I went to live with old D'Arcy Wentworth,**and a better master never lived in the world. Little Billy,***the great lawyer, has often been carried in my arms.

[** He came out as a political exile for havingbeen concerned in Irish treason, and was appointed surgeon to theNorfolk Island settlement. He took an active part in the Blighrebellion. Was afterwards a magistrate. A man of great abilityand eloquence, but by no means popular, being of the old fiercerepublican school of politics of the last generation.]

[*** William D'Arcy Wentworth, barrister-at-law,author of a description of New South Wales, published in1819—a work, or rather large pamphlet, chiefly political,written with great power and eloquence, which first called theattention of the reading public to the resources of New SouthWales. The emancipation of New South Wales is in a great degreedue to Mr. Wentworth's exertions.]

"Old D'Arcy wanted me to take charge of Home-Bush**** property, but I took to the river (Hawkesbury), worked upand down till I saved money to buy old Brown's farm at Pitt Town.No man worked harder than I have done. I have by me about onethousand pounds ready cash. I have given that farm of forty acresto my son Joseph, and three other farms, and about five hundredhead of cattle; and about the same to my other son. I have alsogot 80 acres—30 acres, 50, 75, beside my house, and somefine cattle. We are never without a chest of tea in the house; weuse two in the year. I have paid £40 for a chest of tea in thiscolony. Tea is a great comfort."

[**** The Goodwood Park of New South Wales, whereraces ranking colonially with our Ascot are held annually, abouteight miles from Sydney.]

Mrs. Smith's Statement.

"I have seen Dr. ——— take a womanwho was in the family way, with a rope round her, and duck her inthe water at Queen's-wharf. The laws were bad then. If agentleman wanted a man's wife, he would send the husband toNorfolk Island. I have seen a man flogged for pulling six turnipsinstead of five. One ——— was overseer, thebiggest villain that ever lived delighted in torment. He used towalk up and down and rub his hands when the blood ran. When hewalked out, the flogger walked behind him. He died a miserabledeath maggots ate him up; not a man could be found to bury him. Ihave seen six men executed for stealing 21 lbs. of flour. I haveseen a man struck when at work with a handspike, and killed onthe spot. I have seen men in tears round Governor———, begging for food. He would mock them with'Yes, yes, gentlemen; I'll make you comfortable; give you anightcap and a pair of stockings!'"

Mrs. Smith was blind: she acted as she spoke, and wept onrecalling the horrors of her early life. The house was large, andcrowded with furniture. Smith presented Mrs. C. with a pistol asa souvenir, which he pulled out of his belt, saying, "You maydepend on it!"

Henry Hale.

WELL'SCREEK, HAWKESBURY RIVER, 4th Oct.,1845.

"I arrived in the third fleet on the 16th of October, 1791; itwas on a Sunday we landed. The ship's name was Barrington,Captain Marsh. I was sent to Toongabbie. For nine months there Iwas on five ounces of flour a day—when weighed out, barelyfour; served daily. In those days we were yoked to draw timber,twenty-five in gang. The sticks were six feet long; six menabreast. We held the stick behind us, and dragged with our hands.One man came ashore in the Pitt; his name was Dixon; he was aguardsman. He was put to the drag; it soon did for him. He beganon a Thursday and died on the Saturday, as he was dragging a loaddown Constitution-hill. There were thirteen hundred died there insix months. Men used to carry trees on their shoulders. How theyused to die! The men were weak—dreadfully weak—forwant of food. A man named Gibraltar was hung for stealing a loafout of the governor's kitchen. He got down the chimney, stole theloaf, had a trial, and was hung the next day at sunrise. At thistime a full ration was allowed to the governor's dog. This wasGovernor ———. I have seen seventy men floggedat night—twenty-five lashes each. On Sunday evening theyused to read the laws. If any man was found out of camp he gottwenty-five. The women used to be punished with iron collars. InGovernor King's time they used to douse them overboard. Theykilled one. Dr. ——— was a great tyrant. Mine isa life grant from Governor Bourke—fourteen acres. I growtobacco, wheat, and corn; just enough to make aliving."

{Page 44}

CHAPTER [IV.]

THE DISCOVERIES OF FLINDERS AND BASS.

From these doleful chronicles ofirresponsible tyranny, of crime, and famine, it is a relief toturn and contemplate the heroism of the two men to whoseill-rewarded enterprise the most brilliant discoveries on theAustralian coasts are due.

In 1795 Captain Hunter, who had commanded the "First Fleet,"was sent out again to supersede Governor Phillip. Among thegentlemen under his command were Matthew Flinders, midshipman;and George Bass, surgeon. Flinders was born at Donington, inLincolnshire. He was a descendant of the Flemish colonists,introduced by Henry VII., who first taught the English how toturn desolate, heron-haunted swamps into rich pastures. From hisearliest years he displayed an adventurous and investigatingspirit. It is among the traditions of his family, that on the dayhe was promoted from petticoats to "buttoned clothes," afterbeing lost for hours, he was found in the middle of one of thesea marshes, his pockets stuffed with pebbles tracing the runletsof water, "wanting to know where they came from." Being desirousof entering the navy, he taught himself navigation from "Euclid"and Robertson's "Elements," without the aid of a master. In 1793,at the age of sixteen, he presented himself as a volunteer onboard the Scipio, Captain (afterwards Admiral) Pasley, by whom hewas placed on the quarter-deck, and at the instance of thatcommander joined the Providence, Captain Bligh (afterwards soinfamous), engaged to carry bread-fruit trees to the West Indies.In this voyage he was entrusted with the charge of thechronometer, and took his first lesson in the construction ofcharts.

On his return in the latter part of 1793, he joined theBellerophon, seventy-four, bearing the broad pendant of SirThomas Pasley, to whom he acted as aide-de-camp in Lord Howe'smemorable victory of the 1st June, 1794. An account of thisaction, with diagrams of the position of the two fleets at threeseveral periods of the day, drawn up by Flinders with neatness,clearness, and minuteness, for which all his MSS. are remarkable,are still in the possession of his surviving daughter. From theBellerophon he followed one of his officers, who took the commandof the Reliance, ordered to convey Governor Hunter to New SouthWales, and met in George Bass a kindred spirit.

When they arrived in the colony, seven years after the axes ofthe "First Fleet" rang in the forests of Sydney Cove, little hadbeen done to work out in detail the investigations made previousto the landing in Botany Bay. "Jervis Bay, indicated, but notnamed, by him, had been entered by Lieutenant Bowen, and PortStephen had been examined; but the intermediate portions of thecoast, both north and south, were little further known than fromCaptain Cook's general chart; and none of the more distantopenings, marked but not explored by that celebrated navigator,had been seen."

The feelings of the colonists seem to have been expressed in atouch of nature which escapes Collins in a note to his heavy,grandiloquent History of New South Wales:—

"In many of these arms of Port Jackson, when sitting with mycompanions at my ease in a boat, I have been struck with horrorat the bare idea of being lost in them, as, from the greatsimilarity of one cove to another, the recollection would hebewildered in attempting to determine any relative situation.Insanity would accelerate the miserable end that must ensue."

Within a month after their arrival in Port Jackson, in 1795,Bass and Flinders set out in a little boat, eight feet long,appropriately called the Tom Thumb, with a crew of one boy,proceeded round to Botany Bay, and, ascending George's River,explored its course twenty miles further than the survey had beencarried by Captain Hunter.*

[* The MS. Journal of this Expedition is in thepossession of Mrs. Petrie, the daughter of Captain Flinders.]

On their return, a voyage to Norfolk Island interruptedfurther proceedings until March, 1796, when they set out again inthe Tom Thumb to explore a large river, said to fall into the seasome miles south of Botany Bay. They were absent eight days,explored Port Hacking in the course of their expedition,experienced great danger from the sea, and on land from thesavage tribes: as when "on a dark night, steering along anunknown shore, guided by the sound of the sea breaking againstoverhanging cliffs, without knowing where they should findshelter, Mr. Bass kept the sheet of the sail in his hand, drawinga few inches occasionally, when he saw a particularly heavy seafollowing, I (Flinders) was steering with an oar, and it requiredthe utmost exertion and care to prevent broaching to; a singlewrong movement would have sent us to the bottom. The boy baledout the water which, in spite of every care, the sea threw uponus." On another occasion, when their little boat was tossedupside down on the shore, saved from utter destruction by itslightness—their muskets rusted and their powderwet—Flinders amused the semi-hostile savages who surroundedthem by clipping their beards, while Bass dried the powder, andobtained some much-needed fresh water.

In December, 1797, during the absence of Flinders, who hadbeen despatched to Norfolk Island, Bass obtained leave to make anexpedition to the southward, for which he was provided by thegovernor with a whale-boat, six seamen from the ships, and sixweeks' provisions. With the assistance of occasional supplies ofpetrels, fish, seals' flesh, a few geese and black swans, and byabstinence, he managed to prolong his absence eleven weeks; andin a boisterous climate, with an open boat, in spite of foulwinds, he explored six hundred miles of coast, discovered WesternPort and the fine district now known as Port Phillip, andsatisfied himself that Van Diemen's Land was separated from NewSouth Wales by the straits that now bear his name.

Bass, having returned on the 24th March, in Septemberfollowing he sailed with Flinders, whom Governor Hunter hadplaced in command of the Norfolk, a colonial-built sloop oftwenty-five tons, for the purpose of penetrating beyond FurneauxIslands, and, should a strait be found, passing through it andreturning by the south of Van Diemen's Land. With a crew of eightmen they went through the straits, and returned to Port Jacksonin three months and two days, during which part of the coast ofVan Diemen's Land, including Port Dalrymple and the River Tamar,was explored, and such information gained as led to founding asettlement there in 1803-1804.

From this time we hear no more of Bass. We cannot learn that,beyond inscribing his name on the straits between Port Phillipand Van Diemen's Land, he received either reward or honour. Heleft Sydney for England in 1802 as mate of a trading-vessel, andthere we lose all trace of him. Flinders, in his great work, whendescribing the explorations made by his gallant and well-lovedcomrade, speaks of him as no more.

Flinders obtained the rank of lieutenant, and sailed again in1799, in the same small vessel, on a short voyage to explore thecoast to the north of Port Jackson, which he examined minutely asfar as 25°. He says, "Of the assistance of my able friend Bass Iwas deprived, he having quitted the station to return toEngland."

On Lieutenant Flinders's return to England, in the latter endof 1800, the charts of the new discoveries, which Mr. Arrowsmithpronounced the most perfect that had come before-him, werepublished, and a plan proposed to Sir Joseph Banks for completingthe investigation of the coasts of Terra Australis was approvedby him and Earl Spencer, the First Lord of the Admiralty.

In February, 1801, Flinders was promoted to the rank ofcommander, and appointed to the Investigator sloop. A proof ofthe popularity of his character and the adventurous spirit of theBritish sailor was given, when eleven men being required tocomplete his crew, out of three hundred seamen on board theVice-Admiral's ship Zealand, two hundred and fiftyvolunteered.

On July 18th he sailed from Spithead, furnished with apassport from the French Government, which was granted afterprecedents of similar protection afforded to Admiral La Pérouse,and to Captain Cook, by the respective authorities in England andFrance.

In consequence of this passport, Flinders received directionsfrom the Admiralty "to act in all respects towards French vesselsas if the two countries were not at war."

So miserably slow was the progress of the first Australiancolony that at this period, thirteen years after its foundation,it was found necessary to take a supply of salt meat for eighteenmonths, and to have a general supply of provisions for twelvemonths more, to be sent after the departure of the Investigator,and lodged in storehouses at Port Jackson for the sole use of theInvestigator.

Among the gentlemen who accompanied the expedition was WilliamWestall, landscape-painter.

A passport was also applied for by the French, and granted bythe English Government, to Captain Baudin, who was said to begoing round the world on a voyage of discovery.

In November, 1801, Captain Flinders sighted the coast ofAustralia, and proceeded to examine the coast line hithertounexplored. In the course of his investigations he discovered andsurveyed King George's Sound, on which the settlement of SwanRiver, or Western Australia, was planted in 1829; Port Lincoln,where Sir J. Franklin, a kindred spirit, who was one of themidshipmen in the Investigator, erected a monument to his oldcommander; Kangaroo Island, Spencer's Gulf, and the coast line ofthe country which, principally from his report, was selected forthe operations of the South Australian colonists; and sailed intoand surveyed Port Phillip, which had been discovered ten weekspreviously by a government schooner, the Lady Nelson, from PortJackson. Western Port, a bay in the district of Port Phillip, hadpreviously been discovered by Bass in his whale-boat.

In April, 1802, immediately after discovering and surveyingSpencer's Gulf, Port Lincoln, and Kangaroo Island, CaptainFlinders fell in with Captain Baudin and his ship La Géographe,*which apparently, instead of sailing round the world, had saileddirect for Australia; but, instead of pursuing furtherdiscoveries from the point where the English navigators hadended, they repaired to Van Diemen's Land, following the track oftheir countryman, Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, and there remainedmany months, thus losing the opportunity of discovering andtaking possession (which was the secret object of their voyage)of more than one site for a colony; just as La Pérouse—avery different man from Baudin lost by a few days the chance ofdiscovering Port Jackson.

[* "The situation of the Investigator when I hoveto for the purpose of speaking Captain Baudin was 35° 40' southand 138° 58' east. At the above situation, the discoveries byCaptain Baudin upon the south coast have their termination to thewest, as mine in the Investigator have to the eastward; yetMonsieur Peron, naturalist to the French expedition, has laid aclaim for his nation to the discovery of all parts betweenWestern Port, in Bass's Straits, and Nuyts' Archipelago; and thispart of New South Wales is called Terre Napoleon; my KangarooIsland, which they openly adopted in the expedition, has beenconverted into L'Isle Decrés; Spencer's Gulf is named GolfeBonaparte; the Gulf of St. Vincent, Golfe Josephine; and so onalong the whole coast to Cape Nuyts, not even the smallest islandbeing without some similar stamp of French discovery." MonsieurFreycinet, First-lieutenant of the Géographe, said at the houseof Governor King, at Port Jackson, to Flinders, "'Captain, if wehad not been kept so long picking up shells and catchingbutterflies at Van Diemen's Land, you would not have discoveredthe south coast before us.' I believe M. Peron wrote fromoverruling authority, and that it smote him to theheart."—Flinders' Voyage to Terra Australis.]

From Port Phillip Bay Flinders returned to Sydney, where hearrived the 9th of May, 1802. He sailed again the 22nd of July,and, steering north, surveyed the great Barrier Reef, and madethe route clear and safe for future navigators through the TorresStraits and round the shores of the great Gulf of Carpentaria,and only ceased his labours on finding his ship "quite rotten."After refreshing at the Island of Timor, he returned to PortJackson on the 9th of June, 1803, having lost many of his bestmen.

No suitable ship to complete his survey was to be found inPort Jackson, He therefore embarked in the Porpoise store-ship,"in order to lay his charts and journals before the Admiralty,and obtain, if possible, a ship to complete the examination ofTerra Australis."

The Porpoise was accompanied by two trading vessels, the Catoand the Bridgwater. In passing through Torres Straits on thenight of the 17th of August, 1804, the Porpoise struck on a coralreef, and "took a fearful heel over on her larboard beam-ends.The Bridgwater was on the point of following, but, the Catogiving way, the former, grazing, escaped, while the latter struckand went over two cables' length from the Porpoise." The cowardcaptain of the Bridgwater, one Palmer, having escaped, sailedaway, in spite of the remonstrances of his mate, without makingan effort to aid his companions.**

[** Mr. Williams, the third mate of theBridgewater, kept a journal, from which the following particularsof this unparalleled piece of cowardice on the part of CaptainPalmer are taken. After describing the situation of the Porpoise,he says: "Though the noise of the surf was so tremendous, thevoice of the unfortunate Captain Flinders was heard, by the fifthofficer, to say, 'For God's sake, Captain Palmer, assistme!' I now volunteered my services to proceed in the cutterif Captain Palmer would consent, to the aid of the Porpoise: hedid consent, but, while getting ready, he changed his mind . . .. . . The boat was promised in the morning, for which I had everyrefreshment that could be procured for the relief of myunfortunate companions. We again stood off: at 7A.M., from the mast-head, we saw the reef off thetwo ships, and to leeward of them a sand-bank . . . . . . We allrejoiced in the prospect of affording assistance to ourcompanions; but the captain ordered the ship to be put on theother tack, and, sailing away, left them to their fate! I wassent on shore at Tellicherry with the account of the loss of theCato and Porpoise. In giving this account, I did, for the firsttime, disobey orders, and gave a contrary account; for I wasconvinced that the crews of those ships were on the reef, andthat the account of their loss was given by Captain Palmer toexcuse his conduct. I wrote out the account and left it behind,after having related it as differently as possible. This causedmany words, and ended in my leaving the ship, forfeiting my wagesand part of my clothes." So far young Williams: Palmer and hisship were afterwards lost at sea In fact, they were neverafterwards heard of; Williams, by his honourable quarrel with hiscaptain, escaped this singularly retributive fate.]

Flinders took the command, safely landed the crew of the twovessels on a sand-bank, of which a narrow space was clear at highwater collected stores, erected tents, formed an encampment, andestablished a disciplined order of proceedings. The reef was amere patch of sand, about three hundred yards long and onehundred broad, on which not a blade of vegetation wasgrowing.

It was determined that two decked boats, capable of conveyingall but one boat's crew, should be built from the materials ofthe wreck, and that the largest cutter should be repaired anddespatched, under the charge of Captain Flinders, to PortJackson, a voyage of 750 miles.

On the 26th of August, a Friday, the cutter was launched,named the Hope, and pushed off "amidst the cheers and good wishesof those for whom we were going to seek relief. An ensign withthe union downwards had hitherto been kept hoisted as asignal to Captain Palmer of our distress; but, in this moment ofenthusiasm, a seaman quitted the crowd, and, having obtainedpermission, ran to the flagstaff, hauled aown the ensign, andrehoisted it with the union in the upper canton. This symbolicalcontempt for the Bridgwater, and of confidence in the success ofour voyage, I did not see without lively emotion."

Flinders safely reached Port Jackson on the 6th of September.He returned in the only vessel he could obtain for hispurpose—a small leaky schooner, the Cumberland, oftwenty-nine tons burden—accompanied by two trading vessels,on the 6th of October; and was received by his crew with franticcheers of joy, although his brother, Lieutenant Flinders, afterhearing that the rescue-ships were in sight, "calmly continuedhis calculations on lunar observations until they came toanchor."

In his absence the sailors had planted the reef with pumpkins,oats, and maize, which were sprouting above the sandflourishingly; and Flinders expresses his regret that he had not"palm cocoa-nuts to plant, of which he thought ten thousand mightbe usefully set in these seas, as warning-marks, and food forshipwrecked mariners, as they will flourish within the spray ofthe sea."

It is evident that Matthew Flinders in this, as in many otherinstances, displayed the stuff of which a colonial governorshould be made. There have been very few among Australian rulerswho would have thought of the cocoa-nuts, especially at such amoment: still less would they have inspired their men with thesame spirit.

In the miserable Cumberland, Flinders, intent on laying theresult of his researches before the Admiralty, set out on avoyage of sixteen thousand miles to England. Every man of hiscrew, except his clerk, volunteered to share the danger andaccompany him; but the leaky state of his craft compelled himsoon to seek shelter at the nearest port, and he put into theMauritius, relying-upon his passport. This would have been asufficient protection had the government of the island been inthe hands of a gentleman and man of honour; but the governor wasone De Caen, a low, malignant, envious, insolent wretch, who, tothe infinite disgust of many of his countrymen and companions inarms, availed himself of the misfortune which had thrown Flindersinto his power to vent his spite on a nation he detested.

De Caen seized the Cumberland, took possession of the charts,journals, and log-books, and detained Captain Flinders for sixyears, during which period, in spite of the representations ofthe French Admiral Linois, and of many of the most respectablecolonists, he treated him with every kind of cruelty andindignity; and, after evading repeated orders for his release,dismissed him as unceremoniously as he had seized him, detaining,however one log-book, which Flinders was never able to recover.In the meantime appeared an account of Captain Baudin'svoyages—the Captain Baudin who had received at Port Jacksonevery kind of attention and information. In this work,accompanied by an atlas, the discoveries of Flinders and Basswere appropriated wholesale, and renamed.

Baudin had made about fifty leagues of discovery, and claimednine hundred leagues, part of which had been surveyed by theDutch a century before his time.

Flinders reached England in 1810, broken in health, but hisspirit of duty unimpaired. Under the regulations of the servicethe time he had passed in unjust imprisonment could not count inhis professional employment. At length he petitioned the PrinceRegent for promotion, as an act of grace; but his prayer wasrefused, and neither his widow nor his daughter were able toobtain the pension to which his eminent services formed so stronga claim.

Flinders devoted the last days of his broken health andspirits to preparing his book and maps for the press—anadmirable work, which has been the foundation of every subsequentexploration and colonisation in Australia, and died on the 14thof July, 1814, on the very day his "Account of a Voyage to TerraAustralis" was published.

Of Flinders' noble fellow-labourer in the cause ofdiscovery—George Bass—we were unable to find anypublished memorials, but while the first edition of this work waspassing through the hands of the reader for the press, a nativeof Lincoln, he wrote to a relative and obtained the followinginteresting particulars:—

"The mother of Mr. George Bass lived with them (the Calderfamily) fourteen years, and died with them. Her son and onlychild, George Bass, was born at Asworthy, near Sleaford, wherehis father had a farm, and died when he was a boy, The widow andson afterwards went to reside at Boston. From his boyhood heshowed a strong inclination for a seafaring life, to which hiswidowed mother was much opposed. He was apprenticed to Mr.Francis, a surgeon at Boston; and at the end of hisapprenticeship walked the hospitals and took his diploma withhonour. But his inclination for the sea being unsubdued,according to a promise she made, she yielded to his wish, andsank a considerable sum in fitting him out and buying a share ina ship, which was totally lost. She was a fine, noble-mindedwoman, of no ordinary intellect. Her son wrote her long-letterscontaining full accounts of his discoveries. These came into thepossession of Miss Calder on the death of Mrs. Bass. A short timeago she thought to take a peep at the letters, went to the oldbox, but they were gone. The last time his mother heard of Basshe was in the straits of China. She expected him many years,thinking that he might be taken prisoner; but at last gave up allhopes, concluding that he had been wrecked and drowned. He hadonly been married three months when he sailed away never toreturn. His widow is dead."

We have devoted thus much space to an imperfect record of thelabours of Flinders and Bass, as an act of justice towards twomen whose labours profit, but whose merits are scarcely known tothousands of Australian colonists. In their silent paths theywere both heroes; who ventured and endured shipwreck, thirst,famine, the attacks of black barbarians, and displayed not lesshumanity than courage and sagacity while pursuing discoveries ofthe highest possible importance to their country, with faint anddistant hopes of any reward other than that inherent feelingwhich supports unknown or neglected genius and heroism—theconsciousness of power rightly exercised, of the "talent" put outto interest tenfold—a hundredfold.

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CHAPTER [V.]

GOVERNOR BLIGH.

1806 TO 1809.

Captain Bligh appears to have receivedhis appointment as Governor of New South Wales as a reward forhis gallant conduct in successfully conducting an open boat, witheighteen companions in misfortune, scantily provided with foodand water, 3,618 miles, to the Island of Timor, without the lossof a single man, after being cast adrift by the mutineers of theBounty. No man could be more unfit for such an office. Butgovernors are appointed for the oddest reasons: sometimes becausethey are distinguished soldiers or sailors: sometimes becausethey have written a timely book or pamphlet; often because theyare related to some great personage, and, being in debt, want anopportunity for saving money. But no matter for what cause, or bywhat influence a governor is appointed, the most importantquality of all,-the temper of the candidate, is seldom taken intoaccount; and yet in the governor of a colony no talents cancompensate for a violent or spiteful temper.

Bligh had a very difficult task to perform. Almost the onlyunconvicted colonists were the military and civil officers, andtheir relatives, who formed a sort of Venetian oligarchy ofgovernment and trade, and who, beside enjoying the lion's shareof grants of land and use of labour, had been accustomed todivide with previous governors, at a price arbitrarily imposedupon the importers, the cargoes of vessels as they arrived, andenjoy the profits derived from distributing articles in demandamong the unprivileged settlers at a monopoly tariff. Spiritsformed a principal part of these cargoes, and it became theinterest of every civil and military officer in the colony thatthe settlers, free and bond, should drink as much spirits aspossible. Bligh brought out instructions to put down thistraffic, and hence his immediate unpopularity. But he was aspecimen of the naval captain now happily nearly extinct violentin temper, coarse in language, hating the military, despising thecivilians. To those of the humblest class who cringed before himhe could be generous of public land and public money; but tothose who dared resist, or even question his authority, he wasimplacable.

At an earlier period in the career of the colony no one wouldhave ventured to question his acts, however tyrannical; but in1806 the character of the settlement was slowly changing. A fewrespectable free settlers had arrived under Governor King-. Theyfound profitable employment in growing produce for the use of thegovernment by the help of convicts, whom the government also fedand clothed a very safe speculation. All the officials were, asalready observed, more or less engaged in barter; but some of theNew South Wales Corps had quitted the military service, in orderto betake themselves exclusively to agriculture and commerce.Among these was John M'Arthur, formerly a lieutenant in thatregiment, a man of far-seeing views, great energy, greatintelligence, and indomitable courage.

M'Arthur observed the improvement produced by the climate ofNew South Wales in the texture of the hairy Indian sheep, andappreciated the value of the district called the Cow Pastures, onwhich the produce of the lost herd of cattle were found feeding.In 1793 he purchased eight fine-woolled sheep which had been sentout by the Dutch Government to the Cape, and re-exported toSydney as the Dutch farmers preferred their own fat-tailed breed.His purchase subjected him to much ridicule among his brothercolonists, who thought it more profitable to grow wheat or pigsfor sale at the commissariat stores.

In 1803, in consequence of grievances of which he had tocomplain at the hands of the colonial authorities, M'Arthurvisited England, and there not only obtained permission topurchase a few pure Spanish merinos from the flock of GeorgeIII., at a time when the exportation of the merino from Spain wasa capital crime, and the breed was only to be procured by royalfavour, but produced such an effect on the Privy Council, beforewhom he was examined on his wool projects, that he carried out tothe colony on his return an order for a grant of ten thousandacres. This grant he selected on the banks of the CowpastureRiver, for he appreciated the discrimination of the lost herdwhich had there fattened and increased while the colonistsstarved. This spot has since become famous as "Camden," where thefirst pure merinos were bred and the first vineyards planted inNew South Wales. To Camden, perhaps, future generations ofgrateful Australians will make pilgrimages. For not greaterservices the Greeks made of Jason a demi-god. No doubt the GoldenFleece was shorn from a merino ram.

Soon after Bligh landed, Captain King introduced him toM'Arthur, who invited the new governor to visit Camden andinspect his flocks, the result of the crosses from the King'smerinos. The answer was a refusal in the language of theforecastle, expressive of Bligh's contempt for all suchoccupations. This was characteristic of the man. When the motherand uncle of young Hey wood (a boy midshipman on board theBounty, who received a free pardon and afterwards rose todistinction in the navy) entreated his aid in obtaining mercy forone whose only crime had been not forcing his way through andspringing into the overladen boat, he answered in a few lines: "Ivery much regret that so much baseness formed the character of ayoung man I had a real regard for, and I hope to hear that hisfriends can bear his loss without much concern."

It would be unnecessary to dwell upon Bligh's numerous acts ofcruelty and tyranny, were it not that his government was one ofthe great epochs in the history of New South Wales. The resultsof his despotism turned the attention of the English public tothe resources of the colony, and the defeat of his crowning actof oppression enabled M'Arthur to change the destinies ofAustralia, and make it, instead of a mere gaol, the finestemigration field in the world.

A little anecdote related by Wentworth, culled from hundredsfloating in the colony at that period (1816), illustrates a formof government and a state of society strangely at variance withour notions of the rights of Englishmen. Governor Bligh, havingheard from his cowkeeper that the servant of an officer of thestaff had made some impertinent remarks because disappointed ofthe customary supply of milk for his master, on the followingmorning sent for the dissatisfied delinquent. Wondering andtrembling, he was ushered into the presence of his excellency,was received with a condescending smile, and told that, as thechief constable's house was on his way home, the governor hadmerely sent for him to save a dragoon the trouble of going therewith a letter. The poor fellow, his mind relieved, respectfullyreceived the missive, delivered it, was immediately tied to thetriangles, and rewarded with twenty-five lashes from thecat-o'-nine-tails.

After a career of two years, during which the person andproperty of every class of the community were at the mercy of histemper for the day, Governor Bligh proceeded with arbitraryillegality to summon, arrest, and try Mr. M'Arthur, on afrivolous charge of infringing the customs laws, hatched up forthe purpose of wreaking his long-smouldering spite.

M'Arthur having refused to notice an illegal summons, theAdvocate-General Atkins arrested him, lodged him in prison, andproceeded to try him in a court over which he himself presided,with the assistance of six officers of the New South Wales Corps.This Atkins had been appointed by private interest in England,had no knowledge of law, and was described in a private despatchto the Secretary of State as "accustomed to inebriety, theridicule of the community, pronouncing sentences of death inmoments of intoxication, his knowledge of law insignificant,subject to private inclination."

To supply his deficiency of legal knowledge he took for hiscouncillor and secretary a convict attorney of the name ofCrossley, transported for forgery.

With the help of this miscreant Atkins prepared a monsterindictment, charging M'Arthur with a series ofoffences—from contempt of court up to high treason.M'Arthur protested against being tried by a man who was at oncejudge, juror, and prosecutor, beside having a private quarrel ofsome years' standing with the prisoner. The judge-advocaterefused to receive the protest, and actually threatened to commithim for words spoken in his own defence. Fortunately for the fateof the colony, the six officers, who, with the advocate-general,formed the court, sided with the prisoner. They admitted him tobail, and repeatedly, in the most respectful terms, addressed thegovernor, praying him to supersede Atkins and appoint animpartial advocate-general. Bligh refused; perhaps he had nopower to adopt that step; but he could have put an end toproceedings, which ought never to have been commenced, byentering a nolle prosequi. But it was his object to crushM'Arthur, so he persisted; and when he found the six officers ofthe New South Wales Corps equally firm in protecting him, heproposed to arrest and imprison the six officers on a charge ofhigh treason. At this stage of the proceedings the patience ofthe colony was exhausted. On the 26th of January, 1806, MajorJohnstone, lieutenant-governor, commanding the New South WalesCorps, who had been prevented by severe illness from attending tothe repeated summonses of the governor, rode into town. He wassurrounded by his friends and brother officers, who representedto him the madly tyrannous course which the governor was bentupon pursuing, and urged him to place the governor underarrest.

In order to support him in taking this extreme step, thefollowing memorial was signed by every respectable settler thenin the town of Sydney:

"Sir,—The presentalarming state of the colony, in which every man's property,liberty, and life are endangered, induces us most earnestly toimplore you instantly to place Governor Bligh under arrest, andto assume the command of the colony. We pledge ourselves, at amoment of less agitation, to come forward to support the measurewith our fortunes and our lives."

Immediately after the presentation of this address, the drumsof the New South Wales Regiment beat to arms, the troops formedin the barrack square, and then marched, with Major Johnstone attheir head bayonets fixed, colours flying, and bandplaying—toward Government House, which they surrounded.Mrs. Putland (afterwards married to General O'Connell, commanderof the forces in New South Wales), the widowed daughter of thegovernor, courageously endeavoured to resist the entrance of theinsurgent officers through the Government gate: failing in that,she tried to conceal her father under a bed, whence, after ananxious search, he was dragged, and conducted, without personalinjury, to the presence of Major Johnstone, who immediatelyplaced him in custody, and assumed the command of the colony.Thus ended the first act of this bloodless revolution—the1688 of New South Wales. Had Bligh succeeded in his conspiracy toruin M'Arthur, the progress of the colony would have beenretarded for years. Up to 1845, wool of the breed introduced andimproved by the persevering experience of M'Arthur formed theonly certain staple export of Australia. Without fine-woolledsheep Australia must have remained dependent for subsistence onthe commissariat expenditure, and would, perhaps, in a fit ofeconomy, have been abandoned, in favour of some penitentiary planor island prison nearer home.

Cowardice has been imputed to Bligh for concealing himself,but without reason. He was neither king nor even commander to awethe troops with his presence; and any man may be excused forflying from an infuriated regiment; above all a man like Bligh,conscious that there was scarcely an individual in the assemblagewhich surrounded Government House whom he had not injured orinsulted.

Major Johnstone transmitted to the Secretary of State a fullaccount of the events which had forced upon him the government ofthe colony. Lieutenant-Governor Foveaux, arriving from Englandignorant of the insurrection, superseded Major Johnstone, and washimself superseded by Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson, who arrivedfrom Van Diemen's Land on the 1st July, 1809; by him GovernorBligh's arrest was continued until the 4th February, when thecolonel agreed to put him in possession of his ship, thePorpoise, on condition that he should embark on the 20th, andproceed to England without touching at any part of the territoryof New South Wales, and not return until he should have receivedthe instructions of his Majesty's ministers. Released fromarrest, Bligh treated engagements entered into under duress asvoid, and lingered on the coast for some time, in hopes ofprovoking a movement in his favour. He afterwards repaired to VanDiemen's Land, where he was at first treated with much attention,but, on communications arriving from the lieutenant-governor atSydney, was constrained to remain on board his ship.

It is easy to imagine the sensation created in the king'scabinet when they learned that the gaol colony of Botany Bay hadimitated our forefathers of 1688, and, after sending a tyrantunscathed packing, had continued the government of the colonywith a new governor and new officials, without bloodshed orplunder. Vigorous measures were decided on, and an able man wasselected to execute them.

Lachlan Macquarie was appointed governor, and sent out withinstructions to reinstate Captain Bligh in that office, and,after the expiration of twenty-four hours, to resume his ownauthority—to declare void all appointments, grants of land,and processes of law which had taken place between the arrest ofGovernor Bligh and his own arrival; and further, to send homeMajor Johnstone in close arrest, to be tried for his rebellion.At the same time the 73rd, Colonel Macquarie's own regiment, wassent out to relieve the New South Wales Corps, which wasdisbanded, the privates being, however, permitted to volunteerinto the 73rd. These orders were obeyed.

Major Johnstone was tried at Chelsea Hospital on the 11th May,1811, found guilty 5th June, and sentenced to be cashiered. Hisconduct was clearly illegal and revolutionary, but it saved thecolony. He made that a peaceable revolution which would otherwisehave flamed into a wild riot, how ending, with the fearfulmaterials present there, it is impossible to foretel. MajorJohnstone returned to the colony, and lived many years on hisfarm at Annandale, near Bathurst district, much respected. Wehave not been able to learn whether the signers of the memorialever attempted to compensate him for the ruin of his ownprofessional prospects. The gratitude of a mob, well dressed orill dressed, is as vain a thing as the gratitude of a prince.

Bligh * became an admiral, but was never again called intoactive service. The slight sentence passed upon Johnstone was astigma he carried to his grave. He died in 1817.

[* Bligh asked Flinders to dedicate his "TerraAustralis" to him, but Flinders,-who had formed a mostunfavourable opinion of his character while serving under him inthe Reliance, politely declined.]

Since the time of Bligh there have been colonial governors asviolent in temper, as tyrannical in disposition, but their powershave been limited not only by law, but by public opinion, theinfluence of a free press, and the effects of a readycommunication with Europe.

Without a free press or a public to restrain him, out of sightand hearing of a British Parliament, had Bligh confined histyrannies to the humbler classes he might have lived honoured andprosperous, while his victims sank brokenhearted, or died underthe lash, as hundreds have on the shores of Port Jackson andParamatta; but he ventured to attack a gentleman—thecomrade of soldiers—a man of courage, eloquence, anddetermination—and the unjust governor fell.

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CHAPTER VI.

GOVERNOR MACQUARIE.

1809 TO 1821.

Colonel Macquarie directed thegovernment of New South Wales for twelve years—the longestperiod that any governor has enjoyed that office. He exercised apure despotism, but it was neither a stupid nor a brutaldespotism, according to the light of the day.

The following extract from his first despatch not unfairlydescribes the state of the colony on his arrival:—

"I found the colony barely emerging from infantine imbecility,suffering from various privations and disabilities; the countryimpenetrable beyond forty miles from Sydney; agriculture in a yetlanguishing state, commerce in its early dawn, revenue unknown;threatened with famine, distracted by faction; the publicbuildings in a state of dilapidation, the few roads and bridgesalmost impassable; the population in general depressed bypoverty; no credit, public or private; the morals of the greatmass of the population in the lowest state of debasem*nt, andreligious worship almost totally neglected."

He was the first man of decided talent appointed to office inAustralia. He was distinguished by his self-reliance and constantenergetic action. If the comparison had not been vulgarised, onemight liken him, comparing small with great, to Napoleon. His wasthe same order of mind—views narrow butclear—essentially a materialist in politics. In New SouthWales wealth was the visible sign of success, and Macquarierewarded success wherever he found it. He made roads, erectedpublic buildings, and again and again traversed the whole lengthand breadth of the colony, following closely in the footsteps ofnew explorers, distributing grants to skilful settlers, planningtownships, and pardoning industrious prisoners. His activity wasuntiring, his vanty boundless. He seldom condescended to askadvice, and, when he did, generally followed his own opinion.With charming naïveté he observes, in answer to a despatchfrom the Secretary of State, informing him that it was not theintention of the Government to appoint a council to assist thegovernor, as had been recommended: "I entertain a fond hope thatsuch an institution will never be extended to this colony."

Even the recommendations of Secretaries of State hedisregarded; and, as he was successful, he was permitted topursue his own course. He infused his own active spirit into thesettlers, and under its influence the material progress of thecolony was extraordinary. Higher praise his administrationscarcely deserves. The moral, not to say the religious, tone ofthe settlement owes little to his care. One instance willsuffice. He requested, in one of his despatches, that as many menconvicts as possible should be transported, as they were usefulfor labour, but as few women, as they were costly andtroublesome; thus losing sight altogether of the inevitabledemoralisation which must be the result of a community ofmen.

Macquarie has been much attacked for saying "that the colonyconsisted of those who had been transported, and those who oughtto have been;" and "that it was a colony for convicts, and freecolonists had no business there:" but there was truth at thebottom of both these rude speeches. He looked upon New SouthWales as a place where convicts were sent to be subsisted at theleast possible expense, and certainly neither he nor any one elseat that tune foresaw a period when it would cease to be a convictcolony. His strong common sense told him that the cheapest way ofruling his felon subjects was to make them wealthy andrespectable. Under his predecessors the idea had grown up thatconvicts were sent over to be the slaves of the free settlers.Governor Macquarie would perhaps have had no objection to thatarrangement on moral grounds, had it been possible; but it wasnot, as the free settlers of free descent were too few in number,too indolent in character. He therefore took up the oppositeground that the colony and all its emoluments and honours werefor the benefit of those prisoners who were industrious,prosperous, and free from legal criminality.

The first individual selected for favour was a Scotchman,Andrew Thompson, transported at sixteen years of age, probablyfor some trifling offence. He had not only attained wealth anddeveloped new sources of commerce for the colony, by buildingcoasting vessels, by establishing saltworks and other usefulenterprises, but had distinguished himself by his humanity andgeneral good conduct. For instance, in the Sydney Gazetteof the 11th May, 1806, we find Thompson permitted to purchasebrewing utensils from the government stores, at the usual advanceof fifty per cent. on the invoice price, with the privilege ofbrewing beer, in consideration of his useful and humane conductin saving the lives and much of the property of sufferers byrepeated floods of the Hawkesbury, as well as of his generaldemeanour.

Macquarie, within two months after his arrival, createdThompson a magistrate, and repeatedly invited him and otheremancipists of similar success and conduct to dine at GovernmentHouse, in spite of the remonstrances of the free inhabitants, ofthe officers of the 43rd Regiment, which succeeded the 73rd, andof hints from the Colonial Office. No doubt in New South Walesmany a prisoner was induced to persevere in sober industry by thesight of an ex-prisoner and publican riding in his carriage todine at Government House; but in England the effect couldscarcely have been beneficial as a restraint on idle apprenticesand incipient pickpockets. Such reports interleaved in theNewgate Calendar, and other light reading of the felonryof Britain, must have tended to diminish the vague horrors thatpreviously hung round Botany Bay.

Governor Macquarie commenced by employing the convictlabourers not required by settlers in making roads, and erectingand repairing public buildings. On the first harvest after hisarrival, to the horror of the martinets, he permitted theprivates of the 73rd Regiment to hire themselves out as reapers,to be paid in grain or money, the price of wheat at that timebeing £1 3s. 6d. a bushel. At the same time lie patronisedamusem*nts which the high prices of provisions did not preventthe wealthier classes from establishing. The New South WalesGazette of October contains an account of three days' racing,conducted in Newmarket style, followed by an ordinary and twoballs, the principal prize, a lady's cup, being "presented to thewinner by Mrs. Macquarie." The whole proceedings are related in astyle which would leave nothing to be desired in the LittlePedlington Gazette. For instance: "The subscribers' ball, onTuesday and Thursday night, was honoured with the presence of hisexcellency the governor and his lady, his honour thelieutenant-governor and lady, the judge-advocate and lady, themagistrates and other officers, civil and military, and allthe beauty and fashion of the colony. The business of themeeting could not fail of diffusing a glow ofsatisfaction—the celebration of the first liberal amusem*ntinstituted in the colony in the presence of its patron andfounder." A supper followed the ball:—"After the cloth wasremoved the rosy deity asserted his pre-eminence, and, with thezealous aid of Momus and Apollo, chased pale Cynthia down intothe Western World; the blazing orb of day announced his nearapproach, and the god of the chariot reluctantly forsook hiscompany: Bacchus drooped his head, Momus could no longer animate.The bons vivants, no longer relishing the tired deities,left them to themselves!"

In the first year of his government, Macquarie undertook atour through all the known districts of the colony, and continuedthe practice annually during his reign. On his return, by ageneral order, he censured the settlers for the little attentionthey had paid to domestic comfort or good farming, in buildingsfor the residence of themselves and shelter of their cattle;offered cattle, sheep, and goats from the government herds, to bepaid for in grain, with eighteen months' credit; and announcedthat he had marked out for settlement the five new townships ofRichmond, Pitt, Wilberforce, and Castlereagh, out of reach offloods of the Hawkesbury and Nepean, in which grants would beawarded to deserving applicants, on condition that they erecteddwellings according to plans supplied, and other measures of asimilar practical character.

In the December of the same year, the first brick church, St.Philip's, was consecrated (on Christmas-day) by the HeverendSamuel Marsden,—a name from that time forward constantlyoccupying a conspicuous place in the annals of the colony, asclergyman, magistrate, landowner, and stockbreeder. For instance,his next appearance in the Sydney Gazette is, inconjunction with two other gentlemen, advertising a reward of onepound sterling, or a gallon of spirits, for every skin ofa native dog,—an animal which was then, and has been eversince, the scourge of flockowners.

In 1812 a Committee of the House of Commons, appointed toinquire into the state of the colony of New South Wales, after 63examining a number of witnesses, including the ex-Governors Kingand Bligh, printed a report, from which it appears that thepopulation amounted to 10,454, distributed in the followingproportions:—The Sydney district, 6,158; Paramatta, 1,807;Hawkesbury, 2,389; Newcastle, 100: of these, 5,513 were men, and2,200 women; military, 1,100; of the remainder, one-fourth toone-fifth was actually bond; the rest being free, or freed byservitude or pardon. In addition, 1,321 were living in VanDiemen's Land, and 177 in Norfolk Island, but orders had beensent out to compel the voluntary settlers, who had adhered tothat island after the government establishment had been removed,to withdraw.

The settlements of New South Wales were bounded on the west bythe Blue Mountains, "beyond which no one has been able topenetrate the country; some have with difficulty been as far asone hundred miles from the coast, but beyond sixty miles itappears to be nowhere practicable for agricultural purposes;beyond Port Stephen and Port Jervis these settlements will not becapable of extension; of the land within the boundaries, one halfis absolutely barren." The ground in actual cultivation was21,000 acres, and 74,000 were held in pasture. The stock, in thehands chiefly of the settlers, was considerable, but it was stillnecessary to continue the importation of salt provisions.

The currency of the colony was in government paper and coppermoney, but barter was the principal medium of sale; and wheat andcattle had been recognised by the court of justice as legaltenders in payment of debts.

The exportations of the colony consisted principally of whaleoil, seal skins, coals, and wool. The iron ore, of which therewas abundance, had not been worked. The trade in skins and coalwas limited by the monopoly of the East India Company. Sheep werenot sufficiently numerous to make wool an article of largeexportation. The culture of hemp had been less attended to thanmight have been expected. An illegal trade in sandal-wood had attimes been carried on with the South Sea Islands and China.Mercantile speculation had been discouraged by impoliticregulations.

For many years a maximum price was imposed by the governorupon all imported merchandise, often too low to afford a fairprofit to the trader; at this price the whole cargo wasdistributed amongst the civil and military officers of thesettlement, who alone had liberty to purchase; and articles ofthe first necessity were afterwards retailed by them, at anenormous profit, to the poorer settlers. The imposition of amaximum price on imported articles, and on the price of grain andbutcher's meat, had been discontinued, and the attempt to limitthe price of labour had failed. The trade in spirits Was reportedas a great difficulty.

The defects of the system of criminal jurisdiction bycourt-martial, and civil jurisdiction without legal assistance orjuries, are described; and the report states,-that the governor,uncontrolled by any council, had power to pardon all offences,except treason and murder; to impose customs duties, to grantlands, and to issue colonial regulations; and for the breach ofthese regulations to inflict a punishment of 500 lashes and afine of £100.

The committee recommended that a council should be given tothe governor. With regard to grants of land, they reported that,according to evidence, a retiring governor had granted 1,000acres to his successor, who had returned the compliment by asimilar grant immediately after being installed in office.

Free settlers latterly had not been permitted to emigrate toNew South Wales without giving proof that they were possessed ofa certain capital. On their arrival they usually received a grantof land in proportion to their means.

On the arrival of Governor Bligh, two-thirds of the childrenannually born in the colony were illegitimate.

This report, which also entered at considerable length intothe treatment of convicts, directed a little of public attentionto the antipodean colony, and the result was to induce theGovernment to appoint a judge, with two magistrates chosen inrotation, who composed a supreme court in civil and criminalcases; and in Van Diemen's Land, as well as New South Wales, afifty-pound civil court, with appeal, was formed, with thejudge-advocate as sole judge.

This was the first step toward meliorating the absolutedespotism under which the free settlers had hitherto lived.Measures were also taken for removing the restrictions oncommerce with Van Diemen's Land, and abolishing trade monopolies:but Governor Macquarie's protests against the interference orassistance of a council prevailed, and he was enabled to pursuehis plans with that concentrated vigour which is the oneadvantage of an enlightened despotism.

To enumerate all the public works which, with no mean amountof skill and at great cost to the parent country, GovernorMacquarie executed, would be neither useful nor amusing. It issufficient to state, that, while he erected many substantial ifnot elegant buildings in the town of Sydney, he took care, bywell-devised roads, to render available all the cultivable landand pastures to be found within as much of the territory as hadbeen explored. The settlers imbibed his spirit of progress, andimitated his energy; flocks and herds increased to a greatextent, although the sheep were for the greater part of aninferior breed, a mixture of the hairy Bengal and heavy-tailedCape, whose wool was worthless for export. But M'Arthur, whoseefforts had been neglected and repressed by previous governors,was steadily pursuing his great idea of naturalising the "noblerace," or Spanish merino, on the plains of Australia. InDecember, 1812, the Sydney Gazette reports that ten ramsof the merino breed, lately sold by auction from the flocks ofJohn M'Arthur, Esq., produced upwards of 200 guineas; and that"several coats made entirely of the wool of New South Wales arenow in this country, and are of most excellent quality." In 1852a whole fleet of ships were required to convey the wool ofAustralia to the manufacturers of Yorkshire.

In 1813 occurred one of those droughts, the one drawback onwhat would otherwise be a course of unvarying prosperity, whichare periodical in Australia. On this occasion it was not only thecrops that suffered; the numerous flocks and herds were unable tofind sufficient pasturage on plains which, when first discovered,were overspread with luxuriant herbage many feet in height.Necessity forced upon the colonists the idea of again searchingfor a passage across the Blue Mountains. The attempt had beenunsuccessfully made by several early colonists; amongst others,by the brave Surgeon Bass.

The last and successful effort was made by three gentlemenwhose names are still well known in the colony—WilliamWentworth, son of the D'Arcy Wentworth who took an active part inthe deposition of Governor Bligh, one of the earliest freecolonists, himself destined in various ways to occupy adistinguished place in the annals of the colony; LieutenantLawson, afterwards one of the greatest land and stock owners; andGregory Blaxland, one of the first members of the LegislativeCouncil of New South Wales.

With incredible toil and hardships, they effected a passageacross a chain of mountains clothed with dense timber andbrushwood, and intersected by a succession of ravines, whichpresented extraordinary difficulties, not so much from theirheight as from their precipitous character. At the foot of theopposite side of the mountains, an easy journey led to BathurstPlains, the finest pasture country the colonists had yet seen,far exceeding even the famous Cow Pastures on the Nepean. It isto this country, the discovery of Messrs. Wentworth and Lawson,that the gold-diggers are now streaming in thousands, but notclambering up precipices, sliding down ravines, and cutting pathsthrough impenetrable brushwood, like the early pioneers; buteasily travelling, and grumbling as they go, at the ill-keptcondition of a macadamised road which has been conducted withadmirable engineering skill in a series of ascending anddescending gradients, over which even loaded drays can travelwith ease.

Within fifteen months from the discovery of the first passover the Blue Mountains, Governor Macquarie caused a practicableroad to be made. He never lost any time in planning and executingsuch works. Some governors would have occupied as much time inpreparing a despatch as he did in completing the work. Manysettlers, without waiting for the road, contrived to transferportions of their live stock to the new pastoral El Dorado. InApril, 1815, the governor himself, with Mrs. Macquarie,accompanied by his principal officers and Mr. Lewin, painter andnaturalist, set out on a progress to view what he called "hislast conquest."

The results of this progress, made two months before thebattle of Waterloo, are recorded in the following extracts from a"General Order:" certainly one of the most curious documents ofthe kind ever published.

MACQUARIE'S JOURNEY ACROSS THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.

"The commencement of the ascent from Emu Plains, through avery handsome open forest of lofty trees for twelve miles, wasmuch more practicable and easy than was expected. At a furtherdistance of four miles a sudden change is perceived in theappearance of the timber and quality of the soil, the formerbecoming stunted, and the latter barren and rocky. Here thecountry became altogether mountainous and extremely rugged. Fromhenceforward to the twenty-sixth mile is a succession of steepand rugged hills, some so abrupt as to deny a passage altogether;but at this place an extensive plain is arrived at, whichconstitutes the summit of the western mountains, and from thencea most extensive and beautiful prospect presents itself on allsides to the eye. On the south-west side of this table land[query, King's Table Land?] the mountain terminates in an abruptprecipice of immense depth. At the bottom [the governor does notmention how they got to the bottom] is seen an immense glen,twenty-four miles in length, terminating as abruptly as theothers, bounded on the further side by mountains of greatmagnitude, to which the governor gave the name of Prince Regent'sGlen. Proceeding hence to the thirty-third mile, on the top of ahill, an opening presents itself on the south-west side of theglen, from whence a view is obtained of mountains rising beyondmountains with stupendous masses of rock in the foreground, in acircular or amphitheatrical form. The road continues from hence,for the space of seventeen miles, on the ridge of the mountainwhich forms one side of Prince Regent's Glen, and there suddenlyterminates in a perpendicular precipice of 676 feet. Down thisMr. Cox had constructed a road to which the governor gave thename of Cox's Pass, and to the ridge, Mount York.* On descendingthe pass, the first pasture land and soil fit for cultivationappeared, watered by two rivulets running east and west, andjoining, forming Cox's River, which takes its course throughPrince Regent's Glen, and empties itself into the River Nepean.Three miles hence the expedition of Messrs. Blaxland, Wentworth,and Lawson, terminated. A range of very lofty hills and narrowvalleys, alternately, form the part of the country from Cox'sRiver for a distance of sixteen miles, until Fish River isreached.

[* Mount York Road has since been abandoned infavour of an easy descent by Mount Victoria executed by SirThomas Mitchell.]

"Passing on, the country continues hilly, but affords goodpasturage, gradually improving to Sidmouth Valley, distant eightmiles from the pass of Fish River. The land level, and the firstmet, unencumbered with timber, forms a valley north-west andsouth-east between hills of easy ascent, thinly covered withtimber. Leaving the valley, the country again becomes hilly;thirteen miles brought the party to Campbell River, where anextensive view opened of gently rising hills and fertile plains.In the pool of Campbell's River, that very curious animal theparadox, or water-mole, was seen in great numbers.** The FishRiver, which forms a junction with the Campbell River a few milesto the northward, has two fertile plains named O'Connell's andMacquarie's Plains. Seven miles from the bridge over CampbellRiver, Bathurst Plains open to the view, presenting a rich partof champaign country of eleven miles in length, bounded on bothsides by very beautiful hills thinly wooded. The Macquarie River,which is formed by a junction of the Campbell and Five Rivers,takes a winding course through the plains, which can easily betraced from the highlands by the verdure of the trees on thebanks, which are the only trees throughout the extent of theplains. The level and clean surface (marked in plough ridges)gives them very much the appearance of lands in a state ofcultivation."

[** It is now extinct in that part of thecolony.]

On the south bank of the Macquarie, the governor encamped fora week, occupying his time in making excursions in differentdirections through the country on both sides the river; and onSunday, 7th May, 1815, fixed on a site suitable for the erectionof a town at some future period, to which he gave the name ofBathurst."

This discovery, made by the courageous perseverance of thethree gentlemen before named, rendered available by the wiseenergy of Macquarie, and-profitable by the fine-woolled sheep ofM'Arthur, assured the future fortunes of the Three Colonies ofAustralia, and laid the foundation of an empire on the sweepingsof our gaols.

Macquarie was vain, hopeful, ambitious, and not unjustly proudof what, in his despatches to Earl Bathurst, he called "hisdiscovery;" but his utmost expectation only extended tosupporting a considerable but isolated population by pastoral andagricultural pursuits. He expressly stated, in his curiousgeneral order, that "The difficulties which present themselves inthe journey from hence [Sydney] are certainly great andinevitable; those persons who may be inclined to become permanentsettlers will probably content themselves with visiting thecapital rarely, and of course will have them seldom toencounter." And under this impression the grants of land weremade chiefly in large blocks of several thousand acres.

What would have been his pride and admiration could he haveforeseen that, within a few miles of the plains of pasture landwhich have realised to the first settlers hundreds of thousandsof pounds in wool, gold lay in heaps for gathering; and thatwithin the lifetime of Wentworth, the explorer, an unbroken armyof gold adventurers would crowd the highway from Sidney to the"City of the Plains," and in one year double the exports and theconsuming powers of the colony.

The road to Bathurst Plains, executed in an incredibly shortperiod, under the direction of Governor Macquarie, was materiallyimproved by succeeding governors, and especially by thesurveyor-general, Sir Thomas Mitchell, the Cook of Australianinland discovery. Sir Thomas Mitchell effected works second onlyin importance and merit of design and execution to the SimplonPass over the Alps. It is unfortunate that he was not permittedto carry out other public works which he suggested at a periodwhen the barracks and gaols were filled with idle convicts. Theroad by Mount York was so steep that bullock drivers were in thehabit of cutting down and attaching part of a tree to theirdrays, by way of substitute for a drag. Sir Thomas filled up anintervening valley by cutting down part of the summit of MountVictoria.

Under Macquarie, in addition to the Bathurst, the Argyledistrict, one of the best agricultural and pastoral districts onthe road, of which Goulburn is the centre, was discovered; asalso Port Macquarie, afterwards a penal settlement, at the mouthof the River Hastings, leading to a fertile district, as yet, inconsequence of the price of land and labour, unoccupied to itsfull extent. Mr. Oxley, the surveyor-general, traced the RiversLachlan and Macquarie to the west of the Blue Mountains, wherethey disappear in a swamp in dry seasons, and in seasons ofextraordinary rain form an inland sea. Macquarie also formed onepenal settlement on the fertile soil of Emu Plains, and anotherin the coal district at the mouth of the River Hunter, notimproperly named Newcastle. He also materially improved theaspect of Sydney by laying it out on a new plan, and gaveencouragement to every useful enterprise. He was wise enough tosee the importance of, and did his best to create, a class ofsmall farmers, who, tilling the ground with their own hands,would be independent of hired labour, and assist in protectingthe colony against the effects of a dearth of corn. With thisview, he gave grants of thirty acres each to emancipatedconvicts. Unfortunately, he did not accompany this wise measurewith an importation of female population.

Among the gossiping libels against the yeomanry class currentamong the squatocracy is a statement that Macquarie's settlerssold all their farms for rum. This statement was investigated byMrs. Chisholm, who found a great number of the settlers in theHawkesbury voting for members of council on their originalgrants. That under the horrid single-man system many should haveflown to rum for consolation, is not extraordinary. The old sawsays—

"Without a wife,
"A farmer's is a dreary life."

Very little could be expected from a population of which notone in five could obtain an honest helpmate, and which knewlittle of clergymen except as sellers of rum and dispensers oflashes. Even in the mother country, the duty of educating themasses had hardly begun to make way; thus it was only theinoculation of whatever good there was in the colony, and thefacility of getting an honest living, that prevented thecolonists of Macquarie's time from becoming a nation ofbucaneers.

The ignorant and the vicious were turned loose in New SouthWales with the lash and the gallows for those who were found out,but with independence for those who were industrious. The resultshowed how human nature can run clear where not pressed down bypoverty or compressed in towns.

The Rum Hospital was a specimen of the tone of morality duringthe early years of New South Wales. It was built by threegentlemen, under a contract with the governor, which gave them amonopoly of the sale and importation of rum for a certain numberof years. The workmen were, as much as possible, paid in rum, andpublic-houses were multiplied to an extent exceeding theproportion in the lowest and poorest haunts of Great Britain.

Many individuals, profiting by the enormous governmentexpenditure, became wealthy; and all the sober, and many who werenot sober, of the free or freed population were prosperous. Itbecame manifestly better policy to live by work or trade than byrobbery.

Of churches there were two, and these barely filled; of thefew clergymen the majority were occupied as magistrates, inawarding lashes to refractory servants, in farming, in breedingstock, and dealing in anything that would bring a profit. WhenNew South Wales was considered worthy of an archdeacon, onehonourable exception, the much-loved Parson Cowper,* was passedover and neglected, according to the rule of the day, in favourof an ex-wine-merchant.

[* A son of the Rev. Mr. Cowper is one of themost respectable and influential men in the colony, and avaluable member of the Legislative Council.]

The Roman Catholics, amounting to some thousands, were notallowed to have the comfort of a priest of their own religion.Considering that the Roman Catholic cannot, like the Protestant,retire to any solitude and there relieve his mind by prayer andconfession to God—that he deems the intervention of thepriest, especially on his deathbed, essential to hissalvation—it is not extraordinary that the Irish part ofthe prisoner-population should have been turbulent and desperate;they felt themselves condemned to misery in this world, andperdition in the next—dying "unhousel'd, unannointed,unanel'd."

The tone of society in the towns was horrible: no educated orhonourable class; no church worthy of the name; no schools exceptfor the wealthy, and these chiefly taught by convicts;slave-masters who sold rum; slaves who drank it; an autocratsurrounded by parasites, whose fortune he could make by a strokeof his pen. Except military honour, and the virtue cherished by afew who lived apart, there was as little virtue and honour asfreedom in this wretched, prosperous colony.

From the foundation of New South Wales to the end of GovernorMacquarie's administration, about 400,000 acres of land weregranted to private individuals. Of these, in course of time, manytown lots have become of enormous value, as likewise some of thecountry land; but much was barren, and not worth cultivation whenbetter land was rendered accessible by roads.

In 1817, the first judge, Mr. Field, arrived; a branch of theBible Society was established-, and a Roman Catholic priest,Father O'Flynn, landed and spent some time in the colony, but,not having been duly authorised by the home government, he wascompelled to return. Bigotry was in full bloom beforeChristianity had taken root.

In 1819 arrived a commissioner of inquiry, John Thomas Bigge,Esq., and his secretary, Thomas Hobbs Scott, Esq. He remaineduntil February, 1821, having collected a body of evidence, whichwas afterwards printed for the use of the House of Commons. Itcontains many curious stories. The publication of this report hada considerable effect in directing the attention of the Britishpublic to the resources of Australia, and eventually caused theinflux of a superior class of emigrants. But it was not untilGovernor Darling's time that the demand for convict labourers, onterms then in force, began to exceed the supply. Colonists,chiefly the Scotchmen, discovered the advantage of agriculturalpursuits in a colony in which, with a grant of land, they becameentitled to rations for twelve months for themselves and theirwives, and convict labourers at the rate of one for each thirtyacres, who were also rationed by the government for the space ofeighteen months. The inquiry by Mr. Commissioner Bigge was partlyowing to the representations made, in a work published by Mr.William Wentworth, during a visit paid to England for the purposeof being called to the bar.

Among other subjects that came under the notice of thecommissioner was the ecclesiastical government of New SouthWales. The report of Mr. Bigge recommended the appointment of anarchdeacon. Mr. Scott, the secretary, lost no time in takingorders, and in 1825 reappeared in the colony as ArchdeaconScott.

In the year that the royal commissioner quitted the colony aWesleyan chapel was opened, and the foundation stone of a RomanCatholic cathedral was laid by the governor at the request ofFather Therry—good Father Therry—who shared withParson Cowper the honour, the respect, the affection of thepoorer colonists, and of the outcast prisoner population, whomthey so faithfully tended, and the persecution of their spiritualsuperiors.

In 1822 Governor Macquarie embarked for England, after alonger and more successful administration than any governor inthe Australian colonies has hitherto enjoyed. He found New SouthWales a gaol, and left it a colony; he found Sydney a village,and left it a city; he found a population of idle prisoners,paupers, and paid officials, and left a large free community,thriving on the produce of flocks and the labour of convicts.

{Page 73}

CHAPTER VII.

GOVERNOR BRISBANE AND GOVERNOR DARLING.

1821 TO 1831.

Macquarie was succeeded by Sir ThomasBrisbane, whose term of office, undistinguished by remarkableactions on his part, was full of events of importance to a colonywhich was fast acquiring a population that could no longer becontrolled by a purely military despotism. From the day ofMacquarie's departure a struggle commenced between the people andthe government which was carried on up to the present year, whenthe Duke of Newcastle conceded to the Australians full powers ofself-government and self-taxation.

Under any circ*mstances Sir Thomas Brisbane's task would havebeen difficult. The fortunes made in the colony had attracted aclass of emigrants not prepared to submit to the despotic systemwhich the prisoner part of the population could not, and theofficials and settlers living on government patronage were notinclined to resist. Succeeding to the absolute powers ofMacquarie, in 1824, three years after landing, the Legislative,or rather Executive Council, against the check of which hisimperious predecessor had protested, was established. The firstchief-justice, the first attorney-general, a solicitor-general,who was also a commissioner of the Court of Requests, a master inchancery, and colonial treasurer, arrived in the colony. Trial byjury took place in the first Court of Quarter Sessions; libertyof the press was conceded; and the Australian, the firstcolonial newspaper independent of government aid, was publishedby Mr. Wentworth and Dr. Wardell, and followed by two otherjournals.

While on this side of the globe we were declaiming andsubscribing for the liberties of Greeks, Spaniards, and SouthAmericans, at the antipodes our countrymen were struggling fortrial by jury and "unlicensed printing."

Commercial liberty yet remained to be gained. The East IndiaCompany claimed the monopoly of trading in the Indian seas, andrepeatedly asserted their right by confiscating vessels loadedwith produce for Port Jackson. In 1824 the captain of aman-of-war actually seized the ship Almorah, with a valuablecargo of tea and rice, at anchor in Sydney Cove, and sent her asa prize to Calcutta in charge of his lieutenant.

Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane, K.C.B., had acquired a highreputation as a soldier in the Peninsula, and as a man ofscience. The first observatory in Australia was erected under hisauspices. But his government, which only lasted four years, wasunpopular, and the political concessions made rendered furtherconcessions inevitable. To this fire was added the fuel ofgrievances which went home to the pockets of almost all thesettlers and traders, and an insult which deeply offended apowerful, united, and intelligent religious community—theScotch Presbyterians.

The Presbyterians applied in 1823 for assistance to build aPresbyterian church in Sydney, and referred pointedly to thesupport afforded the "Roman Catholics." The tone of theapplication appears not to have pleased either Sir Thomas or hissecretary, and he returned a bitter reply, of which the followingis the concluding paragraph. The style is eminentlycharacteristic of colonial secretaries and governors:—

"When, therefore, the Presbyterians of the colony shall haveadvanced by private donations in the erection of a temple worthyof religion; when in the choice of their teachers they shall havediscovered a judgment equal to that which has presided at theselection of the Roman Catholic clergymen; when they shall havepractised what they propose, 'To instruct the people to fear Godand honour the King;' when, by endeavouring to 'keep the unity ofthe spirit in the bond of peace' in a a colony requiring it morethan all others, they shall have shown through their lives theinfluence of the holy religion they profess, then assuredly willthe colonial executive step forward to extend its countenance andsupport to those who are following the Presbyterian creed."

The governor, it is said, acted under the advice of hissecretary, a gentleman of the old Tory school. The Scotchgentlemen applied to the home government, when the governorreceived a severe reprimand, and the Presbyterians the aid theyrequired.

Sir Thomas Brisbane's financial measures were equallyunfortunate, yet there is no reason to question the purity of hismotives.

It had been usual under previous governors to purchase thesurplus grain from farmers at the current price of the day. Thecolonial government was almost the only purchaser, and togovernment the corn-growers looked for a certain share of theirprofits. Among the smaller settlers, the only cash they receivedin the course of the year was from the commissariat. This was thelatter phase of a system which began with rationing the wholecommunity, and gave liberty to prisoners who undertook to supportthemselves, which, in its second stage, willingly provided a freeand emancipated settler with land and prisoner labour, andpurchased the produce of land so tilled, to feed the prisonerswhom the settlers could not employ.

Sir Thomas Brisbane, who arrived with Commissioner Bigge'sreport hanging over him, adopted the ordinary contract system,and invited tenders for the quantity required at the lowestprice. The small farmers, unused to calculate the effects of opencompetition, rushed forward to the stores with such eagerness,that wheat fell from 10s. and 7s. 6d. a bushel to 3s. 9d.Abstractedly Sir Thomas Brisbane was right, practically he waswrong; so serious a change required care and time.

About the same time the governor established a colonialcurrency which raised the pound sterling twenty-five per cent.,and proceeded to pay government debts in colonial money toparties who had contracted debts in sterling currency;—arevival of the system of depreciating the circulating mediumobsolete in England, but still practised by continentalmonarchs.

The colonists, seeing the price at which wheat was transferredto the government stores, took it for granted that the harvesthad been redundant, proceeded to feed pigs, and otherwiseexpended the unsold proceeds of their harvest. As the seasonadvanced it was discovered that the harvest, so far from beingplentiful, was deficient. Wheat rose to £1 4s. a bushel. Thosewho had sold cheap had to buy at a high price. The tampering withthe currency added to the severity of the crisis. A great floodswept away the finest crops on the Hawkesbury. A famine followed:the government, by proclamation, required that cabbage-stalksshould not be rooted up. A large body of small farmers became soinsolvent that their farms were sold to pay their debts, andpassed into the hands of money-lenders and grogshop-keepers.

The discontent of the colonists reacted on the homegovernment, and Sir Thomas Brisbane was recalled on the 1stDecember, 1825.

Four very important discoveries were made during hisadministration. In 1823, the Maneroo Plains, situated between twoand three thousand feet above the level of the sea, separatedfrom Twofold Bay by a lofty range of mountains, over which thereis now a dray-track, were explored by Captain Currie, R.N., whonamed them Brisbane Downs, but they have since reverted to theirnative name. In the same year, Mr. Oxley, the surveyor-general,by order of Sir T. Brisbane, explored Moreton Bay, and discoveredthe navigable River Brisbane, leading to the fine semi-tropicalcountry now fully occupied by squatters, but capable ofsupporting a large agricultural population.

In the following year Messrs. Hovell and Hume made theiroverland journey to Port Phillip; and in 1825, Mr. AllanCunningham, one of the most enterprising and accomplished ofAustralian explorers, discovered Pandora's Pass, a cleft thanwhich the Alps offer nothing more wild, more imposing, or morepicturesque, affording the only practicable road from the UpperHunter to the pastoral uplands of Liverpool Plains.

Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Darling, K.C.B., succeededGovernor Brisbane; the colony, during an interregnum of eighteendays, having been in the hands of Colonel (afterwards General)Stewart, of Bathurst, an honour which formed one of the boasts ofthe gallant officer and standing jokes of the district for theremainder of his life.

GOVERNOR DARLING.

Sir Ralph Darling arrived in December, 1825; hisadministration lasted six years, and was singularly anddeservedly unpopular. He was a man of forms and precedents, ofthe true red-tape school—neat, exact, punctual,industrious, arbitrary, spiteful, commonplace. He laboured hardto reduce into order the confusion he found in the public officesof the colony, and substituted a system which became quite ascorrupt and more dilatory. It was like changing from the court ofa Turkish cadi to the Court of Chancery. He obstinately evadedthe control intended to be imposed upon him by the secretofficial and nominee council, and perpetrated one act of tyrannywhich has no parallel in English history since the time ofCharles I. and the Star Chamber, The red-tape tendencies ofGovernor Darling were shown in his management of the waste landsof the colony.

THE AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL COMPANY.

New South Wales, in common with South American mines, Greekand Spanish loans, and a crowd of other bubble speculations,which seem to be decennially necessary to the commercialexistence of Englishmen, became, in the last year of GovernorBrisbane's official reign, the subject of the operations of agreat company, incorporated by charter and by act of Parliament,with a directorate including the best men of the city of London,a capital of a million pounds, a grant of a million acres, andvarious other privileges and pre-emptions, of which a monopoly ofthe working and sale of coal eventually proved the mostprofitable to the shareholders and offensive to the colonists.Under Governor Darling, the agents of this AustralianAgricultural Company selected, took possession, and commencedoperations on their grant.

A retrospect of the plans and prospects of this company in1825 will perhaps afford the best landmark of the progress of thecolony from the time when the whole community depended forsalvation from famine on one ship, and that ship driven byadverse gales out of Sydney Heads away to sea.

The directors of the Australian Agricultural Company, in theiroriginal prospectus, represent New South Wales as well calculatedfor the growth of "timber, wheat, tobacco, hemp, flax, andfruits, amongst which are the olive, grape, fig, mulberry, guava,almond, peach, citron, and orange." They derived theirinformation chiefly from the reports of Mr. Commissioner Bigge;and from the same source rested great hopes of profit—

"1st, On the growth of fine merino wool.

"2ndly, From the breeding of cattle and other livestock, and the raising corn, tobacco, &c., for the supply ofpersons resident in the colony.

"3rdly, From the production, at a more distant time, ofwine, olive oil, hemp, flax, silk, opium, &c., as articles ofexport to Great Britain.

"4thly, From a progressive advance in the value ofland, as it becomes improved; and by an increasedpopulation."

The grant of land was made on the ground that the colony wouldderive advantage from the importation of so large a capital,invested in cattle, horses, and sheep of the Cheviot breeds; inthe cultivation of the produce of southern Europe; and that themother country would be saved the cost of maintaining a certainnumber of convicts.

At that period it was still so much an object with thegovernment to relieve itself of the cost of the maintenance ofcriminals, that it was agreed that the company should be relievedof quit rent, on condition of their employing a certain number ofprisoners. But from the period of the grant to the AustralianAgricultural Company, the value of convict labour rose sorapidly, that they never were able to obtain the stipulatednumber of servants. In 1830 we find the editor of the SydneyMonitor proposing that convicts should be sold on arrival tothe highest bidder, and anticipating that they would realise, inlots of two hundred, £100 a year each for five or ten years!

In the course of the correspondence with this company, theSecretary of State for the Colonies announced that in future,"instead of giving grants of land free, lands were to be put upto sale, according to a valuation of the surveyor-general,similar, in many respects, to the system adopted in the UnitedStates of America."

This plan had been suggested by Mr. Commissioner Bigge, with aprice of 10s. an acre for lands near towns, and 5s. an acre inthe country.

Unfortunately the example of the Australian Company infectedmany members of Parliament and other persons of influence, whohastened to obtain grants which cost the minister nothing, andappeared to the granters of immense value—a delusion onboth sides. The precedent became most embarrassing to thegovernment, while many of the huge blocks were of very littlemoney value to the absentees, and of great disadvantage to thecolony.

As to the Australian Agricultural Company, their proceedingscreated, in the then state of the colony, a financial revolution.They sent out from England, according to the custom of jointstock companies, a numerous staff of officers, with cargoes ofimplements and breeding stock on a most costly scale; andpurchased ewes and heifers in the colony so largely, that priceswere raised nearly two hundred per cent. "The company with a longpocket" was a popular toast at colonial dinners, and sellers werenever wanting as long as they had any money to invest.

A reaction followed, as it always does follow, extravagantexpectations of pecuniary profit. Nevertheless the colony derivedadvantage from the introduction of the company's capital andsuperior stock in sheep, horses, and cattle. The grand ideas ofvineyards, olive oil, opium, silkworm cultivation, and orangegroves, which formed applauded passages in speeches in the Houseof Commons and the court-room of the company, were never extendedbeyond the resident manager's gardens.

Unfortunately the beneficial influences were neutralised by afurther grant, which not only handed over the large tract of coalseams which had been unprofitably worked by the government, butactually created a monopoly which precluded the colonists fromworking, on any terms, any coal which might happen to be foundunder their estates.

These doings seem monstrous now. At that period they wereordinary transactions, in which honourable men and liberalpoliticians took a share without shame. In the same perversespirit the authorities and merchants at Sydney, up to 1826,compelled every ship to enter and break bulk at Sydney beforecalling at the ports of Van Diemen's Land. In 1825 monopoly wasas much an article of faith with statesmen as free trade in1852.

Under Governor Darling emigration from England of persons ofmoderate capital increased. But a vicious system was establishedin the surveyor's office, for the benefit of favoured or feeingparties, by which surveys of waste land were kept secret from theuninitiated. In 1830 the author of "A Letter of Advice toEmigrants" recommends "every settler to bring out an order fromthe Secretary of State to be allowed to inspect charts and mapsin the surveyor's office;" and adds, "from being denied suchinspection, emigrants wander about the interior of the colony atgreat expense, but to little purpose." Reform makes slow progressin the Colonial Office. If we are to believe the boasts of anHibernian-German captain who, in 1848, visited Port Phillip, evenin that year there existed secret choice reserves near the townof Melbourne, which, by the "open sesame" of his letter from EarlGrey, after being long retained, were handed over to a Germancolony.

Darling ruled the convicts with a rod of iron. The times ofthe "first fleeters," with floggers, and short allowances offood, were revived. A penal settlement was formed at Moreton Bay;and there, it is commonly affirmed, the prisoners were so badlytreated that they committed murder in order to be sent for trialto Sydney. County magistrates were permitted to award any numberof lashes for insolence, idleness, or other indefinite offences.As it was not lawful for a man to flog-his own assigned servants,he exchanged compliments with a neighbour. Considering the classof persons who were then frequently selected for magistrates inthe colonies, it may easily be conceived to what brutal excessessuch irresponsible authority led.

But year by year the civilising elements of society made way.At one time, in 1826, we find a dispensary opened: in thefollowing year a great public meeting is held, with the sheriffin the chair, to petition the King and both Houses of Parliamentfor the civil rights of trial by jury, and a House of Assembly;and the next year a general post-office throughout the colony,and an Australian jockey club, are established. The editor of anewspaper is found guilty of libel, and two gentlemen fight abloodless duel. A dispensary, a post-office, an action for libel,and a duel!—the banes and antidotes of civilisedsociety.

The two last years of Governor Darling present events andcontrasts still more remarkable.

A Legislative Council, being a step in advance of theExecutive Council established by the charter of 1824, held itsfirst meeting in 1829. This was the check against which GovernorMacquarie so earnestly and naively protested. The councilconsisted of Archdeacon (the late Bishop) Broughton, whosuperseded Mr. Scott, the Commander of the Forces, the ChiefJustice, Attorney-General, and Colonial Treasurer, AlexanderM'Cleay, afterwards (at eighty years of age) the first speaker ofthe first Australian Legislative Assembly, and four membersselected by the governor.

The proceedings of this council were secret, under an oathadministered to that intent; and the governor had an absoluteveto. The majority were officials, totally unacquainted with thecolony; and, looking at the minority in which the nominees of thegovernment were constantly found in the subsequent openLegislative Assembly, it is not extraordinary that this councilgave no satisfaction to the colony. It must, however, beconfessed, that in 1829 New South Wales did not possess thematerials for representative institutions.

The first act of the council was to establish trial by jury incivil cases.

In the following year, on the 31st March, 1831, the firststeam-boat in Australia was launched; two other steam-boats cameinto use within a few months. Close upon the steam-boat followedDr. Lang, from Scotland, the first Australian agitator, aPresbyterian O'Connell, who, after professing and printing everyshade of political opinions, has recently avowed his preferencefor a republic, and his hopes that he "shall yet see the Britishflag trailed in the dust."

Decidedly, in 1831, Australia was making progress.

The history of General Darling's administration reads morelike that of one of Napoleon's pro-consuls than that of anEnglishman reigning over Englishmen.

The case of Sudds and Thompson is an instance which stands outin the history of the colony as a sort of landmark indicating thetermination of the Algerine system of government, and affording asingular example of the state of society in which such an outrageon law, justice, and constitutional rights could be not onlydone, but defended. The story is worth relating, if only to showwhat deeds could be perpetrated in the same age by the same racethat expended millions in redeeming negro slaves and attemptingto convert aboriginal cannibals.

Sudds and Thompson were two private soldiers in the 57thRegiment, doing duty in New South Wales in 1825, the second yearof Sir Ralph Darling's reign. Thompson was a well-behaved man,who had saved some money; Sudds was a loose character. They bothwished to remain in the colony. In New South Wales these twosoldiers saw men who had arrived as convicts settled on snugfarms, established in good shops, or become even wealthymerchants and stockowners. As to procure their discharge was outof the question, Sudds, the scamp, suggested to Thompson thatthey should qualify themselves for the good fortune of convicts,and procure their discharge by becoming felons. Accordingly theywent together to the shop of a Sydney tradesman, and openly stolea piece of cloth—were, as they intended, caught, tried,convicted, and sentenced to be transported to one of theauxiliary penal settlements for seven years. In the course of thetrial the object of the crime was clearly elicited. It becameevident that the discipline of the troops required to keep guardover the large convict population would be seriously endangeredif the commission of a crime enabled a soldier to obtain thesuperior food, condition, and prospects enjoyed by a criminal.Accordingly, Sir Ralph Darling issued an order under which thetwo soldiers, who had been tried and convicted, were taken fromthe hands of the civil power, and condemned to work in chains onthe roads of the colony for the full term of their sentence,after which they were to return to service in the ranks. On anappointed day the garrison of Sydney were assembled and formed ina hollow square. The culprits were brought out, their uniformsstripped off and replaced by the convict dress; iron-spikedcollars and heavy chains, made expressly for the purpose by orderof the governor, were rivetted to their necks and legs, and thenthey were drummed out of the regiment, and marched back to gaolto the tune of "The Rogue's March." Sudds, who was in bad healthat the time of his sentence (from an affection of the liver),overcome with shame, grief, and disappointment—oppressed byhis chains, and exhausted by the heat of the sun on the day ofthe exposure in the barrack-square—died in a few days.Thompson became insane.

A great outcry was raised in the colony: the opposition paperattacked, the official paper defended, the conduct of thegovernor. The colony became divided into two parties. Until theend of his administration, Sir Ralph Darling, whose whole systemwas a compound of military despotism and bureaucracy, waspertinaciously worried by a section which included some of thebest and some of the worst men in the colony. Combining togetherfor the extension of the liberties of the colony, they found inthe Sudds and Thompson case "the inestimable benefit of agrievance."

It would be unjust to consider Sir Ralph Darling's sentence bythe light of public opinion in England. He was governor of acolony in which more than half the community were slaves andcriminals; he had to punish and to arrest the progress of adangerous crime; but he fell into the error of exercising, byex post facto decree, as the representative of thesovereign, powers which no sovereign has exercised since the timeof Henry VIII., and violated one of the cardinal principles ofthe British constitution, by rejudging and aggravating thepunishment of men who had already been judged. At the present dayit is, as we before observed, only as an historical landmark thatwe recal attention to this transaction, which can never berepeated in British dominions.

During General Darling's government further successfulexplorations of the interior were made, both by privateindividuals and officials. Among the latter were Major (now SirThomas) Mitchell, Mr. Allan Cunningham, Mr. Oxley, and CaptainSturt, the most fortunate of all. In his second expedition, in1829, Captain Sturt embarked with a party in a boat on theMorrumbidgee (which receives the waters of the Macquarie, theLachlan, and Darling), until he came to its junction with theMurray, an apparently noble stream. Pursuing his voyage, in spiteof many impediments, hardships, and dangers, from rocks, snags,sandbanks, and hostile savages, he reached the Lake Alexandrina,and discovered the future province of South Australia. This 83lake is a shallow sheet of water, sixty miles in length and fortymiles in breadth, which interposes between the sea and the river,thus presenting an impassable obstacle to ocean communication.The hopes excited by the discovery of this picturesque river havehitherto not been realised. Although broad, deep, and bordered byrich land for many score miles, the perpetual recurrence ofshallows limits the draught of water to two feet, at which depthsteamers cannot be profitably navigated. Captain Sturt, havingmade this important discovery, returned by reascending the river.In consideration of these and other services rendered to SouthAustralia, the new Legislative Council of that colony haverecently voted to Captain Sturt, who has unfortunately becomeblind, a pension of £500—an act of liberality for which noprecedent is to be found in the proceedings of the othersettlements.

In October, 1831, General Darling resigned his government, andafter an interregnum of two months, filled by Colonel Lindsay,was succeeded by General Sir Richard Bourke.

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CHAPTER VIII.

GOVERNOR BOURKE.

1831 TO 1838.

Major-General Sir Richard Bourke,K.C.B., became Governor of New South Wales in December,1831, and retired in November, 1837. He was, without question,the ablest man who had as yet occupied that office; equal inzeal, energy, and plain common sense to Macquarie; superior inthe liberality, humanity, and statesmanlike far-sightedness ofhis views. With wise self-reliance he resisted the blandishmentsof the official clique who have been the curse of all ourcolonies, and the opposition of the faction of whiteslave-drivers, who looked upon the colony as a farm to beadministered for their sole benefit. He had courage, too, of arare quality, for he dared to differ from his chief, theSecretary of State for the Colonies, on a vital point ofadministration. His recorded objections to the Wakefield landsystem are remarkable for their prophetic wisdom. Sir Richardwas, and his memory still is, deservedly popular among thehumble, or the wealthy sons of the once humble settlers—arare merit, and not a qualification for favour at the ColonialOffice. The six years of his reign were crowded with measures andevents of the utmost importance in the history of New SouthWales.

1. The discussions of the Legislative Council became public,and the financial estimates were regularly submitted anddiscussed.

2. The Church and School Corporation (which had become a grossjob) was abolished, and religious equality established by an actof the Legislative Council.

3. An attempt was made to introduce the Irish national schoolsystem (which the bigots defeated).

4. Free grants of land were abolished, and sale by auction ata minimum price of 5s. substituted.

5. The despatch was received from Lord Glenelg, and steps wereadopted which, in 1840, finally abolished transportation to NewSouth Wales.

6. The squatting system was legalised and systematised on aplan which has since produced nearly £60,000 per annum.

7. Rules for regulating the number of convict servants towhich each settler should be entitled (without favour), and thenumber of lashes which should be inflicted on a convict servantby a single magistrate, were framed and promulgated.

8. Port Phillip was peopled by settlers from Van Diemen'sLand, and South Australia by colonists from England.

The powers of the executive council imposed on the Governor ofNew South Wales in the last year of Sir Thomas Brisbane'sadministration were, under Sir Ralph Darling, almost nominal. Notonly were its deliberations secret and its dissent powerless, butGovernor Darling illegally and systematically exercised authorityin the only matter entrusted to the council—thedistribution of the revenues. Towards the close of hisadministration he introduced a bill indemnifying himself, andlegalising his illegal assumptions. Sir Richard Bourke, on thecontrary, earnestly co-operated in raising the character of thecouncil, treated the non-official members with the utmostrespect, and endeavoured to give the council, as far as possible,the tone and functions of a representative assembly; a coursedirectly the reverse of his successor, Sir George Gipps. Bothwere able, but the one was a frank and generous, the other anastute and jealous man. It is very much to be regretted thatGovernor Bourke had not been permitted to govern with as littleinterference from Secretaries of State as Governor Macquarie, andto remain long enough to initiate the partly elective councilwhich fell into the unhappy hands of his successor.

THE LAWS OF LAND TENURE.

First in importance among the legislative changes effected bySir Richard Bourke's government, must be ranked the "Order inCouncil," subsequently embodied in an act of parliament, by whichsales by auction, at a minimum upset price of 5s. per acre,superseded free grants of land; and the act of the ColonialLegislative Council, by which pastoral occupations of the vastterritories beyond the surveyed limits of the colony (colonially,the Bush) were legalised, placed under the control of specialcommissioners, and charged with a rent in the shape of alicence-fee and a poll-tax.

From these two sources (the sale of land and pastoral orsquatting rents) a fund has been derived, which, during the lasttwenty years, has conveyed to Australia more than one hundredthousand free emigrants, selected from the poorest labourers ofthe United Kingdom. The introduction of these labouring emigrantsrendered the abolition, first of the assignment system, andfinally of transportation, possible.

Here it may be convenient to review the various "land-laws"which had prevailed in the colony up to the time when thosechanges were introduced, which occupied so important a place incolonial discussions during the government of Sir Richard Bourkeand his successor.

From the foundation of the colony in 1788 to 1824, regulationsfor the disposal of land were left entirely in the hands of thegovernor. From time to time the home Government exercised theright of bestowing grants upon such persons as were willing toproceed to the colony to occupy them. Up to 1818 free passages,as well as grants of land, were offered to such free emigrants aswere willing to proceed to the colony, with rations for twoyears.

Thus, John M'Arthur, in 1804, after reporting the result ofhis experiments for naturalising the merino in New South Walesbefore the Privy Council, received a grant of fifty thousandacres, to be selected with the permission of the governor, in anypart of the unoccupied territory.

So, too, as long as the settlement depended for subsistence onimported provisions, lands were bestowed on any man, bond orfree, who would undertake to support himself after the expirationof the first year of occupation of his farm. With each grant acertain number of convicts were allowed as labourers for everyeighty acres, who, as well as the settler and his wife, wererationed for a limited period by the local government, thusreceiving from the government stores, beef, mutton, and flour ofthe same quality as that which they themselves had the profit ofselling to the commissariat.

Up to the time of Governor Darling the produce of the colonywas so uncertain, and the means of profitably employing theprisoners so limited, that every means was adopted to inducesettlers to relieve the Government of the care and cost ofconvicts for whom there was no work.

In Macquarie's time the settler usually obtained, in additionto a supply of farm labourers, the use of a "clearing-gang,"which cut down, burned, rolled, and cleared the huge trees fromgreat tracts that no one would have attempted to cultivatewithout such assistance.

Under these rude means, up to 1820, the last year ofMacquarie's government, 400,000 acres passed into the hands ofprivate individuals. Brisbane granted 180,000 acres at a yearlyquit rent of 2s. per 100 acres, and 573,000 at 15s. annual quitrent per 100 acres; he also sold between December, 1824, and May,1825, 369,050 acres at 5s. an acre, giving a long credit, with aquit rent of 2s. per 100 acres in addition. In 1828, underDarling, the total number of acres alienated amounted to2,906,346. But this acreage cannot, for any useful purpose, becompared with that of cultivated Europe; large patches and vastcontinuous tracts are so barren or so thickly timbered as to beof no more value than those Connemara estates offered for sale at5s. an acre, and dear at the money.

It must also be noted that these quit rents were scarcely evercollected, but allowed to run in arrear until, under thegovernment of Sir George Gipps, they exceeded in amount the valueof the whole fee-simple of many estates, and became the source ofa very formidable grievance.

Under Governors Brisbane, Darling, and the first years ofBourke's government, it was usual to make grants to colonists inproportion to the amount of capital they imported in cash orimplements of husbandry.

In 1822 Commissioner Bigge recommended that sales of landcontiguous to grants issued in consideration of capital importedinto the colony, should be made at the rate of 10s. an acre forland in very favourable situations, and 5s. an acre in moreremote situations. But this suggestion remained a deadletter.

In 1825 Lord Bathurst, as already stated, announced to theAustralian Agricultural Company, but did not carry out hisdetermination, that instead of free grants as theretofore, landin New South Wales would be "put up to sale according to a systemsimilar in many respects to that adopted in the United States ofAmerica." In 1824 the Secretary of State for the Colonies issuedregulations for the disposal of land in New South Wales, of whichthe following is an abstract:—

"1. A division of the whole territory into counties, hundreds,and parishes, is in progress. When that division shall becompleted, each parish will comprise an area of 25 square miles.A valuation will be made of the lands throughout the colony, andan average price will be struck for each parish.

"2. All the lands in the colony not hitherto granted, andnot appropriated for public purposes, will be put up for saleat the average price thus fixed.

"3. All persons proposing to purchase lands must transmit awritten application to the governor, in a certain prescribedform, which will be delivered at the surveyor-general's office toall parties applying, on payment of a fee of two shillings andsixpence.

"4. The purchase-money must be made by four quarterlyinstalments. A discount of 10 per cent. will be allowed for readymoney payments.

"5. The largest quantity of land which will be sold to anyindividual, 89,600 acres. The land will generally be put up inlots of three square miles or 1,920 acres.

"6. Any purchaser who, within ten years of his purchase, shallby the employment and maintenance of convicts have relieved thepublic from a charge equal to ten times the purchase-money, willhave the money returned, but without interest. Each convictemployed for twelve months will be computed as £16 savedto the public."

Persons desirous of becoming grantees without purchase mightobtain land on satisfying the governor that they had the powerand intention of expending in the cultivation of the land acapital equal to half the estimated value of it.

On grants of not less than 320 acres, and not more than 2,560acres, subject to a quit rent of 5 per cent. per annum on theestimated value, redeemable within the first twenty-five years attwenty years' purchase, with a credit for one-fifth part of thesums the grantee might have saved by employing convicts. No quitrent was required for the first seven years, but the grantee wassubject to forfeiture of his grant if unable, to prove to thesatisfaction of the surveyor-general that he had expended acapital equal to one-half its value.

Detailed regulations like those above quoted as to expenditureof capital can never be enforced. In practice, quit rents fell inarrear and could not be recovered. Thousands of acres grantedwere barren and utterly valueless.

In September, 1826, Sir Ralph Darling created a land board,composed of the Colonial Secretary, the Civil Engineer, and theAuditor-general of accounts, which issued the following set ofregulations worthy, for their thorough absurdity andimpracticability, of their bureaucratic descendants, the SouthAustralian commissioners, and the New Zealand Company.

Persons desirous of obtaining land were (1) to apply to thecolonial secretary for a form to be filled up and submitted tothe governor, who (2), if satisfied of the character andrespectability of the applicant, directed the colonial secretaryto supply him with a letter (3) to the land board, in order thatthey might carefully investigate the stock articles of husbandry,&c., and cash, forming part of his capital. On the land boardreporting (4) to the governor satisfactorily as to capital, thegovernor furnished the applicant (5) with a letter to thesurveyor-general, who (6) was to give him authority toproceed in search of land! When he had made his selection hehad to apprise the surveyor-general (7), who twice a month was toreport (8) to the governor such applications; and, if approved(9) by the governor, the applicant received written authority(10) to take possession of the land until his Majesty'spleasure should be known, or the grant made out. Terms as toquit rents the same as the first set of regulations—viz.,5s. per cent. after seven years; grants to be in square miles;one square mile, 640 acres, for each 500 of capital, to theextent of four square miles.

Land selected for purchase, not granted, to be valued by thecommissioners, put up for sale, and sold by sealed tender, notunder a price fixed by commissioners. Personal residence, orresidence of a free man as servant or deputy, required onpurchases and grants.

These regulations of Sir Ralph Darling were marked by everyofficial vice—unnecessary forms, expense, and uncertainty,inquisitorial investigation, bribery and corruption among thesubordinates in the various offices; in fact, everything thatcould be done, was done to disgust decent, unpolished, unlearnedsettlers. They were adopted by the Colonial Office in 1827, andhad the effect of rendering the business of obtaining andgranting land one series of jobs. The home government alwaysreserved to itself the right of making grants, and exercised itin a most baneful manner.

One effect, unintentional on the part of the authors of thesecumbrous arrangements for obtaining grants of land, was toencourage unlicensed squatting in districts unsurveyed, and atthat period allowed to remain in "healthy neglect." So the livestock increased in spite of the forms of the "land board."

An impartial retrospect of the granting; system, before it wassystematised and encumbered with regulations, leads to theconclusion that with a just and intelligent governor, it was thebest that could be devised for such a colony.

The attraction of a free passage, with free grants of land andthe use of convict labour which were offered up to 1818, didsecure a certain number of respectable colonists. The free grantof land made to emigrants, in proportion to their capital, and toprisoners who had served their term, during the governments ofMacquarie and Brisbane, between 1788 and 1825, with the aid ofconvict labour, did colonise and cultivate the country. Forinstance, in 1821, the great road across the Blue Mountain toBathurst was executed, and rendered practicable for wheeledvehicles. In 1822 the Hunter River District was a wilderness; in1827, for a distance of 150 miles along the river, half a millionacres had been surveyed, granted, or sold to settlers whosecapital was estimated at from four to five hundred thousandpounds, and whose stock included 25,000 horned cattle, and 80,000fine-woolled sheep. All the improvements, buildings, fences, andcultivation were effected by assigned servants, whom thegovernment fed and clothed for the first eighteen months of theirservitude. Nothing but convict labour could have done so much inpublic and private works in five years.

Considering the slight offences for which the majority of theprisoner population of New South Wales had been transported,between 1788 and 1825, there can be no doubt that had the freegrants of land system been accompanied by measures forclassifying, teaching, and Christianising the convicts, and forproviding, from the destitute parts of the United Kingdom, suchan emigration of women as would have equalised the sexes, thecharacter of the colony would have been materially changed, and apopulation provided well calculated to amalgamate with and riseto the level of free emigrants, when the time came for abolishingtransportation, and giving up the land which convicts hadpioneered to the use of a free population.

But as it is difficult to obtain a succession of governors,able and honest enough to bear the responsibility of grantingland when it comes to be of value, it is to be regretted that,when it was no longer considered necessary to bribe prisoners tohonesty and industry by the prizes in the shape of a farm of wildland, we did not imitate the simple system by which, during halfa century, the vast territories of the United States have beencolonised, cities founded, harbours constructed, canals cut, andrailroads made.

Under this system the territories for sale are surveyed inadvance, and laid out in lots of eighty acres and upwards, at afixed price of a dollar an acre; a mapr containing the land forsale is open to every intending purchaser; there are no reservesexcept for special stated public purposes; parties settlingbeyond the bounds of surveyed land do so at their own risk, andhave no power to inflict on the parent state heavy expenses inarmies or officials. They are expected to govern and protectthemselves, and to retire or purchase when the governmentsurveyor makes his appearance. No doubt the American system hasits defects, but, taken as a whole, it is the best which has everbeen devised for employing a large emigrant population, andconquering and subduing the earth, at the least possible publicexpense.

It is possible that something like it might have eventuallybeen transplanted to Australia, but a series of accidents threwthat island-continent entirely into the hands of a clique ofpolitical land-jobbers.

In 1829 the colony of Swan River was founded on principles,under circ*mstances, and in a situation which ensuredfailure.

Mr. Peel, a gentleman who had influence with government,combined with Sydney merchants to found a colony in some otherpart of Australia. The merchants found the money, Mr. Peel theinfluence. The large fortunes which had been realised bycolonists in New South Wales led the colonisers to believe thatthe same might be realised in a new colony, without thedisadvantage of a convict population.

Swan River, on the north-western coast of Australia, was thesite chosen. Sailors who had visited the shores gave thefavourable reports, as sailors always do of any safe harbourwhere they find wood and water enough for their ship's crew.Geographical reasons led the adventurers to expect a temperateclimate; further precise investigations as to the quality of thesoil, extent of pastures, and character of the aborigines, wereconsidered unnecessary.

The government, in total ignorance of the simplest principlesof colonisation, did its part by bestowing a million acres on thefounder, and to every other colonist acres in proportion to hiscapital in cash, live stock, implements, or the number oflabourers whose passage he paid.

In great haste ships were freighted, and loaded with finegentlemen and ladies, farmers and labourers, blood-horses,short-horned cattle, merino rams, carriages of fashionable build,and agricultural implements enough for one of the best farmedEnglish counties. Those who had little money made use of theircredit to obtain consignments which would entitle them to land.Not one of them doubted that the wild land in an unknown countrywould soon be as valuable as in Bedfordshire, or, at any rate, ason the banks of the River Hunter in New South Wales, and that thelabourers would labour as contentedly for the same wages abroadas at home.

The first fleet of Western Australian colonists arrived tofind the country not only unsurveyed, but unexplored. They weredisembarked on a narrow slip of beach, bordered by thicketsfilled with hostile savages, who speared men and their cattle onevery opportunity. A fine stud of thorough-bred horses perishedfor want of fresh water; whole cargoes of furniture andagricultural implements rolled on the beach without beingunpacked. The labourers repudiated their home engagements, andobtained exorbitant wages. When the country was further explored,the quantity of available land turned out to be extremelylimited; the live stock was rapidly consumed for food, while theremoteness of Swan River from the old colony renderedimportations of any kind difficult, expensive, and uncertain. Thesheep turned out to pasture repeatedly died, poisoned by a plantwhich, up to this day, the colonists have been unable to discoverand extirpate.

In a word, planted in a remote district, far from other portsand out of the track of commerce, with very little land availablefor agricultural or pastoral purposes—what little there wasof the one monopolised by a few hands, much of the otherpoisonous; with colonists, both high and low, the most unfittedby previous education for a rude, self-dependent life, withoutleaders or servants of colonial experience, without forcedlabour—the Swan River settlement failed miserably. Thisfailure would have been confined to the fortunes of the firstcolonists, however bad the system of colonisation, had therebeen, as in the other settled districts of Australia, vast plainsof sound pasture on which pure-bred merinoes could have fed andmultiplied; or coal, or copper, or gold to be had for digging;but there was nothing, and is nothing up to the present hour,beyond the bare means of sustenance; thus, without a singlestaple export, Swan River, in spite of a series of systems ofcolonisation, has never been able to rise from the condition ofan eleemosynary dependency, supported by the bounty of the parentstate. With the failure of Swan River the system of free grantsof land ended in Australia.

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CHAPTER IX.

ORIGIN OF THE WAKEFIELD SYSTEM.

The apparently digressive sketch of thecolonisation of Western Australia and its lamentable results isrendered necessary by the fact, that on the failure of WesternAustralia a new theory of colonisation was floated into publicnotice and incorporated in our colonial legislation andadministration.

It was in 1829 that a sensation was produced in the literaryand political world of London by the appearance of a little bookentitled "A Letter from Sydney," the principal town ofAustralasia (edited by Robert Gouger), which was soon known to bethe production of Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Out of this bookgrew the "High-Priced Land System of the Three Colonies" themonopoly of wild lands at a nominal rent, which the squatters nowenjoy the colonisation of South Australia and New Zealand somegood, and a world of misery, ruin, social and politicalestrangement, of which we have not yet seen the end.

This "Letter from Sydney," by far the most brilliant of themany works on colonisation by the same author, is now out ofprint. It contains so clear a statement of the origin, merits,and objects of a theory which was at one time accepted,supported, and acted on by almost every statesman, politicaleconomist, and journalist of eminence, that the followingabstract of its contents will not be out of place.

The writer represents himself to be an English gentleman oflarge fortune and refined tastes, who has emigrated under theidea that an estate of twenty thousand acres in Australia wouldprocure the same comforts, income, and consideration that anestate of a thousand acres would in England. He says "I have got20,000 acres for a mere trifle, and I imagined that a domain ofthat extent would be very valuable. In this I was whollymistaken. As my estate cost next to nothing, so it is worth nextto nothing. The trees on my property, if growing in any part ofEngland, would be worth at least £150,000. The best thing thatcould happen to me would be the annihilation of all this naturalproduce; but the cost of destroying it would be at least£15,000." He then goes on to enumerate mines of iron and coalwhich would make him "a peer in England," but which are valuelessfor want of labour or roads. "I did not, you know, intend tobecome a farmer. Having fortune enough for all my wants, Iproposed to get a large domain, to build a good house, to keepenough land in my own hands for pleasure grounds, park, and gamepreserves, and to let the rest, after erecting farmhouses insuitable spots. My mansions, park, preserves, and tenants,were all a mere dream. There is no such class as a tenantryin this country, where every man who has capital to cultivate afarm can have one of his own." He then graphically describes themiseries of a solitary life to a man accustomed to the elegantluxuries of civilised life. His "own man" leaves him, and investshis savings in a small farm. He imports labourers and mechanicsfrom England, and they leave him without repaying the cost oftheir passage. He observes to a friend, "Were you a brokenfarmer, or a poor lieutenant, I should say, come here by allmeans; you cannot be placed more unhappily than at present, andyou may gain by the change. But I am advising a man ofindependent fortune, who prefers his library even to thebeauties of nature, and to whom intellectual society is necessaryfor his peace of mind. I thought at one time of establishing adairy; but my cows were as wild as hyaenas, and almost as wicked.I had no dairy woman, no churns, no anything that was wanted;and, above all, I wanted industry, skill, economy, and taste,for any such pursuits, or, at least, a drudge of a wife tosupply those wants." He then paints an amusing althoughexaggerated picture of the want of intellectual society in acolonial town.

Having come to the conclusion that the colony would fall intototal barbarism whenever the abolition of the convict assignmentsystem should leave the colonists dependent on free labour, heproceeds to state the cause of these miseries—

"Fons et origo malorum."

The whole evil, according to this unfortunate gentleman, offortune without "industry, skill, economy, or taste foragricultural or pastoral pursuits," lies in cheap land,which produces dear labour, by drawing labourers intolandowners, by promoting dispersion—by deterring men fromrenting land, as they prefer freehold. Dear labour obstructsimprovements in agriculture, in public works, in arts, inscience. There being no tenants and few servants, there is noeasy, refined, intellectual class: mere mechanics, labourers, andeven common farmers and poor lieutenants, such in fact as sufferprivations in lands where labour is cheap, are the only personswho enjoy colonial life. With cheap land and dear labour,colonists could get the advantage of the presence of suchemigrants as the letter-writer.

The remedy propounded in 1829, (repeated with equal confidencein 1849,) is to make land so dear that labourers shall not beable to obtain possession of land "too soon"—to affix toall colonial land what Mr. Wakefield calls in another work a"hired labour price." And further, that the money forwhich the land sold should be devoted to the importation of theredundant labour of the mother country—an importation whichhe advises should be conducted with a view to the greatestbenefit of the capitalist,—that is to say, it shouldconsist entirely of young married couples under five-and-twentyyears of age, unencumbered by children or parents. "FamilyColonisation" had no charms for Gibbon Wakefield.

Thus supplied with ample cargoes of healthy young labourers ofboth sexes, debarred by a sufficient price from becomingfreeholders, the writer of the letter from Sydney "promises thatthe capitalists shall find ample profitable employment for theircapital, shall concentrate population, carry on model farming,cultivate art and science."

But he anticipates one important question which he answersthus:—

"It becomes clear that the object we have in view may beattained by fixing some considerable price on waste land. Still,how is the proper price to be ascertained? Frankly, I confess Ido not know. I believe that it could be determined only byexperience." This was in 1829. Twenty years later, in 1849, afterhaving experimented on New South Wales, and on three colonies inNew Zealand, and provided for all his relations in snug colonialberths, he says,—"It is here that I have been frequentlyand tauntingly required to mention what I deem the sufficientprice; but I have hitherto avoided falling into the trap whichthat demand upon me really is. I could do that certainly for somecolony with which I am particularly well acquainted, but I shoulddo so doubtingly and with hesitation, for the elements ofcalculation are so many and so complicated, in their variousrelations to each other, that in depending on them exclusivelythere would be liability to error."

We may observe that this caution in naming price only extendedto books and pamphlets, as Mr. Wakefield never hesitated toassure those who bought lots of land in his model colonies thatthey would enjoy all the advantages it was presumed asufficient price would confer. Therefore, of course, thecolonising purchasers, seeing Mr. Wakefield in constantcommunication with the managers of each colony, took it forgranted that 12s. in South Australia, or 20s. at Wellington, NewZealand, or 30s. at Nelson, and £3 at Canterbury, according tothe colony, was the "sufficient price."

At the period when this theory, in every respect so plausible,was propounded, there were no adverse critics except merecolonists, and they were silenced with a jest, or a sneer attheir selfish jealousy. And it is not extraordinary, for seldomhas a chapter of political economy been clothed in language ofsuch eloquence as adorned and enlivened the pages of the "Letter"from Sydney. It contains passages (the picture of the Italiangirl—the journey from Alexandria to Genoa)—sobeautiful, so warm, so real, that one cannot help regretting, forthe sake of his own happiness and reputation, as well as of hisnumerous colonising victims, that Gibbon Wakefield had notdevoted himself to writing novels and travels, instead of puffs,paragraphs, articles, pamphlets, and books in praise of jointstock and lottery colonisation.

But Mr. Wakefield had to assist him in propagating his tenetsnot only the charm of "style," but of personal fascination, witha more than Protean adaptativeness, which rendered him the friendand bosom adviser of Republicans and Radicals, Whig andConservative Peers, Low Church and High Church Bishops. Fivesecretaries of state for the colonies—Lords Glenelg andStanley, Monteagle, Aberdeen, and Grey—have been more orless his pupils; the influence of his writings—evenquotations from them—are to be found in their despatches;while so late as 1850, he led, or rather sent captive, toCanterbury, New Zealand, a crowd of educated victims.

Energetic, tenacious, indefatigable, unscrupulous, with awonderful talent for literary agitation, for simultaneouslyfeeding a hundred journalists with the same idea arid the sameillustrations in varying language, for filling eloquent, butindolent, orators with telling speeches; at one time he hadrallied round him nearly every rising man of politicalaspirations, and secured the support of nearly every economicalwriter of any celebrity. He has shaken a ministry, founded anddistributed the patronage of at least two colonies, and left theseeds, after nearly exciting open rebellion in a third.

But one hard unvarying undercurrent of fact destroyed theedifice of fame and fortune which seemed rising under theinfluence of Gibbon Wakefield, with his troops of friends, hisfiery orators, his city bankers, his well-descended nobles, hisbishops of all hues—Whig, Tory, and Trimmer—Hinde,Exeter, and Oxford. The results of his theory, his best arrangedplans, were, invariably disastrous. His disciples only continuedhis disciples as long as they sat at the desk critical,speculated within reach of Threadneedle-street, or reclined onthe soft benches of the Houses of Parliament. No sooner did thecolonisers become colonists than they renounced him and all hisworks.

We are willing to admit Gibbon Wakefield's first experiment incolonisation was perfectly legitimate, although the manner inwhich he hunted down all who ventured to question his views wasas inexcusable as the recklessness with which he sacrificedestablished colonies in order to prop up his model speculation.For like the Bourbons, he forgets nothing and learns nothing;fiercely implacable, he has neither candour, nor truth, norhumility. In 1849, in order to float off his Canterburycolonisation scheme, he published "The Art of Colonisation," avolume of 500 pages, which, as regards the land question, ismerely an amplification, in a diffuse style, with the samearguments and even the same illustrations, of the theories sofervidly propounded in 1829. Not a sentence, not a word, does thebook contain of Mr. Wakefield's twenty years' experience, duringwhich he had directed the colonisation, with successivevariations in detail, but always on the "sufficient price," or"hired labour price" system, of four colonies—SouthAustralia, Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth, beside planning halfa dozen others. Not a hint that the "Wakefield theory" had, inevery colony in which it had been attempted, ruined all those whoput faith in it, and been acknowledged to be absurd andimpracticable by the intimate friends and brothers of thetheorist.

In New South Wales the year 1830 was marked by a change fromthe complicated system of sales at quit rents and free grants touniform system of sale by auction at 5s. an acre, which, ineffect, except for choice lots, was a fixed price of 5s. an acre,for practically there was no competition. Whether this change wasbrought about by the ventilation of Mr. Wakefield's theories, itis impossible to say.

The announcement of land for sale by auction at the minimumupset price of 5s. an acre soon brought money into the governmentchest. Those who had occupied land of a superior quality neartheir grants purchased their occupations; others rounded offtheir grants, and took in slices of land for the sake ofuniformity, for a natural boundary for pasture, or for access towater; others, who had not had either influence or patience, ortime to wade through the dreary forms of Governor Darling's landboard, indulged in freehold as soon as it became a mere matter ofmoney. This was especially the case with a considerable sectionof the emancipist population.

Governor Bourke had distributed a number of ten-acre grants onthe alluvial flats of rivers among poor prisoners of good conductbefore the sales by auction were sanctioned.

During the years between 1831 and 1836, great encouragement topurchase land was held out by the facility for obtaining thelabour of prisoners without favour on fixed terms; by the largepurchases of produce by the commissariat; and the activity withwhich the governor prosecuted road-making wherever land wassettled. The result was a rapid and annual accession of funds tothe colonial Treasury.

The news of the avidity with which both colonists andabsentees purchased wild land, which the government imagined ithad been giving away for nothing, or for a nominal price, eversince the foundation of the colony, appears to have inflamed theimagination of the colonial department of Downing-street; andvery soon the Colonial Office began to think and act as if it haddiscovered an exhaustless treasure, which could be sold in anyquantity and at any price they chose to fix. Just as in 1845,when all the British public was mad on railways, there wereparties who believed that because one or two lines paid 10 percent., all lines would pay 10 per cent., and therefore wishedgovernment to buy up and complete the whole net-works of ironroads, and pay off the national debt with the profits.

In like manner, in the course of a few years after thepublication of Mr. Wakefield's theories, the whole colonialpossessions of Great Britain were surveyed, on maps only, priced,and offered for sale at sums per acre in which intrinsic valueformed no element of the calculation.

The one part of the Wakefield theory for which the authordeserved credit, was the application of part of the purchasemoney of land to the introduction of free emigrants in equalnumbers of both sexes. Thus, preparation was made forsubstituting free for convict labour.

The first five years of land sales at 5s. an acre, includingthe acreage sold by Governors Brisbane and Darling, and paid forin those years, amounted to £176,435, of which the last yearamounted to £89,380. During the same period £31,028 only wasexpended in introducing 3,079 emigrants.

But in 1835 two events occurred which materially affected thecolonising fortunes of Australia. A party of stockowners from theIsland of Van Diemen's Land, in which the accessible pastures hadbeen nearly all appropriated, crossed Bass's Straits, andestablished themselves on the shores of Port Phillip Bay, on theRiver Yarra Yarra; about the same time squatters, pushing onwestward over the plains of Maneroo, gradually extended theirpastures overland, while whalers settled at Portland Bay in thesame district. And before the government of New South Wales,within which this territory was included under Governor Phillip'scommission, acknowledged the existence of the settlement of PortPhillip, many thousand sheep and cattle were feeding over thefinest plains that had yet been discovered in the vicinity of anatural port. These "unauthorised squatters," as they were calledin a despatch, poured into the new land with such rapidity thatthe home government was very unwillingly obliged to sanction themeasures for their recognition and settlement which had beentaken by Governor Bourke.

At the same time that the Tasmanians were swarming acrossBass's Straits, and the pastors of New South Wales were marchingoverland with their flocks to this and other new lands ofpromise, in England a commission had been issued, an act ofParliament obtained, and a charter granted for colonising SouthAustralia (the unexplored tract of land, traversed by a riverwhich the adventurous Sturt had descended and ascended in 1829,and named South Australia), on the "sufficient price" principlepropounded by Gibbon Wakefield in his "Letter from Sydney."

The history of the origin, rise, progress, fall, and revivalof South Australia, will be found duly chronicled in the chapterdevoted to that province. We refer to it here in order to showhow the speculations of the South Australian colonisers affectedthe progress of New South Wales and Port Phillip.

Their scheme was floated on the success of New South Wales andthe failure of Swan River.

Give us, they said to the legislature and the stock-jobbingpublic, the territory we mark on the map; the right of imposing a"sufficient price" on the land, and of applying it to theimportation of labour; and we will render labour cheap by theexclusion of labourers from the possession of land, concentratesociety, introduce agriculture as scientific as that of GreatBritain, in addition to the productions of Spain and Italy, reapall the profits that have been reaped in New South Wales and VanDiemen's Land, without the taint of convict labour, or "thedispersion of the semi-barbarous squatter;" and we will produce astate of society so prosperous and so charming, that theneighbouring cheap-priced convict colonies shall hasten to followour example.

As they desired so it was granted to them; and under "SouthAustralia" we shall tell how bands of youths and maidens, and oldmen who had not gained wisdom with their grey hairs, went singingin triumph to sit down in a sandy plain and spend two years ingambling for town lots and village lots, with their own and withborrowed paper money; and how they sank into a slough ofdespondency, and were only saved by resorting to the people andpursuits they had been taught to despise.

But the South Australian interest—an interest much moresuccessful in its parliamentary tactics than in its colonisingoperations—in the course of a few years succeeded inraising the price of land successively from 5s. to a minimum of12s. and 20s.; in inoculating the Colonial Office with their ownnotions as to the value of wild land and the injurious effects ofdispersion; and in suddenly, without due preparation, abolishingthe assignment system, which supplied the greater part of thepastoral and agricultural labour in the colony.

So early as 1834 the Earl of Aberdeen, then Secretary of Statefor the Colonies, appears, from a despatch addressed to GovernorBourke on the subject of the vast extensions of the pastoralinterest in every accessible direction, but especially toward theunexplored Port Phillip district, to have embraced Mr.Wakefield's doctrine as to the banefulness of dispersion. Boththe theorist and the statesman were applying the rules of anagricultural to a pastoral state of society. They were looking tothe condition of the Lothians, when they should have beenstudying the history of the Patriarchs. And although thesquatting system was then in its infancy and not one-third of theterritory was then explored that has since been occupied, LordAberdeen expressed a strong opinion "that it was not desirable toallow the population to become more scattered than it thenwas."

In 1836 a committee of the House of Commons, appointed underthe influence of Mr. Wakefield's parliamentary disciples, made areport in favour of that gentleman's principles of colonisation,after hearing evidence which consisted almost entirely ofwitnesses interested in the South Australian speculation, andwhich did not include a single colonist from New South Wales.After this report, Lord Glenelg, then Colonial Secretary,authorised the Governor of New South Wales to raise the price ofland to 12s. if he thought fit.

The replies of Sir Richard Bourke on the two questions of"dispersion" and price of land, place him in the first rank ofcolonising statesmen; they display a degree of foresight which wecan now duly appreciate:—

"Admitting," he said in answer to Lord Aberdeen, "as everyreasonable person must, that a certain degree of concentration isnecessary for the advancement of wealth and civilisation, andthat it enables government to become at once more efficient andmore economical, I cannot avoid perceiving the peculiaritieswhich in this colony render it impolitic, and even impossible, torestrain dispersion within limits that would be expedientelsewhere. The wool of New South Wales forms at present its chiefwealth. The proprietors of thousands of acres find it necessary,equally with the poorer settlers to send large flocks beyond theboundaries of location, to preserve them in health throughout theyear. The colonists must otherwise restrain the increase, orendeavour to raise artificial food for their stock. Whilst naturepresents all around an unlimited supply of wholesome pasture,either course would seem a perverse rejection of the bounty ofProvidence. Independently of these powerful reasons for allowingdispersion it is not to be disguised that government is unable toprevent it. ***The question I beg leave to submit is simply this: How maygovernment turn to the best advantage a state of things which itcannot wholly interdict? It may be found practicable, by means ofthe sale of land in situations peculiarly advantageous, howeverdistant from other locations, by establishing townships andports, and facilitating the intercourse between remote and moresettled districts of this vast territory, to provide centres ofcivilisation and government, and thus gradually extend the powerof social order to the most distant parts of the wilderness."

In answer to the suggestion for raising the price of land,made at the instance of Colonel Torrens, chairman of the SouthAustralian speculation, who found "semi-barbarous" Port Phillip aserious rival to his model colony:—

"Whatever minimum is fixed, there will be found instances inwhich land acquired at that price without opposition will prove acheap bargain; but such is not often the case. Land even of veryinferior quality, happening to possess a peculiar value to theindividual purchasing in consequence of its proximity to hisother property, finds a sale solely on that account, cannot beconsidered as cheaply obtained, even at the minimum price. Thecases in which land is sold without opposition, from ignorance ofits marketable value on the part of the public, or from thesecret agreement or friendly forbearance of those otherwiseinterested in bidding against each other, must diminish yet moreand more as the colony advances in wealth and population; nor aresuch accidents, even if they were more numerous, deserving ofmuch consideration. It is upon general tendencies and resultsthat all questions of public policy are to be decided.

"The lands now in the market form a surplus, in many cases arefuse, consisting of lands which in past years were notsaleable at any price, and were not sought after even as freegrants.

"By deciding to dispose of them at 5s. an acre, it by no meansfollows that they will be sold at a higher rate. The result maybe to retain them for an indefinite time unsold, a result morecertain in consequence of the alternative at the settler'scommand of wandering over the vast tracts of the interior. Afacility for acquiring land at a low price is the safest check tothis practice. The wealthiest colonists are continually balancingbetween the opposite motives presented by the cheapness of (then)unauthorised occupation on the one hand, and the desire of addingto their permanent property on the other. The influence of thelatter motive must be weakened in proportion to the augmentationof the upset price.

"It is possible that the augmentation of the minimum pricewould have the injurious effect of checking the immigration ofpersons possessed of small capital, desirous of establishingthemselves upon land of their own."

We shall hereafter show that all Sir Richard Bourke'spredictions were realised. To this hour, in the midst of settleddistricts, large tracts of land remain the haunt of wild dogs andvermin, which are no more likely to be worth £1 an acre in twentyyears to come than they were twenty years ago, unless they turnout to be gold fields.

Parallel with the new arrangement, which enabled every manwith money to buy a farm, and filled the colonial treasury tooverflowing, the pastoral system, which, at the least possibleexpenditure for labour, raised a vast exportable produce in wool,was extending itself both east and west,—daily discoveringnew pastures, and driving the emu, the kangaroo, and theaborigine before armies of soft-fleeced merinoes.

In the early days of the colony, landowners grazed near theirgrants without paying anything for what in fact was valuelessexcept to them. As the population of Sydney increased a charge of2s. 6d. per 100 acres was imposed on wild lands, convenientlysituated for pasture.

No instance occurred of refusing-this privilege at this renton unoccupied land until the time of Governor Darling, whor*fused to permit the editor of a paper which had ridiculed hisgovernment to rent additional land for his increasing herds.

Beyond the boundaries of settlement—colonially "thebush"—no rent was charged, and until Governor Bourke tookthe matter in hand, club-law prevailed. It was not unusual for agreat squatter to drive a small one out of a district of peculiarrichness in grass or water by what was called "eating him out;"that is to say, sending such a flock as would, in four-and-twentyhours, devour every blade within many miles of the smallsettler's hut, until Sir Richard Bourke, to a certain extent,extended the operation of the law beyond the boundary. He seemsto have been the only governor, with the exception of Macquarie,thoroughly impressed with the necessity of encouraging andprotecting against the prejudices of the great settlers a classof agricultural yeomanry. It was the policy of Sir George Gipps,acting under his instructions, to throw every impediment in theway of freehold farms for those who, not rich enough to becomegreat flockowners, were not willing to become mere shepherds.Governor Bourke saw through the selfishness of the colonialmonopolists, in the shape of great flockholders, who, forgettingtheir own or their fathers' original insignificance, grudgedevery acre and every head of stock that fell to the share ofhardworking men; he was not led away by a cry against the frugalpeasantry, who fed small flocks or a few cattle on wild land. Heobserves, in a despatch of 18th December, 1835:—

"Another cause to which Judge Burton attributes the prevalenceof crime in this colony, is the occupation of waste lands byimproper persons. The persons to whom Mr. Burton alludes,familiarly called 'squatters,' * are the objects of greatanimosity on the part of the wealthier settlers. It must beconfessed they are only following in the steps of all the mostinfluential and unexceptionable colonists, whose sheep and cattlestations are everywhere to be found side by side with theobnoxious squatter, and held by no better title.*** I trust Ishall be able to devise some measure that may moderate the evilcomplained of, without putting a weapon into the hands ofselfishness and oppression.*** ." And again,in September, 1836:—

[* The great flockowners had not at that timeappropriated the term squatter to themselves, as they did soonafterwards. Before Bourke's time they chiefly fed their flocks ongrants.]

"There is a natural disposition on the part of the wealthystockholders to exaggerate the offences of the poorer classesof intruders upon crown lands, and an equal unwillingness to suitthemselves to such restraints as are essential to the due andimpartial regulation of this species of occupancy. Of theformer disposition I have had ample proof in the result of aninquiry lately instituted as to the number of ticket-of-leaveholders in unauthorised occupation of crown land. The dishonestpractices of this class of persons in such occupation had beenrepresented as one of the principal evils which required aremedy. I have, however, discovered from the returns of themagistrates, which I called for, that not more than twenty tothirty ticket-of-leave holders occupy crown lands throughout thewhole colony, and of these a great proportion are reported to beparticularly honest and industrious."

Out of this despatch grew the pastoral or crown land rents,which produced, the year before the gold discovery, upwards offorty thousand a year, and which—although less equitablyworked than Sir Richard Bourke intended, or would have permittedhad he remained long enough to adapt the details to thecirc*mstances of the colony—had, doubtless, a great effectin stimulating the growth of the pastoral resources ofAustralia.

Sir Richard Bourke divided the wild land or bush, beyond theboundaries of the settled districts, into "squatting districts,"each under the charge of a "Commissioner of Crown Lands." Anannual licensing fee was charged to each squatter for hisoccupation, and a poll-tax on his stock. Advantages ofpre-emption were, by custom, conceded to the discoverers of newpastures. In arranging this system, it seems Sir Richard Bourkedid not expect to obtain a greater revenue than would defray theexpenses of the machinery which superseded club law bymagistrates and police.

Thus it will be observed that under Governor Bourke, the meansof obtaining either the absolute possession of land infee-simple, or the use for pastoral purposes, were systematisedand simplified. It ceased to be a matter of favour, ofcomplicated form, or of bribery to subordinates; and what wasstill more important, and directly reverse to the policy of hissuccessor, the administration was conducted on the principle thatthe possession of land could not be made too easy to those whowere disposed to occupy or cultivate it.

Sir Richard believed that he was best serving the interest ofhis sovereign by promoting the prosperity of colonists of allclasses, by permitting them to follow their pursuits in their ownway, so long as they did not injure each other. He did not thinka few acres, more or less, were of the least consequence to thecrown; he thought capital would be better employed in the handsof the colonists than in the treasury of the colony; therefore henever attempted like his successor to extract the uttermostfarthing by haggling at land sales, or dreamed of treatingworthless, limitless forests as if they were plantations ofEnglish oaks, or of laying claim to such waifs as "Australianguano." In fact he believed that he was serving the crown byadministering the colony for the benefit of the colonists; he didnot pretend, like Cyrus, to force upon them a garment they didnot like, or to teach them how to transact their ownbusiness.

But while these reforms were being so wisely carried out, andcultivation among small proprietors and sheep-feeding among therich was daily adding wealth and stability to the colony, theHome Government, worked upon by the parliamentary evidence, theliterary agitation, and the so far successful speculations of theSouth Australian interest, became inoculated with mostextravagant ideas of the value of wild lands, and of thenecessity of asserting, with the utmost rigour, the rights of thecrown to everything worth or supposed to be worth a shilling.There were many excuses for an infatuation which has since costcolonists dear in Australia, New Zealand, and Natal, and inducedthis country to make expensive wars on the Maories and Boers,besides keeping up expensive colonising establishments at suchwretched outposts as the Falkland Islands.*

[* By valuing wild land at a farming price, itbecame easy to put a Governor on the estimates instead of alieutenant with a file of marines.]

In the new colonies of South Australia and Port Phillip,enormous prices were given by infatuated speculators for town andcountry lots, and for a time enormous profits, or apparentprofits, were realised. A land mania very soon infected New SouthWales. This mania was supported by an influx of emigrants fromEngland, with capital and without experience. Into the details ofthis mania we shall enter more precisely in a future chapter. Itis enough for our present information to observe that after atime all ranks and ages were carried away by the infatuation.Everything rose in price; the colonial treasury was overflowingwith the produce of land sales. These funds the governor placedwith the banks. The banks, over supplied with capital, extendedtheir accommodation, and credit became almost unlimited. Importsrose enormously. To those who did not look below the surface,there were all the outward and visible signs of prosperityproduced by the change from grants to sales. In 1837, the lastyear of Sir Richard Bourke's government, the land sales producedupwards of £120,000.

It was about this time that we see a sign of the fatal idea ofthe intrinsic value of wild land which had begun to make way inthe Colonial Office, in the refusal of the Secretary of State forthe Colonies to permit a meritorious pilot, who had renderedessential services, to be rewarded according to colonial customby a grant of fifty acres. The secretary, Lord Stanley, saw noreason for so bestowing her Majesty's land, the said land beingworth nothing to the state, although much to the pilot. From thattime forward rigid adherence to a theory substituted ingratitude,or money payments, for the previous convenient payment offifty-acre grants.

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CHAPTER X.

CONVICT LABOUR.

During the six years, between 1831 and1837, that Sir Richard Bourke had the government of New SouthWales, convicts were introduced at the rate of about threethousand a year, while the number of free emigrants for thatperiod, including those introduced at the expense of the landfund, did not exceed fifteen thousand. The proportion of thesexes throughout the colony was about thirty women to everyhundred men.

During the government of Brisbane and Darling, able-bodiedconvicts had ceased to be an expense to the government; they wereeagerly sought as mechanics, labourers, and shepherds, and theirdistribution became an important part of government patronage. Aman on good terms with the powers in office might not only farm,build a house, furnish it, manufacture carts and agriculturalimplements, and carry on any mechanical trade with workmen towhom he had not to pay any wages except such presents as itpleased him to make to stimulate their vigilance. The proprietorof a newspaper, who had criticised some act of Sir RalphDarling's government, was punished by the recal to governmentservice of the prisoner compositors he employed.

One of the early acts of Sir Richard Bourke was to arrange aset of rules, on which, without favour, and according to priorityof application and extent of occupation, employers were to beentitled to the use of prisoner servants.

In 1831, Sir Richard Bourke introduced and passed an act, bywhich the number of lashes to be inflicted on summary convictionby a single magistrate were limited to fifty. The moral conditionof the employing classes in the colony at that period may beimagined from the fact, that for this measure, of justice andmercy, the governor was assailed with a loud cry of pro-floggingindignation, and from that time forward was subjected to afactious opposition and a series of annoyances from thePlutocracy of the colony, which eventually led to hisresignation. Foremost among his assailants was a Scotchman, ofthe name of Mudie, who had had the misfortune to take up hisabode in New South Wales a few years too late, instead ofproceeding to Louisiana or Cuba, where his little peculiaritiesmight have had full scope, without impertinent interference fromgovernors or newspapers. Facts which came out in the course ofthe trial of six servants of this Mudie, who were all hanged foran attempt to shoot his overseer, induced Sir Richard Bourke tostrike him out of the commission of the peace. Thereupon thiswhite slave-driver became a grievance-monger, and wrote a book,in which, with perfect unconsciousness, he painted his ownpicture in such colours as to more than justify his erasure fromthe roll of magistrates. The curious and instructive part of thebusiness was, that Mudie actually succeeded in obtaining a longstring of testimonials in favour of his virtue and humanity fromparties, some of whom were highly respectable.

Yet the following extract unconsciously conveys the severestsatire on the man and the state of society:—

"A young fellow who had just become free, and had gothimself established on thirty acres of land, with a few pigs,&c., set off to the factory (female convict barrack), insearch of a wife. On his way he had to pass the estate of Mudie.In conversation with the wife of the porter he mentioned theobject of his journey. The porter's wife advised him to pay hisaddresses to one of her master's convict female servants, whomshe recommended as being both sober and industrious, whereby hewould at once gain a good wife, and spare himself an additionaljourney of 140 miles.

"The young woman was sent for and consented at once. No wonderthat a woman would accept marriage in preference to slavery witha Mudie. The white slave-driver author then gives the followingdialogue as taking place between himself and the youngcouple:—

"Marianne—'I hope your honour will allow me to getmarried.'

"His Honour—'Married! To whom?'

"Marianne— (rather embarrassed) 'To a young man,your honour.'

"His Honour— 'To a young man! What is he?'

"Marianne— (her embarrassment increasing) 'I reallydon't know.'

"His Honour—'What is his name? Where does helive?'

"Marianne—'I don't know. To tell your honour thetruth, I never saw him until just now. Mrs. Parsons sent for meto speak to him; we agreed to be married, if your honour willgive us leave. It is a good chance for me.'

"His Honour— 'Send the young man here.'

"Enter Coelebs.

"His Honour—'Well, young man, I am told you wish tomarry Marianne, one of my convict servants. Have you observed thecondition the young woman is in?' (Marianne being 'in the waythat ladies wish to be,' &c.)

"Cœlebs—(grinning, as we may imagine Mudie ifsome one had offered him the chance of an heiress, old, ugly,ill-tempered, with a hundred thousand pounds)—'Why, yourhonour, as to that, in a country like this, where women arescarce, a man shouldn't be too greedy. I'm told the woman is verysober, and that's the main chance with me. If I go to thefactory, why I might get one in the same way without knowing it,and that might be the cause of words hereafter; and she might bea drunken vagabond besides. As to the piccaninny, if it shouldhappen to be a boy it would soon be useful, and do to look afterthe pigs.'"

The American slave-owners are very indignant at the picture ofLegree, painted by their own countrywoman. If they will only takethe trouble to search the convict annals of New South Wales,Simon Legree will appear mild beside some convict masters.

In 1836-7 a committee of the House of Commons sat on thesubject of transportation, at the instigation of Mr. GibbonWakefield. The object of the promoters was to put a stop to thesource which supplied New South Wales with cheap slave-labour, incompetition with the hired labour of the South Australianspeculation.

Thus, although the subject well deserved investigation, thepromoters were dishonest, the evidence was cooked, theconclusions were foregone, and the results, although eventuallymost advantageous to Australia, retarded criminal reform, andcreated vices worse than those which it was intended toeradicate. Van Diemen's Land was sacrificed, and turned into onevast overflowing-cesspool of crime.

The government was not to be blamed for the series of mistakescommitted on the subject of transportation. After fifty years'indifference they were forced by active public opinion to dosomething; they were pressed upon by a number of excellent men,like Archbishop Whateley and Mr. C. Buller, who had beenoverpowered by a "case" got up in a manner then new to the Houseof Commons, but now perfectly understood. A change that shouldhave been gradual, and accompanied by the foundation of a newcolony, was made abruptly, at an enormous pecuniary loss andmoral gain to New South Wales, but to the ruin, social andfinancial, of Van Diemen's Land, on which alone was poured thefelonry previously distributed over New South Wales.

Governor Bourke was directed to discontinue assignment by adespatch from Lord Glenelg, dated 26th May, 1837, which tookeffect in 1810. In answer to that despatch, Sir Richard Bourkeobserves, with his usual good sense, "If the abolition of theassignment system be resolved on, it should without doubt begradual, as the sudden interruption of the accustomed supply oflabour would produce much distress." The system was suddenlydiscontinued under Sir George Gipps, and succeeded by thehorrible gang system.

BOURKE'S CHURCH AND SCHOOL ACT.

The "Church and School Incorporation," under which one-seventhof the crown lands was devoted to the support of episcopalianchurches and schools, had not worked well, and in 1833 it wasdissolved by an order of the king in council. The expenses ofmanagement had been large, the receipts small, and the results,in the extension of religion and education, insignificant.

In the same year Sir Richard Bourke addressed a despatch,dated 30th September, in which he propounded principles ofreligious equality which had a very important influence on thereligious and educational institutions of the colony, anddisplayed principles much in advance of the traditions of thecolonial government.

After stating that the followers of the Church of England weremost numerous; that one fifth of the population was RomanCatholic; that the members of the Church of Scotland were lessnumerous, but among the most respectable, consisting almostentirely of free emigrants; that the annual charge for the Churchof England amounted to £11,542 10s.; for the Church of Scotlandto £600; and for Roman Catholic chaplains and chapels to £1,500;while Protestant dissenters of several denominations, who hadformed congregations, "received no support from government beyondsome small grants of land for sites of chapels;" that the Churchof England possessed seven churches of stone or brick in orwithin forty miles of Sydney, two in more remote districts, andseveral less permanent buildings in various places; the Church ofScotland one respectable building in Sydney, and three temporarybuildings in country districts, the one church having been builtby subscription, aided by a loan from government of £520; theRoman Catholics one handsome church, towards which the governmenthad, at various times, granted sums amounting to £1,200; that thechaplains of the Church of England were provided with glebes offorty acres each, and with houses or lodging-money; that themagnitude of the sums annually granted to the Church of Englandin New South Wales were a subject of general complaint, and hadbeen the origin of a public meeting and petition numerouslysigned, praying for a reduction;—Governor Bourke proceededto observe, that "in a new country to which persons of allreligious persuasions are invited to resort, it will beimpossible to establish a dominant and endowed church withoutmuch hostility, and great improbability of its becomingpermanent; if, on the contrary, support were given, as required,to every one of the three grand divisions of Christiansindifferently, and the management of the temporalities of theirchurches left to themselves, the public treasury might in time berelieved of a considerable charge, and, what is of moreimportance, the people would become more attached to theirrespective churches, and be more willing to listen to the voiceof their respective pastors."

He then proceeded to sketch out the plan afterwards carriedout by the act which will presently be quoted, and recommendedthat New South Wales should be created into a separate diocese,instead of being included in that of Bengal.

From the same despatch it appears that the schools which hadbeen established under the Church and School Corporationconsisted of a male orphan school, in which 133 boys were boardedand taught at an annual expense of £1,300, and a female orphanschool, in which 174 girls cost £1,500 annually, exclusive ofsupplies from lands cultivated for the use of the schools.

At Paramatta there was a boarding-school for the wealthierclasses, who paid £28 each for boarders, and £10 for day-scholarsthe head master, a clergyman, receiving £100 a year and the rentof a house.

There were thirty-five primary schools in various parts of thecolony in which 1,248 children were taught, at an expense of£2,756. In all these schools the Catechism of the Church ofEngland was part of the instruction.

The Church of Scotland had received a loan of £3,500 towardthe erection of the Scotch college founded by Dr. Lang; and £800had been granted to the Roman Catholic schools.

The governor stated that the disproportionate assistance foreducation was a subject of very general complaint; and expressedan opinion "that schools on the Irish system, in which Christiansof all creeds are received, where approved extracts fromScripture are read, but no religious instruction is given by themaster or mistress, such being imparted one day in the week byministers of different religions attending at the school toinstruct their respective flocks, would be most suitable to thecondition of the colony. It would be necessary that thegovernment took the lead in their institution, erectingschool-houses, appointing well-qualified teachers at liberalsalaries." In like manner infant schools should be established inthe towns. And he adds:—"I may without fear ofcontradiction assert, that in no part of the world is the generaleducation of the people a more sacred or necessary duty of thegovernment than in New South Wales." The home Colonial Officehave never taken any pains to perform this duty.

In 1836 the Legislative Council passed an act, under which,whenever £300 had been raised by private contributions toward thebuilding of a church or chapel, the governor, with the advice ofhis Executive Council, might issue from the colonial treasury, inaid of the subscribers, any sum not exceeding £1,000.

And for minister of church or chapel with 100 adultattendants, £100 per annum. If 200 adults, £150 per annum. If 500adults, £200 per annum. Under special circ*mstances the governorand council could grant a salary of £100 per annum where thecongregation amounted to less than 100. Where there was no placeof worship, 100 might be granted from the colonial treasury if£50 a year were raised by private contributions. Under this act£3,000 a year was divided between the Church of England, theChurch of Scotland, and the Church of Rome, and recently theWesleyan Methodists shared part of the grant.

In his attempt to introduce an improved system of educationSir Richard Bourke was defeated by religious jealousies, but thedespatches and Act quoted will remain monuments of his patriotismand statesmanship.

In December, 1837, Sir Richard Bourke retired deeply regrettedby all the colony, except a small section of prison-floggingmagistrates and officials of the true colonial school. New SouthWales had attained the highest state of prosperity; Port Jacksonwas crowded with shipping bringing free labourers andcapitalists, the banks overflowing with money, and the wholepopulation full of the happiest excitement.

The discussions of the Council, although still secret andirresponsible, had assumed a real character, and prepared the wayfor representative institutions. Restrictions placed upon thesummary conviction of prisoners by magistrates, and preparationsfor the abolition of the assignment system, concurrently with theintroduction of free emigrants by funds derived from the sale oflands, had laid the foundation of a free colony. The colonisationof Port Phillip and South Australia by emigrants of a superiorclass had done much towards directing the attention of thiscountry to an island which had previously been only considered areceptacle for criminals, while the discovery of vast tracts offine land in the interior, with an overland communication betweenthe three districts, and the establishment of the squattingsystem on a legal basis, greatly stimulated the increase of livestock, the growth of wool, and the general value of colonialexports. The Australians began to think they could walk alonewithout the aid of convict-labour, and the money of thecommissariat.

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CHAPTER XI.

SIR GEORGE GIPPS.

1838 TO 1846.

Sir Richard Bourke was succeeded by SirGeorge Gipps, who was sworn in on the 2nd February, 1838; thegovernment, during an interregnum of ten weeks, having beenadministered by the Lieutenant-governor, Colonel Snodgrass.

Sir George Gipps, who was a captain in the Royal EngineerCorps, owed his appointment entirely to the talent he haddisplayed while acting as secretary to the commission issued forinquiring into the grievances of rebellious Canada. During hisresidence in that colony he had devised and published a plan foreducating colonists to the use of representative institutions by"district councils" for the administration of local affairs. Itwas an ingenious theory, but, as we shall hereafter show, no moresuited for the state of society in pastoral Australia than anAmerican river steamboat for crossing the Atlantic. Nevertheless,the forcing this district council scheme on the unwillingcolonists was the one great idea of Sir George Gipps's colonialcareer, to which he sacrificed them and himself.

He was a man of abilities far above the average; an eloquentspeaker, a nervous writer; with industry, energy, and a specialaptitude for the details of administrative business; but haughtyand narrow-minded; impenetrable to reasoning which did not squarewith his preconceived views; filled with inordinate ideas of hisown importance as "the representative of majesty;" with aviolent, temper, which in dealing with the colonists he tooklittle pains to control, although his communications with theColonial Office displayed a pliability almost amounting tosubservience. He claimed to receive the deference due to aviceroy, and at the same time to exercise the duties of anEnglish prime minister. With sharp and ready tongue he introducedand pressed legislative measures for carrying into effecttheories most distasteful and unsuitable to his colonial"subjects;" but opposition, or even that fair criticism anddiscussion which a British premier would expect and even invite,he treated as personal insult to his authority; almost as hightreason.

The period of his accession to power was in every respect mostinopportune. Backed by a Secretary of State as fiery andobstinate as himself, with the sanction of a House of Commonsutterly ignorant of the condition of Australia, Sir George Gippscame determined to govern on high prerogative principles, at atime when the colony had advanced from the Algerine rule ofPhillip and Darling, to enjoy the externals of a free state. ALegislative Council no longer secret, although not elective, hadsuperseded the irresponsible decrees of the governor. Courtsregularly constituted, with juries in political cases, had takenthe place of courts martial. The press was free; the liberty ofassembling to discuss political questions had been sanctioned andexercised. A rapid, enormous immigration from the mother countryswelled the ranks of the thousands who, however descended, wereborn free; and, under the guidance of the burning eloquence of anative-born Australian, claimed to exercise those rights ofrepresentation and self-taxation which they had forfeited bybecoming colonists.

The history of this long contest would fill a volume; but thetime has not yet come for writing at full length the details ofthe struggles in which the liberties of Australia were born. Thatmust await the growth of a colonial public. It is, however, notventuring too much to assert that if ever—which Heavenforbid!—Australia should rise up and violently sever herconnection with the British crown, the origin of so dire acalamity may be distinctly traced back to the period when, withthe high approval of the home authorities, and of politicians ofall colours, Sir George Gipps coerced and insulted the colonistsof Australia, forcing, with threats and blows, legislative shoes,modelled in Downing-street, upon their unwilling feet.

Yet Sir George Gipps was not without noble as well asbrilliant qualities. His hands were clean. He took no share inthe jobs of the servile crew whom he used and despised. But hewas intoxicated by the greatness thrust upon him. At one stridehe passed from a subordinate military rank to the government of agreat province of wealthy and discontented men; having in hishands authority which could make or mar a whole class or a wholedistrict. In a different sphere, and subdued by the evencompetition of English parliamentary life, he might have donehimself honour and the state service.

In the temper of the governor and the governed, questions ofdifference were not long in arising.

Under Sir Richard Bourke the Legislative Council, althoughcomposed of salaried officials and an equal number of thecolonists nominated by the governor, had nurtured enough of thespirit of independence to occasionally dissent from the views ofthe home government or its representative. But Governor Bourketook a colonial view of colonial subjects; he did not hesitate todissent from the views of a Secretary of State; he treated theopinions of his council with deliberate consideration andrespect, even where he came to a contrary conclusion. Sir GeorgeGipps adopted an opposite course. Nothing could equal thecontempt with which he treated colonial opinions, except the zealwith which he echoed and carried out the instructions issued bythe Secretary of State.

The following were among the more prominent politicalquestions which formed the subject of contention and agitation onthe part of the colonists against the governor:—

1st. The appropriation of the revenue of the colony.

2nd. The extent to which the colonists were taxed for gaols,police, &c., rendered necessary by the transportationsystem.

3rd. The manner in which the home government exercised thepatronage of the crown, passing over colonial claims, andappointing unfit persons, at high salaries paid by thecolonists.

4th. The price of land, and the arbitrary manner in which itwas raised, lowered, and raised again, at the will of thegovernor.

These four grievances were discussed in one or more distinctcases. On each the governor took up the position of "highprerogative" in the most offensive manner, and found his policyapproved by the home government.

It is very odd that, whether Whigs or Tories hold office, themost obnoxious regulations issued, the most discreditable rightsof patronage exercised, have been defended under the plea ofasserting "the sacred rights of the crown" in the colonies. Thusignorant bushmen were taught, when a few acres of waste land werenot granted, as the Legislative Council prayed, to the worthycaptain who had saved a shipwrecked crew; or when a worn-outattorney was sent out to fill a useless office at an extravagantsalary, that the ungracious refusal and disgraceful job were boththe effect of the "Queen's Prerogative."

Such are the modes in which Downing-street, before the days ofunrestricted political competition, used to drag the sacred nameof the sovereign through the dirt.

No sooner had Sir George Gipps commenced his government thanhe became involved in discussions involving very importantprinciples, which were carried on with such feeble means ofattack as the colonists possessed, until, in 1842, an act of theImperial Parliament bestowed, upon New South Wales a LegislativeCouncil, which consisted of twenty-four elective members, andtwelve who held their seats either in an official capacity or onthe recommendation of the governor. The opening of the ColonialParliament took place on August 3rd, 1843, and in his "speechfrom the throne," Sir George Gipps described the Council as"composed of three elements or three different classes ofpersons—the representatives of the people—theofficial servants of her Majesty, and of gentlemen ofindependence the unofficial nominees of the crown."

The nominees were soon taught that so far from beingindependent, they were expected to follow the lead of thegovernor without discussion or hesitation.

The questions which had already occupied the attention of thecolonial press and the nominee council, afforded ample employmentfor the elective chamber; among the first and most important ofthese was

THE REVENUE.

The revenue dispute commenced in 1832, when Lord Goderich,then Secretary of State for the Colonies, directed Sir RichardBourke to submit annually to the Legislative Council an estimateof the expenditure proposed to be charged on the colonialrevenues. This estimate, if passed by the Council, was to beembodied in an ordinance, and forwarded to the home governmentfor his Majesty's approval. If rejected, the majority were to berequested to furnish their estimate, and the two were to beforwarded for "his Majesty's approval." With this illusorycontrol, the non-official but nominee members and the colonistswere obliged to be content. It was not of much use to object toan estimate that had to travel round the world; and although thenon-official councillors sometimes protested against anyparticularly scandalous job, their protests were received,and—laid up with other dusty papers.

At the period to which we are alluding-, the administrativepowers of the governor had been so clipped, without addition tothe legislative powers of the colonies, that he could scarcelyerect a pair of stocks without first reporting to Downing-street,with plan and estimate. No wonder that almost all thenon-official party in the colony were republicans.

In 1835 the expense of maintaining the police establishmentand gaols was made a colonial charge. Every non-official and twoofficial members of the council protested against this heavyburden, on the ground that these expenses were largely increasedby the presence of all the transported felonry of Great Britain,either as prisoners or freedmen. To this it was answered, thatthe colony had had the benefit of their work. However, as aper contra, the surplus of the fund derived from the saleor lease of crown land was allowed to be taken to assist thecolonial revenues, after defraying the expenses of emigration.The terms of this arrangement or contract, as the colonistsassert, are to be found in despatches with enclosures from Mr.Spring Rice, and from Lord Glenelg, dated respectively 15thNovember, 1834, and 10th July, 1835. It is not now worth while toquote or discuss them. The truth seems to be, that, while thereturns from the land revenue were trifling, the officers of thecrown did not care to have the spending of them, having admittedthat it was "just and reasonable that the revenues should beapplied wholly and exclusively for the benefit of the colony."But, when the land revenues rose to hundreds of thousands ofpounds annually, the question assumed a different aspect in theeyes of a young but accomplished bureaucrat like Sir GeorgeGipps.

Sir Richard Bourke, after receiving the despatches inquestion, believed that the Legislative Council had the completecontrol of the land revenue. He seems to have been always anxiousto extend the legislative powers of the colonies.

Sir George Gipps commenced what may be called, to use a slangterm of modern polities, his reactionary course of policy,by repudiating the assumed contract in the extract from adespatch, dated November, 1838, which alone affords a completekey to the favour in which he was held at the Colonial Office,and the detestation in which he was held in thecolony:—

"It is asserted in the colony that the right to appropriatethis revenue was conceded to the governor and council by adespatch, &c., and that this right was recognised by SirRichard Bourke . . . . . Notwithstanding the strength of theseexpressions, I must say that I very much doubt whether, bythe Treasury letter of the 24th September, 1834, it was intendedto give up unreservedly, and for ever, the right to select theobjects on which the crown revenue (viz., from colonial land)should be expended; and I therefore, whenever occasion required,maintained, during the last session of the council, that thecrown has still power to do so—feeling that, if wrong inthis opinion, I could easily set myself right with the council;but, if I committed an error the other way, I might involvemyself in difficulties from which there would be no escape."And he proceeds with great ingenuity to "get up a case" to enablethe Colonial Office at home to shear the colonists of thetrifling powers recently conceded to them.

This was a very pretty quarrel to begin with, and the governorlost no opportunity of improving it.

Whether the contract existed or not, it is quite clear thatthe powers claimed and exercised by the governor and the colonialsecretary, in the much-abused name of the sovereign, amounted torevolting despotism under a caricature of free discussion. Thecolonists were expected to defray the cost of their owngovernment, with all the addition of police and gaol expensesincident to a periodical inoculation of British-grown felonry,while, with the sham of a Legislative Council and financialdiscussions, all sources of revenue, except additional taxation,were removed from their control. As to the crown or wastelands—the price, the management—the expenditure ofthe funds arising from them in emigration—were settled byEnglish commissioners; the surplus was appropriated by the crown.The custom-house tariff and the rules for levying it weresettled, and the officers appointed, by the English custom-house.As to the funds raised by local taxation, the Colonial Secretary,in the name of the crown, created offices, fixed fines, salaries,and appointed officers, without the slightest regard, to thewants or wishes of the colonists.

The grievance with respect to the appropriation of the landrevenues became more unbearable inconsequence of the orders andacts of the home government in respect to the land question,which were in direct opposition to the feelings and interests ofthe colonists.

It was with the representative members of the LegislativeCouncil, while the colony was in a state of insolvency, thatGovernor Gipps's battles commenced, and were carried on with anacerbity on both sides which did not breed a rebellion, becausethe materials in the shape of coercive powers had not beenconceded to the governor. The new council lost no time ininvestigating the grievances of the colony, and soon collected amost formidable list, although the most oppressed class of all,the small settlers, were entirely unrepresented.

The revenues, the price of crown lands, the assessments on thepastoral proprietors, the abuses in the exercise of crownpatronage, successively attracted the attention of theopposition, vigorously led by William Wentworth, a gentleman ofbrilliant talents and great oratorical powers, whose influencewas to a certain extent unfortunately impaired by a violenttemper and want of tact, the result of a provincial educationamong men vastly his inferiors in intellect, and long exclusionfrom a legitimate exercise of his powers.

Without the evidence printed by these Legislative Councils ofNew South Wales, it would be impossible to credit that agovernment at home, professed to be formed on "reform" and"retrenchment," could have perpetrated and maintained powers sooppressive and jobs so corrupt. But jobbery and despotism seemincident to all corporate bodies which have the control ofsea-divided territories. It was impossible to imagine anythingworse than the administration of the Colonial Office, until theNew Zealand Company, composed of colonial reformers, showed inperfection what a colonising Robert Macaire could do with a largecapital, a directorate of credulous capitalists, and an array ofstill more credulous colonists.

The following cases, gathered from the reports of thecommittees of the Legislative Council appointed to inquire intocertain gross cases of embezzlement and mismanagement, affordexamples of the "patronage grievance," of the sort of personsselected for colonial office, the nature of the powers theyassumed On the strength of holding a home instead of a colonialappointment, and the manner in which they performed theirduties.

THE REGISTRAR.

In 1841 the Registrar of the Supreme Court became a defaulter;in the following year he took the benefit of the Insolvent Act,and eventually paid a dividend of sixpence in the pound. Thecommittee which investigated his case, with the view of obtainingredress from the home government for the sufferers by themalversation of their appointed, reported, that the firstregistrar, Colonel Mills, was a decayed gentleman, with noknowledge of business, and who, therefore, left what there was tobe done to other officers. On his death the governor and councilrecommended that the office, in the then state of the colony notneeded, should be abolished; but, before receiving or withoutattending to this recommendation, the defaulter in question, Mr.M———, was appointed. His antecedents were notmore encouraging than those of Colonel Mills. In 1811 he hadexecuted a deed of assignment of all his property for the benefitof his creditors; and in 1823, after returning from an eightyears' residence on the Continent, had taken the benefit of theInsolvent Act; in 1828 had been appointed Chief Justice of NovaScotia, and had been permitted to exchange the appointment forthat of Registrar of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, withthe duty of collecting the effects of intestates, and, accordingto his own account, the privilege of investing the money for hisown benefit pending its distribution.

On arrival at the colony Mr. M——— took up ahigh position. That part of his duty which related to registeringdeeds of grants of crown land he entirely neglected and sufferedto fall into an arrear, which eventually involved great numbersof the humbler class in litigation and ruin. But the collectionof the estates of intestates he entered on as zealously as anywrecker on the spoils of storms. The presence of near relativeswas no protection for the moneys of the deceased: in defiance ofson, brother, or father, the registrar grasped all the estate,invested it in his own name for his own benefit, and from 1828 to1838 kept neither day-book, cash-book, nor ledger, but oneaccount at his banker's, rendered no statement for audit to anyone, and paid over what balance, if any, to the next of kin ofintestates when and how he pleased.

In 1838 the judges made rules of court requiring the registrarto pass his accounts and pay the balance into the savings' bank.The great man remonstrated against these rules in a mostindignant tone, "as threatening to take from him a source oflegitimate income, on the faith of which he immigrated to thecolony," and intimated that, "unless he was permitted to retainand make use of the money himself, he would use no exertions toobtain it."

At this audit he reported himself to be in possession of£1,980 17s 0½d., but the court, after argument, found £3,085 18s.2d. due, compelled him to pay it into court, and, in spite ofviolent resistance, in which he was supported by one of theofficial legal advisers of the governor, had a set of rules ofcourt sanctioned by the governor in council, under which theregistrar was bound to account regularly and pay in the proceedsof every intestate estate within a certain fixed time (threemonths from the period of the intestacy); the injured registrarall the time protesting that "the judges were reflecting on hishonour by calling for accounts, and depriving him of thelegitimate profits to be derived from the employment of othermen's money, which had induced him to settle in the colony." Thejudges being firm, and supported by the council, the registrarthen resorted to fraud, and in the course of two years becamepossessed of £9,000. When no longer able to conceal hisappropriations, he announced his insolvency in a debonnairyet dignified manner—a condescending, much-injuredstyle—which could only come from a colonial official. Thesufferers by this embezzlement petitioned for compensation fromthe home government. The correspondence with the appropriator isextremely rich and racy. Throughout he appears to considerhimself deeply injured. The home government rejected the prayersof the petitioners.

THE PROTHONOTARY.

The next case is illustrative of the confidence with whichcolonial secretaries set aside colonial recommendations; theavidity with which they embrace opportunities of patronage; theindifference with which they increase salaries; and the admirableskill with which certain governors imbibe the principles of thechiefs.

The judge, Chief Justice Dowling, finding it needful torecommend that certain offices included in the charter of justiceshould be filled up, and especially that of prothonotary, at asalary of £800 per annum, for which he recommends one Mr. JohnGrover, late chief clerk, "who, from his long services,indefatigable industry, and experience, is admirably qualifiedfor the office," Governor Gipps, the late captain of engineers,enters into a correspondence, as was his custom, with the judges,in which he instructs them how to manage the business of theircourts, and save £50 a year. The judges demur, and show thegovernor that he knows nothing about the matter.

The question is referred to the Colonial Secretary, LordStanley, who settles the question in King Stork fashion, withouta moment's loss of time. He does not appoint the gentlemanrecommended by the judges. In other respects he follows out theirrecommendations, but sends out two new officers, one at £1,000 ayear, and the other at 850; and creating a third appointment, at£650, to be filled up by the governor; thus at a blow saddlingthe colony with-increased salaries to the extent of £400 a year,on the ground that in England competent persons could not beinduced to accept these offices for less. An early act of one ofthese gentlemen was to set the local legislature at defiance on amatter of salary; the other was a worn-out, ruined attorney.

We have only to imagine, in order to understand colonialfeeling on these subjects, the case of the town council ofLiverpool applying to the Home Office for a stipendiarymagistrate, stating their willingness to pay a salary of £800,and suggesting a particularly well-qualified gentleman to fillit, and their having a total stranger thrust upon them, withorders to pay him 200 more than they had offered. It seems therulo with all officials appointed from England to treat with thegreatest contempt the colonists who pay them.

THE LUNATIC ASYLUM.

An inquiry into the management of the Colonial Lunatic Asylumbrought out facts equally characteristic of the independence andirresponsibility of all officials, up to the time that theelected members of the Legislative Council began to exercisetheir privilege of inquiry. In 1846, a select committee of theLegislative Council investigated the condition of Tarban Creek,the only lunatic asylum in New South Wales. In the course of thisinquiry it appeared that the head keeper and his wife, thematron, in consequence of having received their appointmentdirect from the Secretary of State, habitually resisted allattempts to control, or even investigate the performance of theirduties, by the visiting magistrates or colonially-appointedphysician. Lunatics are sufficiently neglected and abused even tothis hour in England, but it is only in a colony that a sort ofturnkey for lunatics would presume to set the dignity of hisoffice against both magistrates and medical men.

The visiting magistrate "had occasion to refer to the governorfor definite instructions in consequence of the superintendentconsidering that he was interfering." He states, "My authority isrepudiated by Mr. Digby; he says I have no right to interfere.Although he gives me every information in his power, he does soin courtesy, protesting against my right to interfere."

The committee found "no books or registers such as ought to bekept in a public establishment; no record of cases; no writtenstatement of the appearance of any patient at the time of hisadmission, or of the progress of the disease, or of thetreatment, medical and moral." They report that—

"The medical officer is not in his proper position." Accordingto evidence, "he gets all his information from me [the keeper] asto the particulars of the case and form of insanity." The keeperstated, that in going round with the doctor, if he suggests anyalteration in their moral treatment, and it appears to him [thekeeper] an improvement, he acts upon it; but if he does riotapprove of it he does not yield to him. "For instance, he mightrecommend that restraint should be taken off a patient, but if,from a better knowledge of the party, he might not deem itadvisable, he should refuse to do so."

We quote this passage because it so perfectly illustrates themanner in which colonists and colonial interests are treated.

It is quite evident that the merits of this worthy officer ofthe order of the strait-jacket were not duly acknowledged. Heought to have been a colonial governor or a colonial secretary.Colonists are treated like the Tarban Creek lunatics: they do notknow what is good for them neither do their representatives. Thegovernor is the man; he is responsible to no one; and althoughthe Legislative Council, liko the doctor, may recommend removingrestraint, he knows better. We have not space to go into the jailcases, where the governor provided himself with coachman,footman, gardener, and a crew of boatmen, out of the criminalssentenced to imprisonment for colonial offences, and the convictsof Hyde Park Barracks were left under charge of a convictturnkey, who let them out to rob at so much a night, with pistolshired at ten shillings for each case.

With these examples we leave the subject of officialresponsibility, and return to the two great questions whichagitated the colony during the whole administration of Sir GeorgeGipps, and which still continue to excite the interest andapprehension of all who look ahead—"The Land," and"Emigration."

THE LAND QUESTION.

The question of the terms on which the waste lands of thecolony were to be sold, and, until sold, occupied by flock-ownersand stock-owners, formed the subject of the most bitter contestbetween Governor Gipps and the colonists. To the colonists thequestion was one of existence; it involved not only the libertiesso dear to every English-speaking race, but the means ofexistence.

Just before the departure of Sir Richard Bourke, the pastoralproprietors of New South Wales, as well as all the merchants,capitalists, and every one else possessed of money or credit,were seized with a land mania, which can be compared to nothingless than the share and stock-jobbing manias which, from theperiod of the Mississippi scheme down to the last rage forrailway scrip, have, from time to time, carried bankruptcy, ruin,and roguery through the length and breadth of the infatuatednation.

The disease arose in South Australia in the manner which willbe found described in the chapter devoted to the foundation ofthat colony, and it received a great stimulus from the foundationof Port Phillip, where a considerable extent of picturesque, andmore than ordinarily fertile land, easy of access from the port,became the object of competition among English colonists withmore money than colonial experience.

Mr. Gibbon Wakefield's theories seemed to receive, in oneimportant respect, confirmation from the large sums paid into thecolonial treasuries by colonists bidding one against another forland at government auctions. These large funds were placed in thecolonial banks. The banks, in order to employ the governmentdeposits, gave unusual accommodation to their customers, until,moving in a circle of fallacies, the whole colony dreamed ofgrowing rich by selling to each other land which producednothing.

The series of Secretaries of State for the Colonies, LordsAberdeen, Glenelg, Normanby, and John Russell, who succeeded eachother in rapid succession up to 1842, and Lord Stanley, who heldoffice until 1845, seem all to have taken the promised results ofthe Wakefield theory for granted—assumed that it was theduty of the government to obtain the highest price for crownlands—that a high price of land would keep down wages, andcheck dispersion; and to this notion their successor, Lord Grey,adhered, in face of an unbroken line of colonial evidence of themost practical character.

Thus, in August, 1838, Lord Glenelg instructed Sir GeorgeGipps to substitute 12s. for 5s. an acre as the upset price ofordinary land, adding, "If you should observe that the extensionof the population should still proceed with a rapidity beyondwhat is desirable, and that the want of labour still continues tobe seriously felt, you will take measures for checking the saleof land even at 12s."

It would be an insult to the powerful understanding of SirGeorge Gipps to doubt that he was as well aware of the fallacy ofthis idea as his predecessor, but he came out with the fixedprinciple of earning the approbation of his official chiefs byzealously and actively carrying out their desires and orders. Ashe once answered a colonial remonstrant, "I was sent here tocarry out the Wakefield system of land sales, and whether itsuits the colony or not, it must be done."

Animated by this spirit he adopted two measures which soontransferred the greater part of the ready money of the colonists,new and old, into the colonial treasury. He limited the quantityof land offered for sale so as to raise the competition betweennew arrivals to the highest pitch, and he successively raised theupset price to the last sum given by the last land-lunatic underthe excitement of an auction.

Thus, at a land auction on the 10th June, 1840, at PortPhillip, the price was run up by emulation and competition tosuch a height, that shipmates of Richard Howitt, with a capitalamong them of £20,000, only ventured to invest £600. Land wassold at £30 and £40 acre, which, for years afterwards, remainedin a state of nature.

In the New South Wales district Sir George Gipps offered andsold land at Illawarra at 12s. and £1 an acre; when raised to £10an acre it remained unsold; it was then reduced to £1, and, beingworthless refuse, still remained unsold. In a second and thirddistrict, the upset price was raised to £10 in one instance, and£100 in another, and afterwards reduced to £2 an acre. And allthis was done repeatedly against the advice of the officialsurveyors, on the principle that it was the duty of the governorto wring the uttermost farthing from the settler.

The land mania was followed by a crash of universalinsolvency. Land became unsaleable; live stock fell to nominalprices; and the importers of British and foreign luxuries hadnothing better to offer their creditors than the dishonouredbills of their customers.

It was in 1841, in the commencement of this crisis ofinsolvency, that the British Parliament, in utter ignorance ofcolonial affairs, under the influence of a band of stock-jobbingtheorists, attempted to prop up the insolvent colony of SouthAustralia by an act which fixed the minimum price of land inAustralia at £1 an acre.

In 1843, when the elective Legislative Council commenced itslabours, the dissatisfaction of the colonists with the fixedminimum price of £1 an acre had become universal.

The wealthy parties who had expected their free grants, andtheir purchases at five shillings an acre, to be augmented invalue by the increased price, were disappointed—thespeculators who, following the example of the South Australians,had purchased large estates in the hope of realising largeprofits, by laying out paper towns and villages, were eitherinsolvent or encumbered with tracts of useless waste land,unsaleable and unprofitable—the small settlers were deeplydiscontented with the impediments thrown in the way of purchasingsmall farms in good agricultural districts—while the greatpastoral proprietors, or squatters, who were many of them alsolandowners in the settled districts, wereworried—(no other word will express the policy ofSir George Gipps)—by taxes, regulations, and restrictionsimposed, repealed, and reimposed in a most arbitrary manner, witha view of compelling the purchase of their occupations at theruinous price of £1 an acre.

Live stock became absolutely valueless; cattle were allowed torove wild, unbranded on the hills; and sheep which had cost 30s.a piece were unsaleable at 1s. 6d., until it occurred to aningenious gentleman to boil them down for tallow, by which theminimum price was raised to 3s. Land sales had ceased; the fund,which had previously imported labouring emigrants to take theplace of convicts, was exhausted. The pastoral interest, whosefortunes had already been seriously injured by the depreciationof their stock, determined to resist the governor in his attemptto regulate their taxation, and to virtually confiscate theirproperty on the fiat of himself and his irresponsiblerepresentatives, the Crown Commissioners.

In the same year Lord Stanley's despatch, accompanying the actof Parliament which gave legislative fixity to the land system,arrived in the colony, and damped the expectations of those whohad hoped that the failure of the £1 an acre panacea forpromoting concentration, regulating wages, and encouragingcultivation, would induce the home government to consult a littlemore the wishes and interests of actual colonists.

Under these circ*mstances, the first of six committees of theLegislative Council which have examined and reported on thisquestion—viz., two committees in 1843, one in 1844, one in1845, and two in 1847—was appointed, held its sittings,examined witnesses, and made its report.

The committee of 1843 on "the crown land sales" examined,amongst others, the surveyor-general, Sir Thomas Mitchell, one ofthe M'Arthurs, and several landed and pastoral proprietors. Theyreported that "the act of Parliament under their considerationcannot but be injurious in its operation—that it iscalculated to prevent emigration (of small capitalists), towithdraw capital, and to prevent the permanent occupancy ofthe soil."

In the same year the select committee on immigration alsoreported by its chairman, Dr. Nicholson (since elected speaker ofthe Council, and knighted), "that the measure of her Majesty'sgovernment for raising the upset price of land from 5s. to 12s.,and subsequently to 20s. an acre, had completely annihilated theland fund, which, in six years previous to the change, hadproduced one million sterling;" and they recommended, in a seriesof resolutions, one for "rescinding the present landregulations and effecting a return of the old system of sales lyauction, at an upset rate not exceeding 5s. an acre forpastoral land."

In 1844 a "select committee on grievances connected with landin the colony" examined twenty-six witnesses, and receivedanswers to a printed circular of questions from one hundred andtwenty-two justices of the peace. The attention of the committeewas directed, among other subjects, to the minimum price of land,and to the attempts to harass the squatter, not being a purchaserof land, by rendering his tenure of crown lands as uncertain andonerous as possible.

All the witnesses who were asked the question (except Mr. DeasThompson, the Colonial Secretary, who declined, on the ground ofhis official character, to give an answer), and all the repliesto the circulars, except three, expressed decided opinionsagainst the measure which raised the minimum price of crown landfrom 5s. to £1; all justly taking it for granted that at £1 anacre the purchase of pastoral lands was impossible, claimedfixity of tenure by lease, and right of pre-emption for thesquatter. The latter was the grand point with the squatters; thatgained, their interest in the land question, except in promotingsales to create an emigration fund, ceased.

The opinions of the three dissentients from the report of thecommittee exhibit very exactly the feelings of the small class,resident chiefly in Port Phillip and South Australia, whoadvocate the high price of land.

These three gentlemen are John Leslie Foster, of Leslie Park,Melbourne—Peter M'Arthur, of Arthurton,Melbourne—John Moore Airey, of Geelong.

Mr. Foster says, very candidly, "I look on the price ofone pound as not too much for agricultural land, and as aprohibition on the purchase of mere pastoral land. Being botha landowner and a settler, I would in both characters regretto see any reduction in the price, as it would not only reducethe value of my (purchased) land, but, by renderingit easier for others to purchase my (rented) runs, woulddiminish the permanent interest I now hold in them." *

[* Mr. Foster has recently been appointedColonial Secretary of Victoria.]

Mr. Moore thought "the country destined, from itsphysical character, to become an aristocratic one;" that "theclass of emigrants really beneficial to the country, Englishcountry gentlemen with some property, but with large families andlimited means, would not be deterred by £1 an acre; that a classof small but independent farmers will never be generally adaptedto the country; that it will eventually fall into the hands of alanded aristocracy, who, possessing the frontages to waterconvenient to the residence of tenants, will possess capitalsufficient to guard them against the vicissitudes of the seasons,as well as means to cultivate the interior to advantage."

Mr. Peter M'Arthur (no relation to "the M'Arthur," ofCamden) "arrived in the colony in 1834, specially introduced tothe favour and protection of the governor by the Secretary ofState." He recommends that "the governor shall have the power togrant twelve thousand eight hundred acres to respectable partiesof station and education, and capital, and of habits worthy ofbeing imitated by the humbler class;" one thousand acres to bepurchased at £1 an acre, payable by instalments in ten years; theremaining eleven thousand eight hundred to be held on a perpetualquit rent of £12 per annum.

These three gentlemen evidently considered that imperial andcolonial interests were bound up in the encouragement of theirclass, in the protection of their interests, and the keeping downof aspiring yeomanry.

The report of the committee on crown land grievances was thefoundation of a fierce agitation on the part of the pastoralinterests for the suppression of the obnoxious regulations as tothe pastoral occupations, and for fixity of tenure. In thisagitation, which was also directed against the £1 acre minimum,the whole colony joined. Public meetings were held in every partof New South Wales; petitions and memorials addressed to the homegovernment were signed, sent to England, and placed in the handsof political men of influence; and influential organs of theEnglish press were enlisted in defence of the great pastoralinterest.

In the same year the whole Council adopted resolutionscondemning the high price of land in the terms suggested by thecommittee.

In 1845 a fourth select committee reported against the £1 anacre Act, supporting their opinions with a great body of factsand statistics, and concluded by observing, that "the practicalevils resulting from the augmentation of the upset price of landhad already been fully developed in the Report on Immigration andthe Report on Waste Lands in 1843, and in the Land GrievanceReport of 1844, and in the opinions of your honourable Council,distinctly pronounced on the same subject, in the resolutions ofthe whole Council of the 17th September, 1844."

To complete the history of the land question we will add, thatin 1847, under the administration of Sir George Gipps'ssuccessor, a select committee on immigration, of which Mr. Cowperwas chairman, reported "the disastrous results and impolicy ofthe high upset price;" and also that a select committee,presided over by Mr. Robert Lowe (now so well known in England),made an elaborate report against the high upset price of land, towhich we shall have occasion to allude more minutely indescribing the compromise effected between the government and thesquatters under the government of Sir Charles Fitzroy.

But Governor Gipps stood firm; determined to make war on thesquatters, determined to maintain the obnoxious £1 an acre, andto carry out the spirit of the act which imposed it, by throwing,as he was instructed, all possible obstacles in the way of men ofsmall capital investing their savings in land; and he wassupported by the British Colonial Office.

For while the governor was courageously attacking the mostwealthy and powerful body in the colony, he took no pains tofoster that class of yeomanry which were the object of SirRichard Bourke's peculiar care. He divided the land into largelots; discouraged small holdings, whether of land or stock; andtreated emigrants as merchandise or live stock consigned for thebenefit of the purchasers of land.

It certainly was most unfortunate for the colony that theinitiation of a representative government, the substitution offree emigrant for prisoner labour, and the attempt to establishlocal self-government, should have fallen under the direction ofone who, with great talents, was obstinately determined not tolearn anything from experience, and not to permit any measure ofreform he did not originate. His want of pliability wasstrikingly displayed in the conduct of emigration.

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CHAPTER XII.

EMIGRATION.

When grants of land ceased altogether,and were superseded by sales, the character of emigration toAustralia, and even the motives which directed it, werematerially changed. To Australia, previous to 1831, the sameclass of persons proceeded in small numbers, who by thousandshave resorted, during the last ten years, to Canada, and, aboveall, to the western states of America families with capitalvarying from fifty to five hundred pounds, intent on living onland of their own.

The distance, and the then little known capabilities, ofAustralia, would, twenty years ago, have made it, under anycirc*mstances, a difficult task to direct towards its shores asimilar stream of colonists; but the new system of so raising theprice and the quantity of land sold, so as to discourage thepurchases of all but the wealthy, and of devoting the proceeds tothe importation of able-bodied labourers for their use, alteredthe whole character of the free colonisation. The new system wasnot without merits as a temporary expedient for supplying, asrapidly as possible, the demand for shepherd servants, occasionedby the abolition of the assignment system, peopling the shores ofthe newly-settled districts in Port Phillip and South Australia.But as a permanent measure the moral and social defects were, andare, very serious.

By the emigration land fund system the parent state isrelieved of a certain amount of (surplus?) labour withoutexpense, and the colonies are supplied with the same, inproportion to the amount received for the purchase or rent ofland. According to the principles of the system, those who arerich enough to purchase or rent land (the minimum of rent being4,000 sheep) have a right to dictate what manner of labour shallbe supplied for the money. The sort of labourers who suit theemployers of labour are not often those who would contribute mostto the intelligence and education of a colony. For a long seriesof years the Australian flockowners' beau-ideal of anemigrant was an able-bodied single man from an agriculturalcounty humble, ignorant, and strong.

The South Australian commissioners exhibited onehalfpennyworth of sense, amid gallons of nonsense and jobbery, byintroducing the system of pairs of both sexes. This wasthe one good feature in their system.

The Australian squatters, and all persons more or less incommunication with, and able to influence, the home government,like our own agricultural and the American manufacturinginterest, held two very strong opinions—first, that theirpursuit was the only calling of any consequence to the State;and, secondly, that it could not be protected too much. Theyalways wanted labour, and it could not be too cheap.

We find them constantly desiring to bring down wages to alevel which, if reached, would have very soon put a stop to allemigration, for it would have been lower than in England, andthat was not worth crossing the sea to earn. We find themconstantly desiring to dictate what class of labourers they wouldhave, and that class specially in reference to sheep. We findthem depreciating, not untruthfully perhaps, but untruly, thecharacter of the Australian soil and of the Australianagricultural settlers. To them the Alpha and Omega of theAustralian colonies—was breed sheep, to grow wool andtallow.

Even when claiming a return to a low price of land, manydesired to keep up the size of lots, so as to exclude smallfarmers from freehold.

The result we now see. For fifteen years the agents of thecolony and the emigration commissioners have been recruiting andsending out emigrant recruits. Their most successful operationshave been conducted in times of distress in the home labourmarket. The fund in the early period of the system down to 1839,when all the colonists were madly engaged in nodding at thegovernment continental land sales, was sufficient to pay thepassages out of fifty thousand emigrants. For a time the marketwas apparently glutted, but the increase of stock, and thejudicious measures introduced by Caroline Chisholm, soon absorbedthem. Soon arose an increased demand for labour. The land fundwas dried up; sales at £1 an acre were few and far between,except in the copper-mining colony of South Australia; but bydegrees he rents from pastoral occupations of crown lands becameso large that security was found for an emigration debt, to whichwas added, from time to time, the produce of town and suburbanlots, and, as the population increased, occasionally of choicerural land. But it occurred more than once that when labour wasneeded in the colony there were no funds, and, when funds wereforwarded to England, that the commissioners found a difficultyin collecting suitable emigrants.

Indeed, until the discovery of the gold-fields, very few,except the utterly destitute among the labouring classes, turnedtheir attention to Australia.

Committees on emigration were appointed by the LegislativeCouncil in 1839, when the bounty system was in operation, in1842, in 1843, and in 1845; and in 1843 and 1844 committees onthe "distressed labourers" of Sydney collected important evidencebearing on the same subject. It is worthy of remark that inthese, as in committees appointed by the British Parliament,witnesses have seldom been called from among the respectablemechanics and labourers who are most interested in emigration,and best acquainted with the emigrating classes.

The committee of 1839 reported that emigrants were beingintroduced at the rate of 12,500 souls a year, at a cost of about£17 per adult, expressed a decided preference for bounty overgovernment emigrants, and recommended a loan to be raised on thesecurity of the land fund, and devoted to emigration a bounty at19 a head for adults only, excluding children, and veryhumbly prayed that the crown would devote the land fund,which they calculated at not less than £150,000 a year, toemigration purposes. It is curious to remark that the committeeobject to the introduction of emigrants over forty years of age.The government emigration agent had invited emigrants of fiftyyears of age. The gold discoveries have recently enlightened thepastoral interests to the value of parents of even sixty years ofa*ge.

In 1842 the committee repeat their preference for the bountysystem, announcing that in the preceding twelve months 23,000emigrants had been introduced, and the cessation of emigration,in consequence of the falling off of the land fund, to an extentunexpected by the home government. They gently hint at thepropriety of a reduction of the price of land to five shillingsan acre. The tone of the document is that of a respectablenominee council.

The committee of 1843 represented the wealthy squatting class,and the majority took an entirely colonial and pastoral view ofthe labour question. They wanted shepherds as quickly and ascheaply as possible, and nothing else. No seven-shilling a weekfarmer—no cottage-destroying landlord—nounlimited-time-of-labour manufacturer—no woman-employingcoal-worker, could have taken a narrower view of thequestion.

There is unfortunately in all of us a germ of selfishnesswhich, when unchecked by public opinion or political opposition,is apt to grow into injustice and tyranny. In private life thesquatters were excellent, generous, hospitable men; but one largeproportion consisted of old colonists accustomed to convictservants, who cost nothing beyond their board and lodging, andanother of young bachelors of capital, who arrived in the colonyto make a fortune, intent on returning to the old country as soonas it was made. The one despised, and the other were indifferentto the opinions of the working classes. Both dreamed ofnaturalising in Australia the miserable wages of the southerncounties of England and the Highland counties of Scotland.

To resist the aggressions of Sir George G-ipps on the pastoralinterest the squatters had formed themselves into a protectiveassociation, and by an easy process the association, founded toresist unjust confiscation and taxation, branched off into acombination for permanently lowering the wages of the colony. Atthe head of this association was the late Mr. Benjamin Boyd. Mr.Boyd arrived with the express purpose of making investments atthe time (1841) that the colony was in a general state ofinsolvency, or, as he expressed it, "in a jam." A yacht of theRoyal Squadron, an apparently unlimited capital, an imposingpersonal appearance, fluent oratory, aristocratic connexions, anda fair share of commercial acuteness, acquired on the StockExchange, at once and deservedly placed him at the head of thesquatocracy. His aim was the possession of a million sheep. Hewas the chief of the hundred thousand sheepmen, with whom hecombined to obtain fixity of tenure for their sheep pastures, toput down small settlers, and to reduce wages.

At the period we are describing, from 1841 to 1844, thecolonial labour market presented the most curious contradictions.The bounty agents were pouring in a crowd of most unsuitablepersons, who, once landed, were soon left to shift forthemselves. Among the merchants of the town of Sydney distressprevailed in consequence of the cessation of building and otherworks, the wages of mechanics were depressed to a rate beforeunknown, and newly-arrived immigrants were astonished at the lowrate of pay for town labour, so different to the flamingrepresentations of the crimps by whom they had been collected.But in the country districts, and especially in the bush, wheresheep and cattle were breeding, while their proprietors weregoing through the insolvent process, wages were maintained; andthe anomaly was presented of large bodies of men being employedat the expense of government, at high wages, at public works, ona sham labour test, while flocks were wanting shepherds in theinterior. Several causes supported this anomaly: 1st, There wasno government machinery for distributing newly-arrived emigrants;2ndly, The preference of the squatters for single men leftfamilies on the hands of the government; 3rdly, The Squatters'Club were not sorry to see the government embarrassed by thepresence of a large body of unemployed labourers in Sydney;4thly, The dishonest conduct of certain masters in withholding orunfairly deducting wages promised had given the bush a bad name;5thly, Many of the emigrants were of a class who, having leftparish aid behind, liked to keep close to government rations andwages. All were engaged, as far as their short-sighted viewswould permit, in killing the golden goose of colonisation.

Mr. Boyd's evidence before the immigration committee of 1843affords, when read with the notes we can supply, a fair specimenof the haughty, gentlemanly, selfish class he represented. He hadthen been eighteen months in the colony, and was employing twohundred shepherds and stockmen, besides artificers. He wasbuilding a town and port at Twofold Bay; had two steam-boats, anda schooner yacht, the Wanderer. He had devised a wild scheme ofsaving labour, by putting three thousand sheep, instead of eighthundred, under the charge of one shepherd, on horseback.

Mr. Boyd despaired of the prosperity of the colony "unless thewages of a shepherd could be brought to £10 a year, or about 3s.10d. a week, with meat and flour, without tea and sugar." The twolast had been previously universally allowed; but he expressedhis intention of doing away with them, "being of veryquestionable utility and necessity, although such is the wasteand extravagance here that 8 lbs of tea and 90 lbs. of sugar areconsumed per head." He states, further, that he "had nodifficulty in engaging shepherds at £10 with these rations, butmuch difficulty in getting men engaged at these low wagesforwarded to stations, as they were generally picked up on theroad." "Any money advanced towards travelling expenses wasusually spent in public-houses;" and it is his decided opinionthat "more than 10 a year only does harm to shepherds, by sendingthem to public-houses."

Mr. Boyd also mentioned how he had kindly given a free passageto Twofold Bay, distant 600 miles from Sydney, to one hundredlabourers out of employ. He did not mention that, on theirarriving there, those who refused to accept £10 wages wererefused a passage back for less than £5; and that, while a fewstrong men walked back over the mountains, those who remainedcreated such a feeling in the country that Mr. Boyd could notventure to visit his stations until the time of the year when thepolice magistrate, with a guard of policemen, took his annualround.

Fortunately all squatters were not like the Boyd clan, and theproductiveness of the land defeated the combination. Had it beenotherwise, a very few years would have produced a servile war ofmen against masters. From the Boyd clan proceeded stories foundedon fact, and dressed to suit a purpose, about allotments of landsold for quarts of rum, champagne drunk in buckets by shearersand shepherds, who insisted on having pickles with their[measley?] pork.

Another order of men, chiefly permanent colonists, residing ontheir own property, were represented by Mr. Charles Campbell asemploying from fifty to sixty shepherds and watchmen. "He hadbeen obliged by the pressure of the times, to reduce his oldservants to £18 for shepherds and £16 for watchmen, and had notfound them so reluctant to accept the reduction as he expected.He would hardly like to see wages lower." He thought a greatoversight had been committed by settlers in neglecting to formvillages on their estates. He says, "Many of those who nowcomplain of want of employment in Sidney might have beencomfortably settled up the country in small villages, containingfrom ten to twelve men, heads of families, in various callings.In the present state of things we employ, at sheepshearing andreaping, men who wander through the country, from one place toanother, in quest of occasional employment. Many of these arehandy, clever fellows, but unmarried, and of irregular anddissolute habits. All these men earn is frequently spent in thefirst public-houses they come to after leaving the station wherethey have been employed. If, instead of employing men of thisclass, the flockmasters and landowners had invited marriedemigrants to settle in small villages, by allowing them land at alow rent, and not attempting to monopolise their labour,permitting them to choose their own employer in theneighbourhood, we should have our reaping, mowing, and shearingdone at a cheaper rate; and the emigrants, by means of the moneymade during the busy season, added to their earnings, wouldmaintain their families well, and their children, from not beingscattered, might have opportunities of learning to read andwrite, and of receiving religious instruction. Many would in afew years become small farmers—first as tenants, then aslandholders, and in either capacity would increase the demand forlabour."

This was sound sense in Charles Campbell, as contrasted withthe selfishness of Benjamin Boyd; but although Mr. Campbell'sviews were afterwards enforced and illustrated with a largecollection of facts gathered by the one great colonial reformerproduced by Australia, yet 1851 found the pastoral interests asill provided with permanent labour as 1843. The selfish maxims ofMr. Boyd's Bent Street Club prevailed after the ruin and death ofthe founder. The successful efforts to retain good land as sheepwalks only,—to encourage the growth of sheep and discouragethe rearing of children, found Australia, when the goldenrevolution broke out, largely dependent on wandering shepherds,bound by no ties, either moral or local, social or domestic, tothe district or the land of which they had no share. Even at thishour short-sighted successors to the Boyd policy are attemptingto forge legal bonds to retain the unwilling services of cheapshepherds, hired in Europe—anything rather than give up ashare in the land monopoly, although it is melting from theirgrasp.

But while the governor, backed by the Colonial Office, wasdeep in the contest which killed him and deceivedthousands—while the bounty crimps were pouring in theirmiscellaneous collections to work or saunter, or, if women, walkthe streets—while the squatters, losing sight of the justhalf of their claim, were factiously obstructing all government,and ready to ruin the bodies and souls of shepherds to savewool—an individual appeared, unencumbered with colonisingtheories, undebased by any mercenary objects, laborious incollecting facts, diffident in expressing new opinions, preparedto learn, willing to teach, and anxious to be useful to allconditions of men. This individual—CarolineChisholm—the greatest, the only practical reformer andworker in colonisation of the age, who will be remembered andblessed by thousands following their flocks and cultivating theirfarms in Australia, when the names of the land-jobbers andcharlatans of the "sufficient-price school," the "Protectionistsof colonial capital," are forgotten.

{Page 134}

CHAPTER XIII.

CAROLINE CHISHOLM.

Mrs. Caroline Chisholm arrived inSydney in 1839, with her children and husband, Captain ArchibaldChisholm, of the Madras army, who had been making a tour of theAustralian colonies during a limited sick leave. On returning toIndia he decided to leave his family in New South Wales.

Soon after their arrival, during the first crash of insolvencyof 1839, some Highland emigrants, who spoke no English and hadlarge families, found difficulty in obtaining employment. Alittle money lent them by Captain Chisholm to purchase tools, anda little useful advice, set them up as wood-cutters, and theyprospered; while assisting his countrymen, having seen theneglected state of the bounty emigrants, he pointed them out tohis wife as fit objects for her charitable zeal and energy. Thereis a wonderful freemasonry among the poor—by degrees Mrs.Chisholm's rooms were crowded by emigrants seeking advice. But itwas the unprotected position of female and often friendlessemigrants that awakened her warmest sympathies. She commenced herwork, in the literal sense of the term, by at the sametime gathering information and acquiring the confidence of theworking classes.

Mrs. Chisholm found young women who had emigrated nominallyunder the care of friends, but really under that of strangers, atthe instigation of the bounty agent, without home, some lodged intents with companions of indifferent character, others wanderingfriendless through the streets of Sydney. Many of them havingbeen collected in rural districts, knew more of cows and pigsthan housework, and if engaged in town, soon lost theirsituations, and were superseded by more accomplished servantsfrom ships which arrived daily. Some of these poor creaturesslept in retired nooks out in the public gardens and in therocks, rather than face the contamination of the streets. Thetotal number of respectable females unemployed in Sydney at onetime in 1840-1 amounted to six hundred.

There were other and more serious evils attendant onemigration, as then conducted, than the condition of theemigrants on landing. A considerable number of females ofnotoriously bad character were sent out in the bounty ships forwhom bounty was never claimed. The Emigration Board sat in Sydneymerely to apportion the bounty; the utmost punishment they couldinflict was to stop the passage-money due to the agents. So longas the emigrants were delivered in good health, and within thestandard, there was neither tribunal nor even organised opinionwhich could be brought to bear on any of the parties connectedwith the mercantile transaction. If duly invoiced, the bill forthe live lumber was paid, while damaged goods were rejected. Insome ships the emigrants were deprived of their fair share ofprovisions, insulted and assaulted by the crew, even by theofficers, and otherwise abused. In others unrestrainedintercourse took place between the officers, the crew, and thefemale passengers. In more than one instance the captain orsurgeon selected pretty emigrants for companions during thevoyage, and during their stay in Sydney.

On arrival in harbour, not only were single gentlemen allowedto choose housekeepers on board, but notorious brothel-keepersregularly visited the emigrant-ships. The captain and surgeoncould not know them, and had no power to impede them if they did.There was no government officer on board to superintend thecontracts or protect the emigrants; and thus, while women fellinto the hands of seducers and harlots, there were a certainnumber of keen hands, with whom few in the colony would dealwithout a lawyer, who skimmed the cream of the labour from theship on terms of very sharp practice. All these things oozed outin England among the emigrating classes, and made, and continuedto make, long after they were to a great extent remedied,emigration very unpopular; but no one cared, or dared to take upthe obnoxious and ungenteel position of the emigrants' friend inSydney. The colonists had not then learned that the cheapest andmost powerful mode of colonising is to make the working colonistscontent.

Mrs. Chisholm had courage and foresight. She began byappealing to the press and to private individuals on behalf ofthe poor destitute girl immigrants. At first she met with muchdiscouragement, a few civil speeches—no assistance.

The most imperious section of the employer class saw noadvantage from the protection of the employed. The officialsforesaw more work, some supervision, and no increase of pay. TheRoman Catholics, as soon as they found it was to be a universal,or, to use the Irish term, a "godless" scheme of practicalphilanthropy, and not sectarian and proselytising, opposed itvehemently. A dignitary of that church wrote a letter to anewspaper, in which he termed Mrs. Chisholm a lady labouringunder amiable delusions. At the same time the Protestants raisedthe cry of "No Popery!"

But she pressed on her plan of a "Home," and when almostdefeated was nerved to determination by the sight of a Highlandbeauty, "poor Flora"—whom she had last known a happy,hopeful girl—drunken, despairing, contemplating, andhastening to commit, suicide.

Mrs. Chisholm offered to devote her time gratuitously to a"Home of Protection," and to endeavour to procure situations forthe emigrant girls, unengaged and out of place, in thecountry—an offer which was eventually accepted, after "shehad given an undertaking not to put the government to anyexpense." On obtaining this concession she issued the followingcircular, which will give an example of that practical businesstalent to which she owes her success, not less than to hergenuine philanthropy:—

"Jamieson-street, Sydney, October 21st,1841.

"Sir,—I am endeavouring to establish a 'Home for FemaleImmigrants,' and have little doubt but funds will soon be raisedto enable me to accomplish this; and, as my first object is tofacilitate their obtaining employment in the country, I shallfeel obliged if you will favour my intention (should you approveof the same) by giving me the information I require regardingyour district; and any suggestion you may think useful will beconsidered a favour.

"1st. Whether girls who at home have merely been accustomed tomilk cows, wash, and the common household work about a farm,would readily get places? at what wages? and how many do youthink would in the course of the next two years be required?

"2nd. Good servants, such as housemaids and cooks, the rate ofwages? and the probable number required for the same period?

"3rd. Married couples with small families, say two or threechildren, ditto.

"4th. Could employment and protection be found for boys and girlsfrom seven to fourteen years of age?

"5th. Have you had opportunities of observing if the young womencan save any part of their wages? for they are generally ofopinion that nothing can be saved in the country, every articleof wearing apparel being so much dearer than in town.

"6th. What would be the cheapest and best way of conveying theyoung women to your district?

"I have to observe that the servants will be classed according totheir qualifications, and distributed fairly, so that those whoare absent will have an equal chance of getting a goodservant with those who are present. Subscribers of £1 will haveservants selected and sent to them without any trouble; it will,however, be necessary that an order should be sent to cover theexpense of their conveyance.

"I require by donations to raise what will furnish a house; andby subscriptions I expect to support the institution. I am ofopinion that when families in the interior can get servants sentthem, we shall not hear of young women suffering distress andlosing character for want of a situation. I shall feel obliged ifyou will favour me with a reply by the 10th of November next.

"I have taken the liberty to annex a subscription list, and Ishall feel obliged if you would leave it in the hands of someperson to receive subscriptions, and acquaint me with the name,that it may appear in the papers."

It was in reply to one of these circulars that the Rev. HenryStyles, of Windsor, the chaplain to the Bishop of Australia, anhonest opponent, wrote:—"I fully appreciate the zeal andcharity in your endeavours to establish the 'Home for FemaleEmigrants.' My only reason for declining to co-operate in adesign which at first sight appears so entirely laudable is, thatit is natural to suppose that an institution established by alady who is a devoted member of the Catholic Church, whichrenders allegiance to Rome, should prove rather an instrument foraugmenting the numbers of that communion, than merely what itsname imports—a home for all destitute female emigrants,without respect to their religious professions. The result wouldbe, that the immigrants in your 'Home' would be advised,restrained, and protected by the clergy of the Churchof Rome." After thus expressing himself, the reverend gentlemenreplied minutely to every question in the circular.

Mrs. Chisholm's answer to this plain and proper letterproduced a second letter from Mr. Styles, in which he said, "Yourfrank and straightforward avowal of the objects you aim at, andthe means you will use for their attainment, disarm suspicion.The assurance in your note that you will not be led by the agentsof any ecclesiastical party, but that you will pursue steadilythe good of the whole of the emigrants who may come under yourcare, referring in matters of religion to their respective clergyand teachers, induces me to offer you very cordially whateversupport I am able to afford. I beg to enclose £2 as adonation."

Eleven years have elapsed since this correspondence tookplace. Proselytism and propagandism are not to be done in acorner. For every day during that period Mrs. Chisholm has almostlived in public, yet no case of misuse of her influence has everbeen brought against her.

The government building appropriated to the "Home" consistedof a low wooden barrack fourteen feet square. Mrs. Chisholm foundit needful, for the protection of the characters of the girls, tosleep on the premises. A store-room seven feet square, without afire-place, and infested with rats, was cleared out for heraccommodation. There she dwelt, eating, drinking, and sleeping,dependent on the kindness of a prisoner employed in the adjoininggovernment printing-office for a kettle of hot water for tea, heronly luxury; and there she laid the foundation of a system towhich thousands owe their happiness in this world and the worldto come—saved from temptation to vice, and put on the roadto industrious independence; a system which, if fairly carriedout, would save and civilise a great empire from the pollution ofnomadic money-earning and unsocial profusion—from the ruleof a plutocracy and the horrors of a servile war.

Following the example of our greatest philosophers in everybranch of science, Mrs. Chisholm was careful and eager to collectfacts, but slow to publish grave conclusions. If she claimedpublicity it was not to propound a complicated theory, but toattack some flagrant abuse.

The first party of girls collected within the "Home" amountedto ninety, whom Mrs. Chisholm protected from open insult, covertseduction, and the evil influence of black sheep, inevitablyadmitted at times, while seeking to obtain them employment. Thedifficulties were great, the annoyances most wearying. The girlswere many of them ignorant and awkward, others too pretty, andothers again too proud and idle to work; but Mrs. Chisholm nevergave them up while there was hope and a good heart.

She says in her first pamphlet—"If I had entered theoffice expecting grateful thanks from all, I should have seen ina week my folly; but, having a very fair knowledge of humannature, I was aware that to be able to do a good I must beprepared to encounter certain disagreeables. I did not startexpecting to please all, but intending to be just and fairtowards all."

As for the mistresses, she told them in print—probablythe first time so wholesome a truth had been so plainlystated—that "the assignment system of convict servants hadspoiled them a little; it will take some time to teach them," sheobserves, "that they have lost a little power, or, in fact, thatthey must bear and forbear;" "an English servant would not likethe ration and lock-up system, and would expect domestic comfortsnot common in Sydney;" "many of the mistresses are apt to takethe law into their own hands."

These statements were unpleasant to make and unpopular; butthey worked a cure, which if not effected would have damaged thecharacter of the colony in the home country.

The general public, as distinguished from the official class,when they understood the nature of the plans Mrs. Chisholm wasengaged upon, responded very liberally to her appeal forassistance. But before they gained confidence in her plans the"Home" became crowded with a number of girls more fit for roughcountry work than town service. There was no machinery extant fordistributing them, so Mrs. Chisholm determined to avail herselfof the information supplied in answers to her circulars, and tosend them into the country. The first dray that came to the doorwas sent away empty: frightened with foolish 'board-ship storiesof blacks and bushrangers, not one girl would go. A secondattempt, the first failure having been kept a secret, wassuccessful. Mrs. Chisholm, at her own risk and expense, took aparty up the Hunter River district by steam-boat. The enterprisewas considered so Quixotish by her friends that, as she sat ondeck in the centre of her troop of girls, no one of heracquaintance dared to expose himself to the ridicule of owningacquaintance by offering any refreshment.

The plan succeeded; the girls were well placed in the familiesof often humble but always respectable married people, andcompetent committees were induced to undertake the charge of"Branch Homes" in the interior. The bush journeys were repeatedwith parties of young women, varing from sixteen to thirty, whowere conveyed to Campbell Town, Maitland, Liverpool, Paramatta,Cross Roads, and Port Macquarie—Yass, Gundegai,Murrumbidgee, Goulburn, and Bathurst—where she went fromfarm to farm, scrutinising the characters of the residents beforeshe trusted them with "her children."

The settlers came forward nobly, and supplied provisions,horses, and drays; the inns universally refused payment for Mrs.Chisholm's personal accommodation; and the coaches, a most costlyconveyance in Australia, carried her sick women and childrenfree. Mr. William Bradley, a gentleman born in the colony, amember of the Legislative Council, gave an unlimited credit todraw for anything for the use of the emigrants—of which shewas not obliged to avail herself, so liberally did the colonistsof the interior come forward.

Very soon the fathers, brothers, sons, and husbands claimedthe same care, and asked to be permitted to form part of herparties. Her journeys became longer and her armies larger: 147souls left Sydney, which increased on the road to 240, in oneparty, in drays and on foot, Mrs. Chisholm leading the way onhorseback. She established a registry-office for servants, wherenames could be inscribed and agreements effected on fair termsgratuitously: she drew up and printed a fair agreement, ofwhich the master took one, the servant one, and one was filed.The result of this registration was to extinguish litigation asfar as regards servants engaged at the "Home." Out of manythousands only two were litigated. Yet in the course of herexperience, before she stirred in the matter, and for want ofagreements and speedy justice, fifty-one cases occurred upto 1843 of wages unjustly detained or taxed. For the first timethe emigrant found a "friend."

The abuse of power by captains, and the immorality of theinferior sort of surgeons, at that time engaged in the Australiantrade, were checked by a prosecution which she compelled thegovernor to institute against parties who had driven a girl madby their violence.

When Sir George Gipps, hesitating, said, as officials willsay, "A government prosecution is a very serious matter," sheanswered, "I am ready to prosecute: I have the necessaryevidence; and if it be a risk whether I or these men shall go toprison, I am ready to stand the risk." That trial established aprecedent and checked the abuse.

By the end of 1842 Mrs. Chisholm had succeeded in placingcomfortably two thousand emigrants of both sexes, and then, whenslowly recovering from the effects of a serious illness broughton by her exertions, she published the remarkable report to whichwe have before alluded.*

[* "Female Emigration considered in a BriefAccount of the Sydney Emigrants' Home. By the Secretary. Sydney:James Tegg, 1842."]

It is a collection of notes and memoranda, interspersed withpithy remarks and pathetic and comic sketches from reallife—a valuable contribution to the art of colonisation,and a literary curiosity. It was an outspoken book; it did notmince matters—as, for instance, in the following passage,which went far to kill the bounty system, and so, although peoplewere shocked, the evil was abated:—"One girl, long known atLiverpool as the Countess, arrived per ship; the last time I sawher was on a Sunday; she had evidently started in the morning,with an intention to look interesting at either St. James's orSt. Mary's, for her book was in her hand; but she had taken aglass by the way, and was so far aware of her state that sheretired to the domain. I saw her fall twice. Now people expresstheir astonishment 'that English girls are not sent out.' We willsuppose that some Liverpool families are meditating this step,and, in their anxiety to obtain all information, they learn thatthe Countess is missing—has left for Australia (by abounty ship). They condemn all for one they shrink with horrorfrom sending their daughters where the Countess isreceived—they are strangers to all on board, therefore allsuffer for one. I wish particularly to call attention to theinjustice done to girls of good character by a case ofassociation, and not a solitary one like the one I have stated.Again, in Sydney, the character of the Countess is knownin less than two hours, arid the girls of good character in thesame ship suffer."

In this "Countess" story was the germ of one greatfeature of Mrs. Chisholm's Family ColonisationSociety—protection for single girls.

In the same effective manner the letter exposes all the trickspractised on the Bounty Board and on the government agents. Thefollowing illustrates a class still plentiful:—

"One girl, having health and strength, had refusedfive situations; at last I thought I had suited her. She was tolive in a settler's family, and teach five children to read andwrite: she was not required to wash the children; but, as thegood and thrifty woman kept no servants, she was to wash her ownclothes (or pay for the same out of her wages), make her own bed,and clean her own room: the good woman also said, she would teachher anything she knew, but ask her to do nothing. I thought therecould be no objection to this; but when I told her that once aweek she must scour her own room (the best in thehouse)—when I said this she burst into a passionate floodof tears; the degradation was more than she could bear. I thoughtit then my duty to refuse her the benefit of the Home. In lessthan three months from this this victim of false pride was livingwith ———; anything rather than work. I havesince regretted that I did not give her one more trial."

"The 'Do-nothings.' This name will surprise some and offendothers, but in the end will do good; and I really do not know anyone useful thing they can do. E——— was enteredas a governess; I was glad of this, for I had then, as I havenow, several applications for governesses, in the country: shewas a pretty girl too; and I know when pretty girls have nomoney—no friends Sydney is a very bad place. There isnothing so unpleasant as to question a young lady as to hercompetency. She could teach music, French, drawing, &c.&c.; she was satisfied with the salary, and her testimonialswere first-rate. 'You say you can teach music?' 'Yes ma'am.' 'Youthoroughly understand it?' 'Most certainly.' 'One of your pupilsis nine years of age; how long do you think it will take her toget through Cramer's Instruction Book?' A pause. 'Perhaps youhave not seen it?' 'No, ma'am, but I was very quickmyself—I have a good ear for music.' 'What book did youstudy from?' 'I learnt singing and music at the same time.' 'Tellme the name of the first piece you played? 'Cherry ripe.' 'Thesecond?' 'Home sweet home.' 'The third?' 'We're a'noddin.' I saidno more about music. I gave her a sum in addition; and she madesixteen pounds five, eighteen pounds four. Now this girl Iafterwards ascertained, at home, had lived in a family asnursemaid, and washed the clothes of five children every week:but she was a pretty girl—something of a favourite at sea.The captain was very anxious about her; had taken her in his ownboat, to the North-shore, to try and get her a good place; hedevoted seven hours to this work of charity. Nor did his zealrest here—the following day he took her to Paramatta; theyreturned to the ship, and this girl was kept four days in it,after the other girls left. When he called at my office he wasastonished, horrified, that I knew the detail; said Sydney was ascandalising place; that his feelings were those of a father.However, I received the girl the same evening, and removed herthe following day very far from his parental influence."

"But for another specimen; and really, out of fifty, I am at aloss how to select; but I will give ———. Shewas another of the would-be governesses; but her views were morehumble—for the nursery. Now, she could neither read, write,nor spell, correctly. 'Can you wash your own clothes?' 'Never didsuch a thing in my life.' 'Can you make a dress?' 'No.' 'Cook?''No.' 'What can you do?' 'Why, ma'am, I could look afterservants; I could direct them; I should make an excellenthousekeeper.' 'You are certain?' 'Yes, or I would not say so.''Do you know the quantity of the different ingredients wanted fora beef-steak pie for that dish and a rice pudding for this?' 'Oh,no, ma'am, that's not what I mean; I'd see that the servants didit.' 'But there might be great waste, and you not know it;besides all, or nearly all, the servants sent to this colonyrequire teaching.' Nothing but my faith in Providence that theremust be a place for everybody enabled me to bear with thisinfliction; and yet, if I turned them out, I knew their fate. Butit was trying to my patience every morning to be up andbreakfasted, and in my office first. I never had but one in theHome of this class that fairly made her own bed; they wouldsmooth them over and, night after night, get intothem."

The following is in a more serious strain:—

"I may here remark, that in going my evening roundsin the rear of the establishment I never met with anyimpertinence. And after I had been three months or so in office,on going out, I saw a large party of men at the corner of theDomain-gate, evidently trying to conceal two girls: I knew one ofthem, the other was a stranger. 'Have you any relations in thecolony?' 'No.' 'Then come with me.' She was a young girl, notmore than fifteen; she refused, and went into the Domain. I sentthe other into the Home, and followed her; in a few minutes shereturned with me, and I found myself suddenly surrounded by men,I felt, I must acknowledge, in that lonely place, veryuncomfortable, but my fears were groundless; they came toapologise, to express their regret at the great annoyance theyhad given me, and promised me never again to go near the place.'We never knew you until to-night; we thought you were well paidfor looking after the emigrant girls; but when we saw you followthe strip of a girl and we have been talking to this man, and hesays you don't get a penny, and that all you do is for the girls'good, we do say, that that man is not a man who gives youtrouble;—good night, ma'am.' I never saw but one of thesem*n afterwards, and he came on a mission of mercy, to tell me ofa girl that he thought would be advised, and kept from ruin; hewas in terror lest he should be found out. 'I should be jeeredat, past bearing; but somehow it lay on my mind—I ought totell you.' This girl is now well married; and she may thank thispoor man that she, under Providence, escaped the pit dug forher."

This strange little book concludes with the followingrecommendation:—

"I am now going to give advice, and am really at aloss how and where to begin. 'Tis a delicate—an ungracioustask; this I know from experience. Perhaps the very thing I amgoing to advise, ——— has determined to do; andif this is the case, I dread the perverseness of human nature:for I have more than once heard a person say, 'Now I meant to dothe very thing you tell me; but if I do it now it will look liketaking your advice and to be advised by a lady! Pshaw!nonsense—the idea is ridiculous, and I won't do it.' Now an'I won't' from a gentleman is just as troublesome a thing tomanage as an 'I will' from a lady—how must I proceed? Bythe bye, I recollect having read that enlightened men of all ageshave looked upon advisers as friends, and have said that 'shredsof knowledge may be picked up from ploughboys, and patches fromold women are worth preserving:' this encourages me to begin; andas this is a very ceremonious colony, where a breach of etiquettewould be a serious offence, I will commence with his excellencythe governor I therefore, with every feeling of respect, beg tosuggest to his excellency the governor, that he should promiseprotection and shelter to all female emigrants sent to thiscolony, until situations are provided for them. I also mostearnestly entreat and implore that no more engagements may beallowed on board ship. As soon as an emigrant ship arrives, theboard should assemble, and the emigrants be fairly drafted to thedistrict Homes, giving a fair and proportionate share to Sydney.The gentleman whose duty it is to draft the emigrants accordingto orders received must have the confidence of the people; hemust be a person of honourable integrity, and alike proof againsta lady's entreaties and a gentleman's censure. Those emigrantsthat are intended for Port Macquarie, Moreton Bay, Maitland,Wollongong, Manning Elver, &c., should be received persteamers and small crafts from the ship. Those intended forSydney, Liverpool, Campbell Town, Goulburn, Bathurst, &c.,should be sent to the place intended for their reception, and Ihope Grose's Farm will be appropriated for this purpose: thiswould be very convenient for drays. I also beg to curtail theprivileges of the board: they must not be allowed to selectservants for themselves or their friends, even though they chanceto be members of the Bent-street club.* All who want servantsmust go to the Registry-office for them; let all have a fairchance: this appendage to the agent's office I hope yourexcellency will sanction. The district Homes cannot be kept openwithout one, and I do hope your excellency will give them all theaid in your power. Any government buildings that are unoccupiedcannot be better employed; and I also hope you will lend tentsfreely. I think you must acknowledge that I have not asked forhalf what your excellency expected: my moderation will, I hope,induce you to grant all."

[* Mr. Benjamin Boyd's Club ofSquatters—the aristocracy of wool.]

"I now beg to call the attention of the gentlemen ofthe interior to the necessity of establishing Homes. The expenseof a Home in the country is very trifling: if there should be nogovernment buildings available, a few tents, and a small cottagewill suffice. Food is cheap and plentiful a sack of flour fromone, a bag of potatoes from another, a basket of cabbages, and afew pumpkins, go a great way, and all would help the Home—afew sheep too, a welcome gift; and what gentleman is there thatwould not give one or two in the year? The amount of the tendays' rations you could fairly claim. Sending the emigrants up inlarge numbers would make conveyance cheap: you would establishsuch rules as met the wants of your district. A Home well lookedafter will be a saving to you of time, trouble, and expense. Youbecome familiar with the people; you know their characters; youcan influence them for their good. If a man forfeits his word,and flies from his agreement, his conduct is reported to thecommittee; his character is known in the district. I see no otherplan by which you can get a fair supply of servants: if you go onin the old way, you must take what the people of Sydney refuse.Wealthy men can afford to spend their time in Sydney; and beforeyou can hear, in the country, of a ship's arrival in Sydney, thesingle men, the shepherds you want, will be on their way to J.B.'s or members of council."

The appendix contains answers to a circular from tenmagistrates and clergymen, stating that "not one of the girlssent through Mrs. Chisholm's name had lost character as regardedhonesty and morality;" and a letter to the "SydneyImmigration Board," with hints not without value, even in1853.

"The present mode of selecting emigrants must be faulty, as itallows so many bad bargains to creep in. I have heard that thisevil is to be remedied by getting the parochial clergy of Englandto select emigrants for you. The idea amuses me, that youshould suppose you can get people to do for you what you ought todo for yourselves." "There are poor rates in the mothercountry, and to suppose that the clergy and magistrates will sendyou their best, and keep their worst, is to give them credit foran extraordinary share of kindness." And again, after some comicpictures of pauper hard-bargains, who were "too sick to work, butnot sick enough for the hospital," she says—referring tothe fall in wages that took place between the time when thecrimps published their glowing placards, and the arrival of theship in the colony:—

"From the opening of the office I had the confidence of theemigrants.* In a short time they requested me to fix the wagesthey should accept. Disappointed, as many of them were, in theirexpectations, they never doubted my endeavours to serve them.

[* This is the secret of successful colonisationwhich none of our squatter and capitalist or church colonisingsocieties have yet learned—S. S.]

"Feeling the responsibility and confidence, I exerted myselfto obtain, as far as was possible, an accurate knowledge of whatrate of wages the flockmasters could pay their shepherds.

"I first inquired of the wealthy men whose flocks cover themountains, and whose cattle crowd the valleys. They agreed on £15and £16 per annum as the most that could be paid. These gentlemensaid they acted on principle, and did not care for the money.

"I then inquired of those respectable, but less wealthysettlers who have one sheep and one cattle station, and liveretired at a convenient distance from both. They thought from £18to £20 a year; the latter doubtful. I went lastly to the thirdclass, who, having two stations, instead of employing servantsonly, live always at one or the other farm their own farms, infact. These could afford to pay £20—never wanted, orwished, to see wages less.

"There is nothing, perhaps, that injures a colony more thangiving the working population a bad character. Respectable peopleof capital get alarmed: yet many charges have been broughtagainst servants which I consider unjust."

This plain speaking and unusual style of colonialpublication—hard truths without acidity—did its work.A considerable reform was introduced. Government protection wasgranted to friendless young women; an agent appointed tosuperintend and witness the agreements with men on board ship;and the colonial press, when furnished with the materials, didgood service to emigration reform. The whole cost to governmentof the guarding and distribution of the emigrants was little morethan 100. The other expenses were borne by Mrs. Chisholm and thefriends whom her honest, clear-sighted policy had made amongpersons of all politics and various religious views.

In 1843, before a committee of the Legislative Council, whichwas appointed to consider the condition of the "distressedlabourers," and especially of three hundred parties with largefamilies whom, in the depressed condition of the colony, thesettlers could not afford to engage, Mrs. Chisholm took anotherstep forward. She proposed, and entered into, the details of aplan which, at a very trifling expense, would have placed thesethree hundred families in a self-supporting position on land,instead of continuing to receive 3s. a day for nominal labour ongovernment works.

Sir George Gipps's instructions precluded him from granting orleasing of crown land for this valuable, or any otherpurpose, except feeding sheep. As he expressed it, "he was sentout to carry out the Wakefield system," and could turn neither tothe right nor to the left, Nevertheless, on private property, onclearing leases, Mrs. Chisholm succeeded in placing some familiesof mechanics.

In the course of her examination it appears that thegovernment had then expended £2,500 in casual relief. For £1,000she considered the whole distress could be extinguished, and thepeople not only removed, but placed where they could do some goodfor themselves. "The distress will increase unless propermeasures are taken, but if they are promptly taken it will not bevery serious." There are several "trades mentioned in the listthat are not required; for instance, I have only had twoapplications for shoemakers; for tailors four. The number statedto be unemployed is forty-seven. About twenty months ago fortytailors came to me out of employ. The flockmasters refused totake them as shepherds. With a great deal of trouble I scatteredthem through different parts of the country as domestic servants,and in other capacities; and it is remarkable that nearly allthus scattered have been able to find work at their own trade.With respect to tradesmen and labourers with large families,there is no way in which they could provide for their families sowell as on a piece of land.

"My first arrangement would be to select from fifty familiesone who was a good judge of land, and one of the women, as womenwould require to know what kind of a place they were going to,whether the children would be comfortable, &c. I should alsorequire two or three good bush hands [prisoners] from Hyde ParkBarracks. With these, as soon as arrived on land, I would set towork to clear half an acre, in order that the people might seewhat could be done in a given time. There must be some tentsprovided until more substantial buildings could be erected. Oneallotment must be set apart as a family allotment, to be firstcleared and cultivated, to supply food for the whole community.Then the land must be divided and apportioned to the differentfamilies. A schoolmaster will go with the party, to have landrent free. The parents of the children have agreed to pay for theeducation of their children, the terms settled by me. One day'slabour per quarter for each child, and for the whole family 1cwt. of potatoes and one bushel of wheat.

"I have worked this plan on a small scale for the last threeyears, where there has been a large family. The eldest girl has,in some instances, gone to service, and given up a portion of herearnings to support them. Upwards of one hundred small settlershave thus received assistance from their relatives. Many havehalf or a third share in a dray.

"I should advise limiting these people to twenty acres, with alease of not less than ten or fifteen years. On a less term thetenant works for the proprietor. . . . The plan is before you toaccept or reject. All I ask is that, if you approve it, you willlet me work it out my own way. Appoint the government emigrationagent treasurer, and two gentlemen to examine and control theexpenditure. You will bear in mind, in forming an opinion of mystatements, that mine is not a plan of to-day. The working it outwill be attended with much trouble and responsibility to me; atthe same time I am certain the people will work with me. Thedistress will be removed, and those persons who are now sufferingin Sydney will, if my plan is carried out, within three years,become the employers of labour."

At this last sentence one of the committee allowed his fearsof the bugaboo ever present to the imagination of the Australiancapitalist—to escape him, a terror carefully nourished bythe Colonial Office, and guarded against with endless folds ofred tape of the true Wakefield hue. He exclaimed, "I am afraid weshould find that these people, becoming employers of labour,would do us mischief!"

Not a word, not a thought of the benefit conferred upon threehundred destitute families, converted from costly paupers toindependent peasant proprietors, but only terror lest they shouldbecome so well off as to give wages at £20 a year instead of£16.

Mrs. Chisholm answered, "I do not think so, but rather thatyou would be able to obtain in the children of these peoplebrought up in sober, industrious, and frugal habits, a mostvaluable description of labourers; this class of persons prefersending their children at a certain age (and for a limitedperiod) into service with respectable families."

Mrs. Chisholm's plan was rejected, and she was left to work itout as well as she could with private assistance on the land of aspeculator; and to go on laboriously registering agreements anddistributing emigrants from farm to farm, as we shall presentlydescribe.

The committee in their report recorded "their grateful senseof the valuable services of a lady to whose benevolent exertionson behalf of the unemployed, as well as of free emigrants of thehumbler classes generally, this colony is under the highestobligations,—Mrs. Chisholm, whose name is so well known forher disinterested and untiring exertions."

The chairman of the committee was Dr. Lang.

In August, 1844, the distress amongst the labourers andmechanics of Sydney had not ceased. A committee was reappointedto consider it. There was a great clamour in favour ofundertaking bridges, roads, and other public works, with publicmoney. The mob and officials were favourable to the scheme. Thegovernment emigration agent was examined before this committee."His knowledge," he states, "of the emigrants who arrived in pastyears was merely general, of the present year tolerablyaccurate;" "had no knowledge of the number of destitute familiesthen in Sydney;" had no detailed information, but thought acertain detailed statement delivered in by a former witnessexaggerated. This was a gentleman paid for his services, who,according to colonial custom, considered it his duty to performhis strictly office duties, and think and know no more,—avery natural view, considering the ill reward that any zealobtains, except zeal for the views of the Colonial Secretary ofState.

Mrs. Chisholm, being called before this committee, produced acomplete statistical statement, exhibiting the numbers, ages,sexes, characters, and trades of the unemployed (in all 2,034souls), the number of weeks and average number per man they hadbeen unemployed. These tables show some curious particulars: 59carpenters and 25 joiners, 10 butlers and 10 coachmen and grooms,15 cabinet-makers, 26 brickmakers, 10 quarrymen and 19bricklayers, 2 surgeons, 2 hairdressers, and 1 tailor; 244 farmlabourers—in all 572. "The large number of children made itdifficult to provide for many of these families."** "The system of relieving distress hasnow been in operation for a year; we have been consuming capital,we can only remove distress by producing it." "Last year Isettled some families on land, and, considering the manydifficulties thrown in my way, they have succeeded remarkablywell on private land. I wished to try the system of leasing, inorder to see whether the people were industrious, and couldsubsist on land; and I have satisfied myself that, although anygentleman would lose a large fortune if he were to commence as afarmer, where the family are all workers an industrious mancannot do better than get on land. The great difficulty with mehas been that I have never had an opportunity of putting asufficient number of people together; and where they are only afew they have no team, no set of tools, and there is a constantstruggle; yet they do succeed."

Now, this in a few words is the true art of colonisation.Locate poor men on waste land in England or Ireland and they sinkunder the multiplicity of money payments or debts, having tocompete with a fund of cheap labour, and inferior land againstsuperior land and skilled cultivation. Locate the same men in acolony, and they rise buoyed up by a surrounding dear labourmarket, which enables them to barter their chief possession,labour, for seeds, tools, stock, or whatever they may need; avirgin soil, and the absence of money payments for rent or taxes,and of competition of agricultural skill, compensating for thewant of capital and rural experience. Thus, a day's labour fromtime to time with a neighbouring farmer will buy a yoke ofbullocks, a dray, a quarter of wheat or maize, and assist both.In England and Ireland a poor man clings to land in hopes ofmaking more than bare wages by extra toil; in a colony a mandesires land to keep his family together, even at some sacrificeof money wages. In old countries the little freehold must bedivided with sons and sons-in-law; in a colony the full-fledgedbrood can always, if idle "protective" laws do not impede, gofurther afield, and find a new site for a nest. So argued inother words Mrs. Chisholm; and many a flockowner, nowcontemplating his flocks spreading wildly unshepherded over hisrun, and the deserted huts of his single men shepherds on theirway to the diggings, wishes he had followed Mrs. Chisholm'sadvice, and encouraged children as well as sheep.

Not being able to induce the governor and the influentialcolonists to go heartily into her land-colonising plans, Mrs.Chisholm continued to employ herself in dispersing the peoplethrough the interior, and in teaching the government and thecolonists, by example, how the colonial part of colonisationshould be conducted. She worked hard for six years, warmlysupported by some of the first among the colonists, theWentworths, M'Arthurs, Bradleys, Fitzgeralds, Suttors, and Dr.Nicholson, the present speaker of the Legislative Council, and bythe unanimous confidence of the working classes, but subject tomuch obstruction and annoyance in official quarters.

Sir George Gipps, who was capable of noble sentiments when hisevil temper or home instructions did not override them, took apublic opportunity of expressing his sense of the merit andutility of her plans—saying, "I think it right to make thispublic acknowledgment, having formerly thrown cold water uponthem."

A characteristic anecdote is circulated in the colony inreference to the privilege of franking letters, which Sir Georgehad given to Mrs. Chisholm. A few days after the permission hadbeen granted, the governor sent for her in a great hurry. Shefound him much excited, and the table covered with her ownletters. "Mrs. Chisholm," he exclaimed, "when I gave you theprivilege of franking, I presumed you would address yourself tothe magistrates, the clergy, and the principal settlers; but who,pray, are these John Varleys and Dick Hogans, and other people,of whom I have never heard since I have been in the colony?"

"If," replied Mrs. Chisholm, "I had required to know theopinions of those respectable gentlemen on the subject of thedemand for labour, and the rate of wages they could afford, Ineed not have written; I can turn to half a dozen blue books andfind there 'shepherds always wanting, and wages always too high;'besides, to have answered me they must have gone to theiroverseers, and then answered me vaguely. I want to know, asnearly as possible, what number of labourers each district canabsorb, and of what class and what wages. If your excellency willwait until I get my answers, you will admit that I have appliedto men humble but intelligent, and able to afford exactly theinformation I require."

Sir George Gipps was satisfied with the explanation, and stillmore with the replies of the bush settlers; so the sub-officialswere on this occasion discomfited.

By Mrs. Chisholm's exertions, applied to the elastic resourcesof Australia, before 1845 the distress of 2,000 souls was so farremoved that some parties were ready in a few years to assert,forgetting that a detailed list was on record, that it had neverexisted; and in 1845, as Mrs. Chisholm, in her evidence beforethe committee of 1844, prophesied, the demand for labour was morevigorous than ever, and has never since been checked, even for amoment; on the contrary, the supply has always been under thedemand, both in quantity and quality.

It was while making forced marches at the head of armies ofemigrants, as far as 300 miles into the far interior, sometimessleeping at the stations of wealthy settlers, sometimes in thehuts of poor emigrants or prisoners; sometimes camping out in thebush, teaching the timid, awkward peasantry of England, Scotland,and Ireland, Protestants and Roman Catholics, Orangemen andRepealers, how to "bush it;" comforting the women, nursing thechildren, putting down any discontented or forward spirits amongthe men; now taking a few weary children into her coveredtandem-cart; now mounting on horseback and galloping over a shortcut through the hills to meet her weary caravan, with supperforaged from the hospitable settlers;—it was in the midstof marshes in which she managed the discipline, the route, thecommissariat, the hospital, and the billetting, all herself, withsuch aides-de-camp as each army happened to furnish, that shecommenced another great work subsidiary to colonisation, the"Voluntary Statements of the People of New South Wales," for theuse of the home country. These were statements in answer to theseries of printed questions, taken down in the words of theinformant, of which we shall give some examples at the end ofthis chapter.

They were written down in all manner of dwellings, but chieflyamong the humbler; in cottages and bark huts; on the roadside; onthe top of a hat; in the field, on a plough; in the forest, onthe first log of a frugal bush servant's first freehold.

There were nearly eight hundred of these statements fromnatives of almost every county of the United Kingdom, fromemigrants, from "old hands," and from ticket-of-leave men.

These records proved incontestably that Australia was acountry in which any industrious man could thrive; that there wasample verge and room enough for millions; that land whichsquatters then and now assert to be only fit for sheep pasturewould support yeomanry in comfort and independence. They laidbare much injustice, exhibited in a striking manner the demandand necessity for an increased female population, and presented amore perfect, truthful, and valuable picture of bush life,painted by servants and settlers, than had ever been drawn intravellers' tales or parliamentary blue books.

It was in consequence of the habit of collecting thesestatements that Mrs. Chisholm was able to tell the committee ofthe House of Lords in 1847:—"I never returned from ajourney to the interior without gaining information which wouldenable me to provide for a second number; and it was frequentlyunnecessary to go into a district more than once; then I knew thecharacter of the people and the sort of servants that would suitthem, and it enabled me to advise people when they called at myresidence to say, 'You go to such a place and I can guarantee youemployment.' My first object was always to get one femaleemigrant placed: having succeeded in getting one female servantin a neighbourhood, I would leave the feeling to spread amongthis class. These girls eventually married best, for the parentswere thankful if their son married her.

"One of the most serious impediments to transacting businessof hiring servants in the country were the applications forwives. Shepherds left their sheep and would come for miles forthis purpose, with their certificates of good character, and ofmoney deposited in the savings banks, and list of their stock,and even bank notes. I had more than forty applications of thiskind in two years. One man, according to a note in myregister-book, who came down to Sydney for a wife, was veryanxious to know 'when we should have a new governor who wouldattend to matters of consequence like that."

The governor took a different view of the subject, for when,in the early days of the "Home Protection," it was suggested tohim that many of the forlorn girls if sent into the interiorwould marry well, "His excellency drew himself up to his fullheight, and exclaimed indignantly, 'What, Mrs. Chisholm! is it mybusiness to find wives for bush servants?'" He might have doneworse.

In 1845 Mrs. Chisholm was examined before a committee of theLegislative Council, on the best means of promoting emigration,the whole distress having been absorbed, and the demand forlabour being urgent. She then produced a few of the "VoluntaryStatements."

In the same year she published a "Prospectus of a Work to beentitled 'Voluntary Information from the People of New SouthWales, respecting the Social Condition of the Middle and WorkingClasses in the Colony,' with the view of furnishing the labourer,the mechanic, and the capitalist with trustworthy information,and pointing out obstructions to immigration that ought to beeradicated." She writes:—

"Few persons, if any, are more intimately acquainted with theactual condition of the working classes than I am. Silence,therefore, would be culpable. The servant in Sydney, theshepherd, and the small settler in the bush are known to me; Ihave visited their homes and witnessed their trials anddeprivations; I have the satisfaction of laying before the publicproofs of their importance as a body and their merits asindividuals: their virtues far exceed their failings—theirlanguage may be rude, but their hearts are kind and true. Toimprove the condition of these people is my object; to break upthe bachelor stations my design; happy homes my reward. To supplyflockmasters with shepherds is a good work: to supply thoseshepherds with wives a better. To give the shepherd a good wifeis to make a gloomy, miserable hut a cheerful, contended home; tointroduce married families into the interior is to makesquatters' stations fit abodes for Christian men.

"If I meet with the co-operation I expect, it is my intentionto submit to her Majesty's commissioners of emigration a plan forfemale emigration, which will secure the young women theprotection which they so essentially require on the passage andon their arrival. If protection is extended to thehelpless—if Britain's moral banner is to be unfurled in thefar interior civilisation and religion will advance until thespires of the churches guide the traveller from hamlet to hamlet,and shepherds' huts become the homes of happy, virtuous men andwomen,*******

"I feel that a judicious circulation of these statements willpromote the best interests in the colony. Personal interest inthe labour market I have none. I hope to enjoy the proudsatisfaction of laying before the British public several thousandproofs of the good character and persevering energy of herMajesty's subjects in New South Wales."

In the following year, 1846, Mrs. Chisholm left the colonywith her family for England, charged with the following missionsfrom the humbler classes:—

Firstly, From a number of freed prisoners, who had beenpromised by the government that if well conducted their wives andchildren should be sent to join them. This promise had beenforgotten. A return made to the Legislative Council showed thatthese claimants numbered several hundreds.

Secondly, From successful emigrants, who desired to pay thepassages of their wives, parents, and other near relatives.

Thirdly, From parents who, to comply with the regulations ofthe emigration commissioners, had left young children beyond thestandard number to the care of poor relatives or the parish.

In the first and last cases, armed with the facts and proofsnecessary, without which she never makes a claim, Mrs. Chisholmsucceeded. The other formed the foundation of the FamilyColonisation Loan Society.

Before Mrs. Chisholm sailed for England a committee, whichincluded eight members of the Legislative Council, magistrates,landholders, and others of all shades of opinion, raised asubscription for a testimonial to that lady, and presented anaddress, in which they said:—

"We beg to offer you, on the occasion of your departure fromthis colony, the expression of our thanks for your active andzealous exertions on behalf of the emigrant population during thelast seven years. In establishing emigrants' homes, inestablishing great numbers of the emigrant population in theinterior as servants and occupiers of small farms, your exertionshave proved of signal advantage to the community. In the largecollection of 'statistical facts' and 'voluntaryinformation,' derived from the labouring classes, you haveaccumulated materials for establishing the great advantages whichNew South Wales possesses as a favourable field for theemigration of British settlers."

In the course of her reply, Mrs. Chisholm said:—"Itis my intention, if supported by your co-operation, to attemptmore than I have hitherto performed."

During-the six years and eight months which she spent inAustralia, Mrs. Chisholm, without wealth or rank, or any supportexcept what her earnest philanthropy gradually acquired, providedfor eleven thousand souls.

Yet since her sojourn in England she has redeemed her pledge,and done much more. With less than two thousand pounds, between1850 and 1852, she personally sent out more than one thousandemigrants of the best class, and has advised, corresponded with,or otherwise assisted tens of thousands.

We have devoted thus much space to the colonising career ofMrs. Chisholm, because with her exertions the colonisation of theinterior commenced. Before her time, emigrants were merelytumbled out on the shores, like so much live stock, to find theirown way to market—to service, marriage, sin, or death.

Mrs. Chisholm first taught the Australian squatters thatproperty had its duties as well as its rights. She tapped thesprings of spontaneous self-supporting emigration, and showed howclosely the extension of national power was connected with thesocial and domestic virtues inseparable from familycolonisation.

TO MRS. CHISHOLM.

FROM THE "SPECTATOR,"SYDNEY, 28TH FEBRUARY, 1846.

The guardian angel of herhelpless sex,
Whom no fatigue could daunt, no crosses vex;
With manly reason and with spirit pure,
Crown'd with the blessings of the grateful poor,
For them with unrepining love she bore
The boarded cottage and the earthen floor,
The sultry day in tedious labour spent,
The endless tale of whining discontent:
Bore noonday's burning sun and midnight's chill.
The scanty meal, the journey lengthening still;
Lavished her scanty store on their distress,
And sought no other guerdon than success.
Say ye who hold the balance and the sword,
Into your lap the wealth of nations poured,
155 What have ye done with all your hireling brood,
Compared with her the generous and the good?
Much ye receive and little ye dispense,
Your alms are paltry, and your debts immense.
Your toil's reluctant—freely hers is given;
You toil for earth, she labours still for Heaven.

{Page 155}

CHAPTER XIV.

RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT.

Beside the questions involved in theprice of land, the tenure and tax on pastures, the abolition ofassignment of prisoners, and cessation of transportation—onall of which the governor and his chiefs were at issue with thecolonists, from the day of the opening of the LegislativeCouncil, when the word "humble" was struck out of the motion foran address in answer to the governor's speech—certainconstitutional questions of great importance were at issuebetween Sir George Gipps and the Legislative Council.

The Colonial Parliament was justly incensed at finding thatthe new constitution gave them nothing more than the liberty oftalking and taxing themselves. Three schedules appropriatedupwards of 80,000 to the payment of officials, over whoseappointment, from the colonial secretary down to theprothonotary, they had no sort of control. The council attemptedto regulate the distribution of the funds secured by theschedules, by taking from those who did nothing to give to thosewho worked hard. The governor successfully resisted the attempt,and in other words told them, as Lord Ellenborough told Hone, "toprotest and go about their business." Whereupon the ColonialParliament being unable to cut down the sinecure salariesincluded in the schedules, retaliated by refusing to vote theestimates for the sums required over and above the estimates. Thegovernor responded by cutting down that part of the publicservice which was most needed by the colonists. For instance, heretained the Prothonotary and Master in Equity, and closed theoffice of Registrar of Deeds, who regulated all the titles andmortgages in the colony. From that time forward the strugglebetween the governor and that part of the council which was notofficial, became relentless. Evil breeds evil—so inproportion as Sir George Gipps was despotic and insolent, theopposition became virulent and factious. Between both it was warto the knife.

A great battle was fought upon the "District Councils." Theidea of district councils made Sir George Gipps Governor of NewSouth Wales. He had had influence enough to have the schemeembodied in the Act of Parliament (5 and 6 Vict. cap. 79, sect.47), which gave the colony representative institutions. Thetheory was plausible: it might have suited Canada, it may suitEngland. It met the high approval of Lords Stanley and JohnRussell. To this day Earl Grey believes it failed through thespiteful obstinacy of the colonists. Sir George Gipps, during thefew years of his administration, postponed measures forestablishing schools, for repairing and constructing roads, andother practical works of the utmost importance to the colony, atfirst in order that "his district councils" might reap a harvestof glory, and afterwards to spite the scoundrels for rejecting soadmirable an institution. And so it was admirable on paper, butperfectly impracticable in a pastoral colony. Had any other thanhimself originated it, the governor would have seen its fallacyin a month, and dissected it in a masterly despatch.

According to Sir George's plan the inhabitants of eachdistrict were empowered to elect, and if they neglected to elect,the governor had power to appoint a council, which should decideon the sum required for a year for the district. Half such sumwas to be contributed from the colonial treasury, and the otherhalf to be levied on the property in the district. If no localtreasurer was elected, the colonial treasurer could issue hiswarrant, and sell up as much of the property of the district aswould raise the requisite sum. But the scheme would not work.

In the first place, there was no population sufficiently denseto work such a system, there were very few electors, and nocouncillors; in the second place, there was no ready money to paythe taxes.

In a pastoral colony like Australia wages are high,consumption is large, and by taxes on consumption, levied at theports, a considerable revenue may be raised, but by directtaxation very little. The colonists have, or rather had—forit is impossible to say what changes a gold currency mayeffect—sheep and cattle, which they exchanged, in meat,wool, and tallow, for what they needed in tea, sugar, tobacco,and clothing, but very little money.

When Sir George Gipps attempted to introduce his districtcouncils he found the colonists unprepared to travel for miles toelect a councillor, or pay five or ten pounds per annum for roadsover which they never travelled, and bridges a hundred miles fromtheir farms, and indignant at suddenly finding their property atthe mercy of the colonial treasurer, the irresponsible officer ofthe governor. The colonists determined to resist the districtcouncil scheme. The governor was determined to enforce it. It washis darling child; he had conceived it while looking out from hisstudy on the dense population of a different state of society,and he was not the man to be beaten by circ*mstances. Like theAbbé Sièyes, and other celebrated manufacturers of constitutionsand governing machines, he was blind and deaf to all facts whichmilitated against his theories,—prepared that everybodyshould suffer so long as he maintained his character as alegislator. Thus he answered a deputation of the LegislativeCouncil, and other influential colonists, who waited on him topoint out the practical difficulties in the way of executing hisdistrict council scheme: "Whether it ruins the colony or not, anAct of Parliament must and shall be carried out."

On this question the battle began. The inhabitants, except inone district, neglected to elect committees. The governorappointed them. Then came the question of levying, afterassessing, a rate. A flaw was discovered in the Act ofParliament. It was decided that the word "levy" did not empowerthe council to distrain. The governor applied to theLegislative Council for an Act to amend the flaw. The LegislativeCouncil refused to help him. He was thrown back on the powersvested in the colonial treasurer; the "Algerine clause," as itwas called in the colony, he threatened, but he dared not put inforce. The struggle was carried on for years. The governor wassupported by the approval of the home authorities; but thepassive resistance of the colonists was too much for him. Atlength, in 1846, Earl Grey called for a report from the principalofficials, including Mr. Deas Thomson, the colonial secretary forNew South Wales, and Mr. Latrobe, the lieutenant-governor of PortPhillip, and they reported in a manner which effectually, and forever, shelved Sir George Gipps' district councils.

In 1844, before the district councils had been shelved, aselect committee of the Legislative Council investigated"grievances unconnected with land," and drew up a report, whichwas a kind of Australian declaration of rights.

These grievances, of which the following is a summary,remained unredressed until the advent of Sir John Pakington andthe Duke of Newcastle to the Colonial Office opened up"unrestricted competition" in colonial concessions.

The colonists' committee complained of "being saddled withtaxation for a civil list which they were not empowered todiscuss, to the extent of £81,000." By the Act of 1850 this civillist was increased.

Of the total failure of the "District Councils, which createdmunicipalities where the sparse population render popularelection and local taxation impossible, and which placed in thehands of the governors the nomination of an officer with powersof taxation."

Of the want of a "responsible government," the governor being,in fact, merely a subordinate officer of the Colonial Secretaryof State for the time being; and the governor's official advisersin a position which made them practically as independent of theLegislative Council as if they had been merely his privatefriends. Thus, so long as the governor and his official adviserssatisfied the home authorities, the colonists were without remedyfor any illegality committed by the colonial government, howeverflagrant. As an instance of the working of the system, the reportcites £127,000 applied to various illegal (not fraudulent)purposes by the governor in the course of seven years; "and a sumof £30,743 15s., which was not only expended by his excellencywithout any authority of the Legislative Council, but applied, bythe governor's mere fiat, to the payment of debentures and otherpurposes to which the ordinary revenue was not applicable bylaw."

They further protested against the expense in police, gaols,and judicial expenditure inflicted upon the colonists inconsequence of New South Wales being made a receptacle for thefelons of England, after it had ceased to derive the profits oftheir labour on the assignment system; and of the violation ofthe [alleged] compact by which the surplus land revenues andother casual revenues of the crown had been ceded to the colonialtreasuries. Under this head the committee claimed a largesum—£831,742 3s. 7d., and for the future an annual paymenttowards police, gaols, and courts of assize of £74,195 6s.8d.

And finally, they requested that persons having claims of anydescription against the local government should, by special Actof Parliament, be enabled to sue a public officer as nominaldefendant, and that the judges of the Supreme Court should beplaced in the same position as to tenure of office and securityof salary as the judges of the mother country, and no longer beliable to be suspended by the fiat and removed by the report ofthe governor.

But it would be impossible within any reasonable space todetail the series of overt acts which characterised thesedition-breeding policy of Sir George Gipps.

Nominally, a portion of the land revenue was set apart for thebenefit of the aborigines; but when application was made forcuring a native of a dangerous infectious skin disease, thegovernor "had no funds for such a purpose," and poor Jemmy Nyrangwas pushed out of the government hospital.

Session after session it was a game at cross purposes andcrooked answers between the representatives of the colonists, thegovernor, and his patrons in Downing-street.

For instance, the colonists proposed to reduce the salaries ofcertain colonial custom-house officers; in the next session ofthe British Parliament, it is presumed at the instigation ofGovernor Gipps, the British Colonial Secretary passed a specialAct, taking that department from the control of the newly-createdcolonial Parliament. The colonists proposed to spend £9,000 oftheir own money in building a lighthouse in Bass's Straits; theywere informed that they must first consult the home government onits situation—a matter of two years' delay. The colonistspassed an Act, establishing mortgage and register for mortgageson wool; the Colonial Secretary of State, without consulting thecolonists, disallowed the Act, as "repugnant to the laws ofEngland." See p. 164. But after long delay and great loss ofproperty, the home government was obliged to yield and sanction ameasure indispensable in a pastoral country. The colonistsexamined and unanimously protested against the land systemestablished by the Imperial Parliament, arid still moreunanimously against the ordinances affecting pastoral occupation.Lord Stanley, without regarding petitions which, as Sir GeorgeGipps admitted, expressed the almost unanimous opinions of thecolonists, hastened to pen in a despatch "his determination touphold the land system, and his perfect approval of the arbitrarypowers exercised by the governor against the squatting interest."A bill was introduced into the British Parliament forestablishing the new system of pastoral occupation—theex-governor was consulted—the Legislative Council were leftin ignorance of the provisions of the bill.

In fact, the records of the Legislative Council are largelyoccupied with discussions between the governor and the electedmembers on every possible subject, the governor constantlyadopting a line of defiance, always treating the opposition as ifit were rebellion. On the one side were the colonists, on theother the governor, backed by the home government, concentratingin his own person all power and patronage, supported by theofficial members, and the nominees, who were plainlyinstructed that, unless prepared to support the governor, "rightor wrong" (if a governor could be wrong), they must resign.

The ability and integrity of the colonial secretaries of stateduring the administration of Sir George Gipps, and of Sir Georgehimself, are indisputable; but they obstinately insisted onknowing whether shoes fitted or not better than the people whowore them, and insisted too, that they should wear them, whetherthey pinched or not. Fortunately the prosperity of the colony didnot entirely depend on the crotchets of a colonial minister, orof a governor, although both could, and did, seriously retard itsprogress.

But while the Legislative Council were contesting, inch byinch, the "elementary rights of Englishmen," the grass wasgrowing, the sheep were breeding, the stockmen were exploring newpastures, and the frugal industry of settlers was replacing andincreasing the capital lost by wild speculations. And in 1845-6,Sir George Gipps was able to announce that the revenue exceededthe expenditure, and the exports the imports, while the glut oflabour which followed his arrival had been succeeded by a demandwhich the squatters termed a dearth.

In July, 1846, Sir George Gipps retired from the government ofNew South Wales, and embarked for England, worn out in body andmind by the excitement of perpetual contests with colonists asunscrupulous in their attacks as he was obstinate and haughty inmaintaining his opinions and position. It was a war to the knifeon both sides. The last measure he presented to the LegislativeCouncil (a bill to renew the border police) was rejected, and anaddress voted, by a large majority, after two nights' debate,which was virtually a vote of censure on his government, afterwhich the council adjourned itself for a month.

During an administration of eight years, distinguished byunusual official and literary aptitude, Sir George Gippssucceeded in earning the warm approbation of the Downing-streetchiefs, and the detestation of the members of every colonialclass and interest, except his immediate dependents. Thesquatocracy, the mercantile, and the settler class were equallyopposed to him. Yet even with the same political and economicalviews, erroneous and baneful as many of them were, with much lesstalent, but with a more conciliatory temper, he might have been ahappy, a popular, and a really useful governor. The value, aswell as the popularity, of a colonial governor depends more onthe manner in which he conciliates and advises the people underhis charge, than on the manner in which he pens a despatch ordelivers a speech from the vice-throne.

We have dwelt on Sir George's unhappy career unhappy—forhimself and for the colony under his charge—to show whatmanner of policy was approved and rewarded by the Colonial Officeof Lord Stanley and Earl Grey, and why discontent has beenchronic in New South Wales for so many years.

Had he been a man of less mark, or a governor of less power,his faults and foibles should have been buried with him; butunfortunately they form an important part of the history of thecolony he misgoverned. We may yet have to reap a bitter harvestfrom the seeds he sowed. Imperfectly as our task has beenperformed, we have said enough to show that his administrationmust always be considered one of the most important epochs in thehistory of Australia.

The permanent infliction of the £1 an acre monopoly—theconsequent triumph of the great pastoral over the freeholdinterest—the development of the wonderful pastoralresources of Australia—the abolition of assignment andtransportation of criminals—the rise of a freepopulation—the introduction of the elective element intothe legislature—the commencement of a legitimateparliamentary struggle for the establishment of responsiblegovernment, and a crowd of events of great local but minornational importance,—all these date back to the periodduring which Sir George Gipps "reigned and governed too,"contesting every possible question with the Legislative Council,with the judges, with the crown land commissioners, with theclergy of all denominations, with squatters, with settlers, withevery colonist who dared to have any other opinion than theopinion of the Governor.

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CHAPTER XV.

SONGS OF THE SQUATTERS.

Among the "signs of the times" duringSir George Gipps' government, we notice a decided progress in theliterature of the colony: verse as well as prose of no mean orderwas called into existence by the fierce contest between thecolonists and their governor. We give a few extracts from thecolonial newspaper of 1845. They may be received as evidence ofsome value by those who do not care to dive into any of thereports we have quoted on important but not very amusingquestions.

THE BUSHMAN'S COMPLAINT.

Mivins, a Port Phillipian squatter, hasbeen bought out of his run. On his road, with his sheep, lookingfor a new station, he meets Timmins, an old "lag," who, by"tipping" the Clerks at the Crown Land Office, has had his runkept out of the government sales.

Mivins.While, Timmins, you recline at ease,
Under the shade of these gum trees,
Whistling such ditties, gay and flat,
As "Nix my Dolly" and "Bound my Hat,"
We, with all manner of vexations,
Are forced to look out for new stations;
I have been put to total rout,
A d———d new chum has bought me out!
While you sit there, you happy sticker,
And smoke your pipe and drink your liquor.

Timmins.A realgentleman, and no mistake,
Has done the business, Mivins, for my sake;
I tip him very regular, you must know—
A brace of lambs I send, or else a ewe;
And thus you see it comes about,
That I have not been purchased out.

Mivins.I do not envyyou, but wonder how,
Or why, they have got up this blessed row;
The ewes and lambs I am too weak to drive,
And fear I'll bring off very few alive;
The weakest lambs I put upon the dray,
But still I save but few alas the day!
A score of them are dead in yonder spot,
The very finest too of all the lot.
The overseer, I recollect, fortold
That all this run of ours would soon be sold;
Such croaking prophecies I sent to h———;
But, Timmins, tell us something of this swell.

Timmins.The city theycall Sydney, I once thought
Was like this town of Melbourne, where we brought
Our wedders oft for sale; so ewes to lambs
Resemblance show, and cubs are like their dams:
But Sydney does this town of ours surpass,
As does the tall white gum the burnt up grass.

Mivins.What was itbrought you up to Sydney, pray?

Timmins.To get myfreedom, which, with some delay,
I did obtain at last; but while away
I saw the swell I mentioned: and I tell you
There are no flies about him, my good fellow;
And when I asked him if I were secure
My run should not be purchased, "To be sure,"
Says he: "Don't be in such a fright;
You pay the tip, and I'll make it all right."

Mivins.A fortunate oldchap you surely are;
For though the run may seem a little bare,
And dotted over here and there with rock,
Yet still it is sufficient for your stock;
And by the river is so well protected,
There is no danger of its being infected.
But some of us must go to Portland Bay,
Others to Gipps's land or Goulburn way;
Or else to South Australia and the plains
North of the Pyrenees and Grampians.
I wonder if I ever shall again
Behold the spot which once was my domain;
The door against the Bushman never shut,
And the bark covering of my humble hut.
Some half-pay officer will reap my corn,
Some sailor shear my flocks may I be shorn,
If I had thought it would have reach'd this pass,
If ever I'd have been the infernal ass
To build a wool-shed, or to put a rod
Of fencing up, or turn a single sod.

Timmins.At any rateyou'll spend the night with me,
And have a bit of damper and some tea;
And now I see it's getting rather late,
So we'll go in and finish the debate.

"THE ASSYRIAN CAME DOWN LIKE THE WOLF ON THEFOLD"

LordStanley.Stop, Mr. Cardwell, you have doubtless heard
That New South Wales has got a Constitution:
Such an assembly, I should think, was never
Seen since the time of Romulus—all thieves—
Several who have not yet received their pardons;
And Stephen says they voted it a breach
Of privilege, to pick a member's pocket
While in debate engaged. 'Tis sad to think
The spurious liberalism of the age
Should give such rascals power.

Mr.Cardwell.Sad,indeed!

Mr.Cardwell.Very great, mylord:
If personal estate or goods be sold,
Possession ought to follow the transaction;
Or, if the seller still do keep the goods,
It is so Turyne's case says a badge of fraud:
But if the property be only pledged,
Possession in the pawner does not give
The slightest badge of fraud. 'Tis true, if bankrupt
The mortgagor become, his assignees
Will have a preference o'er the mortgagee,
Because the property does still remain
Within the order and disposing power
Of him they represent.

Lord Stanley(rising sternly).Sir, Iintended
To have promoted you to mighty honour;
But finding you so grossly ignorant
Of the first axioms of the legal science,
I do repent me of my former purpose.
Sir, had you been a lawyer, you'd have known
That mortgages of personal estate
Are held by English law in perfect hate;
For law, indeed, we do not greatly care,
Save that injustice must not be too bare.
Away, young man, and seek your special pleader;
If you talk thus, you'll never be a leader.

TheDevil.I've come, my dear soul, for an hour or two,
On passing events to chat with you;
To render you thanks for the mischief you're brewing
For the state you oppress, and the men you're undoing.
And also to offer—excuse my freedom—
A few words of advice where you seem to need 'em.

The Governor, after some parley, excuseshimself from offering hospitality on the grounds of the latenessof the hour, and that he does not himself drink "grog;" to whichanswers the

Governor.Your advice,your advice, 'twere a shame to lose it,
Though I need not take it unless I choose it.

Devil.I grant you thepraise you've fairly won
By the deeds you do and the deeds you've done;
I know that no causes corrupt the mind
Like the chains by which tyrants have crushed mankind;
That the blighting touch of a despot's rod
Kills in man's spirit the breath of God;
That the cherishing light of the holy skies,
Falls barren and vain upon servile eyes;
That the weeds of evil will thrive there best
Where the fair shoots of nature are clipped and dressed:
And under those climes where the poisonous brood
Of error is nursed by servitude.
When most I am bent on man's undoing,
The tyrant assists my work of ruin:
In New South Wales, as I plainly see,
You're carving out plentiful jobs for me.
But—forgive me for hinting—your zeal is such,
That I'm only afraid you'll do too much.
I know this well:—to subject mankind
You must tickle before you attempt to bind;
Nor lay on his shoulders the yoke, until
Through his passions you've first enslaved his will.
You're too violent far—you rush too madly
At your favourite ends, and spoil them sadly.
Already I warn you, the system totters—
They're a set of hornets—these unruly squatters;
Especially when you would grasp their cash.
Excuse me, George, but I think you're rash.

Governor.Rash!d——n it! rash!

Devil.Don'tfly in a passion,
In the higher circles 'tis not the fashion.

Governor.Would you haveme forego the rights of the Crown,
To be laughed at all over the factious town?
I'll teach these squatters to pay their rent;
I don't care a rush for their discontent!
They've abused me in print, they've made orations,
They've their papers and Pastoral Associations;
They've gone to the length of caricaturing,
But I'll show them the evil is past their curing.

Devil.Come, come, becool, or your aim you'll miss,
Your temper's too hot for work like this.
'Twere a pity to peril this rich possession
By foolish rashness or indiscretion.
Wentworth and Windeyer are troublesome chaps,
And the Council's a thorn in your side, perhaps;
But let them grumble and growl their fill,
You know very well their power is nil.
Look at the schedules by which, 'tis clear,
You handle a monstrous sum each year;
Look at the patronage thrown in your gift;
To give your backers a solid lift.
Look at the power you have to draw
On Downing-street when you want a new law;
Look at the lands that are unlocated,
Where droits of the crown are so nicely created;
Then calmlyproceed.******
Subdue by degrees, and slowly oppress,
Or I tell you you'll get yourself into a mess.
While people petition they'll find it a sell,
But don't push them too hard they might rebel.

Governor.Rebel! Ha! ha!you're surely in joke;
Rebellion here—a mere puff of smoke—
A handful of troops would put them down,
And the higher classes would join the crown.

Devil.It might be so;but just mark, my friend,
Who'll come to be losers in the end?
No doubt ther'd be fun well worth enjoying,—
Burning, and plundering, and destroying;
Fighting for towns not worth disputing;
Skirmishing, robbing, and rifle-shooting
From bushes and trees, and rock for barriers;
Murdering of postboys and plundering of carriers
Storming of camps by midnight entries,
Driving off horses and popping off sentries;
Seizures of stock for purposes royal;
Pressing of men to make them loyal.
Some heroes might fall in that petty strife,
Whom bondage had taught a contempt for life;
Some patriots leading in civil storms,
Might dangle on gibbets their martyr forms;
Or exiled afar, to return no more,
Might bury their bones on a foreign shore,
Proscribed by the tyrants they dared to brave,
And mocked by the people they sought to save.
But not in vain would they bear and bleed;
This land would have gained what most they need;
John Bull from his drowsy indifference waking,
Would give you small despots a terrible shaking;
You'd be robbed of your berth and your reputation,
For causing your masters so much vexation.*

[* The author of this fierce poetical summary ofAustralian wrongs was a young gentleman born and bred in thecolony. We give it, therefore, nearly at length, not only asevidence of colonial feeling, but of colonial talent.]

Pervading Gipps! whosepenetrating soul
The least o'erlooks, the mightiest can control;
Now drowning towns, now decimating quills,
Now taxing provinces, now taxing bills;
Or when thy jaded spirit seeks for ease,
And e'en misgovernment has ceased to please,
Just acting o'er to dissipate thy gloom,
The dread rehearsal of a felon's doom!

THE GUNDAGAI FLOOD.

In 1844 the colony was visited by severe floods. Thewater was from four to five feet deep in the township ofGundagai, which had been laid out and sold in building lots bythe government sometime previously. The Commissioner of CrownLands, in the district, addressed a letter to the ColonialSecretary, Mr. Deas Thomson, suggesting that, "in consequence ofthe late floods, it would be highly essential to the futurewelfare of the township of Gundagai to have part of the townshiplaid out on the south bank of the Murrumbidgee River, onmoderately high ground, well adapted for building, giving theparties who have now allotments in the recently-flooded landothers on the high land." The suggestion of the CrownCommissioner as to laying out allotments was adopted; but inconveying this information Mr. Thomson adds:—"HisExcellency further directs me to inform you that he cannotsanction the proposed exchange of the flooded allotments, ashe considers that what a man buys he buys for better orworse." *

[* In consequence of this decision, a hundredpeople were drowned in this same township in 1851.]

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CHAPTER XVI.

SIR CHARLES FITZROY.

1846 TO 1850.

Sir Charles Fitzroy, a younger son ofthe Grafton family, and a brother-in-law of the Duke of Richmond,who had previously been Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward'sIsland, and Governor of Antigua, in the West Indies, succeededSir George Gipps in August, 1846; Sir Charles M. O'Connell,Commander of the Forces in New South Wales, having administeredthe colony during the intermediate space of a month.

Sir Charles Fitzroy, who has retained the office withincreased dignity as Governor-General, under the AustralianReform Bill, is in every respect the reverse of Sir George Gipps.His talents are not above mediocrity, and his manners areconciliatory. On colonial politics he has no opinions and noprejudices; apparently his chief object has been to lead an easylife. It is said that on landing he exclaimed—"I cannotconceive how Sir George Gipps could permit himself to be bored byanything in this delicious climate." Sir Charles is in fact aneminent example of how far good temper and the impartiality ofindifference, in the absence of higher qualities, may make a veryrespectable colonial governor. By placing himself unreservedly inthe hands of men of colonial experience—by yielding everypoint left to his own discretion by the home government to thewishes of the majority of the Legislative Council—and infact by never taking the trouble to have any opinion on anycolonial subject, has glided over difficulties on which men ofmore intellect and obstinacy would have made shipwreck. Andperhaps, after all, the sporting, four-in-hand driving,ball-giving governor,

"A dandy of sixty, who bows witha grace,"

and leaves the political part of his work to his secretariesand law advisers, is the best governor for Australia,—untilsome nobleman or great commoner can be found of common sense andconciliatory manners, not only able to initiate the business ofcolonial government with advantage to the dependency and theparent state, but to teach the rising generation of Australia byexample, that without a taste for art, science, and refinedintellectual amusem*nts, the most fashionable tailor, the mostcorrect equipage, the most beautiful horses, the most statelymansion, and the most varied wine-cellar, will not make agentleman, as colonial plutocrats often fancy.

The Earl of Derby (then Lord Stanley) had held the seals ofthe Colonial Office during nearly the whole period of Sir GeorgeGipps's government, and heartily sustained him in all hisneedless and despotic assertions of royal prerogative. He hadearned, too, considerable personal unpopularity by disallowingseveral important acts of the Legislative Council, by theexercise of his patronage in an arbitrary manner in favour ofvery improper objects, and by a general course of conduct bothnegligent and defiant. In 1845 Lord Stanley resigned, and wassucceeded by the Right Hon. William Gladstone, who retired withSir Robert Peel's government in June, 1846.

THE ANTI-CONVICT CONTEST.

Transportation to New South Wales had been discontinued in1840, in consequence of the report of a committee of the House ofCommons made in 1838. The class of convicts who had previouslybeen distributed over New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land asassigned servants, following agricultural and pastoraloccupations, were all poured into the island of Van Diemen'sLand, and there massed into what were called probation gangs.Without separate cells or trustworthy gaolers, they festered intothe foulest community that ever poisoned the population of acivilised state.

The gentlemen of the House of Commons who forced the suddenabolition of the assignment system on the government, were thecat's-paws of certain South Australian and New Zealandland-jobbers. By a coup de main they compelled thegovernment to do that in a day which required the preparation ofyears. For the consequent mistakes and failures which occurredbetween 1840 and 1845 the Colonial Office is scarcely answerable.The experiment was new; it was suddenly forced upon them by apowerful political combination, and at that period the means ofobtaining authentic information from the colonies were few andfar between.

In 1845 Mr. Secretary Gladstone's attention was directed totwo serious facts in regard to convictism. On the one hand thegang and probation system in Van Diemen's Land had produced astate of crime and danger fatal to the progress of the wholecolony, which could no longer remain unnoticed. On the other, onthe rich pastoral plains of the Port Phillip district theincrease of flocks and herds had been so rapid as to place theproprietary of squatting runs in great difficulties for want oflabourers; and they had consequently formed an association, madea subscription, and imported about two thousand expirees andticket-of-leave holders from Van Diemen, to supply their urgentdemand for pastoral servants. With a view of controlling thesewhitewashed criminals, the Legislature of New South Wales (whichuntil 1850 extended over Port Phillip) proposed to subject theVan Diemonian importations to a system of registration andsurveillance similar to that to which the ticket-of-leave menwere subjected who had originally been sentenced to New SouthWales.

The home government declined to sanction a coloniallegislative act, which would have made such a registrationlegal.*

[* One of the first acts of the LegislativeAssemblies created by the Australian Reform Bill of 1850, was topass similar acts levelled against Van Diemonian expirees.]

But although pastoral proprietors, anxious to preserve andmultiply their fleecy treasures, were willing to accept theservices of convicts, just as some of them had endeavoured tointroduce Feejee cannibals, by a new slave trade, and PaganChinese, there was a large free population in the towns ofAustralia which was satisfied to depend on free emigrants for thesupply of labour, and determined to resist the return toconvictism. With the educated and wealthy opponents of whiteslavery were banded the labouring classes, who naturally werejust as anxious to keep wages up as their employers were to keepthem down.

It was then—in the commencement of a contest betweenthat portion of the population resident in towns or engaged inagriculture, which, on moral and political grounds, objected tothe renewal of transportation, backed by the labouring classes,who were equally averse to the reduction of wages and to thevexatious police regulations incident to the system of prisonerlabour which affected all labouring men, and the squatters, towhom cheap and obedient labour was essential if they were toretain their wealthy and dominant position while the respectiveparties had scarcely marshalled their forces, that a despatcharrived from Mr. Gladstone, in which he requested the governor"to submit to the consideration of the council whether they wouldnot accept, in part supply of the labour market, a renewal of amodified system of transportation." Mr. Gladstone had alreadydetermined to discontinue transportation to Van Diemen's Land fortwo years, pending the arrangement of a better system; and alsoto found, on northern Australia, a new penal settlement.

On the 13th of October a committee of the Legislative Councilwas appointed, on the motion of Mr. Went worth, which contained,of ten members, five squatters and two colonial officials.

The first act of this committee was to meet and decide that itwas not expedient at that late period of the session to take anyevidence as to the question in Mr. Gladstone'sletter—"Whether a modified and carefully-regulatedintroduction of convict labourers will be in accordance with thegeneral sense of the colony." Accordingly they confined theirlabours to inquiring from the employers of labour whether theywould like a renewal of transportation—that is to say,cheap labour—they were unanimously answered in theaffirmative, provided the transportation was accompanied withcertain precautions which they mentioned—and inquiring fromthe police magistrates in what manner and on what terms suchtransportation ought to be renewed. Although while the committeewas sitting, a number of petitions against the renewal oftransportation were presented, no witnesses holding the opinionsof the petitioners were examined.

Among other witnesses called was Captain J. Innes, stipendiarymagistrate at the convict barracks, and superintendent ofirongangs, a gentleman whose office and position alike securedhim from any sentimental terror of convictism, and induced him toacquiesce as much as possible in the views of those homeauthorities from whom he received his appointment. But CaptainInnes only ventured to propose, as the terms on which the colonyshould consent to receive a limited number of prisoners, "thatthe colonial government should have the power of settling therules for the management and discipline of the prisoners;" "thatthe home government should pay half the police, and gaol, andadministration of justice expenditure, the cost of the penalestablishments in the colony, and send out one male and onefemale immigrant for each prisoner and all the female convicts,so as to keep a parity of sexes."

From the same evidence we learn that at that period (1846)there were about fifteen hundred old convicts "the very worstclass of men imaginable" still remaining in the gangs and gaols;and that in the colony there were 13,400 ticket-of-leave holders.The committee reported, too late for the council to take theirrecommendations into consideration, to the followingeffect:—

They commence by observing that—

"They are sufficiently cognizant of the state ofpublic feeling among their fellow-colonists to be satisfied thatif the proposed renewal of transportation were any longerpractically and substantially an open question; if it rested onthe colonists themselves to decide whether the deportation ofconvicts to this hemisphere should cease orcontinue—whether they should at once and for ever freethemselves and their posterity from the further taint of theconvict system, doubtless a large majority, especially of theoperative classes, would give the proposal for renewedtransportation an unhesitating veto; nor do your committee feelby any means certain that the decision of the majority of theupper and middle classes of society would now also be inaccordance with the report of the General Grievance Committee of1844, 'that the moral and social influences of the convictsystem, the contamination and the vice which are inseparable fromit, are evils for which no mere pecuniary benefits could serve asa counterpoise;' and if the Secretary of State be prepared todiscontinue the transportation of the convicts of the Britishempire to all of the Australian colonies, and thus practically aswell as nominally free this continent from their presence, such acourse would be more generally 'conducive to the interests, andagreeable to the inclinations of those whom it will ultimatelyconcern.' Seeing, however, that in the view of your committee,transportation is no longer an open question—thattransportation is still to go on to Van Diemen'sLand—seeing, moreover, that a new penal settlement isimmediately to be formed on the very northern boundary of thecolony—that thus this colony, already inundated on thesouth with the outpourings of the probation system in VanDiemen's Land, the most demoralising that ever was invented, issoon to have poured upon it from the north the exiles of themother country, as well as the expirees from that colony; andthat to augment the volume of this double stream of felonry, asystem of conditional pardons, confining the holders of thempractically to the Australian colonies, has been resorted to,with the effect of relieving the British treasury from the costof maintaining this class of criminals in reality, althoughfree men in name: seeing this, your committee consider thequestion narrowed down to whether transportation should exist inthe indirect and polluted shape which it has already assumed;whether, in short, we are to have this double tide of moralcontamination flowing upon us without restraint or check; orwhether, along with whatever compensation transportation can besurrounded, we are to have the additional advantage ofmodifying and regulating its introduction into the colony by theknowledge which fifty years' experience of its working has givenus, which will at all events enable us to combine with thegreatest possible good derivable from it, the least possibleadmixture of evil."

The committee, after arguing in a very forcible manner againstanything in the nature of probation gangs or other aggregation ofcriminals, "whether for the execution of public works generally,or making and repair of roads," proceed to report—

"As a mere choice of evils, which, whatever may bethe general desire, this community has no power to escape from,we are willing to submit to a renewal of transportationupon the following terms, and upon no other:—

"1st. That no alteration shall be made in the Constitutional Act,5 and 6 Vict. c. 76, except with the view to the extension of theelective principle.

"2nd. That the transportation of male convicts be accompanied, asa simultaneous measure, with the importation of an equal numberof females, to consist of female convicts as far as they exist,and the balance to be made up of female immigrants.

"3rd. That, as a further simultaneous measure, suchtransportation be accompanied with an equal importation of freeimmigrants, as nearly as possible in equal proportions as tosexes.

"4th. That the wives and families of all convicts receivingpermanent or temporary indulgences should be brought out, andcount as part of this free immigration.

"5th. That no fewer than five thousand male convicts be annuallydeported.

"6th. That the ironed or road gangs of criminals under colonialsentence, and the convict establishments of Norfolk Island andco*ckatoo Islands should be maintained as heretofore at the costof the British treasury.

"7th. That two-thirds of the expense of police, gaols, and thecriminal administration of justice be paid by the homegovernment; but that on the relinquishment of the land fund andall other revenues or droits of the crown to theappropriation of the governor and Legislative Council, the wholeof this branch of convict expenditure be assumed by the colony,with a view to aid the British government in defraying the costof the free emigration stipulated for in the second and thirdconditions.

"8th. That in order to insure due permanency and efficiency inthe regulations to be provided for the government and disciplineof convicts, the sole power of making such regulations be vestedin the governor and Legislative Council, saving entire the royalprerogative of mercy.

"The description of convicts the colony should agree to receiveon the above conditions are—

"1st. Young delinquents who have committed firstoffences—to be sent after little or no probation.

"2nd. Convicts who have committed grave offences, after aprobation, under the separate system, considered adequate to thecrime.

"3rd. Convicts at the commencement of their sentences who havecommitted various crimes.

"4th. Convicts with tickets of leave (if any) from Van Diemen'sLand.

"The committee recommend that—

"The two first classes receive tickets of leave entitling theholders to dwell in some particular district, altogetherexcluding them from towns.

"The third class to be assigned in the nineteen counties in whichpastoral pursuits were most followed and the squatting districts,to parties into whose character rigid inquiry had beenmade."

The committee express a preference for assignment overprobation for the second class.

With respect to the Van Diemonian ticket-of-leave men, thecommittee state that they would rather not receive them at all,but that a system of granting conditional pardons veryindiscriminately having been very extensively practised, theywould prefer receiving men subject to registry muster and thesurveillance of the police, to receiving them without anyrestraint at all.

In another part of their report the committee observe, "Thesecret to disarm transportation of its evil influences is toincrease the free population," that it may always maintain adecided ascendancy, and to keep up the equality of the sexes,that the colony may never more be subjected to the horrors of apopulus virorum."

It seems that at that period the males of the colony were114,000 to 74,000 females.

The committee conclude with an eloquent peroration, no doubtthe work of their accomplished chairman, on the beneficialresults to be anticipated from their recommendations.

This report having been issued too late to be discussed by theLegislative Council, was forwarded by the government to theColonial Office, and fell into the hands of Mr. Gladstone'ssuccessor, Earl Grey.

EARL GREY.

Sir Charles Fitzroy, warned by the error of Governor Gipps, inhis first address to the Legislative Council, assured them thathe should defer any legislative action on his own part until hemade such a stay and such investigations as were "necessary toacquire personal experience upon several momentous questions uponwhich it would be presumptuous to offer any opinion at so early aperiod of our intercourse;" and he added: "I take thisopportunity of publicly declaring, in perfect sincerity, that Ihave assumed the responsible trust with which our Sovereign hashonoured me, unfettered by any preconceived opinions onevery subject affecting the interests of any class of herMajesty's subjects in this territory."

Among the important subjects affected by this timely andsagacious declaration stood foremost the renewal oftransportation; the upset price of crown lands; the terms onwhich those lands were to be temporarily occupied by pastoralproprietors; the control and appropriation of the colonialrevenues; and the establishment of steam communication.

On all these and many other colonial subjects, as we learnfrom a work recently published by the noble earl, Lord Grey hadfully made up his mind, with that instinctive intuition peculiarto those who are "swaddled, and rocked, and dandled intolegislators."

And here we must pause in tracing the progress of thetransportation question to describe the minister who has had solarge a share in alienating the affections of the Australiancolonists from the mother country, and in elevating into patriotsof the hour those unprincipled agitators who found, to theirinfinite satisfaction, in the anti-transportation cry the meansof preaching sedition.

Lord Grey, as Lord Howick in the House of Commons, earlybecame a convert to the brilliant plausibilities of GibbonWakefield's land theory. He took an active part in the SouthAustralian Committee of 1841, and in 1845 he vehemently supportedthe attack made in Committee arid in Parliament on Lord Stanleyand Sir Robert Peel's government by the New Zealand Company, andhad a large share in securing to that corporation a renewed leaseof the powers they exercised so injuriously to the interests oftheir shareholders and their colonists.

On his accession to the Colonial Office his first step was tobreak up the colony contemplated by Mr. Gladstone in NorthernAustralia.

In reply to Sir Charles Fitzroy, Earl Grey declined to accedeto any of the conditions suggested by the TransportationCommittee, except that which stipulated for the emigration at theexpense of the mother country of a number of free emigrants equalin number to the convicts sent; but he suspended any action untilthe decision of the Legislative Council should be pronounced.

In the meantime the Legislative Council, in the session of1847, had considered Mr. Went worth's report and rejected it.

In the same year Earl Grey wrote to the Governor of TanDiemen's Land, Sir William Denison, "that it was not theintention of her Majesty's government that transportation to VanDiemen's Land should be resumed at the expiration of the twoyears for which it has already been decided that it should bediscontinued." The Governor, Sir William Denison, took thesentence in its literal sense, and announced the good news interms which caused general rejoicing. But although it appeared inthe sequel that Earl Grey had never meant to discontinuetransportation, but only to have convicts on the shores of VanDiemen's Land as exiles—that is to say, convicted emigrantsor ticket-of-leave men, instead of concentrating crime inprobation gangs,—he took no measures to disabuse, tocorrect the mistaken reading of the governor, until the time camewhen transportation was openly renewed. In actual fact, althoughthe number of criminals sent to Van Diemen's Land was diminished,transportation never was discontinued during the proposed twoyears, but prisoners who had passed through a course of penaldiscipline in English gaols were landed and almost immediatelyset at liberty, either as exiles or "ticket-of-leavers," to theextent of 3,154 between 1846 and 1848.

The despatch from Sir William Denison, informing the ColonialOffice that he had announced the abolition of transportation toVan Diemen's Land, and that to revive it in any form would be abreach of faith, was received at the Colonial Office on the 5thFebruary, 1848. The receipt was acknowledged by Earl Grey, by adespatch on the 27th April, 1848, in which, without reprimandingthe governor for the since-alleged misconstruction of thedespatch, which seemed to announce that transportation was to bediscontinued, he thanked the governor for his valuableinformation, and, without preamble, announced that prisonerswould be sent out with tickets of leave. From that period,without interruption up to the present time, the free colonistsof Van Diemen's Land have never ceased to agitate and protestagainst the system, with such unanimity that at the first generalelection under the new constitution no single member was returnedwho did not pledge himself to resist to the uttermost thecontinuance of transportation; and this in the face of oppositionfrom candidates who were supported by all the influence of agovernment expending upwards of £100,000 a year.

It is quite true, as Earl Grey states in the apology for thefailure of his colonial policy, which he has lately addressed tothe (colonial) ignorance of the British public, that there weregentlemen in Van Diemen's Land who, sharing the patronage of thegovernment, openly approved of this wholesale transportation. Itis extraordinary, with so large a government expenditure among acommunity so limited, its supporters were not more numerous, andit is equally true that there were always employers to be foundwilling to engage the cheap labour provided by ships laden with"ticket-of-leavers." But cheap labour will always find customers,whatever the quality or morality. The pest and crime-breedingcottages of Dorsetshire, denounced by the Rev. Sidney GodolphinOsborne—the seven-shilling-a-week life, with a workhouseburial, as the goal of Wiltshire labourers—the employmentof women in mines, and the unlimited hours of labour infactories, have, in turn, met with apologists as well assupporters. So in Van Diemen's Land, those who fertilised theirlands or derived wealth from the moral cesspool approved it, andnot unwillingly saw it overflow the neighbouring colony.

A key to the unpopularity which in Australia attended EarlGrey's administration of the Colonial Office, may be found in thecommunications which passed between certain elective members ofthe Legislative Council of New South Wales, who were chosen acorresponding committee, and the parliamentary agent orrepresentative of the colony, the Hon. Francis Scott, M.P., fromwhich we shall presently make some extracts.

But as regards transportation, in 1848, the LegislativeCouncil received some accession of strength from the squatterparty; the colony was in straits from the cessation ofimmigration, which had fallen from some six thousand in 1842 tobarely three thousand two hundred during the whole five years of1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, and 1847, and ventured to pass aresolution assenting to a proposition made by Earl Grey, by whichhe undertook to forward a certain number of criminals who hadpassed through a course of discipline in British penitentiaries,to be landed with tickets of leave; and further to accompanytheir immigration with that of an equal number of free emigrantsto be sent, not at the cost of the Colonial Land Fund, but of theBritish Exchequer.

The passing of this resolution was the signal for theorganisation of a fierce agitation against the renewal oftransportation, which was kept alive by the arrival from time totime of small bands of felons under the new name of exiles.

Sir Charles Fitzroy's despatch, enclosing Mr. Wentworth'sresolution in favour of the renewal of transportation, reachedEngland in August, 1848.

The financial state of the country deterred the Englishgovernment from proposing the vote needful for defraying theexpenses of the free emigrants promised to the colony, inconsideration of their receiving convicts. Had the compromisebeen strictly fulfilled by Earl Grey, and accompanied by suchmeasures as would have prevented the convicts from remaining intowns to compete with free labourers, it is possible thatconvictism might have been endured for some years longer; at anyrate until the discovery of gold rendered transportation toAustralia absurd as a punishment. But Earl Grey, in a defiance ofpublic opinion in the colonies, as exhibited in a crowd ofpetitions, resolutions, and reports of public meetings forwardedto him, as well as in the universal tone of the colonialnewspapers, adopted that part of the bargain which suited themother country, and neglected to fulfil the colonial conditionson which the concession was made. He decided to send outprisoners but no free emigrants—revoked the order incouncil of 1840, by which New South Wales had ceased to be aplace for the reception of convicts—and commenced to sendout the pets of Pentonville and Parkhurst.

The publication of this despatch in the colony was receivedwith one universal outburst of indignation. A passage at theconclusion of the communication, in which Sir C. Fitzroy was toldthat "if the Legislative Council should object to receiveconvicts without free immigration at the expense of the homegovernment according to the stipulation of the compromise, thetransmission of convicts would be stopped, and application madeto parliament for the means of fulfilling the originaj promise,"was considered as approaching insult, because it was evidentthat-during at least nearly twelve months between the penning ofthat despatch to the receipt of an answer, transportation mustflow on. From that time compromise was impossible; the breach offaith became a potent rhetorical weapon in the hands of politicalagitators. The excitement and fury of all parties was such, thatit only needed the presence of an obstinate and haughty governorto provoke a rebellious outburst. Fortunately Governor Fitzroypreferred a pleasant day on the race-course to any assertion ofvice-royal attributes.

In 1849, the Hashemy convict-ship arrived in Sydneyharbour. At one of the largest public meetings ever held in thatcity, speeches of the most violent character were delivered, andresolutions passed, calling upon the governor to send back thecargo of England's crimes to England. At the same time certain ofthe great flockowners—the political Buckinghams andNewdegates of the colony—eagerly engaged theticket-of-leave men, tamed somewhat by penitentiary discipline,and all unencumbered by wives and families, at lower wages, inpreference to a thousand free emigrants, consisting of men,women, and children, who arrived at the same time.

In the latter end of 1848 the results of distress in Englandand famine in Ireland were felt in Australia in the shape of aninflowing of free emigrants more numerous than had been receivedsince the frantic mania of 1841; and this was increased to suchan extent in 1849, that little short of thirteen thousandlabouring people were landed in Sydney, and an equal number atPort Phillip. An addition of many thousand free emigrants to thepopulation could not fail to produce an effect on theanti-transportation feelings of the colony. It is self-evidentthat when emigrants begin to flock freely into a colony, theperiod for employing convict labour has passed.

In 1849, the Legislative Council answered Earl Grey'sextraordinary reading of the compromise offered him in 1848, byvoting an address to the Queen in which they protested againstthe adoption of any measure by which the colony would be degradedinto a penal settlement, "and entreated her Majesty to revoke theorder in Council by which New South Wales had been again made aplace to which British offenders may be transported." That inthis address they only echoed the feelings of the great majorityof the colonists was proved in the next election, when gentlemenwith the highest claims to the honours of Legislation wererejected on the one ground of having supported the transportationcompromise.

Earl Grey, in his recent apology for his colonial policy,treats this absolute reversal of the compromise previouslyoffered as something marvellously inconsistent, if notunprincipled: his own "error of judgment" in sending the poisonwithout the antidote, he treats very lightly.

But Earl Grey writes like a man whose political position andstill more his tone of mind remove him altogether from thoseinfluences which affect popular assemblies. During his officialcareer he had no constituents; no equal cared, no subordinatedared, to controvert his fixed ideas on all colonial subjects;and when colonists ventured in deputation to urge unpleasantarguments, we have ourselves witnessed with what impassive,incredulous sternness he bowed them out!

Earl Grey takes some pains to marshal the respective elementsof the pro and anti-transportation parties; he performs his taskin a manner which reminds one of the instruction for a briefgiven, according to an old circuit story, by an attorney to hisnew clerk—"our client, the plaintiff, is a most respectablebaker, the defendant is a rascally cheesemonger."

And so Earl Grey declares, that the "minority in favour of therenewal of transportation included no small proportion of themost intelligent and enterprising members of society," whilst themajority against included not only those "who sincerelyentertained the repugnance they professed on moral grounds, but agreat number of the labouring classes who were influenced byjealousy of the competition of convicts, and a fear that theircoming might lead to a reduction of the extravagant wages theyhad been in the habit of obtaining. Others, again, for personalor electioneering objects, thought it their interest to excitepopular passions. The anti-transportation party in the intervalsince the subject was previously considered in the LegislativeCouncil gained the ascendancy, assisted in no small degree by thediminished urgency of the demand for labour, in consequence ofthe large free emigration." *

[* Colonial Policy, by Earl Grey, vol. 2, p.47.]

It is worthy of note that the dearth of labour which hadprevailed in previous years, was owing entirely to Earl Grey'srefusal to adopt the measures pressed upon him by "the mostintelligent and enterprising colonists," and that the supply oflabour was due, not to his commissioners, but to the Englishdistress and Irish famine. But in order that those not conversantwith colonial affairs may not be imposed upon by the strenuousefforts of Lord Grey to extenuate a course of policy which, ifpardonable in a novice, is quite unpardonable in a statesman, weventure on the following parallel passage from EnglishHistory:—

An administration, of which Earl Grey formed one, offered tocompromise the corn-law question by offering an 8s. duty. Thatoffer was rejected by the agricultural interest in 1842; while in1848 nothing less than the total and immediate abolition wouldsatisfy those who would once willingly have accepted the 8s.compromise, those who in 1842 had rejected it disdainfully wouldhave been only too willing to accept it. In the same way theparty who carried the repeal of the corn laws, was composed ofsome who sincerely approved of it on moral and political grounds,others who were chiefly moved by the prospect of increased trade,and others who saw in the movement personal and politicaladvantages and the way to the enjoyment of extravagant officialsalaries.*

[* We do not consider that the secretaries ofstate are by any means extravagantly paid, but it is very likelythat a colonist might. And we do not agree-with Earl Grey thatthe wages of colonial labourers are to be measured by aNorthumberland standard, for what is extravagant in England ismoderate in a new country.]

It would be difficult to find two passages in cotemporaryhistory more alike. When Earl Grey reads colonial events withsuch singular one-sidedness, it is not surprising that he did notobserve that the party in favour of the renewal of transportationwas composed of those whose income would be increased by hundredsand thousands per annum by a reduction of the price of labour to£16 per annum—who would never be brought in contact withthe convict element—who could afford free butlers andladies' maids—whose sons would not associate and whosedaughters would not be entrapped into marriage with Pentonvilleexiles or ticket-of-leavers.

The obnoxious order in council making New South Wales a penalcolony was, after a brief contest, withdrawn, but the seed ofa*gitation had been sown, the anti-transportation league,embracing all the Australian colonies and Van Diemen's Land, hadbeen organised. The gold discoveries proved to every one, exceptto the son and heir of the great man who carried the Reform Bill,that transportation was not only odious to the colonists butabsurd as a punishment. Within the present year it has beenabolished by the Duke of Newcastle. But Earl Grey, like hiscountryman, the gallant Whittington, still fights upon hisstumps, and endeavours to perpetuate the bitter dislike withwhich his official career was regarded in the colonies, byproclaiming that as regards Van Diemen's Land he would not, hadhe continued in power, have yielded to either gold or agitation;nay, more, that he would have created the Moreton Bay districtinto a separate colony for the express purpose of enabling thesquatters—whom his land policy has fixed in possession ofthat fine country to the exclusion of yeomanry—to acceptthe convicts whom the colonists on the whole line of coasteastward have agreed in rejecting.

Such are the leading facts of the Anti-TransportationQuestion, one of several which formed the subjects of bittercontest between the colonists and Earl Grey during theadministration of Governor Fitzroy. Of the seeds of distrust,almost of sedition, then sown, we fear we have not yet seen thefull fruit.

{Page 182}

CHAPTER XVII.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH PARLIAMENTARY AGENT.

We are enabled to obtain a good idea ofthe state of public opinion on all the important points whichformed the subject of discussion between the Colonial Office andthe colonists during-Sir Charles Fitzroy's administration, byturning to the correspondence which took place between acommittee of the Legislative Council, named as the CorrespondingCommittee, over which the Speaker of the Council presided, andMr. Francis Scott, M.P.

So early as 1844 the Legislative Council, in the height oftheir contest with the Governor and Colonial Secretary of Stateon "the grievances connected with crown lands," turned theirattention to the propriety of securing the services, as paidagent, of some member of the British Parliament, who would fillfor New South Wales the post occupied by Edmund Burke, asrepresentative of the State of New York, before the breaking outof the War of Independence.

With this view the late Mr. Benjamin Boyd, who was urging withindefatigable energy and zeal the cause of his brother squattersin England, selected the Hon. Francis Scott, M.P., brother ofLord Polwarth, a barrister, a director of the South-WesternRailway, a Conservative of very decided Protestant andProtectionist views, with a good political connection among hisparty, and industrious business habits. But when the scheme waslaid before Lord Stanley, the Colonial Minister, he declined togive it his sanction unless the Council would consent thatone-third of the Committee of Correspondence should consist ofnominee members—that is to say, in the same proportion asthe council. To this the elective councillors would by no meansagree, and the official appointment of Mr. Scott, and his salary,remained in abeyance, with many other questions of greaterimportance; but in the meantime Mr. Scott exerted himself withconsiderable success to oppose the bill prepared by Lord Stanley,on the information of Sir George Gipps, for settling the tenureof pastoral lands, and entered into a correspondence, from whichwe make the following extracts.

In a letter addressed by Mr. F. Scott to the Speaker of theLegislative Council, dated 30th June, 1846, he refers to "thesmall amount of attention which colonial questions command inparliament," and adds "two more examples to one given in aprevious letter," in the fact that twice the House of Commons hadbeen counted out when he had motions standing for considering thesubject of emigration. So that at that time it was impossible tofind forty members willing to listen to Mr. Scott, on a questionvitally affecting an important colony.

He then goes on to state that he had ascertained that the billfor the regulation of waste lands of Australia, laid on the tableof the House of Lords by Lord Lyttleton, the under-secretary ofthe recently-appointed secretary, Mr. Gladstone, wassubstantially the same as one which had been printed the previoussession, laid on the table of the House of Commons, and sent outto the colonies. He observes—"After a year's deliberation,after ascertaining the opinions of the colonists to be opposed tothe measure, it is a matter of deep regret that the governmentshould introduce the same bill to settle a question of vitalimportance, which it leaves more unsettled than ever." Then headds these remarkable words coming from a Conservative of the oldschool: "I am not aware that the opinions of any one in thiscountry connected with New South Wales, or of any one in thecolony except his Excellency Sir George Gipps, were eitherascertained or asked for. So that it would appear that thetransmission of a bill by the government in this country for theconsideration of a colony with a Legislative Council as adeliberative assembly, is little more than its transmission tothe colony for the signature of the colonial governor without thecouncil. The bill seems to be framed rather in accordance withthe observations of the land and emigration commissioners thanwith a view to the interests of the Australian public."

The principle of the bill protested against was to maintainthe high price of land, and to retain the land until sold in thehands of the crown, to be rented to tenants at will, or on shortleases, as in Turkey and Egypt, on such terms as would have leftthe fortune of every pastoral proprietor in the hands of thegovernor or his subordinates.

Eventually Mr. Scott was able to organise an opposition amongthe aristocratic and wealthy relatives of the squatters—theElliots, the Trevylyans, the Edens—more formidable than hadbeen anticipated. Among the other questions he was instructed tourge was the concession of the control of the casual revenues ofthe colony—claimed by the council and refused by Sir GeorgeGipps; and assistance for establishing steamcommunication—a subject which had occupied the councilsince 1845.

Earl Grey commenced auspiciously by ceding the point as to thecasual revenues. On the land question he adhered to the opinionsof his preceptor in the art of colonisation, Gibbon Wakefield,and addressed a despatch to Sir Charles Fitzroy, containing areport prepared by his obedient, sympathising subordinates, theColonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, the tenor of whichmay be gathered from the colonial documents we are about toquote.

In July, 1847, Sir Charles Nicholson, as chairman of thecommittee of correspondence, addressed a letter to Mr. Scott, inwhich, after recapitulating the circ*mstances under which thecorrespondence had commenced in 1845, and the discussion withLord Stanley; the passing of a bill in September, 1846, forappointing Mr. Scott agent for three years at a salary of £500 ayear; the reservation of that bill "for the signification of herMajesty's pleasure," "in consequence of the terms of LordStanley's despatch;" the absolute refusal of the council tosubmit to the "unconstitutional" terms suggested by Lord Grey asto the composition of the committee; the passing of a vote for£1,000 toward two years' salary of the agent; and acknowledgingthe receipt of several letters, including the one already quoted,Sir Charles Nicholson proceeds to observe that "the provisions ofthe Australian Land Bill" introduced by Lord Stanley in July 18,1845, "were framed in utter disregard of therepeatedly-expressed opinions and votes of this council. Thevesting the executive with enormous and all but uncontrolledpowers, in order to carry out its provisions; the reservation tothe crown of the right of sole appropriation of the revenuederivable from the waste lands, and the continuance of the highupset price, are the most prominent, though not the onlyobjections which characterise Lord Stanley's bill." Hecontinues:—"Many of the objections urged against the billbrought in by Lord Stanley, apply with equal force to that ofEarl Grey—"The most prominent of the evils with whichthis measure is defaced is the continuance of the hiah upset miceof land."

As we have before observed, Lord Grey was early a convert tothe "sufficient price theory." In 1841, when, by the influence ofthe South Australian and New Zealand speculators, the committeeon South Australian Insolvency reported on permanently fixing theprice of land by Act of Parliament at £1 an acre, they came tothis conclusion, without examining any colonial evidence, on thestrength of a case carefully and ingeniously prepared and filledup by the evidence of the two principal witnesses, Mr. GibbonWakefield and Colonel Torrens. In that committee Lord Grey, thenLord Howick, proposed, although he did not succeed in carrying, aresolution to the effect that the price of land in Australiashould never be less than 2 an acre, and that it should be fromtime to time increased in price until the want of labour, and thehigh price of labour then experienced, should be diminished.

It is quite clear that at that time he believed the price ofland regulated the price of labour; and, considering theinfluences brought to bear upon them, he might fairly be excusedfor so believing. But in the five years which had elapsed since1841, although a series of reports—to which we have alreadyreferred in Chapter XI.—from the Legislative Council,supported by a mass of evidence, had disproved the advantagesanticipated, it seems that Earl Grey had either never read ortotally disregarded the colonial authorities, and steadfastlyadhered to his first impressions; for in Nov., 1846, he hadaddressed a despatch to Sir Charles Fitzroy, in which, "injustification of the policy pursued by Parliament in prohibitingthe sale below its present price," he "recalled to recollectionthe grounds upon which that policy was originally adopted, and sofar he considered that it ought to be chiefly adhered to. And hereferred to the despatches of Lord Ripon," where the expediencyof abolishing the system of free grants, and substituting one ofsales by auction, at a uniform price, is stated, and the exampleafforded by the failure of Swan River is cited.

It would not now answer any useful purpose to quote thisdespatch at any length, especially as the contents may begathered from the criticisms contained in the letter from whichwe are quoting.

The speaker observes, first, "That neither the council nor thecolony have ever proposed to revert to the new grant system.Secondly, that Lord Ripon's system was 5s. an acre and not £1;that £1 an acre had only produced £57,104, while the low upsetprice had produced £680,000. Thirdly, that sales at 5s. an acrehad abated the evil of free grants. Fourthly, that the answer toEarl Grey's argument, 'that value will be eventually given to theland by the application of the proceeds of sales to emigration,'is, that purchasers cannot be found at the price. Fifthly, thatthe idea of concentrating-population by affixing a high upsetprice is signally defeated in the practical working of thesystem; for as all persons settling can only afford to settle asgraziers, they migrate to distant parts of the interior colony.Thus the system increases dispersion."

But these arguments produced no effect on the impassive andperfectly self-contented mind of Earl Grey; nor did a moreelaborate report made in the same year, to which we shallpresently advert; for we find in 1853, that, in exact imitationof Gibbon Wakefield in 1850, Earl Grey published his "ColonialPolicy," and there, in the very words of his despatch of 1846,urged the same arguments on the land question, with the sameexample of Swan Elver, without appearing conscious of thecontradicting facts above quoted, which had been so repeatedlypressed upon his attention.

In the same letter it is announced that in 1846 theLegislative Council had agreed to make a contribution of £6,000 ayear for three years toward promoting steam navigation, or aboutone-third of the estimated cost. The gold discoveries of 1851found the colony no further advanced toward steam communicationthan 1846.

In a second letter, dated the 1st October, 1847, we find thefollowing passage:—"Intelligence has reached the colonyindirectly through various channels, that Earl Grey has underconsideration the establishment of constitutions for theAustralian colonies upon a new scheme, allied to that framed forNew Zealand. The mere suggestion of any such constitution, inwhich district councils appear to be the predominant element,being fastened upon us has excited general dismay. Should ourapprehensions prove well founded in this matter, it will affordanother and striking instance of the injustice of which we havenot unfrequently to complain, of being made the subject of greatand important changes through the medium of Parliament withoutany reference to ourselves, or any consultation with those bestqualified to form an accurate judgment of our social andpolitical wants."

From these extracts it will be seen that the first intimationof the accession of Earl Grey to office was accompanied withample cause for distrust, which he lost no time in improving andjustifying.

When the colonists learned the terms on which the contestbetween the pastoral interest and the Colonial Office had beensettled, they saw at once that the interest of all those who werenot squatters with four thousand sheep had been sacrificed; andthat to maintain a high price of land on sale, land on lease hadbeen handed over in perpetuity.

Many of those who had supported the squatters so long as SirGeorge Gipps attempted to confiscate their property, and hadencouraged them to resist a system of taxation based on royalprerogative, similar to that which Hampden died resisting, nowsaw that the compromise sacrificed everything to the pastoralinterest, and seriously checked the extension of that class ofyeoman freeholders on whom the colonisation of the colony chieflydepended—for without farms there would be few wives andchildren in the bush.

Among these was Mr. Robert Lowe, who, as chairman of thecommittee appointed "to consider the minimum upset price ofland," drew up a report, in which, on the evidence of all themost distinguished men in the colony, the whole legislation ofthe mother country on the subject of land was shown to be opposedto the feelings, to the needs of the colonies, and, in fact, tothe colonisation of such a country as Australia.

In the same year Mr. Lowe issued a small pamphlet, entitled"Address to the colonists of New South Wales, on the proposedLand Orders," which shortly and clearly explained the defects ofthe compromise with the squatters. He observes:—

"The position of the squatter has always varied withthe price of land. Precarious when land is low, more assured whenit is high, and little short of freehold, when the sale of landis, as now, virtually prohibited. Up to the year 1841, when theprice of land was raised from five shillings to twelve shillingsper acre, the squatters looked upon themselves, and were regardedby the community as merely temporary occupants, depasturing theland till it was wanted for sale—as persons who might soon,and must eventually, be removed, to make way for the proprietorin fee-simple. The Act of Parliament which passed in 1842, forraising the minimum price of land to £1 an acre, was not intendedto have any effect on the position of the squatter; it wasintended, as Lord Grey tells us, to prevent jobbing toconcentrate the population—to bring out immigrants byraising a large land fund, and by means of such immigrants toraise the value of land. Instead of preventing jobbing, it hassacrificed almost the whole territory to one vast job. Instead ofconcentration, it has given us dispersion; it has destroyed theland fund which it was intended to raise, stopped the immigrationit was intended to promote, and annihilated the value of land itwas intended to enhance.

"The squatters, considering that they held the land till it wasrequired for purchase, and that the purchase had been made byParliament impossible, began to look upon their runs as theirown. They began to sprout from tenants-at-will into freeholders.Sir George Gipps saw the danger, but instead of meeting it by areduction of the minimum price of land, which would at once haveextinguished these aspiring hopes, he sought, by showing them theprecarious nuture of their tenure, by exacting arbitrary tribute,more objectionable in its nature than in its amount, and bywithholding from them all the machinery of government, for theuse of which they were taxed, to check this encroaching spirit.This injudicious harshness had precisely the contrary effect. Itunited in favour of the squatters all the liberal andconstitutional men in the community. Advantage was taken of thisindignation to divert public attention from the real cause of theevil—the high price of land—which alone had made thesquatting question of importance, and to fix it on the plausiblepalliation of leases and pre-emption.

"It is needless to dwell upon the vacillating and contradictoryschemes of the home and local government during the years 1845and 1846, in which they seem to have considered every expedientfor settling the question, except the only effectual one, thereduction of the price of land. At last the Act 9 and 10Victoria, chap. 104, was passed. By this Act, Parliamentdelegated the powers which it withheld from the LegislativeCouncil of New South Wales, to the Privy Council of England. ThePrivy Council has transmitted a set of proposed rules to thecolony, not for the purpose of obtaining the opinion of thecolonists, (for what right have they to an opinion about theirown affairs?) but to prepare the local government for theexercise of the powers which the Privy Council—the delegateof Parliament—has delegated to it. These rules are insubstance that the governor shall divide the lands of the colonyinto three districts, to be called the "settled," "intermediate,"and "unsettled." The settled lands are to be sold by auction at£1 an acre, upset price, and the unsold parts are to be leasedfor not more than one year, by auction. In the unsettled lands,every holder of a licence is entitled to demand a leasefor fourteen years. His rent is to be £2 10s. for every thousandsheep or 640 cattle which the run will carry. During the fourteenyears nobody else can buy the run, but the lessee can buy anyportion, not less than 160 acres, at £1 an acre, withoutcompetition. At the end of the lease, the lessee is entitledto a renewal for another fourteen years, unless at leastone-fourth of the run be sold at auction, when the upset pricewill consist of £1 an acre, and the value of the improvements. Inthe intermediate districts the lease is to be for eight yearsonly, and the land is liable to be sold at the end of everyyear.

******

"Once grant these leases, and beyond the settleddistricts there will be no land to be sold—the lessees willhave a right to hold their lands until some one will give £1 anacre for them.

"These leases cannot be sold, mortgaged, or sublet. Be thecapabilities of these lands what they may, they are to be a sheepwalk for ever. The home government which raised the price of landto enforce concentration, is now in the sequel of its policycompelling dispersion.

"The squatter may make sure of his run at the end of his lease bybuying up, in the exercise of his pre-emptive right, all thewater and all the water frontage; thus rendering the runvalueless to any one except himself.

"The price he is to pay for these privileges is, counting threesheep to an acre, one-fifth of a penny per acre. Thus does agovernment which is so nigg*rd of its land that it will not partwith the fee-simple of the most barren rock for less than £1 anacre, while that £1 an acre law remains in force, alienatemillions of acres at one-tenth of the rent which it received onits free grants. The system devised for the preservation of thewaste lands will end in their confiscation.

"Deal liberally with the squatters give them the most amplecompensation—give them the land for nothing till it iswanted for purchase—comply with all their reasonable, naymore, with many of their unreasonable demands—their presentviews have been forced upon them by the folly of the homegovernment—not originated by themselves; they are a greatand growing interest, producing the main export of the colony,respectable for their numbers, their intelligence, and theirwealth. But we ought never to forget, that if we give over tothem their territory, we are giying away what is not ourown—we are trustees for posterity.

******

"Our obvious duty therefore is, to press upon thehome government the repeal of the £1 an acre Act, and the Actunder which these orders were made not because the first hasdispersed our population, driven away capital and checkedemigration, but because this Act, in addition to these minorgrievances, is about to wrench from us for ever the possession ofour own territory, and give it over to men who have no right toit whatever, and who will neither develop its resources norenable others to do so."

This protest, supported as it was by the public opinion of thegreat majority of the colonists, had no effect on the official orhome government. Earl Grey assigned to the three Land andEmigration Commissioners the task of replying to the report of acommittee which had embodied the opinions of a large body ofexperienced and intelligent colonists, and these three younggentlemen, whose lives had been passed in the study and practiceof official routine, "looking out on St. James's Park, settled tothe entire satisfaction of themselves and their chief, and indirect contradiction to the opinions of the Colonial LegislativeCouncil, how land was to be sold and grazed at theantipodes."

This was adding insult to injury. In 1848 a committee of theHouse of Lords on colonisation examined a number of Australiancolonists. With one exception, a gentleman engaged in promoting anew land speculation in Western Australia, all the witnessesagreed on the impolicy of the land system which had been fastenedon the Australian colonies.

For instance, Lieutenent-Colonel Sir Thomas Mitchell, surveyorgeneral and member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales,thus describes the course imposed on a colonist desirous ofpurchasing land:—

"The intending purchaser must notify and describe tothe government the land he wishes to purchase. Then no matter inwhat part of the very extensive colony it may be, the land mustbe measured and described, and a report made upon it to the localgovernment. After this selection has received the governor'ssanction, which takes time, the land is put up and advertisedthree months for sale by public auction, so that a party who mayhave taken the trouble to seek out a suitable portion of land,has to wait a long time before it can be advertised for sale, andthen three months after such advertising he has to run the risk,at the end of that time which he has lost, of seeing anotherperson purchase the land which he may have taken the trouble toseek out and select.****During the time of Sir George Gipps the maximum price of the lastsale was ordered to be the minimum price of the next salethat operated to stop that kind of colonisationaltogether."

He also says in reference to the "ordinances" we havequoted—

"The squatters have been clamorous to obtain sometitle to possession; a great concession has recently been made,and according to orders in council recently sent out, they are tohave leases of runs for fourteen years. The colonists in generalseem to consider a fourteen years' lease with power to renewalmost as good as fee-simple."

Before the same committee Mr. William Bradley, a nativeAustralian member of the Legislative Council, a landedproprietor, a magistrate, and holder of a run of three hundredthousand acres; Captain Coghill, member of the LegislativeCouncil, and a proprietor of thirty thousand acres of freehold;and Mr. W. Verner, late Chief Commissioner of the InsolventCourt, and a settler in Port Phillip, gave strong evidence to thesame effect.

While Mrs. Chisholm said—"The most important thing to bedone, would be to get a survey of land, laying out farms, varyingfrom thirty acres to one hundred acres. That land would bepurchased by small capitalists, who are now in the labour market,and only want an opportunity to purchase land. There is verylittle encouragement given to agriculture; there is a difficultyin getting land. If families are to be provided for, it isnecessary that agricultural farms should be thrown open to them,by making it easy for the poor man, when he has saved his money,to purchase a farm without loss of time."

But, as in 1848 the Squattocracy had obtained all and morethan they had ever hoped to obtain; as Earl Grey, who neverchanges his mind, was at the head of the Colonial-office; asemigration was rendered brisk by the distress at home; no changewas made toward multiplying freeholders in Australia.

Mrs. Chisholm also suggested that as a means of enablinglabouring men to invest in land, and inducing them to save, landnotes or tickets should be issued of the value of five poundseach and upwards, which should pass current in the purchase ofgovernment land, so that frugal families might find a safesubstitute for the savings bank.

Subsequent events have doubly proved the soundness of theprinciples of those who opposed the government land system.

The good land of Australia lies in patches, "oases" indeserts fit only for pasture. The high-priced symmetrical system,condemned by Sir Thomas Mitchell, doomed many districts to sheep,where villages and agriculture would have been found of greatvalue not only in extending population and civilisation but inproviding food for the gold diggers.

The result of the policy inaugurated by Lord Stanley, carriedout and still approved by Earl Grey, was to make the humblerclass of the Australian population as loose as possible on theland, vagrants instead of settlers. The condition of the countrywould have been infinitely less critical, if for the last tenyears the successful emigrants had been encouraged to settle asmuch as possible on land instead of investing their savings, ifnot in drink, in stock, or in tours on the coast. Freeholds,easily obtained, would have stimulated marriage, and those whor*sorted to gold hunting would have returned successful orunsuccessful to their homesteads.

Another result pregnant with evil looms in the future. Thebest land for settlement and cultivation in the neighbourhood ofa gold-field may be held on lease by a squatter, who having heldit for a nominal rent during the lease may claim to purchase itin a block at a price which, considering the enhanced value, willbe nominal! It will not be surprising if the men enriched bygold-digging, who saw themselves before the golden age ofAustralia excluded from freehold by squatters, runs, and the £1an acre lots, grow rather discontented, when under the new orderof things they again meet their old friend the squatter still inthe character of a monopolist, with power to buy for £1 landworth ten which he has held on lease for a rent of one-fifth of apenny, when it was well worth in 100 acre lots 5s. or 10s. anacre.

But these are questions we must leave the colonists and theirParliaments to settle. Fortunately, we have not Earl Grey at theColonial-office to fan up the flames of insurrection; for welearn from his apology for his "Colonial Policy," that in 1832the universal evidence of the colonists against his land systemhad not shaken his original convictions; he considered "that theworking of the Act (of 1842), far from showing that there wasanything erroneous in the views of those by whom it wasrecommended and passed, seems to have proved the soundness of theprinciples on which it was founded. At the same time, someimprovements in its detail were suggested by experience." And heproceeds to quote the Act of 1846, and the orders in council,which we have dissected, as specimens of "improvements indetail." * A little further on he says, "those who contended thatinstead of adopting the squatting ordinances the minimum price ofland ought to have been reduced, asserted, that by theregulations the squatters were virtually put in possession ofland which could never be resumed if wanted. Experience has,however, demonstrated that there was no ground for such anapprehension. Already in Victoria above £20,000 hasbeen laid out by one individual, in purchasing the fee-simple ofland which had been occupied as a run by another person."Earl Grey's illustration is most unfortunate, but characteristicof the careless manner in which he collects the few"facts" with which he embellishes his narrative. In thecase cited no lease had been granted to the occupier of the run,no lease could be granted, inasmuch as it was within the settleddistrict of Melbourne. Leases are for 8 years and for 14 years,and no lease granted under the ordinances has yet run out. Thepurchase in question consisted of land, which from its quali tyand situation, if put up for auction in convenient lots even atan upset of one shilling-an acre, would have fetched more thanthe sum paid under the special survey system, in one block, viz.,£20,000 for 20,000 acres without competition. This purchase gavethe purchaser the right of pre-emption and of pasturage overthree times as much more land, which was worth to rent altogetherat that time one thousand pounds a year.

[* Vol. I., p. 314, Earl Grey's ColonialPolicy.]

Earl Grey says (vol i. page 317), "there can be no doubt thatby reducing the price as much as would be necessary to meet theviews of the chief opponents of the present system, a powerfulimpulse would be given to the spirit of land jobbing."

For our own parts we cannot conceive any system morecalculated to promote land-jobbing than that which retains goodagricultural land as sheep walks, until such time as the spreadof population raises the demand high enough to tempt a capitalistspeculator who lays out twenty thousand pounds in order to makesixty, by retailing to actual cultivators, without adding ashilling to the value of the land, by roads, buildings orfences.

And that is the system Earl Grey approved and maintained inoffice, and still approves in his unwilling retirement.

We have deemed it right to give the history of the landquestion at great length, with full quotations from colonialevidence on the subject, because its past and proximate effectson the condition of the colonists, and their relations with theparent state, fill a place in colonial annals not less importantthan the anti-corn law struggle in the political history of GreatBritain—and because, too, Earl Grey has ventured, in hispublished defence of his policy, on a misrepresentation andsuppression of the facts of the case, which may mislead those whoare not prepared for the drudgery of searching for colonial truthin blue-books, despatches, and files of colonial debates.

THE NEW CONSTITUTION.

While the transportation question was unsettled and the landquestion in hot dispute, a third question, that of a newconstitution, with extended powers, from time to time occupiedthe attention of the politicians of the three colonies. SouthAustralia looked forward anxiously to the enjoyment ofrepresentative institutions having, up to 1850 been ruled by agovernor with an official and nominee council. Port Phillipdesired separation from New South Wales, and a representativelegislature of its own. The distance of Melbourne from Sydney wasso great that it was found impossible, in a limited and dispersedpopulation, to find gentlemen able and willing to abandon theirpursuits and property to pass the legislative sessions in sodistant a city as Sydney.

In New South Wales it was confidently expected that the newconstitution would bestow rights similar to those enjoyed by theCanadians—that is to say, an executive responsible to theLegislative Council, with full control over their revenues andthe disposal of the waste lands.

In 1847 Earl Grey prepared a scheme by which the districtcouncils, which were held throughout the colony in equal hatredand contempt, were to form electoral colleges, and by doubleelection return a representative assembly, while a secondsuperior chamber was to be composed of nominees.

The publication in the colony of the despatch containing asketch of this scheme, which looked in print like a chapter outof "Telemachus," was followed by such a manifestation ofopposition, and by petitions so numerously signed, requestingthat no change should be made in the constitution without thecolonists being first permitted to express their opinion upon it,that the colonial minister withdrew his project.

In 1849 a committee of the Board of Trade, to whom Earl Greyentrusted the task, prepared a report suggesting a form ofconstitution to be bestowed on the three colonies. A bill forcarrying into effect this report was introduced into, but notcarried through the British Parliament. Under this bill the threecolonies would have had the power of settling the land, andseveral other questions, by a sort of congress.

In the meantime the Report was sent out to the colonies. InPort Phillip and South Australia the concession of representativeinstitutions was considered so great a boon that the other partsof the scheme were not too closely criticised. In Port Phillipespecially, where an ancient contest had been carried on toobtain separation from New South Wales, the new constitution wasreceived with the utmost enthusiasm. In New South Wales, where arepresentative council had existed for several years, thesections of the report which gave the most satisfaction werethose which appeared to give control over the expenditure of theland revenues, and the power of fixing the price of land.

In the session of 1850 a bill became law, of which thefollowing is an abstract:—

13 and 14 Vict. cap.59—An Act for the better Government of her Majesty'sAustralian Colonies.

§ 1, after reciting the previous acts for the government of theAustralian governments, enacts that the district of Port Phillipshall form a separate colony, to be henceforth known as thecolony of Victoria. After the separation (2), in the colony ofNew South Wales the Legislative Council is to consist of such anumber of members as the Governor and Council shall determine, ofwhich one-third is to be appointed by her Majesty, and theremaining two-thirds to be elected by the inhabitants of thecolony; and the Governor arid Council are to establish theelectoral districts and polling-places, issue the necessary writsfor the elections, and make regulations for taking the polls anddeciding on the validity of the returns. § 4 provides that everynatural-born or naturalised subject of her Majesty, of the age of21, possessing a freehold estate within the district of £100clear value above all incumbrances or charges on it, for at leastsix months before the date of the writ or the last registration,if a registration has been established, or occupying adwelling-house for six months of the clear annual value of £10,or holding a licence to depasture lands within the district, orholding a leasehold estate in the district of the yearly value of£10 of which the lease has not less than three years to run, andon which in all cases the rates and taxes due to within threemonths of such election or registration have been paid, and isnot attainted of treason, felony, &c., is to be entitled tovote at the election of a member of the Legislative Council.

Power is given (§ 11) to the Governor and Legislative Council toalter the districts, and to increase the number of members, butin the case of an increase a number equal to one-third of thewhole is to be appointed by her Majesty.

The Governor and Legislative Council (§ 14), when thusconstituted, are authorised to make laws within the said colony,and to appropriate the whole of the revenues arising from taxes,duties, rates, &c., provided such are not repugnant to thelaws of England; but they are not to interfere with the landsbelonging to the crown, nor with the revenues arisingtherefrom, nor shall it be lawful to appropriate any sums ofmoney to the public service, unless the Governor have firstrecommended to the Council to make such provision for thespecific public service towards which such money is to beappropriated, nor shall any money be issued except under theorder of the Governor directed to the treasurer; and the revenues(§ 15) are to be charged with the costs and charges for thecollection and management of the same, subject to suchregulations and audits as may be directed by the Treasury Boardof England. Out of the revenues (§ 17) are to be paid the sumsfor judicial, official, and religious services, enumerated inschedules A, B, C, and D; these sums, however, may be altered bythe Governor and Legislative Council (§ 18), subject to theconsent of her Majesty.

By § 22 power is continued to district councils to make by-laws,subject to the approval of the Governor, who is to appoint thedistricts, fix the number and qualification of councillors, andthe time and manner of election, nominate the first councillors,make regulations for their going out of office, and to definetheir powers; but the Governor and Legislative Councils (§ 24)may regulate the tolls, rates, and assessments in such districts,and may also regulate the constitution and duties of the districtcouncillors, and the number and boundaries of the districts.

27 empowers the Governor and Council to levy customs on goodsimported, but no duty to be imposed on any article from onecountry that is not alike imposed on the same article from othercountries. No duties, however (§ 31), are to be levied onarticles imported for the supply of her Majesty's land or seaforces, nor may they grant any exemption, or impose any duty atvariance with any treaty concluded by her Majesty with anyforeign power.

By § 32 power is given to the Governor and Legislative Council,subject to the assent of her Majesty, to alter the provisions ofthis act as to the election of members of the LegislativeCouncils, and the qualification of members and electors; or toestablish, instead of the Legislative Council, a Council and aHouse of Representatives or other Legislative Houses, and to vestin the same the powers of the Legislative Council.

The other clauses extend to all the other colonies in Australia,namely, Victoria, Van Diemen's Land, South Australia, and WesternAustralia, the same rights as are given to New South Wales, withpower to extend them to new colonies; they also enable theboundaries to be altered, and provide a new Supreme Court atVictoria. The act is to commence within six weeks after a copyhas been received by each Governor respectively.

Schedules referred to in the foregoing act. New South Wales ismarked A, Victoria B, Van Diemen's Land C, and South AustraliaD.

In the new province of Victoria, and in South Australia, thenew law was received, as was to be expected, with universalsatisfaction. They had obtained at least as much as theyexpected; but when the colonists of New South Wales found thatthe clauses as to land and revenue for which they were mostanxious had been excised, their universal discontent was embodiedin the following remonstrance, and passed as almost their lastact by the expiring Legislative Council. The hand of the author,William Wentworth, fiercely eloquent, is visible in everyline:—

"We, the Legislative Council of New South Wales, incouncil assembled, feel it a solemn duty which we owe toourselves, our constituents, and our posterity, before we giveplace to the new legislature established by the 13 and 14 Vict.,cap. 59, to record our deep disappointment and dissatisfaction atthe constitution conferred by that act on the colony werepresent. After the reiterated reports, resolutions,addresses, and petitions, which have proceeded from us during thewhole course of our legislative career, against the schedulesappended to the 5 and 6 Vict., cap. 76, andthe appropriations of our ordinary revenue therein made, by thesole authority of Parliament against the administration of ourwaste lands, and our territorial revenue thence arising againstthe withholding of the customs department from our controlagainst the dispensation of the patronage of the colony by or atthe nomination of the minister for the colonies and against theveto reserved and exercised by the same minister, in the name ofthe crown, in all matters of local legislation; we feel thatwe had a right to expect that these undoubted grievances wouldhave been redressed by the 13 and 14 Vict., cap. 59; or else thatpower to redress them would have been conferred on theconstituent bodies thereby created, with the avowed intention ofestablishing an authority more competent than Parliament itselfto frame suitable constitutions for the whole group of theAustralian colonies. These our reasonable expectations have beenutterly frustrated. The schedules, instead of being abolished,have been increased. The powers of altering the appropriations inthese schedules, conferred on the colonial legislature by thisnew enactment, limited as these powers are, have been, in effect,nullified by the subsequent instructions of the colonialminister. The exploded fallacies of the Wakefield theory arestill clung to; the pernicious Land Sales Act (5 and 6 Vict.,cap. 36) is still maintained in all its integrity; and thousandsof our fellow-countrymen (in consequence of the undue price putby that mischievous and impolitic enactment upon-our waste lands,in defiance of the precedents of the United States, of Canada,and the other North American colonies, and even of theneighbouring colony of the Cape of Good Hope) are annuallydiverted from our shores, and thus forced against their will toseek a home for themselves and their children in the backwoods ofAmerica. Nor is this all. Our territorial revenue, diminished asit is by this insane policy, is in a great measure confined tothe introduction among us of people unsuited to our wants, inmany instances the outpourings of the poorhouses and unions ofthe United Kingdom; instead of being applied, as it ought to be,in directing to our colony a stream of vigorous and efficientlabour, calculated to elevate the character of our industrialpopulation. The bestowal of offices among us, with but partialexceptions, is still exercised by or at the nomination of thecolonial minister, and without reference to the just andparamount claims of the colonists, as if the colony itself werebut the fief of that minister. The salaries of the officers ofthe customs and all other departments of government mentioned inthe schedules are placed beyond our control; and the only resultof this new enactment, ushered as it was into Parliament by thePrime Minister himself with so much parade, and under thepretence of conferring upon us enlarged powers ofself-government, and treating us, at last, as an integral portionof the British empire, is, that all the material powers exercisedfor centuries by the House of Commons are still withheld from us.That our loyalty and our desire for the maintenance of properorder are so far distrusted that we are not permitted to vote ourown civil list, lest it might prove inadequate to the necessitiesof the public service. That our waste lands, and our territorialrevenue, for which her Majesty is but a trustee, instead of beingspontaneously surrendered as an equivalent for such civil list,is still reserved, to our great detriment, to swell the patronageand power of the ministers of the crown.

"Thus circ*mstanced, we feel that on the eve of this council'sdissolution, and as the closing act of our legislative existence,no other course is open to us but to enter on our journals oursolemn declaration, protest, and remonstrance, as well againstthe Act of Parliament itself (13 and 14 Vict., cap. 59) asagainst the instruction of the minister by which the small powerof retrenchment that act confers on the colonial legislature hasbeen thus overridden; and to bequeath the redress of thegrievances, which we have been unable to effect by constitutionalmeans, to the Legislative Council by which we are about to besucceeded."

It would be easy to prove to those who were unacquainted withthe political history of New South Wales that these grievancesare for the most part imaginary; for in theory thecolonists have almost all the rights claimed, and againstgranting them those they have not there are plausible theoreticalobjections.

For instance they have nearly the same control in theory overthe customs department that we have; but as the officers areappointed in England by a board distant sixteen thousand miles,and paid out of a fund over which the colonists have no control,it may easily be imagined that they find it difficult to regulatethe due execution of the duties of a department which has beenalmost too powerful for the merchants of London with all theirparliamentary influence close at hand. It is true that here thesalaries and cost of collection are deducted from the grossrevenues, and so far the Australian rule follows the bad Britishprecedent; but here the ministers who refuse to redress anadministrative grievance may be turned out of office—therethe advisers of the governor are irremovable.

So too there are theoretical reasons for making the salariesof the principal officers permanent, but the colonistsremonstrating had in their view instances in which they had beencompelled to pay Masters in Equity and prothonotaries, thrustupon them against their will.

There is no question that to confine patronage to colonistswould be to shut out much talent and learning from the colony;but the remonstrants were thinking of a whole line of incapablesand insolvents who had been provided for by the British ministerat the expense of the colony.

Again, it is desirable that in certain cases the imperialgovernment should have the power of vetoing colonial legislation;but the remonstrants were thinking of instances then recent inwhich that power had been exercised in a most injuriousmanner,—as for instance, in the "Wool Lien Act."

We need not pursue further the particulars of a contest whichhas died away, not without leaving some ill-healed scars, underthe conciliating policy of Earl Grey's successors and thehilarious prosperity of the gold discoveries.

We have mentioned enough to prove that the discontents of thecolonists of New South Wales were not excited by imaginarycauses, but had their source in real and chiefly in taxinggrievances—the sort of grievance, next to an interferencewith his personal liberty, which troubles the Englishman mostacutely.

It is quite certain that the colonists were not always in theright; sometimes in their contests with the Colonial Office theywere very much in the wrong,—just as we in England aresubject to political and commercial aberrations; but in order toform anything like an apology for Earl Grey's unpopularity inAustralia we must assume that he was infallible—that heknew better than any colonist what was good for the colony; andthat therefore he was justified in ruling a transmarinedependency, peopled by an English race, on principles that nominister dare apply to Yorkshire or Lancashire.

In the midst of the first session of the new ColonialParliaments, all political contests, internal and external, werecast into the shade by the gold discoveries: land question,convict question, taxation question, all were absorbed by thedigging up of gold, over which flocks and herds had long beencarelessly driven. The year 1850 found New South Wales with200,000 free people, an export of £2,899,600, an import of£2,078,300, and 7,000,000 sheep—a surplus revenue and anannual demand for labour—nominal freedom ofself-government, actual restriction from legislation on everyvital interest. Who can say in what condition, social andpolitical, 1860 will find the felon colony of 1788?

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CHAPTER XVIII.

VICTORIA, OR PORT PHILLIP.

1835 TO 1850.

In the year 1834 Victoria, or PortPhillip, was a desert, barely known to Europeans except by thereports of wandering shore parties of whalers and sealers. In theyear 1852 nearly two hundred thousand inhabitants, six millionsof fine-woolled sheep, a city furnished with many of the luxuriesif not the comforts of civilised life, two thriving ports crowdedwith ships, steam-boats, and coasters, farms, gardens, andvineyards, attested the colonising vigour of the English race,the advantages of its soil and climate, and, not least, ofadministrative and legislative neglect; for Port Phillipattained all its solid prosperity without the aid of colonisingcompanies or acts of Parliament, or governors or regiments, orany of the complicated machinery with which sham colonies arebolstered up, and real colonies are so often encumbered.

A small band of experienced colonists, a succession of flocksand herds from the opposite coast, a magistrate, a few policemenand customs officers, then a sort of deputy-governor under themodest name of superintendent—these were found sufficientfor building up the most flourishing dependency of the Britishcrown, without calling on the home country for a singleshilling.

The history of Port Phillip is singularly barren of incident,and may be comprised in a very few pages, while volumes might befilled with the moving accidents which have chequered the careerof colonies which have not attained, and are not likely toattain, one-tenth of its wealth and importance as a field forBritish labour and capital.

In 1798, Bass, in the course of his whale-boat expedition,visited Western Port, one of the harbours of Victoria. In 1802Flinders sailed into Port Phillip Bay, having been preceded tenweeks previously by Lieutenant John Murray, of the LadyNelson.

In 1803 Lieutenant Governor Collins, who held the office ofjudge-advocate under Governor Phillip in the first colony, and onhis return to England in 1796 had published an "Account of NewSouth Wales," was sent out with H. M. ships Calcutta and Oceanwith detachments of royal marines, a number of free settlers, andseveral hundred prisoners to found a settlement at Port Phillip,where, having sailed on April 27th, he arrived October 3rd. Theexpedition disembarked on the southern shore of the bay, wherethe beach was unfavourable for landing, and there was no freshwater. It is evident, from a narrative published by one of theparty,* that from the first Colonel Collins ** had no earnestdesire to form a settlement at Port Phillip: he had heard glowingaccounts of the beauty and fertility of the opposite shores ofVan Diemen's Land, and, after a very cursory survey, he decidedon removing thither. In the course of a walk round the bay,undertaken by the officers of the ship, they found "on theeastern shore, twenty-eight miles from the entrance, a stream ofwater emptying itself into the port." "The bed of the stream iscovered with folicacious mica, which our people first conceivedto be gold-dust." At the present day we cannot be so sure that itwas mica. According to an account given in a Tasmanian almanack,which does not agree with that of Lieutenant Tuckey, theexpedition remained at Port Phillip from 3rd Oct. to 30thJanuary. If that were so, it is difficult to understand how thegreat natural advantages of Port Phillip could have escaped theobservation of two ships' crews.

[* Lieutenant Tuckey's Voyage in H. M. S.Calcutta, to found a Settlement in Bass's Straits. 1803-4."]

[** Colonel David Collins was the grandson ofArthur Collins, author of the Peerage of England, which wasafterwards continued by Sir Egerton Brydges. He was a Lieutenantof Marines in the Southampton frigate in 1772, when Matilda,Queen of Denmark, took refuge on board. He afterwards fought atthe battle of Bunker's Hill, under his father, General Collins:he died in Van Diemen's Land.]

During their encampment on the shores of Port Phillip three ofthe convicts escaped into the interior: one of them was WilliamBuckley, a native of Macclesfield, who had been a grenadier,served under the Duke of York in Flanders, and had beentransported for striking his superior officer.

Previous to the arrival of Collins, Mr. Charles Grimes, thesurveyor-general of the colony, had completed the marine surveyof Flinders by making an outline of the harbour, where hereported the existence of the river now known as the Yarra Yarra,or "ever-flowing water."

In 1824 Messrs. Hume and Hovell, two stockowners of New SouthWales, made an expedition to explore new pastures, and,travelling from near Lake George four hundred miles, in thecourse of which they traversed the flanks of the Australian Alps,and crossed three rivers, which they named the Hume, the Ovens,and the Goulburn, emerged on shores which they imagined to bethose of Western Port; but there is now little doubt that theyhad really reached the western arm of Port Phillip Bay, near thesite of the port of Geelong. In looking at a map of the Melbournedistrict a spot will be found marked Mount Disappointment,about thirty miles from Melbourne. It was this hill that theweary travellers climbed, calculating that from its summit theywould behold the sea. They were right in the direction, and along line of coast and a stretch of the finest sheep plains layin a line before them; but, unfortunately, lofty broad-boledtrees hid everything from their longing eyes, and they descendedsad and disheartened.

It would seem as if there had been a spell over this fortunateland which guarded its wealth from the discovery of a series ofexplorers, from Cook to Hovell and Hume.

Mr. Hovell was afterwards employed by the government to form asettlement at Western Port, which, however, was soon abandoned;and the fine pastoral country traversed in the course of hisjourney with Mr. Hume excited little attention, in consequence ofthe discovery, about the same time, of Brisbane Downs, betterknown as Maneroo, which were more accessible from thepreviously-occupied districts.

In 1834 Messrs. Henty, engaged in the whaling trade atLaunceston in Van Diemen's Land, formed a branch establishment atPortland Bay, and soon afterwards imported a few sheep and cattleto feed on the splendid pastures which there, unlike the otherdistricts of Australia, carpetted the shores almost to thewater's edge; and in the same year other flockowners from VanDiemen's Land crossed the straits to Port Phillip.

Already the Tasmanians had found the pastures of their island,covered as the greater portion of it is by inaccessible mountainsand forests of gigantic timber, too limited for the annualincrease of their flocks. The reports of the pastoral resourcesof the opposite shore became a constant subject for discussion;and in April, 1835, a party of settlers formed themselves into anassociation,* for the purpose of taking possession of an estatein Port Phillip; but before they could execute their project Mr.John Batman, a blacksmith, born in New South Wales, but thenvisiting Van Diemen's Land, secretly set sail from Launceston,accompanied by a party of tame blacks from the neighbourhood ofSydney, landed in the middle of May, and, through his nativeinterpreter, entered into an arrangement with the Port Phillipaborigines for the purchase of some of their land; returned toVan Diemen's Land, and, again crossing the straits with a storeof goods, induced the savages to put their marks to a deedprepared by a Tasmanian lawyer, which purported to transfer alarge tract of land, altogether about half a million acres, inconsideration of certain blankets and tomahawks. Thistransaction, like all similar purchases from hunting tribes, wasmere child's play. The aborigines of Australia have no idea ofcultivation, and consequently no idea of possession of land oranything else. They accepted Batman's blankets, tobacco, 203flour, tomahawks, &c., and only understood that by thatpayment he became their ally.

[* The association consisted of Messrs. S. and N.Jackson, Fawkner, Marr, Evans, and Lancy.]

Batman selected the site of his future manor-house at IndentedHead. Thence he soon beheld the approach of the ships of theAssociation whom, by his rapid proceedings, he had forestalled inthe honour of founding the future Victoria.

It is said, we know not with what truth, that he mounted hishorse, and, galloping down to the beach, warned them off hisestate. Perhaps, in 1950, a young Victorian painter may assemblecrowds in the Melbourne National Gallery, to see "Batman warningthe intruders from Port Phillip Bay."

Some of the party, awed by his legal threats, retired inland,and set their flocks to feed on land they eventually acquired.Mr. John Pascoe Fawkner, a name still well known in Victoria,with more obstinacy and good fortune, took up a position on thenorthern banks of the Yarra, overlooking the spot where a naturalledge divided the salt tide from the fresh river at the ebb,above a natural basin, which has since, by the aid of masonry,been converted into a port for the city of Melbourne, open tovessels and steamers of two hundred tons.

Batman had previously addressed a letter to Colonel Arthur,the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, in which he informed him ofhis proceedings; described the country he had explored in glowingbut not exaggerated terms; and requested the support of hisexcellency in his schemes of colonisation, and for thecivilisation of the natives. Colonel Arthur transmitted copies ofBatman's letter, and all the documents connected with his allegedpurchase from the natives, to the Colonial Office; expressed hisdecided opinion that the settlement of Port Phillip would form auseful outlet for the settlers of Van Diemen's Land; and that Mr.Batman, "whose conduct had been marked by humanity as well asenterprise," was deserving of a grant of land, although hispurchase, as he had already informed him, was clearlyillegal.

Lord Aberdeen, and his successor, Lord Glenelg, followed theunfortunate course which has almost invariably been adopted byour colonial ministers. They began by saying no, and in a veryshort period were obliged to say yes—to acknowledgea fact!

Lord Aberdeen in December, 1834, and Lord Glenelg in July,1835, wrote elaborate despatches, the one against the occupationof Twofold Bay, the outlet to Brisbane Downs, or Maneroo, as itis now called, on the borders of Port Phillip, as recommended bySir Richard Bourke, and the other against the occupation of PortPhillip, as recommended by Colonel Arthur, objecting to measures"the consequence of which would be to spread over a still furtherextent of country a population which it was the object of theland regulations to concentrate," and declining, on the ground of"expense to the mother country, and danger to the natives andsettlers," to sanction the proceedings of Batman and hisassociates.

But before the despatches were unsealed the thing was done.Mother Partington's mop was not more powerful to stop theAtlantic than paper proclamations to arrest the march ofAustralian settlers with sheep and lambs in sight of "freshfields and pastures new."

On the one hand, shepherds and stockmen were spreadingoverland, following their flock from pasture to pasture towardPort Phillip; on the other, a Port Phillip fever seized theTasmanians, and they crowded across the straits like thepatriarchs of old, with tents and all their woollypossessions.

"We went down," says a lady, who was then a little child, "tosee the six adventurers embark for Port Phillip, with the samefeeling as if it had been Cortez or Pizarro; but very soon therewas the same universal rush for Port Phillip that there is nowfor the gold-diggings."

It was while one of these early parties was landing from boatsnear the future site of Melbourne that they saw, amid a tribe ofnatives sitting under a tree, with all the arms and tokens of achief, a man of large limbs and gigantic stature,lighter-coloured than his companions, as well as could bedistinguished through tan, paint, and dirt. He stared hard at thestrangers, and seemed muttering to himself; then, rising, heapproached, and addressed them in a strange jargon, in which afew words of English were distinguishable. It was Buckley, one ofthe convicts who had escaped from the party of Colonel Collins,and, after thirty-two years' sojourning with the aborigines,again found himself among his countrymen.

He had forgotten his native tongue, and had assumed all thehabits of his savage companions, among whom he was a chief byvirtue of his superior stature and strength.* He at once joinedthe colonists, gradually re-acquired the English tongue, andexercised very useful influence over his late subjects. ColonelArthur, the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, granted him a freepardon, and, as it was disagreeable to him to remain in the sceneof his savage life, he became a constable in Van Diemen'sLand.

[* Buckley was six feet seven inches inheight.]

But either some original infirmity or long absence fromcivilised social life had impaired his intellect, and he rarelyand unwillingly conversed on the events of his extraordinarycareer. There is reason to believe that he and his tribe neverwandered more than forty miles inland from the shores of thebay.

When, in June, 1836, a magistrate, Mr. Stewart, despatched bySir Richard Bourke, arrived to assert her Majesty's rights, andto announce the invalidity of all purchases from the aborigines,he found the country already occupied, and the work ofcolonisation steadily proceeding. Nearly two hundred men hadarrived from Van Diemen's Land, and were settled around theestuary of Port Phillip; 35,000 sheep, under the charge of strongarmed parties, with a number of horned cattle and horses, werespread for many miles over the site of the present Ballaratgold-fields, each party seeking to appropriate as large a run aspossible.

Until very recently, on the station of Messrs. Jackson, atSaltwater River, was to be seen one of the great bells, mountedon a lofty frame, which used to be rung from station to stationto summon assistance when an attack from the blacks wasanticipated.

In the same year Sir Thomas Mitchell re-explored and surveyedthe overland route from Xew South Wales, part of which had beentraversed by Messrs. Hovell and Hume, and described the fineplains of Victoria, to which he gave the name of AustraliaFelix—"the better to distinguish it from the parcheddeserts of the interior country, where we had wandered sounprofitably and so long." ** He then discovered and named MountByng, the hill since become world-famous as Mount Alexander.

[** Mitchell's "Australia Felix."]

The publication of this report in the colonial and Englishpapers, and afterwards of Sir T. Mitchell's travels, fanned upthe flame of the Port Phillip fever, and very soon, along theoverland route, pool after pool was drunk dry by the thousands ofstock marching on to the promised land.

In April, 1837, Sir Richard Bourke visited the new colony, andgave directions for laying out the town of Melbourne on twohills, East and West Hill, sloping down to the banks of the RiverYarra. In June the first land sale took place, and speculationcommenced, and did not cease until it ended in wide-spreadinsolvency in 1841 and 1842.

The steady course of depending on their increase of flocks andherds was abandoned; all but a few went into town speculationsand country lots; village sites were laid out in all directions,some of which remain projects or miserable hamlets to this hour.Emigrants crowded in from all parts of Great Britain. At Hobson'sBay, the entrance to the Yarra, more than one hundredthree-masted ships were to be seen at anchor at one time. Labourrose to an enormous price; brickmakers earned 8s. a day; thecommon four-pound loaf was sold for 3s. 6d.; and mere huts werelet at the rate of £100 a year. Meantime, fortunately, the livingpastoral treasures of Australia came pouring in, and increasedand multiplied on the fine downs and grass-covered hills, whilesome wise, hard-working settlers devoted themselves toagriculture.

During this period the Port Phillip district was nominallyunder the government of the central authority at Sydney, but inreality the people governed themselves, with the help of amagistrate and a few policemen, while a neighbouring colony ofthe same date was enjoying all the costly magnificence ofelaborate government machinery.

In 1839 C. J. La Trobe, Esq., the present governor, wasappointed superintendent of Port Phillip district, with anauthority little more than nominal, as the surveys, post-office,customs, &c., were managed by subordinates responsible to thechief departments at Sydney; and even up to 1839 the sales ofrural land took place at Sydney.

The centralisation of authority in a distant city, havingdifferent interests, and the appropriation of funds derived fromPort Phillip land sales to emigration into Sydney district, werelong subjects of grievance on which, as they have been redressed,it is not necessary to dwell.

When representative institutions were conceded to New SouthWales, six representatives were apportioned to the Port Phillipdistrict; but it was soon found impossible to find that number ofcolonists able and willing to live for six months of the year sixhundred miles away from their estates; and for several sessionsbefore 1850 the Port Phillippians virtually declined to electrepresentatives.

In 1842 Melbourne obtained a municipal corporation, under 5and 6 Victoria, c. 76. Victoria has, however, never been a penalcolony, although long and still suffering from the overflowingsof the felonry of Van Diemen's Land.

It would not serve any useful purpose to record the strugglesof Port Phillip to obtain an independent existence as a separatecolony, now that the question has been finally settled.

The general quality of the soil in Port Phillip has given thesettlers an advantage over land purchasers in less fertiledistricts of Australia, and the absence of an expensive localgovernment has enabled the colonists to escape a local debt likethat which so long weighed down South Australia.

In fact the brief history of Port Phillip proves how much moresafely, successfully, and inexpensively colonies may be plantedby colonists than by enthusiastic amateurs and speculatingcompanies.

In 1852 the assembling of the first Legislative Council ofVictoria marked the commencement of a new era of independence andprosperity, crowned by the golden discoveries at Ballarat andMount Alexander.

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CHAPTER XIX.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

1835 TO 1851.

Lord Alvanley, stopping at a countryinn, met Beau Brummel's valet descending the stairs with anarmful of crumpled clean cravats. "Pray," he inquired, "what arethose?" "These, my lord," replied the valet, "are my master'sfailures." When the Beau emigrated to Calais, amongst othercreditors, he owed an enormous bill to his laundress.

South Australia was the first, as Canterbury, in New Zealand,was the last, of Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield's colonisingfailures—failures which have been tried at the expense ofevery class of capitalist. But, his credit being now exhausted,it seems as if he would end his days without a good fit, thus,sharing the fate of other unfortunate philosophers andfinanciers, like Law, Owen, Cabet, and Louis Blanc, with thisdifference, that those gentlemen all sacrificed something totheir theories—they lost fortune, or character, or country;but Mr. Wakefield, while his disciples have suffered in purse andin person, has contrived to patch up a character originally muchdamaged, and build a living, if not a fortune, out of a series ofbubbles.

In 1829 Mr. Wakefield's charming little book, which wasanalysed in Chapter IX., with its really ingenious theory andreally desirable aims—good wages, large profits, andcomplete civilisation took the active world by storm; and nosooner was the serious business of carrying the Reform Billcompleted, than a society was formed for carrying it intopractical effect.

The extraordinary success with which this theory was receivedat home, although opposed by every intelligent colonist, may betraced to the skilful manner in which it combined the interestsand conciliated the prejudices of the legislative and middle aswell as the executive class. The capitalist for the first timesaw himself painted as an injured victim, and presented with anew field for ample profits; the ratepayer was charmed at theidea of getting rid of an unlimited number of paupers; theeducated gentleman hoped to live on his 20,000 with all thestate, dignity, and luxury, physical and intellectual, that alanded estate of £100,000 confers in England or Scotland. Theadventurous of the middle class dwelt on the charms ofdistinction which would be open to them in a new colony; while toardent politicians and essayists, who in 1830 were for the mostpart deeply dissatisfied with all our ancient institutions, theidea of becoming founders and modellers of a model commonwealthwas truly delightful. Even the government was eventuallyconciliated by the prospect of additional patronage which a newcolony presented.

In 1831 Major Bacon, a fellow-soldier in the Spanish Legionwith Colonel Wakefield, brother to the theorist, appears to haveopened negotiations at the Colonial Office, then under LordGoderich, for establishing a chartered colony in some part ofAustralia; and in 1832 these negotiations had so far progressedthat a provisional committee of the South Australian Land Companyhad been formed, with Colonel Torrens, then one of theproprietors of the Globe newspaper, as its chairman, witha proposed capital of £50,000.

In a letter dated 9th July, 1832, Colonel Torrens transmitteda draft of the charter suggested by his committee, and drawnunder the instructions of Mr. Wakefield. On perusing this draftLord Goderich curtly closed the negotiation, on the ground that"it would virtually transfer to the company the sovereignty of avast unexplored territory; that it would encroach upon the limitsof the existing colonies of New South Wales and WesternAustralia; that the charter would invest the company, with powersof legislation, of erecting courts, of appointing judges, ofraising and commanding militia; that all the powers of thecompany, involving in their practical effects the sovereigndominion of the whole territory, would be transferred to apopular assembly, which would be to erect within the Britishmonarchy a government purely republican; and that the companywould be receivers of large sums of money, for the dueapplication of which they do not propose to give any specificsecurity."

When the promoters offered to modify their plan they wereinformed, "that the views entertained by the proposed company arenot sufficiently precise and determined to lead his lordship toapprehend that any advantage will arise from continuing acorrespondence that has for some time been going on."

In 1833 another association was formed, and the chairman, W.W. Whitmore, Esq., M.P., opened negotiations with the presentEarl of Derby, then Under Secretary for the Colonies. He proposedto found a colony on the site where it was eventually planted, tosell land at 5s. an acre ("this will ensure the concentration ofsettlers in proportion to the price at which land is sold"), anddevote the proceeds to the conveyance of young pauper labourersof both sexes in equal numbers. The company to have a millionacres at 5s. an acre. "On this land they will perform such worksas they may deem expedient, with a view to attract populationthereto, while government will sell in an entirely unimprovedstate the land not purchased by the company to any individualsdesirous of purchasing it."

This association, which contemplated fame and patronage ratherthan profit, included George Grote, the eminent historian ofGreece; William Hutt, afterwards Governor of Western Australia;Henry Bulwer, since an Ambassador and K.C.B.; Colonel Torrens; H.G. Ward, since Governor of the Ionian Islands and K.C.B.; J. A.Roebuck; Sir William Molesworth; Benjamin Hawes, since ColonialUnder Secretary; and Edward Strutt, since Chief Commissioner ofRailways.

This negotiation also failed. Mr. Gibbon Wakefield's charterwas not approved.

While approving of the plan of colonisation suggested asregarded the disposal of land, Mr. Secretary Stanley insistedthat the government of the colony should be left in the hands ofthe crown until such tune as it was able to govern itself.*

[* Letter from John Lefevre, Esq., to W. W.Whitmore, Esq., M.P., dated Downing-street, 17 March, 1834.]

After receiving this communication the South AustralianAssociation decided to continue their operations for the purposeof forming a crown colony, provided that, by Act of Parliament,provision were made for the permanent establishment of the modeof disposing of waste land, and of the purchase-money of suchland, devised by Mr. Gibbon Wakefield.

Before the negotiation concluded Mr. Stanley resigned. Mr.Spring Rice (now Lord Monteagle) became Secretary for theColonies. Under his administration an act was passed, in thesession of 1834, substantially embodying the terms agreed uponwith Mr. Stanley, by which the present province of SouthAustralia was established, the minimum price of land fixed at12s. an acre, and the business of colonisation was placed in thehands of a body of commissioners.

Lord Aberdeen having become Secretary for the Colonies, eightcommissioners were selected from the members of the SouthAustralian Association, and gazetted May, 1835, Colonel Torrensbeing appointed chairman, because, as he stated in his letter ofapplication, he had "more knowledge of the object and principlesof the proposed colony than any of the other gentlemen willing toact."

It is important to note that, although the Colonial Officerefused to permit the foundation of a chartered colony, in whichthe government and responsibility would have been in the hands ofthe colonisers, from first to last the personal friends andpupils of Mr. Wakefield had the sole control of every arrangementand the selection of every officer, and that every step was takenunder the advice of Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, who was a constantattendant at the rooms of the association in the Adelphi.

The commissioners first offered the post of governor to thepresent distinguished General (then Colonel) Charles JamesNapier; but on being refused a small body of troops as police,and power to draw on the British government for money in case ofneed, he declined the dangerous honour, observing, with wiseprescience, "While sufficient security exists for the supply oflabour in the colony, and even forces that supply, theredoes not appear to be any security that the supply of capitalwill be sufficient to employ that labour." Thus South Australialost an active governor, and India obtained a great general. Oftwo governors subsequently appointed, one was compelled tooverdraw £400,000, and the next obtained a company of soldiers inlieu of an expensive police. The commissioners then selected asgovernor Captain Hindmarsh, R.N., a distinguished naval-officer,now Sir John Hindmarsh, Governor of Heligoland, and Colonel Lightas chief officer of the survey department; Mr. Fisher, asresident commissioner; Mr. Robert Gouger, the editor of the"Letter from Sydney" and secretary of the South AustralianAssociation, as colonial secretary—in all seventeenappointments, including two attorneys, and an unsuccessfulmerchant, "who had been found useful to the commission in sellingland and raising money." The parties selected seem to have beenstudiously chosen for their innocence of all colonial, official,and agricultural experience.

While the political steps for founding the model colony wereprogressing, means for agitating the public mind in favour ofemigration, on the new principle, to the unknown territoryselected by the South Australian Association had not beenneglected.

The theory propounded in the "Letter from Sydney" had beenrepeated and enlarged upon in a work called "England andAmerica," and in a multitude of pamphlets, reviews in newspapers,speeches, and lectures. The active world began to believe that apolitical philosopher's stone had been discovered.

A newspaper, the South Australian Gazette, waspublished in London, with the view of being transplanted to thenew colony as soon as a hut could be found for its reception;while the most influential daily and weekly organs re-echoed thestatements and conclusions which received the admiring assent ofall parties. Anything in the shape of opposition, or evendoubtful criticism, from persons of colonial experience, wasgreeted with the utmost degree of scorn and contempt. They werehissed down, unheard, as the most stupid or jealously envious ofmortals. The friends of Mr. Wakefield's theory had, from thefirst taken it for granted that nothing but the basest motivescould induce any one to hesitate in accepting their panacea forcolonial ills, and they had the same advantage in attacking theColonial Office that a quack like Morison or Holloway has inridiculing a venerable, high-charging, pill-and-potion,bleed-and-blister practitioner of the old bag-wig school.

A small book, published in 1834, entitled "The New BritishProvince of South Australia, with an account of the Principles,Objects, Plan, and Prospects of the colony," one of scores of thesame tendency which appeared about the same time, is a favourableand temperate specimen and the ingenious literary agitation whichMr. Wakefield perfected, if he did not invent. This work, adornedwith maps, a picture of a bay, with palm trees and an emu,commences with an extract from one of Archbishop Whately'sspeeches, which now sounds excessively absurd, but which was thenreceived with enthusiasm:—

"A colony so founded would fairly represent Englishsociety: every new comer would have his own class to fall into,and to whatever class he belonged he would find its relation tothe others, and the support derived from the others much the sameas in the parent country. There would be little more revolting tothe feelings of an emigrant than if he had merely shifted hisresidence from Sussex to Cumberland or Devonshire."

And then, after devoting many pages to disparaging all othercolonies and systems of colonisation, and promising a supply oflabour and a state of refinement equal to that of an old colony,a considerable space is devoted to a description of the proposedcountry, particularly "Kangaroo Island," and its resources, witha list of probable exports. Seldom have more errors beenpropagated in so few pages, in so formal, so positive, and sopompous a manner. Out of five pages of tabulated exports onlyone, "wool," has been obtained, and that, not as promised, ingreater, but in less quantities than in the older colonies. Themeans of communication promised by the seacoast, the LakeAlexandria, and the River Murray, remain unused to this hour, andKangaroo Island is still a solitary waste.

A day in Adelaide at any time, from the founding of the citydown to the time when the last ship left the port, would show howabsurdly the following premises have been falsified:—

"The price of land will take out the labourers freeof cost to their employer, and will enable him to retain theirservices. It will be the first colony combining plenty of labourand plenty of land." "The large produce of industry, divided inthe shape of high profits and high wages, will not only makeliving high, but will cause the interest of money to be high,and will thus enable persons owning, money, without engagingin any work, to obtain much larger and more effective incomesthan their property yields in England; and will furnish a demandfor such persons as surveyors, architects, engineers, clerks,teachers, lawyers, and clergymen."

These were the inducements held out with eminent success totempt men most unfit for the toil of early colonisation toemigrate to a colony which was to be founded, not by slowdegrees, but complete. The land was to be sold in England,at such a fixed price as would, by preventing labourers frombecoming landowners "too soon," preserve a "hired labour price,"and secure high profits on good wages. The proceeds of the landsold were to be applied to supplying labourers with freepassages, and thus a complete section of all the ranks andclasses composing the parent state was to be transplanted, fullgrown, to the antipodes.

In the commencement the commissioners found difficulty inselling the quantity of land and raising a sufficient amount ofthe loan of £200,000, at £10 per cent., authorised by thegovernment. But eventually these difficulties were overcome bythe active assistance of Mr. G. F. Angas, and Mr. John Wright,the once eminent and afterwards notorious banker of CoventGarden.

Mr. Angas resigned his post as commissioner, and formed theSouth Australian Company, which commenced operations bypurchasing a large quantity of land from the commissioners withcertain special privileges. A sum of £30,000 completed thepreliminary financial operations, and the first part of thecolonising career of South Australia commenced.

The South Australian Company, which had obtained specialprivileges in consideration of their large and early purchase,lost no time in sending out a pioneer expedition, with emigrantsand officers, to make preparations for carrying on every kind ofpursuit considered likely to be profitable in acolony—farming, sheep-feeding, banking, building, andwhaling. We may mention here that after an experience of elevenyears the company have found reason to subside into the humblebut more profitable position of absentee landholders and landjobbers.

Colonel Light was despatched by the commissioners in March,1836, and a surveying staff and a few emigrants; and when hearrived at the appointed rendezvous in Nepean Bay, on the 19thAugust, he found three vessels of the South Australian Company,which had brought a body of emigrants who were settled onKangaroo Island; and in November the Africaine arrived with thecolonial secretary, a banking association, and anewspaper.

In July Captain Hindmarsh, the governor, sailed in theBuffalo, a vessel of war, with a number of emigrants.

All this was done before the commissioners had received anyreport as to the suitability of the district selected forsupporting emigrants. Kangaroo Island, which had figured largelyin prospectuses and speeches, was found to be unfit forcolonisation, after time and money had been wasted by emigrantsand the company in building and clearing.

Colonel Light landed in the Gulf of St. Vincent, and after asurvey fixed upon the site of the present city of Adelaide forthe capital, and the present Port Adelaide for its harbour. Itwas then a narrow, rather shallow creek, about as wide as theThames at Richmond, leading out of St. Vincent's Gulf. Thelanding was in a mangrove swamp, seven miles from the intendedcapital. Wharves, deep dredging, a solid road, and otherimprovements have now transformed the mangrove creek into a goodharbour, not inconveniently distant from the capital, to which itwill be soon united by a railway.

Governor Hindmarsh arrived on 28th of December, 1836, read hiscommission under a gum tree, in presence of about two hundredemigrants and officials; and then, looking round, felt extremelydissatisfied with the selection made by the resident commissionerand the surveyor-general. That he should have been dissatisfiedwith a selection which placed the capital in a picturesque buthot valley far from a port, and without the use of a navigableriver, and that he should as a sailor have been forciblyimpressed with the fearful cost of landing and conveying cargoesto the interior from such a harbour, is not extraordinary;nevertheless experience has proved that the site was as good asany that could have been chosen, and art has corrected thedefects of nature. Governor Hindmarsh attempted to change thesite of Adelaide. Differences of a serious character arosebetween him and the resident commissioner: the colony becamedivided into two parties, one of which supported the governor andthe other the resident commissioner. Both parties were greatly toblame. Lord Glenelg settled the question by. acceding to therequest of the commissioners and recalling Captain Hindmarsh. Inthe sequel the site of the capital to which Captain Hindmarsh hadobjected was retained, and almost all the officials, from whom hehad experienced most vexatious and insolent opposition, werefound either incompetent or corrupt, and dismissed by hissuccessor.*

[* The most serious evils that befel the SouthAustralian colonists arose from the precipitancy with whichemigrants were sent out, before the surveyor-general had reportedwhether the country was fit for settlement, and before anypreparation had been made, by roads, wharves, barracks,conveyances, surveys, and importation of live stock, foremploying or feeding emigrants, But it seems part of the systemto care rather for producing a sensation of doing business inEngland than for the welfare of the emigrants. The same error wascommitted at Wellington, in New Zealand, where, with a shiploadof colonists going they knew not where, Colonel Wakefield wasobliged to settle at Wellington—a fine harbour shut out byinaccessible mountains from the adjoining country. Even expensivemilitary roads have not yet opened out land enough to feed thetown population; and two secondary settlements at Wanganui,distant 100 miles, and New Plymouth were formed in order toobtain the quantity of land sold in England. On a second occasionNelson was chosen without proper survey, where, in order to findland enough, two thousand colonists are obliged to spread over150 miles of coast. Even in founding Canterbury, Mr. Wakefieldhad influence enough to persuade the directors to send out, at anenormous useless extra expense, a fleet of four large ships halffilled, to the great inconvenience of the first colonists, inorder to make a sensation in the English newspapers. Theexpedient failed.]

To replace Captain Hindmarsh the commissioners recommended andsecured the appointment of Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler. Atthe same time that Colonel Gawler was appointed governor he wasalso made resident commissioner—vice Mr.Fisher,—dismissed and thus united in his own person all theadministrative powers of the colony.

In order to obtain money to commence operations, before thecolony had been surveyed or even settled, the commissionersissued "preliminary orders," as a bonus to the first purchasersand colonists, at £72 12s. each, which entitled the purchaser toselect, in a rotation settled by lottery, 120 acres of countryland, and one acre in the intended capital of the intendedcolony. This capital city, before discovery or survey, wassettled by the commissioners to consist of 1,200 acres, or nearlynine square miles—a space sufficient to accommodate thepopulation of Westminster. As soon as the capital, Adelaide, hadbeen selected and mapped, the holders of preliminary orders,forming the first body of colonists, selected their sections, andthe whole surplus was put up for auction to the colonists, "as areward for their enterprise," and sold at an average rate of £2per acre. Thus, more than ten times the space that has ever beenrequired was turned into and perpetually dedicated to buildingland. From that moment the great object of the first colonistsbecame to puff, magnify, and sell to future colonists theirbuilding land in Adelaide. No crop was so profitable as land leftin a state of nature, but called and sold for a street.

The first operation having been performed, by which the futuresite of what was intended to be a great city had been transferredinto the hands of a few persons, chiefly consisting of thefriends of the commissioners and the officials of the SouthAustralian Company, the next was to sell as much land as possiblein England, by giving English purchasers a decided advantage overthose who, nevertheless intending to emigrate, declined to buy apig in a poke.

Accordingly land orders were issued at 80 each, which entitledthe holder to select eighty acres of country land in the orderdictated by the date of payment. Thus, when any particularlydesirable plot of land was brought into the market, a speculationarose to discover and purchase the oldest "order" in the colony.A class of Adelaide brokers arose who dealt in and professed toput a value on these "scrip," according to their respectivedates. Sometimes an emigrant who had been months in the colonywould be superseded by the holder of the land order of anabsentee sent at the latest moment by ship letter. It was aforeshadowing of the railway stagging of 1846, and a revival ofthe famous days of the South Sea Bubble. On one occasion thesupposed discovery of a lead mine, under an eighty-acre section,sent up the earliest-dated order to a premium of £500. After allthere was no lead mine; but the lucky purchaser, being in commandof the market made use of a later order, and reserved his £500prize for future use.

After five days of the week had been consumed by those whopurchased "land orders" in England in selecting the bestsections, on the sixth the colonising emigrant who had preferredseeing before investing, or the frugal labourer who had savedenough to work for himself on his own land, was allowed to takehis pick of the refuse. Such parties were required to send in asealed tender. A person tendering for several adjoining sectionshad the preference over a person tendering for a single section.Thus, in every way, the cultivating colonist was discouraged, andland-jobbing speculation invited.

That no element of confusion might be wanting in the landarrangements of the model colony, the commissioners devised, andMr. Wakefield approved, the "special survey system," whichenabled them to raise large sums of money, by offering specialprivileges to capitalists; and it proved most effective inEngland. Under this system a capitalist was entitled to have15,000 acres surveyed in any part of the province, on conditionthat he purchased not less than 4,000 acres at £1 an acre. InSouth Australia, as in New South Wales, there is a great scarcityof water, and good cultivable land lies only in patchessurrounded by other land which is, at best, only fit for pasture.By judicious management the purchaser of a special survey couldcommand all the water, and all the pastoral advantages of 15,000acres, by purchasing 4,000; the remainder, 11,000 acres, beinguseless to any one else, fell naturally in his occupation, at anaverage of 5s. 4d. an acre. To increase the mischief, purchasersof special surveys were permitted to establish secondary towns,in addition to Adelaide, which was twenty times too large for thepopulation; while the staff of surveyors were continuallyinterrupted in their regular work, to the great injury ofcultivating emigrants, in order to make these special surveys, atan expense often exceeding the total value of thepurchase-money.

In a very short time all the good land in the neighbourhood of217 Adelaide was monopolised by the absentee capitalists andproprietors of the South Australian Company.

In a word, the whole system discouraged the proper pursuits ofcolonists, and propagated a spirit of land-jobbing, which, by itsapparent profits, very soon infected the neighbouring colonies,and bewildered and deceived the merchants, the legislature, andthe colonial department of Great Britain.

At an epoch in the existence of an infant state, when thefirst settlers ought to consist of a few gardeners, a fewshepherds, a few farmers, and a few mechanics, with half a dozenmen of superior attainments and energy, and plenty of sheep andcattle, and when a village with a wharf was all the town needed,South Australia had nine square miles of building land, a bank,two newspapers, and a population of speculative gentlemen. InEngland, paragraphs carefully culled from South Australian landsellers' newspapers were circulated as accompaniments to flamingadvertisem*nts in the English press, with the lectures andspeeches of well-paid agents of the South Australian interest,combined to raise the colonising speculations and movements tofever pitch about the time that Colonel Gawler anchored in St.Vincent's Gulf.

{Page 217}

CHAPTER XX.

COLONEL GAWLER'S GOVERNMENT.

1838 TO 1841.

Colonel Gawler arrived in SouthAustralia on the 13th October, 1838, and was recalled in May,1841. Under his administration the colony attained the higheststate of external prosperity; the population quadrupled, the portwas filled with ships bringing imports and emigrants; publicbuildings, shops, mansions, and paved roads were constructed onland which four years previously had been desert; wharves andwarehouses on a swampy creek, which was converted into aconvenient port; ornamental gardens were laid out, farms werecultivated, live stock was imported by thousands, the interiorexplored, and the whole colony rendered more familiarly andfavourably known to the intellectual portion of the Britishcommunity than any other colony; and under Colonel Gawler theland sales ceased, capital and labour emigrated, insolvency wasuniversal, and the colony, loaded with public and private debt,collapsed more rapidly than it had risen.

The powerful party whose pecuniary interests and personalpride, as colonising philosophers, are alike concerned inupholding the system on which South Australia was founded, havelong been in the habit of attributing the rise of that colony tothe merits of their system, and its fall to the extravagance ofColonel Crawler; and they have passed uncontradicted, becauseactual colonists are ill represented in Parliament and the press,and it has not been worth the while of the public to dive intoblue books or examine colonial evidence for the truth.*

[* This, true when written, has ceased to be truein 1853, since the failure of Canterbury colony—a failurepredicted by the author.]

A very slight examination of the history of South Australiawill show that it was what is called the extravagance of ColonelGawler which caused those sales of land, that export ofemigrants, that speculation in building lots and houses which wassupposed to be prosperity. If a million sterling had been at thedisposal of the governor at the time when, to speak commercially,the colonial government stopped payment, the mania forland-buying might have been continued some time longer, but itmust have stopped sooner or later, just as the railway-scripmania came to an end, because the purchasers and sellers wereproducing nothing; and no amount of imported population andcapital could have made the colony produce enough to pay for itsconsumption until time had been given to raise some staplearticle saleable in a foreign market. Wool cannot be produced,like calico or cloth, by steam power; for agricultural producethere was no foreign demand worth mentioning; the existence ofmineral wealth was not suspected. When Colonel Gawler resignedhis office into the hands of his successor, South Australia wasin debt about £400,000, on account of the colonial government;the private debts of the colonists to English merchants were atleast as much more. The utmost extent of excess in ColonelGawler's expenditure was £20,000, or five per cent. on theexpenses.

It always takes a considerable time to inoculate the Englishpeople with new ideas. About the time that Captain Hindmarsh wasrecalled and Colonel Gawler sailed, the fruits of skilfulagitation began to be reaped by the South AustralianCommissioners. No unfavourable accounts of the new colony wereallowed to appear in any organ of influence; flourishing reportsof the beauty, the fertility, and the commercial importance ofthe new city were industriously circulated. Colonel Torrens, inlectures he condescended to deliver, stated and believed that thesituation of the city of Adelaide would give it the sameimportance with respect to the valley of the Murray that NewOrleans held with respect to the valley of theMississippi:—the Murray, which in 1851 had not yet beennavigated by anything beyond a whaleboat, and which a range oflofty mountains divides from Adelaide! An influential agent inthe South Australian interest not only produced amagnificently-coloured plan of the new city, divided into streetsand squares, but, by a further stroke of imagination, anchored a400 ton ship in the Torrens, opposite Government House—theRiver Torrens being a chain of pools in which the most desperatesuicide would ordinarily have difficulty in drowning himself, andacross which a child may generally step dryshod!

Thus land was sold, and emigrants were shipped off before thecommissioners had time to receive further accounts from their newand trusted governor and commissioner.

Colonel Gawler being an amiable, enthusiastic, simple-minded,yet ambitious man, was dazzled with the idea of becoming thefounder of a great, civilised, self-supporting community. Heaccepted the theories of Mr. Wakefield as solemn, immutabletruths, and the calculations of the commissioners as theemanations of the highest financial ability. Confiding in theprivate assurances of the commissioners, he was most bitterly andcruelly deceived.

Under the original plan of the colony the commissioners hadcalculated that an annual sum of £10,000, over and above anyrevenue to be derived from customs or local taxation, would besufficient to defray all the govermental expenses of SouthAustralia. This calculation was founded on what they hoped to beable to raise, and not on the necessities of the case. In orderto make it fit they fixed on an arbitrary number of officials atarbitrary salaries.

The statements made in a despatch written by Colonel Gawler,immediately after his arrival, show that if he had been lesszealous to carry out the views of the commissioners and morecautious about his own personal interests, he would have at oncebrought the progress of colonisation to a stand-still, strictlyfollowed his written instructions, and retired with his privatefortune uninjured, to his own profession.

He found the treasury empty—the accounts in confusion.Twelve thousand pounds, being two thousand pounds more than thewhole amount authorised to be drawn for in England in the year,had been drawn in the first six months; a large expense wasrequired for the support of emigrants sick of fever anddysentery; provisions, wages, and house rent were enormouslyhigh; custom-houses, police-stations, a gaol, and offices fortransaction of public business were urgently required; a policeestablishment, at colonial wages, in the absence of a militaryforce, was indispensable; the commissioners in their calculationshad omitted to provide for a postmaster, a sheriff, or a gaolerfor letters, debtors, or criminals; the surveys were seriously inarrear; the head of the staff and all his attendants hadresigned; the late resident commissioner and accountant-general,the colonial treasurer, and several other officers were foundinsubordinate, irregular in their accounts, and grosslyinefficient; it was necessary to supersede two of themperemptorily—almost immediately; all officials weredissatisfied with low salaries in the face of the high prices ofprovisions, house rent, &c.; Governor Gawler himself, withMrs. Gawler, his children, private secretary, and servants, wascompelled to occupy a small hut, and expend £1,800 a year whilstreceiving a salary of £800. With this imperfect machinery, and anempty treasury, a population of some four or five thousand souls,partly encamped on the site of the city of Adelaide, and partlydispersed in pastoral pursuits over a tract of country onehundred miles long by forty miles broad, instead of being,according to the theories of the commissioners, concentrated onten square miles, engaged in reproducing English agriculture, hadto be governed, customs dues and debts had to be levied,criminals imprisoned, and aborigines repressed.

As to the prospects of the colony, and character of pursuitsof the colonists, the inspector of the Australasian Bank atSydney wrote to his Directors in October, 1818, about the timeGovernor Gawler landed:—

"I venture to express my fears that the pricereceived for the sale of land will be found insufficient to payfor the transplantation and government of emigrants; and, unlessfunds be provided by the British government, it will beimpossible to provide for the administration of police and law.There appears also to have been a great want of experience anddecision in directing the energies of the colonists to thatsource from which alone they can hope to rise to wealth orprevent themselves from sinking into poverty, until an article ofexport be produced in considerable quantity; as otherwise thefunds of the colonists must be expended in paying for articles ofimport and luxuries considered as necessaries of life. Wool isthe only article of export that can be produced, and on thissubject the colonists seem as supine as they have been eagerto purchase town allotments and build houses, giving theplace what seems to me a false appearance of commercialprosperity. Had it been left to me I should have delayedestablishing a branch bank until I could be sure there were atleast 100,000 sheep in the settlement, and that provision wasmade for the efficient administration of the law." *

[* Report of House of Commons on South Australia,1841, p. 146.]

The new governor, full of colonising enthusiasm and innocentof colonial or commercial experience, was dazzled and deceived bythe building activity which had excited the serious apprehensionsof the experienced bank manager. He found a. large body ofeducated, apparently intelligent men, who had encamped on thesite of the city of Adelaide, all hopeful, active, speculating,dealing with each other and with each party of newly-arrivedemigrants, full of magnificent plans for every sort ofinvestment, in markets, warehouses, arcades, ship-building, andwhaling. A bit of painted board nailed to a tree created aWakefield, a Torrens, an Angas, or Whit-more street. All thenotabilities of the South Australian interest were thusimmortalised. Each speculator, having so large a space to dealwith, endeavoured to draw the tide of trade or fashion into hisown locality, and thus, instead of one compact village, as nearas possible to the port, tents, wooden huts, pisé huts, woodenhouses imported from England, shops of slabs, brick, and stone,and elegant cottages of gentility, surrounded by iron rails, werescattered over a vast park of 1,130 acres.

Those who had not been able to secure town lots at prices totheir mind proceeded into the suburbs, where at one time, withthe aid of surveyors' pegged lines, not less than thirty villageswere founded, for sale to those who could not afford to give thecity price; others were building mansions, laying out pleasuregrounds, and even contemplating deer parks. The climate wasdelightful, the valley of the Torrens fertile; and emigrants ofcapital poured in, burning to commence realising the goldendreams they had enjoyed during a three months' voyage.

Colonel Crawler was carried away by the stream. The very confusion in which he found public business, the inefficiency of allthe officers selected by the commissioners, the backward state ofthe surveys, were to a certain extent an encouragement; becausehe sanguinely contemplated that, if so much had been done underno system, or the worst possible system of administration when noaccounts were kept—when the governor and the residentcommissioner held rival public meetings, and the colonialsecretary and colonial treasurer fought in the streets,—howmuch more might be done under an orderly, regular government,such as he lost no time in establishing.

He proceeded to supersede the incompetent officials, to bringall the government business into a regular form, to press on thesurveys, and to make proper arrangements for the reception of theemigrants into barracks, and the numerous sick of ship-fever anddysentery into an hospital. In order to obtain a revenue fromcustoms dues, to keep down illicit distillation, and protect thepublic from criminals, it was necessary, as Colonel Napier hadforeseen, to raise a police. As labourers were worth from 10s. to15s. a day, and indifferent horses cost 50 each, this was anexpensive affair; but, by giving a tasteful uniform, and makingthe appointment rather honourable, he succeeded in obtaining ahighly respectable body of men, including some poor gentlemen, at5s. a day.

The port on Colonel Gawler's arrival was a narrow swamp,through which, for seven miles, emigrants dragged their luggageand merchandise. Under his arrangements a road was constructed,and wharves and warehouses erected. He built a government-houseof no extravagant pretensions, but which, nevertheless, cost,from the price of labour and materials, £20,000; and he alsobuilt custom-houses, police-stations, and other public buildings,which were indispensable for transacting public business. Heexpended a large sum in protecting and endeavouring to civilisethe aborigines. He contributed to two expeditions which wereunsuccessfully made by Mr. Eyre in search of tracts of fertilecountry. To every charitable claim his purse was open; while hishospitalities were on a liberal scale.

The result of his measures was to give an extraordinaryimpetus to the apparent prosperity of the colony. The brilliantreports of public and private buildings in progress, buildingland sold at £500 and even £1,000 an acre, of balls, fêtes,pic-nics, horticultural shows, dexterously reproduced in England,tempted men of fortune to emigrate, capitalists to invest, andmerchants and manufacturers to forward goods of all kinds oncredit. Port Adelaide was crowded with shipping, which dischargedliving and dead cargoes, and departed in ballast. When 14,000colonists had arrived, in the fourth year after the foundation,scarcely a vestige of an export had been produced. The land salesand the custom-house receipts rose to enormous amounts.

In the midst of a career of infatuation, by which some halfdozen money lenders realised fortunes, and hundreds were entirelyruined, there were men of considerable fortune who endeavoured torealise the Utopia they had been taught to dream in England, andintroduce the comforts and the scientific cultivation of anEnglish country gentleman, as sketched in Mr. Wakefield's letterfrom Sydney. These gentlemen purchased what in English eyesappeared considerable tracts of land; loaded ships withfurniture, with curious, useless agricultural implements, withlive stock of choice breeds; brought domestic servants,labourers, and even tenants, and landed intent on making,according to the cant cry of the hour, the "desert blossom likethe rose."

The example of one gentleman, whose name it would be cruel tomention, will exemplify the case of scores of his class, althoughless wealthy, who sank and died without notice in other colonies,or in England. Mr. B——— possessed an Englishestate which brought him in about £1,000 a year: fascinated byMr. Gibbon Wakefield's writings, he sold his estate, and landedin South Australia with an extensive land order, built a house ofno great size or comfort at a vast expense, fenced in a farm, andbegan to cultivate; but the cheap labour promised in thecommissioners' pamphlets was no more forthcoming than the roads.He soon found that he was sowing shillings to reap halfpence.After spending a great deal of capital he gave up farming indisgust, and went to live in Adelaide: there, thrown constantlyamong the company of speculators, having a considerable balanceat his banker's, he was inclined to do as everybody did, andspeculate. He lost everything, at middle age returned home withhis family penniless, and, after living a few years dependent onthe bounty of his relations, died broken-hearted, a victim of the"sufficient price" delusion.

Among the successful there were scarcely any of thehead-working, white-handed class, but a number of hard-working,frugal men, who, landing without a penny, accumulated enough bylabour to purchase a good eighty-acre section, and there, bygrowing vegetables and wheat, rearing pigs and poultry, with thehelp of their wives and families, throve steadily, and mademoney, in spite of the system which was intended to retain themfor an indefinite time as labourers at some three shillings aday. These people often derived considerable advantage fromsections of land adjoining their own being the property ofabsentees. On these sections they were able to pasture their livestock without expense. Where labourers could not afford to buy awhole section they clubbed together and divided one; for free menwill have land whenever agriculture is the only manufacture, andno protective laws can prevent them. It was these cottier farmersand a few sheep squatters who saved the colony from being totallyabandoned when the inevitable crisis came.

A Scotch gentleman of ancient lineage and no fortune, in everyrespect the converse of Mr. B., afforded an instance of what maybe done in a colony by industrious hard work, with the help of alarge family, without that capital which, according to theorists,it is indispensable that a landowner should possess. He arrivedin the colony very early, the owner of a single eighty-acresection, with twelve children, one half of whom were stout,well-grown lads and lasses: his whole property consisted of alittle furniture, a few Highland implements, a gun or two, a verylittle ready money, and several barrels of oatmeal and biscuit.His section had been selected for him previous to his arrival. Itlay on the other side of a steep range of hills, over which noroad had then been made, ten miles from the town. He lost no timeand spent no money in refreshing or relaxing in Adelaide; hefound out a fellow-countryman who lent him a team of oxen,dragged his goods over the hills to his land, and encamped thefirst night on the ground, under a few blankets and canvassspread on the brush. The next and successive days the familyworked at cutting trees; there was timber plenty for building ahouse. This house, situated on the slope of a hill, consisted ofone long, low, wooden room, surrounded by a dry ditch to drainoff the rain, and divided into partitions by blankets. The riverlay below: any water needed was fetched in a bucket by one of theyoung ladies. A garden, in which all manner of vegetables,including tobacco and water melons, soon grew, was laid outalmost as soon as the house; an early investment was made inpoultry, they requiring no other food than the grasshoppers andgrass-seeds on the waste land round. Until the poultry gave acrop of eggs and chickens the guns of the lads supplied plenty ofquail, ducks, and parrots. In due time a crop of maize, of wheat,and of oats was got in. Before the barrels of oatmeal wereexhausted, eggs, chickens, potatoes, kale, and maize affordedample sustenance, and something to send to market. Labour costnothing, fuel nothing, rent nothing, keeping up appearancesnothing; no one dressed on week days in broadcloth, except thehead of the house. First a few goats, and then a cow, eventuallya fair herd of stock, were accumulated. Butter and vegetablesfound their way to Adelaide; and, while the kid-glove gentry wereruining themselves, the bare-legged boys of the Highlandgentleman were independent, if not rich. The daughters, who werepretty, proud, and useful, have married well. In anothergeneration families like this will be among the wealthiest in thecolony.

Now, it is certain that every shilling taken from industrioussettlers like this Scotch family, under pretence of supplyinglabour, was money very unprofitably invested, as it would havefructified more rapidly in their own hard hands.

A lady, who landed at Port Adelaide a few months after thegovernor, in a MS. letter describes the then "dreary appearanceof the shores; the anchoring of the ship in a narrow creek,where, as far as the eye could reach, a mangrove swamp extended;disembarking from a small boat into the arms of long shoremenupon a damp mudbank, under a persecuting assault of musquitoes."On this mudbank lay heaps of goods of all descriptions, halfcovered with sand and saturated with salt water, broken chests oftea and barrels of flour, cases of hardware, furniture of allkinds, pianos and empty plate-chests, ploughs andthrashing-machines. A little further, at the commencement of the"muddy track which led to Adelaide, bullock-drays stood ready tohire for conveying our baggage. The lowest charge for a load was10. All along the side of the track were strewn baggage andbroken conveyances, abandoned in despair by their owners. Westopped at a small public-house to get a little refreshment. Fora cup of tea, with brown sugar, bread, and oily butter full ofinsects, we paid 4s. 6d. each. The butter seemed spread with athumb."

"Our troubles partly vanished when we reached the beautifulsite of Adelaide, where it almost seemed as if a large party ofladies and gentlemen playing at gipsying had encamped. This wasthe third removal of some who had pitched tents on KangarooIsland, then built huts in Holdfast Bay, and finally took uptheir abode in the city of Adelaide. Several times, before thesmall, bright green, highly ornamented wooden summer house whichhad been engaged for us, our carriage had like to have been upsetover stumps and logs. Every one we met seemed in the highestspirits; and it was more like a walk in Kensington Gardens thanin a colony scarcely two years old."

This bit of contemporary description affords a key to muchthat is singular and contradictory in the early accounts of thefoundation of South Australia. Nat Lee, the mad poet,sings—

"There is a joy in madness nonebut madmen know."

and there was a charm about the gipsy encampment of Adelaide,with its wild speculation, perpetual excitement, liberalhospitality and charity, constant succession of new faces,splendid luxuries, and curious shifts, to which the survivorslook back with the feelings of a mariner to the months he spentwith jolly companions on a desert island, with plenty of turtlesand plenty of rum puncheons—the difference being, that inthe one case the shipwreck preceded, and in the other followed,the jollification.

Governor Gawler held a little court, which was graced by themagnificent uniforms of the officers of the volunteer corps, acorps which consisted of some two dozen officers, from a cornetto a brigade-major, and four or five privates. There werecourtiers, too, and ladies in plumes and great airs; there werefashionables, and exclusives held to be the crême de lacrême; there was an aristocracy composed of the principalofficials; there were balls given, to be invited to which greatmanoeuvres were practised. It was a life like that of one of thelittle gambling courts and watering-places of Germany, with moreheartiness, in consequence of the constant arrival of friends andvictims from England. The town lots of Adelaide formed the greatrouge-et-noir table. The climate rendered out-of-door lifedelightful, the imaginary streets swarmed with well-dressedcrowds; so much really good society, so many fashionable men, hadnever before been found in a colony; every one fancied himselfthe hero of a great enterprise, and enjoyed all the pleasures ofgambling, while dreaming that he was helping to found anempire.

In the morning the men dashed about on horses, in dog-carts,barouches, and four-in-hands, which cost fabulous sums, in searchof eligible sections and sites for villages. In the eveningsgrand dinners were given in tents and huts, where champagne,hock, burgundy, and every luxury that could be preserved in a tincase abounded; fashionable dance music and the songs of Kossiniand Donizetti resounded from the cottages of the "great world;"and at co*ck-crow beaux in beards and white waistcoats, "halfsavage, half soft," might be met picking their way, in thethinnest, shiniest boots, through the dust or mud of a projectedcrescent or arcade. There was scandal written and spoken;political intrigue; a court party and an opposition, with each anewspaper; and everybody flattered everybody else that building,dining, dancing, drinking, writing, and speechifying, "was doingthe heroic work of colonisation."

Young men of spirit were not satisfied to retire into the bushand look after a flock of silly sheep while it was possible tobuy a section of land at £1 an acre, give it a fine name as avillage site, sell the same thing at £10 an acre, for a bill thebank would discount, and live in style at the Southern CrossHotel; for when a man had made such a speculation he could not,and did not, do less than invite a party of new-made friends tocelebrate his good fortune by a dinner, a ball, or a pic-nic,with a few cases of champagne imported by the merchant oncredit.

At this period a romantic air was infused into the simplesttransactions. For instance, in the old colony exploringexpeditions had been undertaken either by a government surveyor,who marched out from some remote station without any specialdemonstration, or by a squatter who, with a friend or two, astockman, and perhaps a couple of black boys, all on horseback,set out as quickly as possible to find new pastures for hisstock. In South Australia they managed things very differently.Mr. V. Eyre having undertaken to explore the interior of theprovince, on the day appointed for his setting out a grandentertainment was given, over which the governor presided. At theclose of an affecting speech a band of young ladies clothed inwhite garments marched up the room, and presented, amid thecheers of the men and the sobs of the women, a banner which theyworked, to be planted on the limits of his proposeddiscovery.

Mr. Eyre's journey, and a second expedition, proved thehopeless barrenness of a great part of the province. Heafterwards became lieutenant-governor of the small settlement ofNelson, in New Zealand. It is rather curious that two gallant butunsuccessful exploring expeditions, that of Mr. Eyre and that ofLieutenant (now Sir George) Grey, should have led to theappointment of two governors.

During the administration of Colonel Crawler importantassistance was afforded to the colonists by the arrival of theoverlanders, who, led by love of adventure and hope of gain,found their way from the bush of New South Wales and PortPhillip, across inhospitable deserts, over precipitous hills,through dense forests, rivers, and swamps, and, in spite oftribes of fiercely hostile savages, brought flocks of sheep and"mobs" of cattle and horses to the South Australians, at a timewhen butchers' meat was rising to famine price, when a good pairof bullocks could earn 60 a week in working from the port to thecity, and horses which had arrived from Van Diemen's Land, aftera long voyage of alternate calms and adverse winds, mereskeletons covered with sores, were sold as a favour at £100each.

The overlanders saved the colony from total abandonment duringthe first crash of insolvency. The strength of Australia is inher pastures: sheep to the Australian, before the discovery ofcopper and gold, were what the pine-tree was to the Highlandlaird, who on his death-bed said to his son, "Jock, be ayeputting in a tree: it will be growing while ye are sleeping." Thenatural pastures and the climate grow the wool, and men, women,or children can be shepherds who have neither strength to felltimber, nor power or skill to plough, to sow, or to thrash.Besides, a pack of wool is always worth cash, while a bushel ofwheat in Australia may be worth 10s. one year and nothing thenext; in the worst of times ewes go on breeding and increasing,and wethers boil down for tallow, while a field allowed to go outof cultivation under an Australian climate, after devouring allthe capital spent on reclamation, very soon becomes as much wasteas before the plough turned the first furrow. The overlanders whobrought these invaluable animals were many of them men ofeducation: the enormous profits reaped by the first parties, inspite of the loss of both men and beasts by drought andskirmishes with the blacks, made the overland route a favouriteadventure with the young bushmen. They brought with them, as wellas live stock, "old hands," who taught the co*ckneys how to fell atree and make a fence, and sometimes gave the Gawler police agood deal of trouble.

The gentlemen overlanders affected a banditti style of hairand costume. They rode blood, or half-bred Arab horses, worebroad-brimmed sombreros trimmed with fur and eagle plumes,scarlet flannel shirts, broad belts filled with pistols, knives,and tomahawks, tremendous beards, and moustachios. They generallyencamped and let their stock refresh about 100 miles fromAdelaide, and then rode on to strike a bargain with their anxiouscustomers. Before the journey became a matter of course, thearrival of a band of these brown, bearded, banditti-lookinggentlemen created quite a sensation—something like thearrival of a party of successful buccaneers in a quiet seaport,with a cargo to sell, in old Dampier's time.

In a few days the stock was sold; the overland garments wereexchanged for the most picturesque and fashionable costume whichthe best Hindley-street tailor "from Bond-street" could supply;and then, with hair combed, brushed, oiled, and gracefullyarranged after Raphael or Vandyke, the overlander proceeded tospend freely the money he had so hardly gained, and, as one ofthe lions of the place, to cast into the shade the pert, smooth,political economists and model colonists fresh from theAdelphi.

New arrivals from England, fortunate enough to be admitted tothe delightful evening parties given by a lady of the "highestton," the leader of the Adelaidean fashion, were astonished when,to fill up basso in an Italian piece, she called on a huge manwith brown hands, brown face, and a flowing beard, magnificentlyattired, in whom they recognised the individual they had met theday before in a torn flannel jersey, with a short black pipe inhis mouth.

The overlanders included every rank, from the emancipist tothe first-class Oxford man. By the end of 1840 they hadintroduced nearly 50,000 sheep into the colony, and taught thewiser colonists the necessity of looking to pastoral pursuits forthe safe investment of capital.

The trade of turning wild land worth a few shillings an acreinto building sections, to be sold at from four or five pounds toone thousand pounds an acre, by the simple expedient of a fewpegs and a coloured plan, was too good to be monopolised by SouthAustralia. The government and private speculators followed theingenious example in New South Wales and Port Phillip; while inEngland a dozen foolish or fraudulent schemes were started, underthe patronage of names as respectable as those who patronised theSouth American mines of 1824, and the railway delusion of 1845,for colonising New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, New Caledonia,the Falkland Islands, and other countries having the inestimableadvantage of being very distant and almost unknown; all to bedivided into "town, suburban, and country lots," to be sold inEngland at a "sufficient price."

The competition of these new bubbles, home and colonial,diverted the attention of intending colonists from SouthAustralia, where the high price of town lots left but smallmargin for profits or premiums. Besides, in those epochs ofspeculative frenzy which periodically recur in England andScotland, unknown schemes have a certain advantage. About the endof the second year of Colonel Gawler's administration, theresources of South Australia as an investment for capital werepartly known, while, as nothing was known about the resources ofNew Zealand, not even whether there was any available land thereat all, it became an excellent and fashionable subject forspeculation.

Colonel Gawler piteously complains in some of his despatchesof the misrepresentations of rival colonists, and of parties who,after a very partial inspection of the port and coast, haddeparted, exclaiming, "All is barren!" But the fact was, that thecapitalists who had landed found no advantageous opening for theinvestment of capital; town lots had been driven up to anenormous premium; the cultivation of land did not pay, and hasnever paid the employer of labour on a large scale in any newcountry. Wool-growing and other pastoral pursuits were moreprofitable in Port Phillip and the new districts of New SouthWales; besides, under the puffing forcing system, enough land,supposing it all fertile, had been sold to support a populationof 200,000. The population of the colony was 15,000, of which8,000 were settled in Adelaide, gambling with each other. As forthe labourers, they were partly employed in waiting and workingfor the white-handed emigrants who had come out under Mr.Wakefield's advice "to labour with their heads, not with theirhands," and who, therefore, required more work done for them thanold-fashioned colonists, who were not ashamed to mend their owntools or carry their own packages, and partly in executing worksfor the government and for the South Australian Company. Aconsiderable number were in the hospital, and others were workingat such sham labour tests as drawing fallen timber from the park,to be used for fuel in the government offices.

It had been found impracticable then, as in all subsequentattempts, to carry out the scheme of obtaining recruits for freepassages "exclusively of young married couples not exceedingtwenty-four years of age." The labouring classes have theirfeelings and affections as keenly in regard to family ties astheir superiors in fortune and education; they are not to bedraughted out, as the Wakefield theory proposes, like sheep orcattle; and the parties charged with supplying the quota oflabourers required for the ships, so recklessly despatched toSouth Australia, completed the number by a per centage who fromage, feebleness, or unfitness for colonial labour, became almostimmediately chargeable on the government. All who were shipped,if able to work, claimed under their shipping order a minimum of5s. a day.

When more houses had been built than could be let when thecapital, of which a large portion was exported for theimportation of labour which it was impossible to employprofitably, began to grow scarce—the price of land ordersfell, and the rate of wages. Then the frugal labourers began toretire from service, to settle down on purchased sections, andcombine to purchase and divide sections of 80 acres, to theextreme disgust of the hired-labour and sufficient-pricetheorists.

In England the large draughts of the governor, in conjunctionwith the falling off of land sales, had driven the commissionersto endeavour without success to negotiate the remainder of theloan authorised by their two acts of Parliament, and then toapply for assistance to the Treasury, which was in the firstinstance granted to a limited extent.

In the colony Colonel Gawler was travelling on a declivity,and could not arrest his course. When he found the commissionerscould no longer meet his bills he drew upon the Treasury for theexpenses of government. The first bills were met; but eventuallya series of draughts, to the amount of £69,000, weredishonoured.

The commissioners, who had been perfectly content with ColonelGawler, as long as the public continued to purchase land, fellupon him like a herd upon a stricken deer, repudiated acts towhich they had given tacit approval, and tried to throw thefailure due to their absurd plan and improvident conduct on "thegovernor's extravagance." He was recalled abruptly, and left tohear of the dishonour of his bills by a circuitous privatesource. The commissioners themselves were soon afterignominiously dismissed.

When the news of the dishonour of the governor's bills reachedthe colony the bubble burst; land became immediately unsaleable;an insolvency all but universal followed, from which the banks,from early private intelligence, were able to protect themselves.The chief sufferers were English merchants, shippers, andmanufacturers. The colonial speculators had long been trading onfictitious capital. A certain number of colonists of fortune werereduced to absolute beggary. A rapid re-emigration of capital andlabour took place. Many labourers were thrown on the governmentfor support. The price of food, rent, and wages fell rapidly.Adelaide became almost a deserted village. The only persons busywere officials whom the commissioners had forgotten to appoint,viz., the sheriff and his officers, engaged in pursuing beggareddebtors, and the Judge of the Insolvent Court, by whom they wererapidly whitewashed.

Colonel Crawler retired, after having sacrificed aconsiderable private fortune to his faith in an impracticablesystem, and became the scapegoat for the criminal absurdities ofthe colonising theorists in London. But his hospitality, hischarity, his truthfulness, his genuine kindness of heart,rendered him respected and beloved in South Australia, especiallyamong the humbler classes, or those who were humble in histime.

He was succeeded by Captain (now Sir George) Grey, who,happening to be in London at the time Colonel Gawler wasrecalled, and able to afford the Colonial Office some informationabout this pantomime colony, received and accepted the ungratefuloffice of governor.

From that day it has been the endeavour of the theorists andtheir orators to charge to the extravagance of the ruinedex-governor the inevitable result of an attempt to plant a colonywithout the preparations dictated by common prudence—toregulate the flow of capital and labour—and to raiserevenue and profits from the application of capital and labour tounproductive works. The commissioners sent ship-loads ofcolonists, where, had they been wise, they would have sentsheep.

{Page 231}

CHAPTER XXI.

GOVERNOR GREY.

1841 TO 1844.

When Colonel Gawler retired, landbecame unsaleable, emigrants ceased to arrive, and of those whowere in the colony a large per centage re-emigrated to colonieswhere there were more cattle and fewer town lots. The populationof Adelaide diminished in twelve months to the extent of fourthousand souls. The price of everything fell fifty per cent.;whole streets of Messrs. Gouger's and Stephens's cottages stoodempty; the South Australian merchants who had paid their Englishcreditors in the Insolvent Court, ceased to be trusted withspeculative shipments; the police horses were turned to grazeupon the beautiful gardens constructed by Colonel Gawler on thebanks of the Torrens; Government House, late the scene ofvice-royal entertainments, was closed; the little world ofAdelaide recovered its senses and lost some of its conceit; andthe sober and industrious were able to survey and take stock ofthe true position of the colony.

The raw materials of colonisation had been provided, a roadhad been constructed from the port, others toward the interiorhad been marked out and made practicable. Land suitable forcultivation had been discovered, surveyed, and handed over toland purchasers, who had now no temptation to stay in town, ifthey meant to remain in the colony; labourers were willing totake reasonable wages, or ready to set to work for themselveswith hearty good will; and, what was most satisfactory of all,live stock by importation, by overland, and by natural increase,afforded an ample supply of meat at reasonable prices, with acertain and increasing quantity of wool and tallow forexportation. Impoverished gentry were now happy to fall back,from imported fresh salmon, or ducks and green peas in tin cases,at fifty per cent. above the Piccadilly tariff, upon nativepoultry, at almost nominal prices. During the land mania geeseimported from Van Diemen's land sold at 12s. 6d. each, fowls, 5s.a head, and everything else in proportion. In 1842 country peopleused to drive a cart filled with live poultry, fowls, ducks,geese, turkeys, in fair condition, covered over with a sheet, andsell the whole lot at from fourteen to sixteen shillings.

Under the bountiful, genial climate of South Australia actualwant was unknown, and-industry produced immediate results.

Governor Grey's task was easy. The famine or speculativeprices of labour and provisions had fallen to reasonable rates,the emigration of paupers had ceased, and with the immigrationthe cost of maintaining the infirm, the sick, and the lazy. Theunhired were set to work at such bare wages as induced them toseek private employers as soon as possible; the surveys werecarried on steadily without pressure, and without exorbitantexpenses for stores and hire of drays; and the police expenseswere partly superseded by the arrival of a company of soldiersgranted to Governor Grey, although indignantly refused to SirCharles Napier. With these reductions of expenditure, and powerto draw upon the home government for a limited sum, Governor Greywas still unable, in homely phrase, to make both ends meet; butthe colony survived and vegetated in a sort of obscurity, whichcontrasted painfully with the brilliancy of its early, brief,blooming, hothouse career.

In the mean tune the model colonists were not idle in England.On the 7th July, 1840, the colonisation commissioners for SouthAustralia brought under the notice of the Colonial Secretary(Lord J. Russell) the embarrassed state of the finances of thecolony; and in August they reported that the revenue of thecolony did not much exceed £20,000 per annum, and the currentexpenditure had risen to £140,000. Under these circ*mstances theSecretary of State, by letter dated 5th November, 1840, undertookto guarantee a loan of £120,000 to be raised by thecommissioners; but negotiations to raise this loan failed.

In the same year the original commissioners weredismissed.

In February, 1841, a select committee of the House of Commonswas appointed to consider the South Australian acts, and theactual condition of the colony of South Australia. The inquirylasted until the 10th June. A long array of witnesses were calledon behalf of the Colonial Office and the South Australianinterest. Personal and documentary evidence proved in theclearest manner that the Colonial Office had given everyreasonable assistance to the commissioners, and were in no mannerresponsible for the blunders of the commissioners or thecommissioners' agents. The South Australian interest, includingnon-resident purchasers of vast tracts of land, and Mr. GibbonWakefield and his disciples, were examined at great length, butnot a single representative or settler from any of the colonieswhose interests were likely to be affected by the decisions ofthe committee was called.

The case for South Australia was "got up and worked," inrailway phrase, by Mr. Wakefield and Colonel Torrens, and all thecolonial evidence was made to fit their peculiarviews.

The committee made two reports. In the first, on the 9thMarch, 1840, they state, "that at the present moment the sales bythe colonisation commissioners of land in the colony aresuspended; emigration has ceased since the month of August; thebills drawn by the governor have been protested, the estimatedamount of such bills already due and in progress is £97,000, theamount due to parties in England for services performed is£56,000; the debt from the revenue to the emigration fund is£56,000; making a total deficiency of about £210,000."

In the second report they enter into the history of the colonyin detail, in the course of which they say:—"With regard toColonel Gawler, it is impossible to doubt that when he entered onthe duties of his office they were in a state of the greatestconfusion, and that the difficulties he had to contend with weremost embarrassing; that shortly after his arrival in the colonyhe represented these circ*mstances, and gave the commissionersreason to expect a considerable excess of expenditure above whathad been provided; that among those witnesses who have mostdecidedly pronounced his expenditure excessive, none have beenable to point out any specific items which could have beenreduced without great public inconvenience, while the chief itemof expenditure, incurred on account of the government house andpublic offices, was one that the late board had authorised."

******

"The commissioners had originally set apart a sum of £10,000annually, over and above the revenue, out of which they intendedthat all the ordinary expenditure should be defrayed. It isnow calculated that after spending the whole local revenue, andproviding otherwise for the charge of surveys, which has hithertobeen defrayed by drafts upon the commissioners, and withoutmaking any allowance for public works, there will still remain tobe provided for an annual deficit of about £40,000."

But the committee, as experience has since proved, were morecorrect in their statement of facts than fortunate and sagaciousin proposing a remedy. Having unsuspectingly received all Mr.Gibbon Wakefield's assumptions and assertions as incontrovertibleeconomical truths, they proceeded to recommend by resolutions,amongst other things, that all land be sold by auction at aminimum upset price, except special surveys of 20,000 acres; that"the minimum price of land in South Australia may safely beraised above the present amount of £1 an acre; and that in fixingsuch amount it is desirable to keep in view the principle ofmaintaining such an amount as may tend to remedy the evilsarising out of a too great facility of obtaining landedproperty, and a consequently disproportionate supply of labourand exorbitant rate of wages."

At that time the committee were firmly convinced that theycould regulate the rate of wages by the price of land; and LordHowick, since Colonial Secretary as Earl Grey, then a pupil ofMr. Wakefield, moved as an amendment to the above-quotedresolution, "That one minimum price for land in all theAustralian colonies ought to be established, and that this priceought not to be lower than £2 per acre, and that it ought to beprogressively increased until it is found that the great scarcityof labour now complained of in these colonies no longerexists."

The fallacy of these assumptions has now been rendered aspatent as another favourite assumption of the sameperiod—that the price of corn in England regulated the rateof wages.

Ten years' experience have proved that the highest rate ofwages may exist in the face of a price of land so high as toexclude all but a very small number of purchasers; and in thatten years the home government, in the face of a ruinous rate ofwages, have been unable, although willing, to raise the price ofland in Australia. The sale of land has ceased, except in theimmediate neighbourhood of towns, in choice situations, and wheremines were supposed to exist.

But in 1841 colonial opinions were treated with contempt. Asin 1847 grave commercial men like Mr. Morrison, deceived byimaginary dividends, believed that government could buy up andwork all the railways of Great Britain at a profit, so LordStanley and Lord Grey, dazzled by the land purchases of madspeculators in New South Wales, Port Phillip, and SouthAustralia, fancied that the government had an inexhaustibletreasure for emigration and patronage in the waste lands of everycolony in the British dominions, from the Sugar Loaf Hills of NewZealand to the wild wintry moors of the Falkland Islands.

Two acts brought in and carried by Lord Stanley, the ColonialSecretary, in the session of 1842, embodied the recommendationsof the committee, and arranged for the future government of SouthAustralia. By one a minimum price of £1 an acre, with sale byauction, except in the case of special surveys of 20,000 acres,was imposed on all the Australian colonies, including VanDiemen's Land. It is this act against which the colonists, whowere never consulted, have not ceased to protest. By the otheract South Australia was transferred from the management ofcommissioners to the Colonial Office, and its debts were arrangedin the following manner:—The whole debt amounted to£405,433; of this, £155,000, which had been granted by Parliamentin 1841 for passing exigencies, was made a free gift; £45,936, ofwhich £17,646 had been incurred by Governor Grey in maintainingunemployed emigrants, was to be paid by the Treasury; and theremainder was converted into debentures, partly guaranteed by thegovernment and partly charged on the colonial revenues.

It may be convenient to state here that renewed sales of land,after the discovery of copper mines, paid off the greater part ofthese debts, with interest, between 1845 and 1849, with theexception of the £155,000. About £50,000 still remains due.

On the passing of this act South Australia sank intoobscurity, and in spite of the vigorous efforts of the SouthAustralian Company, which found itself in possession of largetracts of land that could neither be sold nor let to rent-payingtenants, ceased to attract the attention of emigrants.

Great bankers and capitalists who had been induced to purchaselots of land wrote them out in their books as value nil. So lateas 1850 there were parties in the city of London who hadforgotten that they held some thousand acres in South Australiauntil reminded by an application to purchase from returnedcolonists. In very rare cases has the investment in rural land at£1 an acre turned out profitable.

Dover, the quietest and least enterprising of towns,contributed by public subscription in 1837-8 one emigrant toSouth Australia. The fortunate man no sooner arrived, withnothing to lose, than, carried away by enthusiasm and thepersuasions of the Colonial Secretary, Gouger, he became thepurchaser of a thousand acres of land, and boldly drew upon twoof the gentlemen who had charitably sent him out, advising themof the favour he had done them, and promising to remit in duecourse the title-deeds. The good Doverians, on the arrival of thetremendous bill, held a consultation, learned the total ruin thatwould fall on the drawer if it were returned protested, wishing,too, not to have the one Dover emigrant disgraced, and perhaps alittle dazzled by the brilliant reports of fortunes dailyrealised in Australian land, made a round robin of 100 apiece,met the bill, in due course received the grant, and from thattime forward never heard a word of the emigrant or the land.

The following figures will show the results of thisself-supporting, sufficient-price colony:—

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF SEVEN YEARS OFTHE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COMMISSION.

[ Shipping 1839—190; Shipstonnage, 40,000.]

ACRES IN CULTIVATION.

Thus it appears that, between 1837 and 1840, 15,000inhabitants, who were importing provisions at the rate of£200,000 per annum, only cultivated 2,000 acres; but in threeyears after they had abandoned land-gambling, and lost all creditin the English market, they had 28,000 acres in cultivation, ofwhich 23,000 were in wheat, and the number of landed proprietorshad nearly doubled. But the result of this industry proved that,although much misery would have been saved the colony hadagriculture occupied the colonists instead of land-gambling,still that agriculture could not be carried on with a profit withhired labour in the colony, for in 1843-4 wheat fell to 3s. 6d.and even 2s. 6d. a bushel, with wages at least 3s. a day; whileVan Diemen's Land, with better soil and climate for wheatgrowing, and cheaper labour, could not afford to grow wheat forless than 4s. or 5s. a bushel. In fact, the South Australiansfound themselves in possession of 200,000 bushels of wheat whichwas absolutely unsaleable, although of admirable quality; and inJune, 1845, after exporting 200,000 bushels, chiefly sold at aloss, a surplus of 156,000 bushels remained.

Of wool there were only 5,000 bales to export in 1843. PortPhillip, colonised with sheep and shepherds at the time thatmodel colonists were forwarded to Port Adelaide in thousands,exported 9,000 bales in 1841; and in 1843 enjoyed exports to theamount of £307,000, without a shilling of debt, against SouthAustralian exports of £46,000, and £400,000 debt.

In 1843 the results of the monstrous system on which SouthAustralia was colonised began to disappear. The ruinedcapitalists were forgotten, so too were the debts due to the homegovernment and home creditors. Those who had been able to weatherthe storm of insolvency and keep a few sheep had retired towardsthe interior: there dispersed, they were able to live cheaply, tocarry on their business with little hired labour, and to lookforward with confidence to annual income from the clip of wool,and annual increase of wealth by the natural increase of theirflocks.

Thus, in 1843, South Australia, formed with so muchpreparation, the subject of so much printing, colonised by asuperior class, forced forward by an enormous expenditure ofpublic and private capital, instead of presenting a picture of acontented population, divided into capitalists and labourersengaged in scientific agriculture, owed all its exports todispersion after the manner of neighbouring colonies, whose"barbarous manners" had been so much contemned, and presented apicture of cottier farmers, vegetating in obscurity, content tolive with few comforts, without rent or taxes. Some squatted onland the property of absentees, many more as tenants not payingany rent, whom the landlords were glad to retain in order to keeptheir land in condition. The tenants of the South AustralianCompany were in this state.

Looking back at the condition of South Australia after it hadceased to attract the importation of capital, there can be nodoubt that if it had been as far from the old ports of thecolonies as Swan River, and out of reach of the expeditions ofoverlanders, it would have sunk even to a lower ebb than WesternAustralia.

When land-jobbing had been exhausted, and all the schemeshatched in England for employing capital had been tried and foundwanting, an accident revealed to the colonists the existence of atreasure which even the sanguine and poetical promoters of thecolony had never suspected or suggested. They had placed coals,marble, slate, and precious stones among the probable exports;but copper and lead had not entered into their calculations.

In 1841 a little lead ore was discovered and sent to England.In 1843 Mr. Button, the brother of a gentleman of some means, butwho had himself been compelled by the general depression toaccept the situation of sheep overseer, accidentally discovered,and, in partnership with Captain Bagot, became the purchaser of,the eighty-acre section which included the Kapunda mine. Othermines were subsequently discovered, to which, wherever of anyimportance, a description will be given in the chapter devoted tothe present resources of the colony; but the great event, theturning-point of the fortunes of South Australia, was thediscovery of the Burra Burra mine, which has alone furnished forthe last five years more than four-fifths of South Australianexports.

The discovery of the Kapunda set all the colony hunting formineral outcrops; the residue of the land-jobbers took up thegeologist's hammer; but by a singular fortune, the investigationsof Mr. Mengs, a practised geologist, were fruitless, while a mineof wealth was turned up by the wheel of a bullock-dray.

In 1845 the existence of a remarkable and promising outcrop onthe Burra hills became well known in the colony: rumours on thesubject had been afloat in 1840. In order to secure the wholedistrict without the unlimited competition, application was madeto the governor for a special survey of 20,000 acres. At the sametime a party of speculators arrived from Sydney, intent onsecuring the great prize if possible. The survey was ordered; aday and hour was fixed for the payment of the £20,000; thegovernor decided not to accept bills of the local bank, oranything but cash. Cash in 1845 was a very scarce commodity inAdelaide, although corn was plentiful, and pride as rampant, andwith as little reason, as in any decayed watering-place inEngland. The retailers, and all not within a certainindescribable line, were dubbed the snobs; the officials andself-elected aristocracy the nobs.

To raise the £20,000, a union between the nobs and snobsbecame indispensable; but even that was not enough, for there wasscarcely so much gold in the possession of all the colonists, andthe Sydney speculators were waiting ready to bear off the prize.On the last day for payment a hunt for gold was commenced by halfa dozen men of good credit. Cash-boxes in hand, they traversedthe streets and suburbs of Adelaide, offering with ample securitya handsome premium for sovereigns. On that day many secret hoardswere dug out; husbands learned that prudent wives had unknownstores, and old women were even tempted to draw their £1 and £2from the recesses of old stockings. Almost at the last minute themoney was collected, counted, and paid, and the richestcopper-mine in the world rewarded the long suffering of the SouthAustralians, and awakened all their old gambling spirit. Thepurchase effected, the class spirit which forms so absurd anelement in the English character, broke out, and a division ofthe 20,000 acres was decided on. The toss-up of a coin gave the"snobs" the first choice; they took 10,000 acres, to which theygave a native name, the Burra Burra. The nobs named their 10,000acres the Princess Royal. The outcroppings on the hills of thePrincess Royal were magnificent; nevertheless in 1850 their £50scrip was not saleable at £12. The history of this mine is thehistory of the commercial progress of South Australia. Farms,land sales; emigration, wharves, warehouses, projected railways,imports, rents, wages, have all rested on the yield of the BurraBurra.

The government was vested in the governor andcommander-in-chief, assisted by an executive and legislativecouncil, composed of the governor, the colonial secretary, theadvocate-general, the surveyor-general, and the assistantcommissioner, to whom were subsequently added four nominees fromamong the non-official colonists.

Of the progress of South Australia since the discovery ofmines and the dissolution of the South Australian Commission, thefollowing figures will afford some idea:—

The exports of the year ending April, 1850, amounted to£453,668 12s. Of this sum £11,212 was in wheat, £20,279 in flour,£63,729 in copper in ingots, £211,361 in copper ore, £8,188 intallow, and [£]113,259 in wool.

The imports for the same period were £887,423, part of theexcess arising from imports of railway and mining machinery, andother productive investments. In the same year 64,728½ acres werein cultivation—wheat, 41,807 acres; potatoes, 1,780;gardens, 1,370; vineyards, 282; hay, 13,000.

The population was 63,900, of which 7,000 were Germans.

Live Stock: Cattle, 100,000; sheep, 1,200,000; horses,6,000.*

[* We give the statistics of 1850, because sincethat period the colony has been disturbed by temporary emigrationto the gold mines of New South Wales and Victoria.]

PART II.

DESCRIPTIVE.

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CHAPTER XXII.

A GLANCE AT THE EXTENT, FORM, SOIL, CLIMATE, RIVERS, ANDPRODUCTIONS OF AUSTRALIA.

Australia is the largest island in theworld, so large that it is more correctly described as anisland-continent, situated between the 10th and 45th degrees ofsouth latitude, and the 112th and 154th degrees of longitude eastfrom Greenwich. It may be said to be nearly three thousand milesfrom west to east, and two thousand miles from north to south, ofa nearly square form, were it not for the deep indentation formedby the great Gulf of Carpenteria. But this superficial extent,which is sometimes compared with that of other continents,affords no true index to the area really available, or everlikely to be available, for colonisation. A great portion of theinterior is more hopelessly barren and impassable than thedeserts of Africa, being in dry weather a hollow basin of sand,in rainy seasons a vast shallow inland sea, alternately andrapidly swelled by tropical torrents, and dried up by thetropical sun.

Comparisons are frequently instituted between the relativeareas and populations of Europe and Australia; but nothing can bemore fallacious or dishonest.

The resources of Australia have been as yet barely discovered;a century of active colonisation can scarcely develop them totheir fullest extent. Even without the appliances of science andcombined labour a vast population may be subsisted in comfort;but, without some change more extensive and material than it ispossible to foresee, there can be no such dense multitudesconcentrated in Australia as are found in the more civilisedstates of Europe, and as may be found at some future period inNorth America. The absence of great rivers and the means offorming inland water communication, and the quality of a greatproportion of the soil, settle this point.

The surface of this island is depressed in the centre, boundedby an almost continuous range of hills and plateaux, which,varying in height from one to six thousand feet above the levelof the sea, in some places approach the coast and present lofty,inaccessible cliffs to the ocean—as, for instance, theheads of Port Jackson—and in others tend toward theinterior of the country, at a distance of from twenty to eightymiles; but these elevations being all of an undulating, not aprecipitous character, no part of the country can be consideredstrictly alpine.

The features on the exterior and interior of this range ofhills differ so much as to present the results of climatesusually found much further apart, especially on the easterncoast, where between the mountains and the sea as,—forinstance, at Illawarra, Port Macquarie, and Moreton Bay—thevegetation partakes to a great extent of a tropical character;and on the rich debris washed down from the hills we find forestsof towering palms and various species of gum-trees(Eucalypti), the surface of the ground beneath clothedwith dense and impervious underwood, composed of dwarf trees,shrubs, and tree-ferns, festooned with creepers and parasiticplants, from the size of a convolvulus and vine to the cable of aman-of-war. These dense forests, through which exploringtravellers have been obliged to cut their way inland at the rateof not more than a mile or two a day, are interspersed with openglades or meadow reaches, admirably adapted for pasturing cattle,to which the colonists have given the name of apple-tree flats,from the fancied resemblance between the apple-trees of Europeand those (Angophoræ) with which these glades are thinlydotted.

Within the ranges, on the other hand, are found immense opendowns and grassy plains, divided by rocky and round-backed rangesof hills, and interspersed by open forest without undergrowth anddetached belts of gum trees (Eucalypti acaciæ), presentinga park-like appearance, which, advancing towards the interior,are succeeded either by marshes, or sandy and stony deserts,perfectly sterile and uninhabitable, except by a few reptiles,and birds which prey upon them.

The rivers of Australia are few in number, and insignificantin a navigable point of view. The one series, rising from theseaside of the mountain range, flow deviously until they reachthe coast, seldom affording a navigable stream more than twentymiles inland, usually rushing down with such rapidity during therainy season as to fill up their seamouths with a bar whichexcludes all except boats of slight draught of water. The otherseries, falling toward the interior, are lost in quicksands,marshes, or shallow lakes, after a course varying from a score tomany hundred miles of zigzag current, now flowing with a full,deep stream, and then suddenly diminishing to a depth of a fewinches, or even totally and suddenly disappearing.

The Dutch colonists in South Africa have terms by which theyexpress the exact value of flowing water, whether perpetual orintermittent, whether a mere rivulet or a deep stream; but thereare no words invented in the English language which convey acorrect idea of Australian waters. The two terms most in use arecreek and river, the former being an arm or branch of the latter.But an Australian river, even when marked by an imposing colouredline on a map, giving according to proportion an idea of a Rhine,a Danube, or a Thames, is generally a chain of pools, varying indimension from a few yards to a league in diameter, which are,with a few grand exceptions, according to their respective depthand proximity to mountains, reduced to an absolute or comparativestate of mud in dry seasons, or united into a deep, still stream,or roaring torrent, after a few hours of tropical rain.

The brother of the writer rode down, on an exploringexpedition during a season of drought, with a fellow-squatter, insearch of fresh pastures, and discovered a river, flowing bankhigh, as broad as the Thames at Richmond, winding along plainswhich, as far as the eye could reach, were covered with richgrass higher than the necks of their horses. As they rode along,ground pigeons, grass parroquets, and quails rose up inthousands; and from time to time flocks of emus thundered past,while kangaroos bounded swiftly away, and from the river roseclouds of waterfowl. There seemed game enough to feed an army,and grass enough for tens of thousands of live stock. Yet helived to see within a few years the grassy plain burned to asandy desert, and the great river shrink to a chain of shallowpools, in which it was difficult to find water enough for ahundred oxen.

The deep pools, called colonially "waterholes," and thewinding course pursued by all the Australian rivers, economisethe supply during the long droughts, and at the same timedistribute it over a considerable part of the country. Thus theHawkesbury, one of the earliest rivers navigated by the settlers,is not more than thirty-five miles in a direct line from Windsor,where it is navigable to Broken Bay, and where it flows into thesea; but its tortuous route is one hundred and forty miles, andhigher up its windings are still more remarkably circuitous. TheMurray, the greatest river of Australia, rising on the westernflank of the Australian alps, after a course of fourteen hundredmiles, in which it receives the waters of the Ovens, the Darling,and the Murrumbidgee, by which name it is known for part of itscourse, ends in the broad shallow lake of Alexandrina, in SouthAustralia.

Until the later explorations of Mitchell and Leichardt hopeswere confidently entertained of discovering an inland sea, and agreat navigable river, flowing to the northward; but these hopesare now no longer entertained, and it is certain that on landconveyance the chief Australian communications must depend.

A great diversity of climate prevails in Australia, varyingwith the latitude and the height from the sea. Van Diemen's Land,with its more isolated and more southern position, enjoys morerain and the irrigation of many streams. In certain districts ofAustralia, especially between the 25th and 35th degrees oflatitude, the thermometer frequently rises to 110°, 120°, andeven 130°, in the shade, while hot winds sweep over the countryfrom the sterile, burning plains of the interior. This great heatis unaccompanied by night-dews; and droughts of many months'duration occur at uncertain intervals, and are of uncertainextent, during which rivers and waterholes are dried up. Thesettlers, who have not yet imitated the costly construction oftanks and aqueducts, or even the more simple and successfulcontrivances adopted in peninsular India and in Asia Minor forcollecting and husbanding rain and spring-water, suffer dreadfulstraits. The pastures become parched deserts—the sheep eatthe grass to the roots—the waterholes are poisoned by thebodies of cattle suffocated in sloughs when struggling for drink,and thousands of stock of all kinds perish either before movingor while on the road to districts which the drought has notaffected. It is during these droughts that almost all the greatdiscoveries of new pastures have been made by enterprisingstockowners and their servants.

But after a time—which no man, white or native, cancalculate—rains fall in torrents, grass springs upabundantly, "and the plains, on which but lately not a blade ofherbage was to be seen, and over which the stillness ofdesolation reigned, become green with luxuriant vegetation." Therivers and creeks fill with marvellous rapidity; a roaring floodrushes down the lately dry bed of a stream, overflows the banks,and carries all that impedes its progress in white foam beforeit. On such occasions the Hawkesbury has risen, betweenprecipitous cliffs, ninety-five feet in a few hours. In 1851, inthe Maneroo district, the sites of townships recently laid outfor sale by the government surveyor were converted into deeplakes, and a whole camp of aborigines were drowned.

The ravages of the drought and flood are quickly replaced in aclimate so favourable to the increase of live stock, and in avery short time the losses and the dangers are forgotten. Theseafflictions were of a more serious character in the early yearsof the first colony, when but a comparatively limited part hadbeen explored. At present plenty in one colony or one districtcounterbalances the droughts or floods of another.

At a height of two or three thousand feet above the level ofthe sea a temperate and even cold region is to be found, wherethe vegetables, fruits, and grain of northern Europe nourish, andthe settler or traveller finds the necessity of warm clothing,and the comfort of blazing fires.

But despite all the varieties of temperature found inAustralia, the climate is, with the exception of the burningplains of the interior, congenial to Europeans. Even the tropicalregions of the coast are free from those fevers which decimatewhite men visiting the Indian seas and the African coast.

The soil of Australia varies even more than its climate. Ofthe whole extent a very large proportion is hopelessly barren,but still enough remains capable of supporting a very numerous,and in some districts a dense population. There are no data forcalculating with such a degree of accuracy as would be useful theproportions of available land in the occupied districts. It willbe safe to assume that only two-thirds of the land worthoccupying is, or ever will be, fit for pastoral purposes, and canno more be profitably cultivated than the limestone hills andmoors of Wales, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and Gloucestershire, orthe Highlands of Scotland.

Of land fit for agricultural purposes, and sufficiently clearof trees to be put under plough at a reasonable expenditure oflabour, there is enough to support a population to be counted bymillions, but continually intersected by barren ranges andforests of scrub, which can never be of any value except forfirewood.

On the coast to the northward, between Port Macquarie andMoreton Bay, are vast tracts of well-watered land, on which thesoil is excellently adapted for various crops, but so coveredwith heavy timber that nothing less than the old system ofconvict-clearing gangs, or of free grants to clearing parties,will bring them into cultivation in this generation, althoughwell placed for water conveyance to the seaport towns. On theother hand, in Port Phillip there are plains on which the ploughmight be driven for one hundred miles in a straight line, turningup a furrow of rich mould along the whole tract; and the othertwo colonies can present similar instances, although not to thesame extent, or so near the seacoast.

The soil of Australia presents as many anomalies as itsconfiguration and its animal and vegetable productions.

In other parts of the world the most fertile tracts aregenerally found near the mouths of rivers; in Australia thegreatest fertility usually commences where the navigation ceases.In Europe the valleys will generally be found full of rich soil;in Australia some of the richest mould is to be found on the topsof hills. The low hills formed on the banks of rivers above thenavigable waters are often unequalled in richness, while thevalleys are composed of a soft clay, producing a rich coarseherbage, very fit for pasturing horned cattle, but unsuitable forcultivation.

The neighbourhood of the first settlement, west and south-westof Sydney, is chiefly composed of sandstone and unproductiveclays. The first good land was found in patches on the RiverHawkesbury; and on the alluvial flats formed by the overflowingfresh-water rivers the richest cultivable land is to be found.Works for draining or irrigating can only be attempted wheredamming a valley or draining a high-lying marsh can produce agreat effect at a moderate expense. For half a century theprogress of colonisation in Australia has rested on its pastoralresources, which are of the very first order, as regards soil,climate, and arrangement of territory.

From the level of the sea to the summit of the highestmountains pastures are to be found extending for hundreds ofmiles,—now undulating smoothly and almost imperceptibly,then extending in broad, flat plains, or over a succession ofround-backed hills, broken with rocky ranges, and ending in deepgullies. Over these the flockmaster may, if needful, drive hisflock for days, nay, for weeks, without meeting any seriousinterruption to his progress, or without failure of the pastureon which sheep thrive.

The districts which, from their dampness and rankness of thevegetation, would be unsuitable for sheep, are available forcattle, which in certain regions, in default of grass, find goodfeed on the tender branches of a species of primrose.

Agriculture has hitherto been but rudely pursued in Australia,with rare exceptions. To gentlemen of capital it is not, and isnot likely to become, a profitable pursuit; for this reason, aprejudice against the agricultural capabilities of the colonieshas been entertained and sedulously encouraged among the pastoralinterest, who, dreading the prospect of a class of yeomanry whichmight encroach on their sheep-walks, can with difficulty beinduced to admit that there is any fertile soil to befound—a prejudice which must always be taken intoconsideration in estimating the value of colonial evidence onsuch subjects. It is quite certain that ignorant cultivators havesuccessfully cropped farms on the Hawkesbury, the Hunter, theMacquarie, year after year, without manure, and without anysensible diminution in the returns. As to quality of grain, thewheat imported into this country from South Australia, PortPhillip, and Van Diemen's Land, has been pronounced equal to anyever exhibited in Mark-lane for weight, size, and flavour.

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CHAPTER XXIII.

A GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH AND TABULAR VIEW OF EASTERNAUSTRALIA.

New South Wales and the new province ofVictoria have so recently been divided, and are geographically socompletely united, that it is difficult to describe the principalrivers or mountains of the one without referring to the other.The reader must therefore study the colonial divisions of EasternAustralia with a map.

Sir Thomas Mitchell, as Survey or-General, was in 1827entrusted with the task of surveying and dividing that districtinto counties, and the laying out of towns, roads, and reservesfor public purposes. In this work, now complete, he has beenzealously engaged for twenty-six years. He has cut all the passesthat lead through mountains to the interior country, planned twohundred towns and villages, and reported (without success) infavour of several roads and public works, which would haveconferred the utmost benefit on the colony.

The following sketch is taken by permission of the author froma manual of Australasian Geography, prepared by Sir ThomasMitchell for the use of colonial schools.

New South Wales is divided into sixty-sevencounties—formerly into ninety—but twenty-three havebeen cut off by the act which erected Australia Felix, under thename of Victoria, into a separate colony.

"The nineteen counties," frequently referred to in colonialdocuments, are those which were first proclaimed by "LettersPatent." The principal rivers falling to the eastern coast arethe Shoalhaven (on which the township of Braidwood stands), theHawkesbury (on which there are the townships of Penrith,Castlereagh, Richmond, Windsor, and Pitt Town, all in the countyof Cumberland, and Emu and Wilberforce, in the county of Cook),and the Hunter. The Hunter receives from the south the waters ofthe River Wollombi; from the north the rivers Page, Paterson, andWilliams; its most western source is the Goulburn. The followingtownships are on the northern tributaries of theHunter:—Muscle Brook, on the northern branch of the Hunter;Murrurundi, on the Page; Dulwich, on Glendon Brook; Paterson, onthe navigable branch of that name; and Clarence Town, at the headof the navigation of the William.

Port Jackson is the fittest centre from which to take a surveyof the settled and inhabitable districts in Australia, being notonly the finest harbour and the port of the greatest Australiancity, but the inlet and outlet for commerce, having settled onits shores the wealthiest and most dense population in the wholeisland.

The usual course to Sydney for sailing-vessels is throughBass's Straits; and in fair weather, with a favourable wind,ships frequently pass sufficiently near the shores to afford anagreeable but very tantalising view of the scenery.

"The shore is bold and picturesque, and the country behind,gradually rising higher and higher into swelling hills ofmoderate elevation, to the utmost distance the eye can reach, iscovered with wide-branching, evergreen forest trees and closebrushwood, exhibiting a prospect of never-failing foliage,although sadly monotonous and dull in tone compared with theluxuriant summer foliage of Europe. Grey rocks at intervalsproject among these endless forests, while here and there somegigantic tree, scorched dead by the summer fires, uplifts itsblasted branches above the green saplings around." *

[* Cunningham.]

Approaching Port Jackson, the coast line consists of cliffs ofa reddish hue. Where the land can be seen, shrubs and trees ofstrange foliage are found nourishing on a white, sandy, barrensoil, destitute of herbage.

The entrance to the port is marked by the north and southheads, about three quarters of a mile apart. On the southern heada stone lighthouse, bearing the often-repeated name of Macquarie,affords a revolving flame at night and a white landmark by day tothe great ships from distant quarters of the globe, and to thecrowd of large-sailed coasters which ply between innumerablecoast villages and Sydney.

Steering westerly, the great harbour, like a landlocked lake,protected by the curving projecting heads from the roll of thePacific storms, opens out until lost in the distance, where itjoins the Paramatta River. The banks on either hand, varying fromtwo to five miles in breadth, are sometimes steep and sometimessloping, but repeatedly indented by coves and bays, which,fringed with green shrubs down to the white sandy water-margin,when bathed in golden sunlight, present dainty retreats asbrilliant as Danby's Enchanted Island.

On one of the first and most romantic coves stands Vaucluse,the marine villa of William Wentworth.

Five miles from the heads, on "Sydney Cove," is the city ofSydney, the head-quarters of the Governor-General, the residenceand episcopal city of the Bishop of Australia, and the greatestwool port in the world. The still waters, alive with steamerspassing and repassing, with ships of English and American flags,and a crowd of small craft, yachts, and pleasure-boats, betokenthe approach to a centre of busy commerce, even before the churchspires show themselves against the sky. In this city, which hasbeen too often described to need any detailed account here, everycomfort and every luxury of Europe is to be obtained that can bepurchased with money.

The entrance to Port Jackson is so safe and easy that theAmerican surveying ships ran in at night without a pilot; andwhen the inhabitants rose in the morning they found themselvesunder the guns of a frigate carrying the stripes and stars.

Vessels of considerable burden can unload alongside thequays.

Sydney Cove is formed by two small promontories, between whichthe rivulet flows which induced Governor Phillip to choose thissite for his settlement, as it possessed a safe harbour, wood andwater, three essential points, although not alone sufficient tosupport a flourishing colony. The first harbour is of littlevalue, unless it is the outlet to a country capable of producingsome exports.

Tanks were cut for storing the water of the fresh-water streamduring the summer; but the increase of the town having renderedthis supply insufficient, water was brought from Botany Bay; andrecently further extensive works have been executed, by which anaqueduct is brought from Cook's River, where a dam has been builtto exclude the salt water.

Along the hollow formed by the two promontories or ridges,where the native track through the woods formerly led down to thewater's edge, George-street extends, and holds in the colonialmetropolis the relative ranks of the Strand and Regent-street.There, until recently, stately plate-glass shops were to be foundside by side with wooden huts.

The harbour of Port Jackson affords an almost unlimited lineof deep water, along which, when needed by the extension ofcommerce, quays and warehouses may be erected at a very triflingexpense. Many of the coves in Port Jackson are even now as muchin a state of nature as when Captain Phillip first discovered it.As a central point for the commerce of the Australian seas, it isnot probable that it can ever be superseded as a maritimestation, even by other colonies planted in a more fertilesituation, although it may be asserted that, with rareexceptions, the land for a hundred miles round Sydney is a sandydesert. But roads, railroads, and steamers will afford Sydney theadvantages of the produce of districts which have no such harbouras Port Jackson.

Cumberland and Camden were the two counties first settled.Cumberland is the most densely-populated district in Australia,and has the poorest soil; a belt of land parallel to the sea,from twenty to forty miles in breadth, is either light sanddotted with picturesque, unprofitable scrub, or a stiff clay orironstone, thickly covered with hard-wood timber and underwood.After passing this belt, to which the colonists confinedthemselves for more than ten years, with a few spiritedexceptions, the soil improves a little; that is to say, narrowtracks of a rich alluvial character are found on the banks of therivers, but the greater proportion consists of forest on a poorimpenetrable soil, which defies the perseverance of the mostskilled agriculturist. The deeper you go the worse it is.

Camden has a moderate extent of cultivable land, including thesingular district of Illawarra, which is at once one of the mostbeautiful and fertile spots in the world, in regard both to theluxuriance and variety of its vegetable productions. The pasturesof Camden are extensive, and were considered important until thediscovery of the western and southern plains.

The dryness of the counties of Camden and Cumberland, inwhich, in the course of the year, nearly as much rain falls as inthe counties of Essex and Sussex, is greatly owing to the stiffclay of which the soil is chiefly composed, through which therain cannot easily filter, or from which springs can withdifficulty burst forth. Boring, on the artesian plan, has beenrecently adopted with success.

To describe in detail the character of each county and eachdistrict would be a difficult and wearisome task. Many, afterbeing charmed with the exquisitely picturesque appearance of PortJackson and Sydney, on a very cursory inspection of thesurrounding country, come to the conclusion that the wholeprovince of New South Wales is a barren desert only fit forfeeding sheep—a conclusion which is not more correct thanto judge of the agricultural capabilities of England by Dartmoor,or of France by the "Landes."

Within the Sydney district are the towns of Paramatta,Windsor, and Liverpool; but, in consequence of the dispersionincident to the pastoral pursuits which have hitherto formed thechief employment of Australia, there are really no towns in theEuropean sense of the word, with the exception of the threecapitals, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, and Geelong inVictoria, which, being the port to a rich district is likely torival Melbourne. The other towns with imposing names are merevillages, with a gaol; a magistrate's office, some stores, and agreat many public-houses.

Taking Sydney as the starting point, we propose to survey thegeneral features of the settled and pastoral districts,proceeding first towards the north, and returning to PortJackson, travelling along the coast to the other twocolonies.

The three great colonies of New South Wales, Victoria (latePort Phillip), and South Australia, occupy a continuous coastline, extending from Wide Bay, in New South Wales, to Cape Adieu,in South Australia. With the exception of the small andunsuccessful colony of Western Australia, or Swan River, theremaining coast line of this island-continent is unsettled, andonly inhabited by wandering savages or stray parties of whalersand sealers. Attempts have been made more than once to formsettlements in Northern Australia, but they have been abandoned,and will not probably be renewed until the older colonists findthe need of further extensions inland, or some coal stations areestablished for the numerous steamers which are now plyingbetween England and the gold regions.

The three colonies are only divided by imaginary lines, soeasy are the means of inland intercommunication. Overlandjourneys have been executed between all by parties driving greatherds over an imtracked country.

The principal ports to the north of Port Jackson are BrokenBay, the mouth of the River Hawkesbury, up which vessels of onehundred tons can proceed for four miles beyond the town ofWindsor, which is one hundred and forty miles by the river, andabout forty miles in a direct line from the coast. Broken Bay isnot a safe harbour, being much exposed to the east and south-eastas well as the north-west winds.

Port Hunter is the mouth of the Hunter River, which receivesthe waters of the Rivers Williams and Paterson.* It is navigablefor about thirty-five miles by waterway, and twenty-five miles ina direct line from the coast. This stream was formerly called theCoal River. On the bay sheltered by Nobby Island standsNewcastle, a town which owes its name and importance to thecoal-fields by which it is surrounded, and has recently been madethe see of a bishoprick, extending to the extreme northerndistrict of the colony. Forty miles up the river are East andWest Maitland, and four miles nearer the sea Morpeth, the port ofthe Hunter River Company. A regular steam-boat traffic in all theproduce of the Hunter River district is carried on betweenMorpeth, Newcastle, and Sydney, from which they are distant abouteighty miles, the cheapness of steam communication having led tothe abandonment of the road formed at immense cost by convictlabour over the mountainous barren country inland between Sydneyand the Hunter River.

[* So named after Colonel Paterson, for a shorttime Lieutenant-Governor; one of the earliest colonists whodevoted himself to botany, and introduced the first orange treesin 1791.]

Hunter River is subject to droughts, but otherwise one of theoldest and finest agricultural districts. Vine cultivation iscarried on there successfully, on a large scale. Its tributaries,the Williams and Paterson Rivers, are both navigable for agreater distance than the Hunter, the Williams uniting at twentymiles and the Paterson at thirty-five miles from Newcastle. Theygive access to districts which are cooler and better suppliedwith rain than the Hunter.

Maitland owes its double name to the government having laidout East Maitland during the land-buying mania, three miles upthe river, at a point too shallow for steam-boats to approach; onwhich speculators laid out West Maitland.

The country round is flat, sometimes flooded, and producesfine crops of wheat and Indian corn. Along the Paterson thecountry is undulating and fertile, surrounded by hills whichattract rain, and render it better adapted for cattle than sheep.Tobacco cultivation has been successfully pursued: thriving farmsoccupy the banks of the rivers, which fetch a good price, eitherto sell or rent. Kangaroos, plentiful a few years ago, arebecoming scarce; but wild ducks may be shot on the river, andgood fish caught.

In April the winter sets in and continues until September,with nights cold enough to make a fire pleasant, and sharp frostat daybreak.

In October the summer commences, and the wheat harvest inNovember. Then in the Hunter district the hot winds commence,blow for three days, and not unfrequently blight wheat justcoming into ear: these hot winds are usually succeeded by a sharpsoutherly gale, accompanied by rain, which soon makes everythingnot actually blighted look green again. This more particularlyrefers to the Paterson. At Segenhoe, one of the most beautifulestates in New South Wales, which extends in romantic park-likescenery for six miles along the River Hunter, in the county ofBrisbane, three years have sometimes elapsed before the fall ofrain.

The Hunter River may be considered a favourable specimen of anaccessible and long-settled district. The river is now not onlythe means of communication by the sea for the produce of itsimmediate territory, but also for all the wool and all thesupplies interchanged by the great squatting district of NewEngland and Liverpool Plains, to which access is obtained by adeep cleft through a spur of the Australian cordilleras, calledthe Liverpool Eange, which bounds the Liverpool Plains in anortherly direction. A great and increasing steam communicationexists between Sydney and Hunter River.

Port Stephens is a large estuary fifteen miles in length andcontracted to about a mile in breadth in the centre, into whichthe rivers Karuah and Myall flow. The Karuah is navigable fortwelve miles only for small craft to Booral, a village built bythe Australian Agricultural Company. The valley of the Karuah, inthe county of Gloucester, is chiefly in the possession of theAustralian Agricultural Company, and pronounced by CountStrzelecki to be one of the finest agricultural districts in thecolony.

On this estate some of the rarest birds of Australia arefound. The wonga wonga pigeon (Leucosarcia picata) is alarge bird, with white flesh, excellent eating, with handsomeblack-patched plumage, which spends most of its time upon theground, "feeding upon the seeds of stones of the fallen fruits ofthe towering trees under whose shade it dwells, seldom exposingitself to the rays of the sun, or seeking the open parts of theforest, whence when disturbed it rises with a loud fluttering,like a pheasant. Its flight is not of long duration, being merelyemployed to remove it to a sufficient distance to avoid detectionby again descending to the ground or mounting the branch of atree. It is a species which bears confinement well." Theaccompanying engraving, as well as all our illustrations fromnatural history, are copied by permission from Mr. Gould'ssplendid work on Australia. In Port Stephens harbour, at certaintimes of the year, the aborigines may be seen fishing anddisporting in their canoes. Their habits are as uncivilised aswhen their ancestors were seen by Cook and Dampier, but quiteharmless.

The park-like scenery, the neatness of the cottages providedby the company for their servants, the richness of thevegetation, and the fertility of gardens full of the choicestfruits and flowers, render this one of the counties which thetraveller who can afford the time should visit, as it affords apleasing contrast to the dry, barren country round Sydney, in thecounty of Cumberland.

From Booral the Australian Company have an overlandcommunication with their stations on Liverpool Plains, but theyship most of their wool at the Hunter,

In the orchards of the Australian Agricultural Company at PortStephens, Count Strzelecki mentions that he saw an example of theextensive range which the beautiful climate of New South Walesembraces in its isothermal lines—the English oakflourishing by the side of the banana, which again was surroundedby vines, lemons, and orange-trees of luxurious growth. "To thesouthward of Port Stephens are a series of thriving farmsspreading along the Goulburn, Pages, Hunter, Paterson, andWilliams Rivers, which comprise an agricultural district of 2,000square miles in extent. The excellent harbour of Newcastle, goodwater and tolerable roads, a coal-mine, a soil well adapted forwheat, barley, turnips, the vine, and European fruits, and asituation most favourable to the application of irrigation,render this district one of the richest and most important in thecolony."

Captain Stokes, in "The Voyage of the Beagle," says: "A changetook place in the features of this portion of the eastern coast:a number of conical hills, from four to six hundred feet inheight, presented themselves. Two very remarkable headlands,Wacaba and Tomare, constitute the entrance points of PortStephens. The sea face of Tomare is a high line of cliffs.

"On the side of a hill, two miles and a half within thenarrowest part of the harbour, is Tahlee, the residence of thesuperintendent. It stands on the crest of a steep grassy slope,over which are scattered numerous small bushy lemon-trees, thedeep verdure of their foliage interspersed with golden fruit,contrasting charmingly with the light green carpet from whichthey spring. At the foot of this declivity a screen of trees,rising to a considerable height, almost shuts out the view of thewater, though breaks here and there allow small patches to to beseen.

"I ascended to Booral, twelve miles up the River Karuah, whereall goods are landed for the company's stations. The treasurerresides there in a charming cottage, almost covered with rosesand honeysuckles. About two miles within the entrance the riverwinds between high and steep banks, densely covered withcreepers, acacias, and other vegetation of a tropical character,hanging in festoons, the ends floating in the water.

"We were as much delighted as surprised with the richness ofthe vegetation, when compared with its dry, parched appearance atSydney—another of the striking characteristics ofAustralia."

The next harbour after leaving Port Stephens is PortMacquarie, which is the outlet of the Rivers Hastings andWilson.

Port Macquarie is a bar harbour, into which vessels drawingmore than nine feet water cannot safely enter, but there is agood anchorage outside. The River Hastings cannot be ascended formore than ten miles by vessels of any burden; but from themountains where it rises it flows in a full although not deepstream for fifty miles, traversing an undulating district,chiefly open forest.

Port Macquarie was first founded as a penal settlement. It isthe commencement of a fertile semi-tropical district, extendingto Moreton Bay. The township has gradually decayed since thepenal settlement was discontinued.

The following striking picture is from the work of a gentlemanwho was the first to draw public attention to this fine district* :—

[* Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, first exploredand surveyed by Clement Hodgkinson.]

"On entering the surf of the bar of Port Macquarie,immediately beyond the last breaker, the mirror-like surface ofthe river extends in a long reach, whilst on the left darkserpentine rocks protect the smooth round eminence, covered withgreen sward, and crowned by a signal-post, fire-beacon, andwindmill. A little further on is the town, built on a gentlerise, the tall, square church tower rising conspicuously in thehighest part. A grove of magnificent trees encircles the port,whilst, turning to the west and north-west, appears a wide extentof forest country, the windings of the valley among the mountainranges through which the River Wilson flows; Mount Caoulapatambabeing sufficiently near to enable one to distinguish every treeon its grassy declivities."

The soil of the country in the county of Cumberland roundSydney appears barren, the vegetation harsh and dismal, but "onthe coast of Port Macquarie dense thickets of cabbage-palms andmyrtle-trees extend down the rocky declivities, even within reachof the spray, and every unwooded patch is covered with grass,while the lofty forest rising luxuriantly close to the seapresents a striking contrast to the stunted Banksia thickets anddesiccated scrubs on the sandstone round Sydney. The mountainsapproaching near the coast collect vapours from the sea, andcause frequent rains; in summer heavy thunderstorms mitigate theheat."

The River Hastings was discovered by Mr. Oxley, a latesurveyor-general, on the report of two shipwrecked mariners whomhe rescued on the coast.

It has been calculated that there are twelve million fertileacres well watered by small streams. The dividing range ofmountains rises upwards of six thousand feet; on the other sidelies New England—a range of table land, where a temperateclimate prevails, where potatoes and gooseberries are raised inperfection, and the settlers retain the rosy bloom ofEngland,—one of the finest sheep districts in the colony. Aroad has been made across the mountains for bringing down wool toPort Macquarie.

Shoal Bay, the next harbour, is the embouchure of the RiverClarence, navigable for steamers for more than fifty miles,flowing through a rich, fertile, and hot country, the reverse ofthe New England climate: large boats have ascended as far asninety miles. It was surveyed and made public in 1839 by aprivate expedition under the charge of S. Perry, Esq. The averagewidth of this river is from 450 to 600 yards, with a depth offrom six to twenty feet water, the banks from ten to twenty-fivefeet above high-water mark. About twenty miles from the mouth isan island fifteen miles long, and from three to four miles broad;a range of hills rises in the centre. It is occupied as a cattlestation, and partly for agricultural purposes, by the occupant,who holds it under a squatting licence.

Grafton is the township of the Clarence district, situatedfifty miles from the mouth of the river. The finest land forarable purposes is found on the river banks, about thirty milesfrom Grafton, where the valley is wider, and the country consistsof a scrub, easily cleared. The climate, too hot for growingwheat or raising sheep, suits cattle and maize. The sheepstations are being gradually discontinued. But although the landis admirably fertile on the banks of the river, at the distanceof a few miles it is barren, with few patches of good soil.

The next river to the Clarence is the Richmond, which watersan infinitely finer cattle country, better supplied with richpasture. The heads of the Richmond are about fifty miles from theClarence River. The mouth is obstructed by a bar, dangerous forvessels drawing more than one hundred tons. After crossing thebar, the river is deep, winding in a narrow channel. This is oneof the districts from which Sydney draws its chief supply ofcedar.

It is right to mention that the plains lying between theClarence and Richmond River, forty miles north of Shoal Bay, andas far north as Wide Bay, are all taken up and stocked undersquatting licences. The soil is rich and the water advantagessuperior, but the climate more hot and less healthy than theplains on the other side of the range.

The next port, and centre and site of the capital of all thisdistrict, is Moreton Bay, into which flows the Brisbane River,discovered by Mr. Oxley, on an exploring expedition, in December,1823. He reported that "when examining Moreton Bay we had thesatisfaction to find the tide sweeping up a considerable inletbetween the first mangrove island and the mainland. A few hoursended our anxiety: the water became perfectly fresh, and nodiminution had taken place in the size of the river after passingSea Reach. The scenery was peculiarly beautiful; the countryalong the banks alternately hilly and level, but not flooded; thesoil of the finest description of good brush land, on which grewtimber of great magnitude, some of a description quite unknown tous, amongst others a magnificent species of pine.* Up to thispoint the river was navigable for vessels not drawing more thansixteen feet of water. The tide rose about five feet, being thesame as at the entrance. We proceeded about thirty miles further,no diminution having taken place in either the depth or thebreadth of the river, except in one place, for the extent ofthirty yards, where a ridge of detached rocks extended across theriver, not having more than twelve feet upon them at high water.From this period to Termination Hill the river continued nearlyof uniform size. The tide ascends daily fifty miles up the mouthof the Brisbane. The country on either side is of very superiordescription, and equally well adapted for cultivation orgrazing."

[* The pine forests mark the commencement and theboundaries of intertropical Australia.]

On Mr. Oxley's report, which further explorations have provedto be in no degree exaggerated, a penal settlement was founded atBrisbane, and among other experiments for employing theprisoners, sugar was cultivated, until a flood swept themachinery away. There is no doubt that the climate and soil ofthe Moreton Bay district, by which it is better known than by itsparliamentary title, county of Stanley, would produce sugar andcotton; but that those crops would be remunerative to capitalistsat the present or probable price of labour in Australia is morethan doubtful. Whether any tropical cultivation could besuccessfully carried on by families of small freeholders remainsyet to be tried. At some future period when New South Wales hasthe power of promoting colonisation without consultingDowning-street, perhaps families of Germans, of the class thathave at times settled in Brazil, may be induced to try theexperiment.

Moreton Bay is forty-five miles in length, and twenty inbreadth, enclosed between the two islands of Stradbroke andMaitland. This harbour is rendered unsafe by numerous shoals andnarrow winding passages.

Moreton Bay Island is nineteen miles in length, and four and ahalf in breadth. It consists of a series of sandhills one ofwhich is nine hundred feet in height, quite barren in anagricultural point of view, but producing a cypress which is agood furniture wood.

The river Brisbane flows into the bay about the middle of itswestern side, with a bar on which there are not more than elevenfeet of water at flood-tide. Large vessels have to anchor aboutfive miles off, under the shelter of one of the islands.

The towns of Brisbane, north and south, are fourteen milesfrom the mouth of the river, and thirty-five miles from Ipswich,on the River Bremer, an inland port for shipping wool from theMoreton Bay district.

Steam communication is maintained between Brisbane andIpswich, and between Moreton Bay and Sydney.

From Moreton Bay a considerable trade is carried on withSydney, and other less-favoured settlements, especially in theMoreton Bay pine (Auracaria Cunninghami), which is of thesame quality as the Norfolk Island pine, as well as wool andtallow, the staples of the country.

In the bay and on the coast the aborigines eagerly pursue thedugong, a species of small whale, generally known to thecolonists as the sea-pig. The head of the dugong is small inproportion to his body, and is most singularly shaped. The upperlip is very thick, and flattened at the extremity. It is to thisqueer looking snout, we presume, that the animal is indebted forthe swinish cognomen by which it is ordinarily known. The dugonghas a thick smooth skin, with a few hairs scattered over itssurface. Its colour is bluish on the back, with a white breastand belly. In size the full-grown male has never, we believe,been found more than eighteen or twenty feet long; but thosecommonly taken are much less than this.

The food of the dugong consists chiefly of marine vegetables,which it finds at the bottom of inlets, in comparatively shallowwater, where it is easily captured. Its flesh resembles goodbeef, and is much esteemed. The oil obtained from its fat ispeculiarly clear and limpid, and is free from any disagreeablesmell, such as most animal oils are accompanied with. It has notyet been produced in sufficient quantities to acquire arecognised market value.

The blacks devour the carcase roasted, after expressing theoil for sale to the colonists. A perfumer in Sydney tried toconvert this oil into a new mixture for the hair: unfortunately,an experiment upon himself and his wife produced baldness insteadof luxuriance, yet its appearance is as fine as sperm.

Behind Moreton Bay, on the other side the mountain range,forming a district of high tableland and cool temperature, arethe Darling Downs, a magnificent sheep country, which is alsoaccessible from the Clarence River.

The climate of the Moreton Bay district, like nearly all thedistrict north of Port Macquarie, is too hot for wheat, whichgrows luxuriantly, but is subject to blight: for sheep and cattlethere is no finer country, and maize and all semi-tropicalproductions grow in perfection. Grapes ripen, but are too subjectto frosts to make good wine.

A very short distance from the town of Brisbane the clearingsend and the forest commences; now green trees, then pine, thenopen plains, and well-watered valleys.

The rainy season of this intertropical region has beengraphically described by Mr. Mossman:—"Masses of dense scudrise up from the Pacific Ocean towards the interior, until theyare checked by the southerly wind blowing over the higher, colderNew England country (on the other side of the mountain ranges),and packed into a uniform mass shrouding the heavens; a stiflingsultriness succeeds, the lightning bursts forth from the luridgloom, flash succeeds with fearful rapidity—now forked fromthe zenith, anon like a chain around the verge of the horizon,while the crash of thunder resounds. The floodgates of the blackcanopy are opened—the rain descends in torrents with a loudpattering—soon the narrow tributaries of the river areswollen, some rising as much as fifty feet in twelvehours—the surrounding plains are deluged. In the fivemonths of rain the earth becomes saturated, the forests dripcontinually, while the nearly vertical sun creates a warm, humid,unhealthy atmosphere." Ophthalmia and general debility followthis kind of weather; but the author of the passage just quotedconsiders that if Indian bungalows were erected by the settlers,instead of naked English cottages, many of the ill effects of therainy season would be avoided.

In the Moreton Bay district may be found many establishmentscontaining all the luxuries of Europe—elegant houses,gardens, libraries, music, pictures, and wives in Parisianbonnets.

Wide Bay, beyond Moreton Bay, and the boundary of the countyof Stanley, is the last port of the colony of New South Wales: itreceives the waters of the Mary Fitzroy River. The land isundulating, well timbered, covered with good grass, and suitedfor horned stock. Within the last five years a considerablenumber of stations have been formed there, and the country takenup in cattle runs for more than two hundred miles in theinterior. In the 27th parallel of the Wide Bay District grows thebunya-bunya tree, a species of pine, often from seventeen totwenty feet in circumference, and upwards of one hundred feet inheight, which once in three years yields a harvest of cones abouta foot long and three quarters in diameter, containing seeds orkernels, which the natives from the most distant regionstriennially journey to collect, roast, and eat, afterwardsenjoying the relaxation of a little fighting.

Orders have been issued by the colonial government that nostations be planted and no stock run in this bunya-bunya country,which occupies a space of about fifty miles in length by ten inbreadth. It will be difficult to enforce this order.

Dr. Leichardt, one of the scientific travellers who has, wefear, like Cunningham, Gilbert, and Kennedy, fallen a victim tohis adventurous courage in an attempt to penetrate overland toSwan River, passed some time in the Moreton Bay district,preparing himself for the successful journey he afterwards madeoverland, in 1844, to Port Essington, in Northern Australia. In aletter addressed to Professor Owen, which is quoted in thateminent physiologist's "Report on the Extinct Mammals ofAustralia," read at the annual meeting of the BritishAssociation, July, 1845, and which accompanied a box of fossilbones from Darling Downs, he describes his life in terms whichsound sadly and strangely affecting, now that, after succeedingin his first, he has perished in his secondenterprise:—

"Living here as the bird lives who flies from tree totree—living on the kindness of a friend fond of my science,or on the hospitality of the settler and squatter—with alittle mare I travelled more than 2,500 miles, zigzag, fromNewcastle to Wide Bay, being often my own groom, cook,washerwoman, geologist, and botanist at the same time; and Idelighted in this life. When next you hear of me, it will beeither that I am lost and dead, or that I have succeeded inpenetrating through the interior to Port Essington."

Leichardt set out on this expedition, and left Jimba, the laststation on the Darling Downs, 30th September, 1844, and reachedPort Essington in December of the same year. The privations heendured were terrible. Mr. Gilbert, a naturalist in theemployment of Mr. Gould, fell a sacrifice to the savages. Morethan once the bronze-winged pigeon, flying to water, saved themfrom dying of thirst.

To the parties engaged in this expedition the LegislativeCouncil voted £1,000, and 1,500 was raised by privatesubscription for the same purpose. Of these two sums, £1,450 werepresented to Dr. Leichardt. He lost no time in preparing a secondexpedition, for the purpose of "exploring the interior ofAustralia, the extent of Sturt's desert, and the character of thewestern and north-western coast, and to observe he gradual changein vegetation and animal life from one side of the continent tothe other." This expedition set out in December, 1846, and wasexpected to occupy not less than two years and a half in reachingSwan River. The following is the last letter ever received fromhim, addressed to a friend in Sydney:—

"I take the last opportunity of giving you an accountof my progress. For eleven days we travelled from Mr. Birell'sstation, on the Condamine, to Mr. Macpherson's, on the FitzroyDowns. Though the country was occasionally very difficult, yeteverything went on well. My mules are in excellent order, mycompanions in excellent spirits. Three of my cattle are footsore,but I shall kill one of them to-night to lay in our necessarystock of dried beef.

"The Fitzroy Downs, over which we travelled or abouttwenty-two miles from east to west, is indeed a splendid region,and Sir Thomas Mitchell has not exaggerated their beauty in hisaccount. The soil is pebbly and sound, richly grassed, and, tojudge from the myall, of most fattening quality. I came right onMount Abundance, and passed over a gap of it with my whole train.My latitude agreed well with Mitchell's. I fear that the absenceof water on Fitzroy Downs will render this fine country to agreat degree unavailable. I observe the thermometer daily at 6A.M. and P.M., which are the onlyconvenient hours. I have tried the wet thermometer, but I amafraid my observations will be very deficient. I shall, however,improve on them as I proceed. The only serious accident that hashappened was the loss of a spade; but we are fortunate enough tomake it up on this station, where the superintendent is going tospare us one of his.

"Though the days are still very hot, the beautiful clear nightsare cool, and benumb the musquitoes, which have ceased to troubleus. Myriads of flies are the only annoyance we have.

"Seeing how much I have been favoured in my present progress, Iam full of hope that our Almighty Protector will allow me tobring my darling scheme to a successful termination.—Yourmost sincere friend,

"LudwigLeichardt.

Mr. Macpherson's Station, Cogoon,April 3, 1848."

There is now little doubt that the brave Leichardt wasmurdered by savages shortly after leaving Cogoon.

It would be impossible in any reasonable space to convey acorrect idea of the physical character of a country likeMelbourne, Port Jackson, and Wide Bay, which extends over morethan eight hundred miles of coast range alone.* But thedistinctive features of this north-eastern coast, as far asMoreton Bay, have been very clearly summed up by Mr. ClementHodgkinson, in his before-quoted work:—

[* Port Albury, recently discovered near CapeYork, on Albury Island, affords a good and ready anchorage andeasy access to vessels to or from Torres Straits or Sydney.]

"First. Its geological formation, which, instead of beingsandstone, which so generally predominates on the Hunter,consists of rocks of primitive or transition origin, such asgranite, trap, ancient limestone, slates, &c., all which inAustralia furnish, by their decomposition, a much more fertilesurface than sandstone.

"Secondly. The mountainous nature of the country, the greataltitude of the mountains exceeding six thousand feet above thelevel of the sea, and their proximity to the coast.

"Thirdly. The abundance of water and the proximity ofnavigable rivers. From Moreton Bay to Macquarie, in 270 miles ofcoast, there are nine rivers with bar harbours, which can beentered by coasting vessels and small steamers, viz., theBrisbane, Tweed, Richmond, Clarence, Bellergen, Macleary,Hastings, Camden Haven, and the Manning.

"Lastly. The fitness of the rich alluvial soil, which extendsin continuous narrow borders of brush land along these rivers,for tropical cultivation (if labour could be applied at not toogreat a cost at clearing away the brush)."

Thus it will be observed that the north and north-easterntrack of New South Wales, lying between the mountains and thesea, is exempt from the aridity which characterises a largeportion of Australia.

Retracing our steps, we will now take a glance at what may becalled the transmontane regions, lying parallel to the coastdistrict just described, separated by the dividing range of theBlue Mountains, or, as it has been lately termed, the AustralianCordilleras.

Passing the dividing range which separates the hot lowercountries watered by the Brisbane and the Clarence, we reachDarling Downs (discovered by Allan Cunningham, the king'sbotanist, in 1830, when he travelled from Sydney to Moreton Bayby land), which are watered by the river of the same name. Thesedowns are part of a system of high table lands continued towardthe north, where the boundaries are indefinite, by the FitzroyDowns, discovered by Sir Thomas Mitchell in 1846, and toward thesouth by the New England district. There a rapid descent changesthe climate from snow and hail to the hot country of the Peel,Page, and the Liverpool Plains, bounded on the south by the greatdividing or Liverpool Range, through which Pandora's Pass givesexit to the Hunter River; and thus with intervals of mountainrange or desert, a series of pastoral plains run parallel withthe interior of the mountain range which encircles the easterncoast of Australia, including the Goulburn, Bathurst district,the Maneroo or Brisbane Downs, and the Murray district, whichflow into, if we may use the term, the province of Victoria. Andin this series of pastoral plains the climate is considerablymodified by their altitude above the sea. It was these plains,where fine-woolled sheep increase and multiply at the leastpossible expense, which first gave exports and wealth toAustralia. Before the shepherd and his flock the savage and theemu gradually disappear.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

JOURNEY FROM PORT JACKSON TO PORT PHILLIP.

In traversing the coast from PortJackson to Port Phillip there is a singular absence of goodharbours. The first. Botany Bay, fourteen miles from PortJackson, receives the waters of the George River, on which thetownship of Liverpool was planted by Macquarie, but has notflourished; and the Cook's River which has been dammed, for thepurpose of affording a supply of fresh water to Sydney. BotanyBay is unsheltered, and offers indifferent accommodation forsmall vessels. A brass plate on the cliffs marks the spot whereCaptain Cook first landed; and the stranger may drink from thewell of fresh water opened by that illustrious navigator.

Between Botany Bay and Shoalhaven is Illawarra, also known asthe Five Islands, one of the most fertile and wildly beautifuldistricts in the world, which, from the peculiarity of itssituation, bounded by the sea for eighteen miles, running northand south, and by a mountain chain which encircles about 150,000acres, unites the peculiarities of both temperate and tropicalclimates, a sort of Norway or Switzerland, rocks, lakes, fatalluvial valleys, under a southern sun, tempered by breezes fromthe sea. We descend from the landward side by crossing a range ofhills 1,500 feet in height, so precipitous that it is difficultfor a horseman to ride down, and, without dismounting, impossiblefor a loaded dray to descend.

The communication with Sydney, which Illawarra supplies withlarge quantities of fruit, vegetables, and agricultural produce,is chiefly carried on by coasters from the small harbour ofWollongong, a favourite resort for invalids. Here is a celebratedshow-garden, where may be seen fruits and English watercress,tropical oranges, pomegranates, nectarines, and bananas, andavenues covered with grape-bearing vines of all colours. Here isIllawarra Lake, too, than which it is scarcely possible toconceive anything more picturesquely beautiful, environed byrocks and tropical vegetation, peopled with bright-colouredbirds.*

[* A beautiful and accurate view of this lake wasgiven in Prout's Australian Panorama.]

At Illawarra the palm and the tree-fern flourish, and fromland as fertile, and cultivation as careful, as that ofDevonshire, a short walk may bring you to a camp of aboriginessheltering from the warm rain beneath their gunyah, the nearestapproach to a hut which these poor creatures have contrived.

Jervis Bay—in the county of St. Vincent where thetownship of South Huskisson has been founded—is eightymiles from Sydney, with an entrance two miles wide, and an innerharbour three leagues in length, safe for ships of the heaviestburden, with access to ample supplies of wood and water, andpresents a total change of climate. Unfortunately, this fine portis surrounded by a hopelessly barren country. It has beensuggested by Mr. Ralfe, an experienced Australian surveyor, thatJervis Bay should become the terminus of a railway from theBathurst district. A railway for wool and tallow would be a verydoubtful speculation; but recent events have laid the foundationfor more important exports and imports. Perhaps by following thecourse of streams it would be possible to find workable gradientsfor a tramway on the Welsh coal-mining or American plan.

The next ports, Ulladulla and Bateman's Bay, the outlet of theClyde River, are only accessible for coasters; but the latter hasrecently come into notice from the discovery of thegold-diggings, distant only thirty miles: that thirty miles beingover a country of so difficult a character that a party withloaded packhorses were three days in crossing it.

The last harbour in the New South Wales district is TwofoldBay, 240 miles from Sydney, on which two townships have beenfounded, Eden by the government, and Boyd Town by the lateBenjamin Boyd, with the funds of a Scotch company which herepresented. Eden has never been anything better than agovernment project at the expense of a few foolish landspeculators. Boyd Town enjoyed a brief period of factitiousprosperity, when the steamers, whalers, and yacht of the founderlay in harbour. It was at Boyd Town he appeared with almostviceroyal state, when laying the first stone of the never lightedlighthouse; and it was there that he landed the island cannibalswhom he had purchased from their savage conquerors, with the viewof reducing wages by introducing slavery into Australia, ratherthan encourage shepherd families upon his boundlesssheep-runs.

The steep range of hills which separates Twofold Bay from thevast squatting district of Maneroo has hitherto, in spite of aroad constructed at much expense by Mr. Boyd, to a great degreeneutralised its advantageous position as the only harbour forlarge ships on a long line of coast. It is still used as astation for shore whalers being almost the only station for thatpurpose in the colony. There has been a great falling off in thewhaling operations of the Sydney merchants.

The Australian whalers are for the most part from 200 to 300tons burden. All on board, from the captain downwards, are paidby a share of the oil procured, which share is called, inwhalemen's parlance, a "lay," and is proportioned of course tothe rank and ability of the man. There is one feature of thistrade in the Pacific which is not generally known—theintercourse of those who follow it with the tribes of Polynesia.Whaling captains generally seek some of the islands for thepurpose of procuring supplies of provisions, or of repairingslight damages sustained at sea; because, in the first place,they can obtain provisions there at infinitely less cost than inany of the colonial ports; and, in the second place, they find iteasier to keep their men together. Supplies arc frequentlyprocured in boats, without bringing the vessel to an anchor.These supplies, consisting of pigs and fowls, with yams,cocoanuts, bread-fruit, and other productions of a similarnature, are procured by barter: calicoes, hardware, commontrinkets, and other matters likely to be prized by the untutoredislanders being carried for that purpose. These articles aretechnically known as "trade." All the precautions which thecaptains can take are insufficient to prevent occasionaldesertion; and extraordinarily numerous as are the islands of thePacific, there is scarcely one of them which has not one or morerunaway sailors domesticated among the people who inhabitit.*

[* The runaway sailors and escaped convictsdwelling in the islands of the Pacific have been estimated atmany thousands, but great numbers have been attracted from theirretreats by the Californian and Australian gold diggings.]

VICTORIA.

From Twofold Bay, passing Cape Howe, which receives the pointof the imaginary line dividing the provinces of New South Walesand Victoria, no harbour presents itself until we reach CornerInlet, within which is Alberton, on the River Albert, the capitalof the fine district of Gipps's Land; unfortunately it isobstructed by a bar. Then follows Western Port, discovered byGeorge Bass in his whale-boat, a port formed by two islands, PortPhillip, Port Fairy and Portland Bay. Leaving Western Port, weenter the now world-famous Port Phillip, an inland sea, whichreceives the ships whose cargoes or passengers are destined forthe towns of Melbourne and Geelong.

The entrance to Port Phillip Bay is little more than one mileand a half across. On the one hand Point Nepean, a low sandypromontory, like a rabbit-warren without rabbits, at the base ofthe cape: beyond rises for a thousand feet Arthur's Seat, a woodyrange of hills, precipitous towards the sea, with barely room fora road between its foot and the flood-tide. In the distance, onthe same margin, Mount Eliza, a range of hills, with extensiveoutline, mark the bounds of Port Phillip Bay. On the other sidethe lowlands of Indented Head and Shortland Bluff present a dullscene, sprinkled with funereal shiak or "she oak trees."

The rush of waters through the narrow canal into this GreatLake, nearly fifty miles in length by twenty-five in breadth,which forms Port Phillip, in certain states of the wind and tide,creates a foaming, stormy whirl of water not a little alarming tothe inexperienced landsman. Within the bay the waters calm down,and a beautiful and picturesque scene is unrolled.

At Port Phillip Bay the great dividing range which runsparallel at varying distances with the coast from Wide Bay,penetrating New South Wales under various names (the BlueMountains near Sydney, the Australian Alps in Gipps's Land),seems to sink into the sea across Bass's Straits, where itscourse is marked by a chain of islands, and reappears with thesame character in Van Diemen's Land.

Thus it is that, sailing up the bay, the scenery changes: therugged cliffs and alpine ranges of the east coast give way toundulating grassy plains, sprinkled with picturesque hills. Thewestern arm of Port Phillip, extending about twenty miles, opensthe course to Geelong. In sailing up the bay the hills aroundGeelong appear, covered with cultivation.

Ships of burden for Melbourne cast anchor in Hobson's Bay, atthe mouth of the River Yarra, off Williams Town, which is builton a flat promontory, with three sides to the water. WilliamsTown was laid out by Sir Richard Bourke as the seaport of PortPhillip, for which the situation affords advantages; but the wantof good drinking water has hitherto hindered it from making anyprogress since the years of the mania when town lots were soldthere at a great price. It contains the harbour-master'sresidence, two or three public-houses, a few butcher's shops, aclergyman's house, and a small temporary church. An aqueduct orwater-pipes would soon make Williams Town an important place.

The shores of the Yarra are so even with Hobson's Bay thatfrom the anchorage the entrance can scarcely bedistinguished.

From Hobson's Bay, taking a boat for a mile, a walk or ride ofa mile and a half will bring the traveller to Melbourne; but bythe winding channel of the river, which is just wide and deepenough to admit the steamers which ply constantly from Sydney andGeelong, the distance is seven miles.

"Passing the junction of the Maryburrong, or Salt-water River,on the bank of which are beautiful villa sites, the Melbournerace-course, and several establishments for boiling down sheepand cattle into tallow, which give out a most villanous odour,the city, of which only an indistinct glimpse was to be observedfrom the bay, comes in view; the cathedral, a heavy building,without a tower or a steeple; and the government offices, builtof stone, without ornament, on the highest point of the hill."The voyage ends in a sort of pool where steamers can find room toturn round and take up a berth alongside the quay. A breakwaterhas been erected on the foundation of a natural ledge of rockswhich effectually divides the fresh water from the salt.

Melbourne occupies two sides of a valley, East Hill and WestHill, of very fertile soil. Inferior in port accommodation and inpicturesque beauty to Sydney, it has the advantage of being inthe midst of productive corn-fields, gardens, vineyards, andpastures.

The principal street is a mile long, crossed at right anglesby other streets of half that length: a macadamised causeway runsdown the middle, leaving a strip on each side to be convertedinto mud in the rainy season. The footpaths for the most part areof gravel, with kerbstones. So far there is an improvement. Someyears ago a traveller was shocked the day after his arrival byseeing among the announcements in a local paper, "Another Childdrowned in the Streets of Melbourne."

The buildings present the irregularity incident to allcolonial towns; occasionally great gaps of building land were tobe found representing investments made eight or ten years ago byabsentee speculators. But the gold revolution has covered everyvacant space with weather-board huts and tents. The chief lionwork of Melbourne is a stone bridge across the Yarra, of the samesize and proportions as the centre arch of London-bridge, whichcost an enormous sum.

The population was about twenty thousand in 1851; what it isat present it is impossible to say. It is to be feared thathouses will be built more rapidly than the present streets willbe drained and rendered wholesome. The lower part of Melbourne issubject to sudden floods from the falling of rains and melting ofsnow in the range of hills in which the Yarra takes its rise. AnAustralian flood is "short, sharp, and decisive."

From the summit of either East or West Hill, by which thevalley of Melbourne is formed, may be seen Mount Macedon, thecrowning mountain of a range of the same name thirty-five milesfrom the city, three thousand feet in height, covered with openforests, and the richest vegetation of Australia. Thence may beviewed the richest mountain in the world, the Mount Byng of itsdiscoverer Mitchell, the Mount Alexander in gold-digging records.To the north of Mount Alexander is Mount Hope, from the summit ofwhich the weary eyes of Mitchell were gladdened by all the sylvanpastoral glories of "Australia Felix."

Fifty-four miles from Melbourne, by sea or land, with accessby steamers several times in the day, is Geelong, the western armof Port Phillip, which "opens on the larboard hand of a vesselimmediately upon clearing the shoals at the entrance of the GreatLake, standing between the miniature Bay of Corio with itspicturesque green hills and sheltered water, and the RiverBarwon, which flows into the Lake Connemarra."

The situation, in the centre of one of the best grazing andagricultural districts, near a gold-field, will probably renderit an important town. A bar at the mouth of the harbour atpresent restricts the entry of vessels drawing more than ten feetwater; but this, it is thought, may be removed by dredging.Should this be the case, the province of Victoria will enjoy theadvantage of two excellent available ports, and have two greattowns. In the other provinces there seems no probability of anyrival competing with Sydney or Port Adelaide.

Forty miles from Geelong the Buninyong range forms part of thesecond series of mountains, after the termination of theAustralian Alps. At Ballarat, one of the spurs of Buninyong, inthe midst of plains of unequalled fertility, the first gold-fieldin Victoria was worked.

In proceeding along the coast to the point where an imaginaryline divides Victoria from South Australia, the whole coast lineof the former being about 600 miles, the most important harbouris found in Portland Bay, 255 miles from Melbourne. Threestreams, none of them navigable, fall into this bay, which islittle better than a roadstead, and very dangerous when thesouth-easterly gales, which prevail during the summer months, areblowing. The government has been compelled to pay one pound a tonmore chartering for vessels to Portland Bay than to Hobson's Bay.The north shore is low; the western rises in bold cliffs, upwardsof 150 feet.

It was at Portland Bay that one of the earliest settlementswas formed by one of Messrs. Henty's whaling parties, on whichthe land explorers came, to their great surprise, after manyweeks' journey through an unknown, uninhabited country.

The Portland Bay district receives streams from the Grampians,a range running to the northward, of which Mount William, theextreme eastern point, is 4,500 feet in height. Mitchell ascendedMount Abrupt, on the south-eastern extremity of the Grampianrange, and beheld from the edge of an almost perpendicularprecipice, 1,700 feet in height, vast open plains, bordered withforests and studded with lakes. "Certainly a land more favourablecould not be found. Flocks might be turned out upon its hills, orthe plough at once set agoing upon its plains. No primevalforests require to be first rooted out here, although there is asmuch timber as could be needed for utility or ornament."Australia Felix is one of the few regions in which the sanguineexpectations of the discoverers have been realised.

It will be found on examining a map of the province ofVictoria and of the Melbourne district—and a most excellentone has been published by Mr. Ham, of Melbourne—that it hasthree natural divisions. The central division, includingAustralia Felix and Mount Alexander, finds its natural port andcapital in Melbourne. The western division, including PortlandBay, for want of a better harbour, finds its outlet chiefly atGeelong. The eastern division, including Gipps's Land, findspartly an outlet at Western Port; but Gipps's Land must exportand import through Alberton.

Victoria has many streams and rivulets, mentioned in our tableof the counties at page 255, but no rivers navigable in theEuropean sense of the term.

Gipps's Land was discovered by Count Strzelecki, C.B., who isequally eminent as a scientific traveller and philanthropist. Thehonour has been claimed for a Mr. Macmillan, who communicated hisdiscovery to his employers some months before the count publishedhis report. This is probable. Stockmen have been the firstexplorers of most of the finest pasture districts of Australia;but it is contrary to the custom and interest of squatters tomake such discoveries public.

In the count's report to Sir George Gipps he says: "Seventeenmiles S.S.E. from Lake Omeo, a beautiful stream, the first of theeastern waters, soon assumed the breadth of a river, and appearedto be a guide into a country hitherto unoccupied by white men. Ahilly country closes the valley, narrows the river banks, andbrings the explorer across the mountain ridges to an elevationwhence there is a view of the sea on the distant horizon; to thesouth-east an undulating country, with mountain ridges to thenorth-east. Approaching or receding from the river, according tothe windings of its bordering hills, the descent into a nobleforest is effected. A series of rich pasture valleys, prairies,and open forests are intersected and studded with rivers, lakes,and wooded hills; the pastures opening out and sloping towardsthe sea." Strzelecki describes Gipps's Land, viewed from MountGisborne, as resembling a semi-lunar amphitheatre, walled fromnorth-east to south-west by lofty picturesque mountain scenery,and sloping towards the south-east down to the sea.

In 1840 Strzelecki was engaged for twenty-six days in cuttinghis way through the scrub-covered ranges between Gipps's Land andWestern Port, was obliged to abandon his packhorses, and he andhis party did not escape without imminent danger both from famineand exhaustion.

In 1844 Mr. Hawdon, with a party of twelve able-bodied men,including black native police, was instructed by the governmentto open up a practicable route for cattle from Western Port toGipps's Land. He has published a very interesting account of hisexpedition, with some spirited illustrations. He was engagedthirty days in the task, and he, too, very nearly perished in thescrub; yet he considered himself well repaid for the famine andfatigue he had endured "by the sight of the fineplains—Barney's Plains of the map—beyond theGlengarry." The good country lies upwards of fifty miles from thegovernment township of Victoria founded on the Albert River.

It is the opinion of Mr. Hawdon that the greater part of thescrub country through which he travelled would be capable ofcultivation if cleared. This scrubby tract is nowhere found inVictoria except between Gipps's Land and Western Port.

It was while performing this journey that he had anopportunity of closely examining the shy and curious lyre bird(Menura superba), which is peculiar to Australia, and onlyfound on the south-eastern coast. The settlers sometimes calledit a pheasant, but it is in reality one of the thrush family.

"I was awakened," writes Mr. Hawdon, "at sunrise by thesinging of numerous pheasants. These are the mocking-birds ofAustralia, imitating all sounds that are heard in the bush ingreat perfection; they are about the size of a small fowl, of adirty brown colour, approaching to black in some parts; theirgreatest attraction consists in the graceful tail of the co*ckbird, which is something like a lyre. But little is known oftheir habits, for it is seldom they are found near the dwellingsof civilised man.

"Hearing one scratching in the scrub close to the dray, Icrawled out, gun in hand, intending to provide a fresh meal forbreakfast. The sun having just risen, inclined it to commence itsmorning song; but the natural note (bleu bleu) was almost lostamong the multitude of imitative sounds through which itran—croaking like a crow, then screaming like a co*ckatoo,chattering like a parrot, and howling like the nativedog—until a stranger might have fancied that he was in themidst of them all. Creeping cautiously round a point of scrub, Icame in view of a large co*ck bird, strutting round in a circle,scratching up the leaves and mould with his formidable claws,while feeding upon a small leech which is the torment oftravellers, and spreading open his beauteous tail to catch therays of the sun as it broke through the dense forest. As I raisedmy gun a piece went off within six feet of me: it was one of theblack police who had blown the bird's head off that had beenamusing me for more than an hour."

These birds when disturbed never rise high, but run off intothe densest scrub, scarcely allowing a sportsman time to raisehis piece before they are out of his reach. Even the aborigines,who are so skilful in creeping up to game of all kinds, seldomkill more than three brace in a day. Their song is not oftenheard during rain, or when the sun is obscured. "The nest isabout three feet in circumference, and one foot deep, having anorifice on one side: they lay but one egg, of slate colour withblack spots. The female is a very unattractive bird, having but apoor tail, nothing like the male."

Gipps's Land, with its boundary of snow-capped precipitousmountains, its fine plains, many lakes, and temperate climate,may be considered as one of the several contrasts of soil,climate, and vegetation, of which Darling Downs, Moreton Bay,Illawarra, and Bathurst, each afford different examples.

{Page 283}

CHAPTER XXV.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

The River Glenelg, flowing into thesea, marks the natural boundary between the province of Victoriaand that of South Australia, thence embracing a seaboard of aboutfifteen hundred miles, into which no river navigable by vesselsof burden flows, and only two ports have as yet been foundcapable of safely accommodating ships of burden. As acompensation, inland journeys may be performed with littleobstruction, on horseback or by drays, for hundreds of miles.

The first important indentation in to the line of the coast isEncounter Bay; but there are coasting ports at Rivoli Bay andGuichen Bay, at which wool has been shipped. Hopes were onceconfidently entertained of finding an entrance from the sea tothe River Murray, but it has unfortunately proved that this, thenoblest stream in Australia, ends in the Lake Alexandrina, and isdivided from the ocean by a barrier of land and a surf-beaten seamargin.

Cape Jervis forms the apex of the county of Hindmarsh, whichis for the most part occupied by industrious settlers, althoughthe promontory itself is rather barren, and only known for itsshore whale fishery. On rounding this cape, Kingscote Harbour andNepean Bay appear on the opposite shores of KangarooIsland—excellent harbours, and one of them well suppliedwith water. Unfortunately they lead to nothing. The buildingserected by the South Australian Company in 1837 were permitted tofall into decay. Recently a few stock stations have been taken upon the island, and about one hundred persons are residentthere.

The kangaroos and the emus, so numerous in Flinders' time,have disappeared; and the large white eagles that stooped uponhis men, mistaking them for kangaroos, have become rare.

Entering St. Vincent's Gulf, and passing Holdfast Bay, whereGovernor Hindmarsh disembarked, and Mrs. Hindmarsh's piano wasfloated ashore through the surf—for it is no harbour atall, but a dangerous open roadstead—passing a number ofseaside villages, Port Adelaide is reached. By dint of dredging,and with the advantage of quays, this has become a safe andconvenient harbour; and, with the aid of the intended railroad,will afford the city of Adelaide nearly as much convenience as ifit had been planted on a navigable river, or on a deepharbour;—that was impossible, since no site exists in SouthAustralia combining a good harbour, agricultural land, and freshwater. No other port presents itself in St. Vincent's Gulf,unless we except Port Wakefield, to which vessels from Swanseawith cargoes of coal for smelting copper have recently beenconsigned. It has been proposed to construct a tramway betweenthis port and the Burra Burra mines, and an attempt would havebeen made to execute this project if the gold diggings had nottemporarily withdrawn all English speculation from SouthAustralia.

The whole sea face of York Peninsula and Spencer's Gulf isunfavourable to the formation of a port and town, until we arriveat Port Lincoln, on the western arm of Spencer's Gulf, where anatural harbour could receive the largest squadron that ever wentto sea—a landlocked estuary, protected at its mouth byBoston Island, with three arms or bays, Spalding Cove, PortLincoln proper, and Boston Bay. But these harbours, viewed withso much admiration by seamen, are silent; no busy populationlabours on the shores, a few scattered flocks and herds are allthat the mainland supports; and the allotments, which werecompeted for so eagerly in the years of land mania, are left tonature and a few wandering cattle.

On entering Port Lincoln, a white obelisk, on the summit of ahill, may be seen, which bears the following inscription by SirJohn and Lady Franklin:—

[* Sir John Franklin served under Flinders in theTerra Australis Voyage of Discovery.]

To pursue the coast line of the province of Victoria to 132 ofE. longitude, where it ends in a desert, would be useless, as norivers or harbours break the line of this almost uninhabitedcoast.

Equally absurd would it be to state—as South Australianadvocates who do not know the value of truth frequentlydo—that South Australia contains an area of 300,000 squaremiles, or nearly twenty millions of acres, without adding that avery large proportion of this vast space is occupied by stonydeserts and lakes of mud. Nevertheless, enough of land remainsadmirably fertile and well watered to support a large population,much larger than is likely to occupy it for a long series ofyears. In the most inhospitable regions, copper, lead, silver,and iron have been found; and there is no reason to doubt thatgold will eventually be discovered.

The district in a north-westerly direction, between PortLincoln and Streaky Bay, has been but imperfectly explored, and,with the exception of a few detached squatters' stations,settlement has not extended beyond the peninsula formed betweenthe River Murray and St. Vincent's Gulf, the furthest inlandtownship being founded by the Burra Burra mine, ninety miles fromthe capital.

South Australia is intersected by three mountainranges,—Mount Lofty, Mount Barker, and Wakefield.

The Mount Lofty range runs from north-west, and afterattaining a height of about 2,000 feet, twelve miles east ofAdelaide, falls to the south-west, terminating in low cliffs onthe seashore near Ockaparinga.

From these hills Adelaide, in the valley of the Torrens,presents a singular scene—a green oasis in the midst of abed of sand, running like a riband along the sea by which it hasbeen upheaved.

Capital farms occupy the foot of Mount Lofty, with a suremarket in Adelaide. A steep road leads across the hills ormountains; on the other side rich but not extensive valleys arefound; in one of these, twenty-four miles from Adelaide, isHansdorf, one of three German settlements to which SouthAustralia owes much in vine culture and sheep management. Beyond,parallel with Mount Lofty, is the Mount Barker range, the summitbeing 800 feet above the level of the surrounding country, whichis about 1,600 feet above the level of the sea. The summit formstable-land, on which there are some good cattle and sheepstations. This is the range which divides the waters that flow onthe one side into the Murray and Lake Alexandrina, and on theother into Spencer's Gulf.

To the north of Adelaide a long tract of level, well-wateredcountry extends, which, at about one hundred miles' distance,opens into a series of high, open downs.

The River Torrens, which formed so prominent a feature inearly puffs and pictures of the colony, is not a river at all,but, like many of the misnamed rivers of Australia, simply awatercourse, which during the rainy season rushes alongfuriously, ending in a marsh; but when the rains cease, the"river" becomes a mere chain of pools, unreplenished withmountain springs, which shrink daily with the heat, like afarmyard rain-filled pond, such as are common on the wolds ofLincolnshire. Colonel Light saw the Torrens when full of water,and that and the beauty of the valley decided his choice.Fortunately water is to be obtained in Adelaide, by sinkingwells, at a very moderate expense; and the same advantage isfound on farms, and in the slopes of the neighbouring hills. Butin this instance of the Torrens, as in many others, theinjudicious puffs of speculators reacted and threw undeserveddiscredit on the solid advantages of a very fine colony.

The one great river of Australia is the Murray, which, risingin the Australian Alps, where its sources were discovered byCount Strzelecki near Mount Kosciusko, in Victoria, receives thewaters of the Murrumbidgee, the Lachlan, and the Darling, andpresents, at certain times of the year, so full and flowing astream that the early colonists expected to draw down its watersthe commerce of the squatting districts of Yass and Albury, inNew South Wales; for they calculated that the cheapness of anunbroken water communication would draw away the dray traffic,which was then, and is now, carried to Sydney. But the uncertainsupply of water, and the obstacles arising from rocks and snags,have hitherto defeated this project.

The Murrumbidgee rises in the dividing range of mountains inthe Maneroo district, two hundred and fifty miles S.W. of thecity of Sydney, then flows onwards for five hundred miles, untilit unites with the Lachlan at a point where the brave Sturt tooka boat and descended to the sea in thirty-six days, when hediscovered South Australia, returning in forty days—thusearning the title of the father of South Australia.

The early course of the Murrumbidgee is between hills steeplysloping, covered with herbage and creeping vines, down to thewater's edge. "As I sat in a boat," writes a lady to the author,"I could see above me small, very small cattle, in singlefile—now lost in the foliage, now reappearing, as by zigzagwell-worn paths they descended to the water to drink. So loftyand steep were the cliffs that I fancied they would fall downupon me. At length they made their appearance at the edge of thestream, drinking beneath bowers of overhanging creepers—ahuge bull and a mob of portly cows."

The space encircled between this river and the Murray (theMurray was formerly named the Hume by its discoverers, Hovel andHume) is one of the fine squatting grounds of New South Wales.Higher up the stream the hills disappear, and long alluvial flatssucceed. The Murrumbidgee spreads and loses some of its waters inthe marshes of the Lachlan.

It is the peculiar character of the Murray, the Darling, andthe Murrumbidgee, that after receiving the waters of the Maranoa,the Balorme, the Gwydir, the Namoi, the Castlereagh, theMacquarie, and the Bogan, they flow hundreds of miles withoutreceiving any tributaries.

The navigation of the River Murray has been the subject of acommission appointed by Sir Henry Young, the present Governor ofSouth Australia; and, although the financial calculations of thecommission have been questioned by a committee of the SouthAustralian Legislative Council, it is presumed their facts may berelied on. They are quoted from the abstract of a gentleman (Mr.White) who was endeavouring to obtain steamers to open thenavigation of this river:—

"In August, 1850, the Legislative Council of thatprovince voted '£4,000 to be equally divided between the twofirst iron steamers of not less than forty horse power, and notexceeding two feet draught of water when loaded, that shallsuccessfully navigate the waters of the River Murray from theGoolwa to the junction of the Darling, computed to be about fivehundred and fifty-one miles.'

"1st. The natural seamouth of the Murray cannot be entered, owingto the great surf that is constantly breaking on the EncounterBay coast, and consequently any vessels intended to navigate theriver would have to be constructed on the shores of the LakeAlexandrina.

"2nd. This lake, into which the river empties itself previous toits passage to the sea, is about thirty miles long by ten broad,and from six to eighteen fathoms deep, and fresh water is foundabout the middle.

"3rd. The river preserves an uniform width of about three hundredyards to the junction of the Darling, which latter river is aboutone hundred yards wide, and the width of the Murray is notmaterially altered onwards to the junction cf the Murrumbidgeeand the Lachlan. The soundings that have been made from the Laketo the Darling, in the months of September and October, give anaverage depth of two fathoms, or rather, this may be said to bethe shallowest.

"The Murray is subject, like all the other streams in thecountry, to annual floods. It begins to rise towards the end ofJune, and continues rising until the end of January, generallyfrom ten to twelve feet.

"The only impediments that occur are in the shape of snags orfallen trees, which in some places would have to be removed; butfor this the assistance of the natives could be obtained, and upto the junction of the Darling they present no serious obstacle.This point being the limit of the province, the river beyond hasnot been surveyed; but from those who have descended it so far asthe town of Albury (a distance of only three hundred and sixtymiles from Sydney) it has been ascertained that, beforesteam-vessels of the smallest size could navigate it, the snagswould have to be removed, though a canoe, drawing eleven inchesof water, went the entire distance at a time when the river waslower than has been known within the memory of the 'white man.'From a point in the channel of the Goolwa, which is a streamissuing from the lake, and also one of the mouths of the Murray,it is proposed to lay down a railroad of seven miles in length toa point in Encounter Bay where a safe anchorage may be effected.In the event of any unforeseen difficulties occurring in theconstruction of Port Elliot, it would be necessary to make a roadfrom Morundee to the city of Adelaide (a distance of about sixtymiles), which road would pass through some of the richestdistricts of South Australia.

"With reference to the country of the Lower Murray, the estimateof the traffic is about 2,000 tons annually, made up of ores fromthe mines, green, dairy, and other produce.

"On either side of the river to the Darling there are extensivecattle-runs, all of which are taken up.

"Proceeding up the river from this point, we enter upon theprovince of Victoria, and the extensive sheep-runs of theLachlan, the Lower Darling, and the Murrumbidgee, which in June,1860, according to the New South Wales statistical and otherauthentic accounts, were stocked by 1,155,774 sheep, 306,861horned cattle, 10,093 horses, and 1,872 pigs. There is inAustralia an annual increase of 40 per cent. on sheep, and 25 percent. on cattle. According to the commissioners' report, theincrease by the close of 1852, allowing for sales, &c., willhave amounted to, say, 2,500,000 sheep, 500,000 cattle, theformer yielding about 3,384 tons wool, washed and unwashed; andif a quarter of the annual increase were boiled down, say 250,000sheep, averaging 28 lbs. tallow, 3,125 tons; and 31,000 cattle,averaging 154 lbs. tallow, 2,130 tons. Total annual freights,8,603 tons, independent of hides, skins, and other matters, atpresent thrown aside on account of the great cost oftransport.

"For return cargo it is estimated that no less than 5,000 rationswould offer, say 1,450 tons, with at least an equal quantity ofslops, iron, paling, and other goods, say 2,900 tons. The producefrom those remote districts is at present conveyed to Melbourneand Geelong in bullock-drays, travelling about ten miles a day,occupying many weeks in its transit to the port."

In our opinion speculations involving so trifling an amount ofcapital as a couple of small iron steam-boats should beundertaken and managed by colonists or the provincial government,and would be, if worth doing at all.

The navigation of the Murray is an enterprise, if feasible,within the means of a party of colonists, although the clearingof the river is a national and provincial work, to which thiscountry might be called upon to contribute; but the lessabsentees have to do with small colonial speculations the betterfor their finances and the credit of the colony.

In the Murray scrub—a beautiful but barren belt ofshrubs and plants from fifteen to twenty miles in breadth, whichruns parallel to the river for many miles between LakeAlexandrina and the Great Bend in lat. 34 S.—a great numberof the rare birds and animals of Australia are to be seen;amongst others, the leipoa, or mound-building bird, improperlynamed by the colonists the wild turkey, is found in greatnumbers; and the satin, or bower bird, which builds a bower forits mate so curiously arched and adorned with shells and shiningstones, that when Mr. Gould first discovered one he took it forthe playground of some aboriginal child. The leipoa, which wasfirst brought before the attention of the scientific world by Mr.Gould, realises the ancient fable of the ostrich, and buries itseggs, to be hatched by the fermentation of a mound of decomposedleaves and earth.

Mr. Gould observes in his great work, from which all ourobjects of natural history have been, by permission,copied:—

"This family of birds (Tallegalla, Leipoa, andMegapodius) forms part of a great family of birdsinhabiting Australia, New Guinea, the Celebes, and the PhilippineIslands, whose habits and economy differ from those of everyother group of birds which now exists upon the surface of ourglobe. In their structure they are most nearly allied to theGalllnaceæ, while in some of their actions and in theirmode of flight they much resemble the Rallidæ: the small size oftheir brain, coupled with the extraordinary means employed forthe incubation of their eggs, indicates an extremely low degreeof organisation. Three species inhabiting Australia, viz.,Leipoa ocellatta, Tallegalla, and Megapodiustumulus, although referable to distinct genera, have manyhabits in common, particularly in their mode of incubation, eachand all depositing their eggs in mounds of earth and leaves,which, becoming heated either by fermentation of the vegetablematter, or by the sun's rays, form a kind of natural hatchingapparatus, from which the young at length emerge, fullyfeathered, capable of sustaining life by their own unaidedefforts.

The male bird of the leipoa (according to a letter to Mr.Gould from Sir George Grey, the present Governor of New Zealand)weighs about four pounds and a half; they never fly if they canhelp it, and roost on trees at night. The mounds are from twelveto thirteen feet in circumference at the base, and from two tothree feet in height. To construct the mound a nearly circularhole of about eighteen inches in diameter is scratched in theground to the depth of seven or eight inches, and filled withdead leaves, dead grass, and similar materials; over this layer amound of sand, mixed with dry grass, &c., is thrown; and,finally, the whole assumes the form of a dome. When an egg is tobe deposited, the top is laid open, and a hole scraped in thecentre to within two or three inches of the bottom of the layerof dead leaves; the egg is placed in the sand just at the edge ofthe hole, in a vertical position, with the smaller end downwards;the sand is then thrown in again until the mound assumes itsoriginal form. "Egg after egg is thus deposited up to eight,arranged on the same plane in a circle, with a few inches of sandbetween each. The co*ck assists the hen in opening and covering upthe mound. The native name on the Murray River is marrah-ko; inWestern Australia the name of the bird is ngow-ngoweer, meaning atuft of feathers."

The Megapodius, of which we give an engraving, wasfound by Mr. John M'Gillivray, during a survey of EndeavourStraits, to construct a much larger mound, 24 feet in its utmostheight, and 150 feet in circumference at the base.

South Australia has been divided into counties, which are morerecognised as distinctive boundaries than in the other colonies,were the first colonisation was effected by sheep.

These counties are eleven in number, viz.—1. Adelaide;2. Hindmarsh; 3. Gawler; 4. Light; 5. Sturt; 6. Eyre; 7. Stanley;8. Flinders; 9. Russell; 10. Robe; 11. Grey.

The county of Adelaide is that in which cultivation is mostextensively carried on, the other districts being chieflyoccupied for grazing, as the difficulty of getting crops tomarket prevents sellers from raising more than for their ownconsumption. But in every favourable situation vineyards aremaking great progress.

Port Adelaide has a population of 2,000, who find occupationin the extensive movements of a large export and import trade.The primitive appearance of the Mangrove Creek, through which thedisconsolate first colonists waded, has disappeared.

A road of seven miles, through sterile, sandy ground, leads tothe city, which is traversed by conveyances of all kinds, fromthe heavy dray to the omnibus and smart dog-cart. Crossing theTorrens by a wooden bridge, one of four which is occasionallyswept away by the torrents, after performing a sinecure duty formany months, the city of Adelaide appears in the midst of trees,often full of most rare and curious birds, which migrateperiodically from the colder to the hotter climates, in a warm,pretty, and dusty valley. Adelaide, although very unlike a cityaccording to European notions, presents a much more pleasingappearance than Melbourne, which is crowded into a narrow valley,without squares, park, or boulevard. In the park landssurrounding and intersecting the straggling streets of theformer, which are as picturesque as Wiesbaden or Cheltenham,although less finished, Colonel Gawler encouraged the blacks tocamp by frequent feasts of flour and mutton, aud there strangershad an opportunity of seeing, sometimes to their amusem*nt,oftener to their surprise, their peculiar customs, habits andsports. Many pretty cottages are to be found in the suburbs, asneat and highly finished as in England.

South Adelaide is considered the commercial quarter of thetown, and contains the principal streets, one of which is 130feet wide, and Government House, which stands in the centre of adomain of ten acres.

Hindley-street is the Regent-street of Adelaide, and has thedistinction of being paved. For want of this luxury ofcivilisation, coupled with the nature of the soil, Adelaide isterribly afflicted with dust, at all times a nuisance, which isindeed common to all Australian towns. Sydney has at certaintimes of the year its brickfielders. In addition to the parklands, which occupy a breadth of half a mile round the twodivisions of the city, a cemetery and a racecourse are among itsout-of-door ornaments.

In the surrounding suburbs many pretty villages have beenfounded, both inland and on the shore. The system of selling landregularly in eighty-acre lots has, in some degree, neutralisedthe disadvantage of the large absentee proprietorships and thespecial surveys, which have monopolised so much of the limitedextent of agricultural land.

There is one point in which the South Australians possess anunquestionable superiority over the other two colonies, and thatis their local literature. With the exception of the SydneyMorning Herald, which is the Times of the southernhemisphere, the newspapers and periodicals are very superior instyle of getting up and in matter to those of New South Wales andPort Phillip. This superiority is especially marked in the SouthAustralian almanacs, which contain a fund of useful informationon the statistics, the agriculture, the horticulture, and themining progress of that colony.

Before the check occasioned by the gold discoveries, sheepstations had been formed as far north as Mount Brown, toward theDarling, near the eastern boundary. The whole of York Peninsulahad been occupied, and, in the country westward of Spencer'sGulf, flockmasters had penetrated to Anxious Bay, on theAustralian Bight; and townships had been founded at Rivoli Bay,in the county of Grey, and Guichen Bay, in the county of Robe,whence a coasting trade had been opened.

Ever since 1843 South Australia has been a corn-exportingcountry, although with great fluctuations: in that year 38,480bushels were exported; in the following year the quantityincreased to 132,000 bushels; but the low price, 2s. 9d. abushel, reduced the cultivation by ten thousand acres. In 1845the price continued low, and cultivation was further reduced; buthigh prices at the end of the year increased cultivation to36,000 acres in 1847. And thus, according to price, cultivationebbed and flowed, constantly making more progress as smallsettlers became landholders, and became more steady. As a generalrule it may be asserted that miners are situated in barrendistricts, and obliged to draw their grain and vegetables fromsome considerable distance. The system of eighty-acre lotsenables colonists of the cultivating class to plant themselvesupon land at the most convenient distance for supplying themines. These same cottage farmers also derived great advantagefrom contracts for conveying ore from the mine to the port, andcoals and wood to the smelting establishments, in theirbullock-drays.

In 1850 the whole original scheme of the colony haddisappeared: cultivation was entirely in the hands of the workingclasses; the capitalists and educated were engaged either assquatters, in commerce, or in mining speculations. The remains ofthe old ideas were only to be found in a little grandiloquentspeechmaking, and, better still, in some very beautiful gardens.There were a few fortunate purchasers of town lots in the mainstreets who made and retained very handsome fortunes.

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CHAPTER XXVI.

MINES OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Up to 1850 South Australia wasconsidered the mineral district, par excellence, ofAustralia. In the old colony of New South Wales indications ofcopper mines had been discovered many years previously, but thereservation of minerals by the crown prevented purchasers andgrantees from pursuing discoveries which might only lead to thedisturbance of their freeholds by some stranger under officialpatronage. The South Australian colonists had influence enough inthe home Parliament to obtain a concession of the "rights of thecrown." The discovery of the Burra Burra gave a vivid impulse tomineral exploration, and in 1850 not less than thirty-nine SouthAustralian mining adventures were before the colonial and Britishpublic, in various stages of progress, most of which depended onEnglish capital for their working. Nearly all, according to thereports of the promoters, "only needed the expenditure of alittle more capital to become most flourishing investments." Notone, with the exception of the Burra Burra, had ever paid apublic dividend; and when the gold discoveries brought them allto a stand-still by the abstraction of labour, several "mostrespectable colonists" were engaged in preferring new schemes forthe benefit of English capitalists. At that time the followingmines, in addition to nearly sixty other schemes which had nevergone beyond a prospectus, were in the market at a discount.

The Wheal Gawler silver lead was the first mine discovered inthe province; opened in 1841; abandoned, and re-opened by acompany without success; nevertheless the directors in 1850boasted their good prospects. The Adelaide Mining Company, nearMontacute, "with a capital of £1,000; the Australian MiningCompany, with an English capital of £400,000, and a specialsurvey of Reedy Creek, forty-six miles from Adelaide, other lotsat Tungkillo and at Kapunda" founded in 1845—the outlay hasbeen enormous—no dividends; the Barossa Mining Company,with a capital of £30,000, formed in England, with a view ofprosecuting mineral explorations on the property of G. T. Angas,Esq.; the Glen Ormond, another English company, with a capital of£30,000, founded in 1845; the Port Lincoln, with a capital of£10,000; the Mount Remarkable, with a capital of 25,000 in 1846;the North Kapunda, a capital of £22,200, in 1846; the Paringa,capital £20,000, in 1845; the Port Lincoln, capital £4,000, in1848; the Princess Royal, capital £20,000, in 1845: this was theunlucky half of the Burra.

There were two gold companies established in 1846, theworkings of one of which were suspended in 1850, "pending ananticipated sale of the sett in England."

Two conclusions may be drawn from an examination of thereports of these mines—first, that South Australia isextremely rich in minerals; and secondly, that parties who do notunderstand mining should be cautious in taking the advice ofSouth Australian friends as to mining investments.

In Cornwall there are always a number of mines manufacturedfor the benefit of green strangers. It was the same in SouthAustralia. For this reason the gold crisis, which destroyed thefictitious credit and bubble mining adventures of SouthAustralia, will in the end do good, by directing the attention ofthe South Australians to labor instead of puffery for thedevelopment of the true wealth of their noble province.

THE BURRA BURRA.

The following statement of the results of the Burra Burra minewill show that the South Australians have some reasonable excusefor the gambling mining spirit with which they are afflicted, andwhich succeeded to the town-lot roulette of 1839-40:—

The Burra proprietary divided their purchase into 2,464 sharesof £5 each, with liberty to increase their capital to £20,000,which they have since done.

In the first year, from 29th September, 1845, to 29thSeptember, 1846, at a cost of £16,624, they raised 7,200 tons ofore. As the depth of the workings increased a great improvementin the quality of the ore took place; instead of the bluecarbonate, the red oxide, malachite, and the richest descriptionof ore became predominant. The highest price realised for thefirst 800 tons was £31 9s., and the lowest £10 16s. per ton. At aconsiderable distance from the principal workings eighty tons ofblue and green carbonate of copper were raised in the month ofMarch, 1847.

In the months of June and July, 1847, the first and seconddividends of fifty shillings each per share were paid to theshareholders. These dividends were paid out of the net proceedsof 2,959 tons of ore, amounting to £35,678, out of which alsowere paid the expenses of the association, including the cost ofproducing the 2,959 tons of ore, amounting to £15,926, leaving anundivided balance of £7,584. During the six months ending 30thSeptember, 1847, 7,264 tons were raised within that period of asuperior quality. During the six months ending the 31st March,1848, 6,068 tons were raised. The large raising of the wholeyear, amounting to 13,533 tons, was produced from within thelimits of the twenty-fathom level. All the ore discovered belowthat to the thirty fathoms was left for future raising, therebeing plenty of good ore-ground above the twenty-fathom level toemploy the miners for some time to come.

The wages and cost of working the mine, including timber,fixed machinery, tools, &c., amounted to £74,030, and thecartage of the ore to £44,803.

In this year £83,106 was realised, out of which the expensesof working the mine and carting the ore were paid, but threefurther dividends were declared. By March, 1848, the original £5shares had advanced up to 150; a sixth and seventh dividend of£10 each, in June and September, raised the prices to £200 and£210 for cash. A fall afterwards took place in consequence of thedepreciation of the value of copper in Europe. But an importantdiscovery was made of a valuable lode in the thirty-fathom levelleading from Kingston to Graham's shaft. The lode was cut fourfathoms below the water level, was solid, and from ten to elevenfeet wide, composed of a compact green carbonate or malachite,producing upwards of 40 per cent. of copper. The lode wasdescribed as clearly defined, in easy working order, and dippingwell into the mine.

In the half year ending the 30th September, 1848, 10,163 tonswere raised, making a sum total for the ore raised during thefirst three years' working of the mine of 33,386 tons, equal toupwards of 10,000 tons of fine copper ore (at £70 per ton),£700,000. The cost of the mine for the year ending the 30th ofSeptember, 1848, was £81,491; of the cartage of ore, £31,445.

In the latter part of 1848 the miners struck for higher wages.The workings of the mine were suspended from November untilFebruary, 1849. In March the miners resumed work.

Further important discoveries were made—one of a lode inthe thirty-fathom level, south-west from Graham's shaft,consisting of red oxide and malachite in great abundance; and theother of a lode two fathoms wide, yielding malachite of highproduce. Only two pitches were set on these lodes, and twelve menproduced in the first week eighty tons of the richest ores.

On the 5th of September, 1849, an eighth dividend of £5 pershare was declared. In the year 1850 the £10 quarterly dividendswere regularly paid. Two steam-engines of thirty-five horse powereach, one for crushing the ore and the other for drawing from theshafts, arrived; and the directors ordered seventy fathoms offifteen-inch pumps to replace the eleven-inch lifts then in work,and a pumping-engine of three-hundred-horse power.

The quantity of ore raised in the year ending September, 1850,was 18,692 tons. Since that period the returns have experienced acheck from the emigration to the gold-diggings, and shares havefluctuated in value, but of the ultimate value of this propertythere can be no question.

SUMMARY OP WORKINGS AND PROFITS.

The workings of the mines at the close of the year 1850consisted of the following shafts, winzes and levels viz., 45whim shafts, of an aggregate depth of 812 fathoms; seven trialshafts, of an aggregate depth of 34 fathoms; 35 winzes and ladderroads, of an aggregate depth of 270 fathoms; 3,876 fathoms oflevels, equal in length to four and one-third British miles. Thewhole of the transactions of the company, from its formation tothe 29th September, 1849, embracing four years and a half, were,in the year 1850, finally balanced, and the profits during thatperiod were found to amount to £229,535, of which £221,760 weredivided among the shareholders in twelve dividends, the twelfthdividend of 10 having been paid on the 1st September, 1850. Theore raised during this period was 37,736 tons, at a cost of£309,825 3s. 6d., or 8 4s. 3d. per ton, and produced in theprovince, free of freight and charges, £536,486 13s. 4d., or £144s. 4d. per ton, leaving a profit of £226,661 6s. 10d., or £6 0s.1d. per ton. During the year 1850, the company, however, incurredthe following expenses:—

Making, with other expenses, a sum total of £169,611 2s. 5d.After deducting these expenses from the estimated value of ore onhand, the directors notified that 52,000 was applicable todividends, and a 10 dividend was accordingly paid in December,1850, and in March, 1851.

A DRIVE TO THE BURRA BURRA.

The Burra Burra Mine is distant about a hundred milesfrom Adelaide, and reached by a road which, although low anddusty, is good in the summer months. The transit was recentlyperformed by the mail, an open four-horse omnibus, at a charge of£l, in fifteen hours' travelling, halting for the night on theroad. "A party is frequently conveyed to the Burra in a springcart, driven tandem fashion, and supplied with fresh horses fromthe stations along the road, belonging to Mr. Chambers. A trip ofthis sort, to and from the Burra mine, costs about £12 or 13. Theroad from Adelaide to Gawler Town traverses a flat open countryalong the coast line of St. Vincent's Gulf. On each side of theroad the country is subdivided into small farms reaching on oneside to the gulf, and on the other extending to the long range ofhills which intersects the province of South Australia. Thecountry in February last presented a brown parched appearanceowing to a long and unprecedented drought. Very few objects ofinterest are met on the road, being limited to the teams of theGerman farmers, and the bullock drays, laden with bars of refinedcopper, en route from the smelting works to Adelaide. AtGawler Town—a rapidly improving township—there aretwo large inns with excellent accommodation. About thirty milesfrom Gawler Town you reach the Kapunda, the property of CaptainBagot, M.L.C., and some proprietors in England. The North Kapundaand the South Kapunda mines adjoin the Kapunda. They are mineralsections of land which were purchased in the expectation of theircontaining a continuation of the rich lodes found in the Kapunda;but although much had in 1851 been done with the scrip of theNorth Kapunda and South Kapunda Companies, but little profit orsuccess had attended the working of the mines themselves. Theroad from the Kapunda passes through an undulating park-likecountry and an extensive plain, across which, in the distance,the mirage is often plainly distinguishable. About eight milesbefore arriving at the Burra the country becomes remarkablybarren and hilly, and the eye is at once attracted by thepeculiar appearance of ridges which run north and south along theground at what seem to be regular intervals of distance,suggesting the natural inference of lodes of some kind or other.This inference is fortified by the multitudinous out-croppings oflime and other descriptions of stone which appear at the base andalong the brow of the hills. As you approach towards the Burra, atall white chimney, rising from the summit of one of the hillsbefore you, announces that the mine is not far off, and then youreye fixes upon a congeries of bald rounded hills towards thenorth, looking like so many tents crowded together upon raisedground.

"The Burra Hotel, situated at the commencement of the Burra Burratownship, is a fine spacious stone building, furnishing everyaccommodation to visitors, and unsurpassed by any house of thekind, either in the province or New South Wales. The township ofKooringa is well laid out, comprising several very handsome stonebuildings, and contained, in 1851, a population of 5,000inhabitants. Five years ago the whole of this place was a barrenwilderness: now stores, and shops, and offices line theHigh-street. Several ministers of religion are located here.Excellent accommodation is afforded to the wives and families ofminers, and workmen belonging to the smelting-works, in severalwell laid out squares of comfortable cottages, chiefly built ofstone, and let at low rents. The whole of the township is thefreehold of the Burra Company, who have let some of theproperties such, for instance, as the Burra Hotel, on longimproving leases.

"Leaving the Burra Hotel, you pass down the High-street, andproceed along a road, which on one side winds round the base of alarge hill, and on the other side is skirted by a creek thatexhibits a very singular coup d'œil. Along the channel ofthe creek runs a thin stream of water, and on each bank is a lineof little detached cottages or sheds, each of which has beenexcavated out of the sides of the creek, and faced with weatherboards. The inside of each house has a fire-place and a chimneyor flue, which, making its exit out of the surface ground, isthen capped, either by a small beer barrel or mound of earth witha hole in the centre, as a substitute for the ordinarychimney-pot. In these strange dwelling-places, which take up twomiles of the creek on each side, the great bulk of the miners andtheir families reside, being permitted by the Burra Company to doso rent free.* A busy hum pervades the creek swarms of childrenare at every door here—and there a knot of gossips iscollected and every now and then the scene is diversified by thechatter of a tame magpie, the barking of quarrelsome curs, thegrunting of swine, the neighing of horses stabled alongside thehuts, or the fluttering of red shirts and other apparel drying inthe open air. Two minutes' walk brings you to the mine. Turningfrom the creek, and looking towards the low but gently-risingground that lies between three hills, you observe an area of fromeighty to one hundred acres, crowded with stone buildings,covered shafts leading under ground, machinery and engine works,engine-houses, storehouses, tanks, and dams of water, innumerablesheds of all sizes, and countless piles of copper ore of variousassorted qualities, in different stages of dressing, lying almostin every direction. If you arrive after six in the eveningexpecting to find all quiet and the business of the day over,great will be your surprise at the bustling animated appearanceof the place. The first striking object is the gigantic whitechimney towering from the summit of the middle hill, and carryingthe smoke from the different engine-flues which run under thesurface of the ground towards the middle hill. At the summit ofthis same hill, also, you observe a large well-finished stonewarehouse, used as a powder magazine. The eye is next caught by afine lofty stone building, situate about the centre of theground—the three-storied pumping engine-house, with thegreat beam in front, steadily working up and down. Ascending theroad, you pass the weigh-bridge, and an extensive square ofstone-built offices and stores adjoining a spacious yard,enclosed by a stone wall. These premises are used as depots forbuilding timber, iron, workmen's tools, and various engineeringstores. In the back ground, on the brow of the hill, is a row ofwell-built stone cottages two of them the residences of CaptainRoach and another mine captain, and the third comprising theconsultation room, the changing rooms, and the office of thecompany's accountant and his clerk.

[* Since this description was written a flood hasdestroyed these dwellings, drowning some of the inhabitants.]

"On the right of these cottages is another similarrange, the residences of the other captains of the mine and theirfamilies. Still further to the right is a pretty detachedcottage, occupied by Dr. Chambers, the principal surgeon at themine. On the brow of the right hill is a long line of stablingand sheds for carts, with adjoining yards and barns. The stallsare roomy, floored with small stones, and capable of receivingupwards of one hundred horses. Near the stabling is a substantialand capacious shed, used as a timber-store and saw-pit, and closeby a similar one was in the course of erection for the furtheraccommodation of the carpenters. About eleven whims were at workat the shafts. Most of these whims, as well as the great pumpingengine, are at work day and night, which accounts for the busyscene presented to the eye, although long past six o'clock. Thewhims are situate each of them close to a shaft whichcommunicates with one or other of the different levels underground. Connected with the pumping engine shaft is a series oflong wooden spouting, elevated upon and supported by stands. Thespouts which receive the water drawn up from the mine runbackward in several directions, and feed various tanks, and dams,and other places, where the operations of cleansing and dressingthe ore are carried on. The refuse water is conducted to the headof the Burra Creek, down which it makes its way for seven miles,reaching the Princess Royal Mine, and ultimately running into theMurray flats. Near each shaft where the whim is at work areranges of sheds, in which parties of men and boys are busilyengaged in crushing and reducing lumps of ore from one size toanother, and so facilitating the washing and separation of thecopper ore from the earth and foreign matter with which it ismixed.

"There are other sheds set apart for tanks and variouscontrivances, by which parties of men and boys wash and sift thecopper ore, until prepared for sampling. Collected near the shedsare numberless square and oblong heaps of ore, about six feetlong, four feet broad, and two to three feet deep. These heapsare composed of copper ore of various qualities, and in differentstages of dressing. When it is remembered, that in addition tothe large heaps of ore which cover the ground near these sheds,and near the dams and tanks for washing, there are innumerablepiles of ore ready for the samplers and smelters, gatheredtogether in every available quarter of this eighty-acre area,some faint idea may be formed of the enormous masses of mineralwealth thus collected at the Burra. A pleasing aspect is impartedto them by the rich deep blue of the carbonate, and by thegreenish hues which characterise the malachite ore, affording astriking contrast to the sombre appearance of the red oxide. Theoffices of the clerk of the works, and of the assayers, and ofthe samplers, form another range of buildings. The workshops ofthe engineers and the different mechanics engaged on the groundare of course pretty numerous, but still each place is sosituate, and all the works are proceeding in such a manner, as toimpress even a superficial spectator with the conviction that themost thorough order and method is the principle of theestablishment throughout. A stone engine-house has beencompleted, and fitted up with an engine of forty-five horsepower, from the Perran Foundry, Cornwall, intended for crushingthe ore, and so dispensing with a large amount of expensivemanual labour. A stamping machine, for extracting the leavingsfrom the refuse copper ore which has hitherto been thrown on oneside, is also very near completion. Workmen were also engagedupon a new engine-house, in which a winding-engine of thirty-fivehorse power, already at the mine, is to be placed. When thedeeper levels of the mine are reached, this winding-engine willbe connected with the ropes and iron buckets now worked by thehorse-Whims, and thus save a large expenditure, which is nownecessary at the several shafts. Of the extent of the operationsgoing on at the surface of the mine, some notion may be obtainedfrom the number of men who are employed by the Burra Company atsurface work. Most of the buildings and engineering works areerected by contract, and, reckoning exclusively of the menworking for the contractors, and also of the officers of themine, 383 men and 111 boys are employed by the Burra Company asore dressers, and labourers, and similar descriptions of surfacework; 27 men are employed as carters and stablemen, and 85 men ascarpenters, masons, smiths, painters, plasterers, engineers, andboiler-makers—total, 600."

SMELTING WORKS.

The copper ore raised in the South Australian mines has beenprincipally sent to Swansea. As there is a considerable demandfor copper in India and China, it became an object to refine theore in South Australia. With this view an immense capital hasbeen sunk in establishing several copper-smelting companies, buthitherto with moderate success, in consequence of the scarcity offuel. Coal has not yet been discovered, therefore the smelterswere dependent on wood or imported coal. According to experiencein Norway, a large forest is soon consumed by the demands of asmelting establishment. The most extensive smelting works, latethe property of Messrs. Schneider, have unfortunately beenplanted close to the Burra mine, where wood is scarce, and wherefour tons of coal must be carted up for every ton of ore. Theproper site would have been at or near a port.

The necessity of transporting coal imported from England, orfrom the Newcastle of New South Wales, has called into use PortWakefield, a creek at the head of St. Vincent's Gulf, forming theembouchure of the River Wakefield. The intervening countrybetween the Burra and Port Wakefield, a distance of about thirtymiles, is composed partly of undulating hills and partly overflat land well adapted for heavy carriage. No doubt had thesmelting works continued in full operation, a tramway would havebeen attempted over this line.

Mining, agriculture, and pastoral pursuits have been theprincipal investments of the South Australian colonists. Thenumber of sheep grazing was about one-sixth of that of the PortPhillip district. Fat cattle are driven over from Portland Bay toRivoli Bay for South Australian consumption.

South Australia is at present under a cloud, but thedepression can only be temporary. A genial sun, a fertile soil, ahealthy climate, with sheep, cattle, English colonists, and aBurra Burra mine, cannot but produce good fruits, although thedreams of empire of newly-fledged legislators may scarcely berealised.

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CHAPTER XXVII.

RELIGION, EDUCATION, LAW.

The provisions made for the promotionof religion and education are nearly the same in New South Walesand Victoria, having been finally settled before the twoprovinces were divided. In South Australia the system of the oldcolony seems to have been taken as a model. In all three coloniesthe law is, with a few local exceptions, the same.

We have already mentioned the circ*mstances under which abishop was appointed in New South Wales. By the munificence ofMiss Burdett Coutts a bishopric was endowed in South Australia;this led to the appointment of a bishop of Melbourne, and perhapsto the creation of the second bishopric in New South Wales, thediocese of Newcastle, which extends to the northward, theresidence being at Morpeth.

The assistance afforded to the building of churches and thesupport of religious ministers in New South Wales and PortPhillip is at present regulated by the act passed by Sir RichardBourke, described at page 109.

By an act of the Legislative Council of South Australia,passed 3rd of August, 1847, for promoting the building ofChristian churches and chapels, public money was issued, underthe sanction of the governor and Executive Council, in proportionto the amount of private contributions; the grants in aid ofbuilding to range from £50 to £150, and toward the stipends ofclergy and ministers from £50 to £200 a year. One-fourth of thesittings in places of worship so assisted must be free.

The Congregationalists and Baptists have always refused toreceive aid from the state; and there exists in the threecolonies, especially in South Australia, a party opposed to allstate assistance to religion. In our opinion, although religionand education may be sustained in towns with a large floatingpopulation by the voluntary system, the inhabitants of theinterior, without government assistance, will remain to a greatextent in a state of practical heathendom altogether, without theadvantage of religious rites and ordinances. The state of life inthe bush is, or ought to be, patriarchal: churches are animpossibility: every father must be the pastor of his family. Toestablish the voluntary system is to decree that the long linesof rivers shall never be visited by a minister of religion.

It is a pity that a few thousands cannot be tithed from thevast sums spent on hopeless missions to the heathen for thesupport of itinerant missionaries to our emigrant countrymen:missionaries who would not disdain to be also schoolmasters. Thecollection of bibles in many languages in the Great Exhibitionwas a fine, an impressive sight; but still it is to be regrettedthat men of piety, rank, wealth, and influence, do not pursuerather the positive kind possible than the impossible, and beginby taking care that every child in the bush of Australia shallhave and know how to read a bible before sending missionaries toperish in Patagonia, or attempting an impossible Church ofEngland Utopia in Canterbury, New Zealand.

The following are the numbers of the various religiousdenominations in New South Wales:—Church of England,93,137; Church of Scotland, 18,156; Wesleyan Methodists, 10,000;other Protestants, 6,472; Roman Catholics, 56,899; Jews, 979;Mahomedans and Pagans, 852; other persuasions, 740. The churcheswhich receive State support are the English, the Scotch, theWesleyan, and the Romish. The respective amounts paid for theyear 1850 were as follows:—The diocese of Sydney, £12,01517s. 4d.; the diocese of Newcastle, £4,028 7s. 10d.; thePresbyterian Church, £3,378 1s. 1d.; the Wesleyan Church, £850;and the Roman Catholic Church, £8,159 0s. 9d.; in all about£30,000. In South Australia the places of worship of the Churchof England are seventeen; of the Roman Catholics, six; Church ofScotland, seven; Methodists, twelve (having 1,300 Sunday-schoolscholars); Congregationalists, nine; Baptists, three or four. TheGermans have six pastors, and five places where they meet forworship.

Up to 1836 education was as much neglected in Australia as inEngland, until Lord Brougham commenced the agitation compromisedby the establishment of the miscalled national schools. Alarge proportion of the colonial population consisted of adultconvicts, who arrived as ignorant as vicious.

We have already described in Chapter X. how Sir Richard Bourkecarried through the Legislative Council, at the time that thechurch and school lands were surrendered, a measure forfounding-schools throughout the colony, on the plan of LordStanley's (now Earl of Derby) Irish national school system. Butthe opposition on the part of the late Bishop of Australia was sohot and effective that the local act remained a dead letter, andthe moderate per centage of education afforded to the workingclasses was distributed through denominational or sectarianschools, aided by colonial funds. The result was, that manycountry districts were left without schools, whilst two or threewere established to educate forty or fifty scholars. At Camdenthere were three schools, none of which had more than twentyscholars.

In 1844 a committee of the Legislative Council, appointed toinvestigate the subject of colonial education, of which RobertLowe, Esq., was chairman, reported strongly in favour of theIrish national system, observing:—

"There are about 25,676 children between the ages offour and fourteen years: of these only 7,642 receive instructionin public schools, and 4,865 in private ones, leaving about13,000 who, as far as the committee can learn, receive noeducation at all. The expense of education is about £1 a head.This deficient education is partly attributable to the ignorance,dissolute habits, and avarice of too many parents, and partly tothe want of good schoolmasters and schoolbooks, but a far greaterproportion of the evil has arisen from the strictlydenominational character of the public schools.

"The very essence of a denominational system is to leave themajority uneducated, in order thoroughly to imbue the minoritywith peculiar tenets. The natural result is, that where oneschool is founded two will arise, not because they are wanted,but because it is feared that proselytes will be made. It is asystem impossible to be carried out in a thinly-inhabitedcountry, and, being exclusively in the hands of the clergy, itplaces the state in the awkward dilemma of either supplyingmoney, whose expenditure it is not permitted to regulate, or ofinterfering between the clergy and their superiors."

The committee further recommended the formation of a board, tobe appointed by the governor, consisting of persons favourable tothe plan, and possessing the confidence of the differentdenominations, "with a salaried secretary."

The Lord Bishop of Australia and the Roman Catholic Archbishopwere both examined before this committee; both were stronglyopposed to the Irish system of educating different denominationsin one school, and expressed their adherence to thedenominational system. The Bishop of Australia would countenanceno schools in which the dogmas of the Church of England were nottaught; the Roman Catholic Archbishop, in like manner, insistedon having exclusive Roman Catholic schools for the members of hischurch.* They were both excellent, charitable, and pious men; buteither was evidently prepared, if he had the power, to enforcethe dogmatic teaching of his own church in all the schools, andto leave those who did not agree with it without any teaching,moral or educational. They were not satisfied with a compromisesystem, by which the duties of truth, chastity, honesty, charity,forgiveness of enemies, and thankfulness to God, should beinculcated, with reading, writing, and arithmetic, unless thequestions of the number of sacraments and the right line ofapostolic succession were also expounded according to the viewsof each; and sooner than either would give way, they were contentto leave infant minds to gather all their learning from theblasphemy of the streets.

[* The two following instances will show how farsectarian zeal will carry excellent and educated men. There isnot in all Australia a more pious and actively charitable manthan the Rev. Robert Allwood. A remarkable instance of hisbenevolence is mentioned in Mrs. Chisholm's report of the"Emigrants' Home" in 1844. Mr. Allwood says, "I could notsanction any system in which the Church of England catechism wasnot taught." Q. "In thinly-peopled districts, where it isimpossible to find schoolmasters for each denomination, and wheresome concession is necessary to each, in order to get educationfor all, do you not think the Scriptures might be read by allProtestants, the Roman Catholic children being exempted, thiseducation being supplemented by Sunday-schools?"—"I wouldnot approve of it." On the other hand, the Roman CatholicArchbishop Polding considered "religious and moral instruction ina very low state in England," which may, perhaps, be true; but inanother part of his evidence, which is too long to quote, heleaves it to be inferred that the state of education at Rome, asregards the humblest classes, is in a most satisfactory state,that a large proportion of the public revenues is given toeducation," and that "the Papal government is extremely anxiousthat all should have the means of education." Archbishop Poldingmust have examined the English in courts and alleys, and lookedat the Romans through the windows of a cardinal's carnage.]

The vigorous opposition of these two prelates, and others oftheir mind, aided by many who, really worshipping nothing, exceptwhat the Americans rather profanely call the "Almighty Dollar,"yet loved a party cry, temporarily suspended the carrying out ofthe recommendations of this report.

But the Stanley National system of instruction is the onlysystem possible in a colony where the divers religions were soevenly balanced, and made and is making progress. In theprincipal towns where denominational schools were in existence in1844 they are still maintained, but in new districts LordStanley's system is introduced.

In pursuance of the recommendations of Mr. Lowe's committee, aboard has been formed on the principle of the Irish Board ofEducation; and a normal school for training teachers on the Irishsystem has been established.

Throughout the "Three Colonies" great anxiety prevails amongall classes for the extension of education, and a willingness tobear taxation for that purpose.

The normal school of Sydney affords one of the many comicalanecdotes afloat illustrating the mode in which officials inEngland attend to colonial affairs.

In consequence of the suggestion of Mr. Lowe's committee,after the heat of the educational question had toned down,application was made to the Colonial Office for a masteracquainted with the Irish school system, and capable of takingcharge of a normal school for the instruction of masters in thatsystem. For nearly four years the Colonial Office slept on theapplication: at the end of that time, by some chance, the "orderfor a schoolmaster" turned up. Earl Grey, it is presumed aftersome inquiries, selected a Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson received aletter desiring him to call on Earl Grey, in Downing-street. Hewent, was congratulated, favoured with a little of the goodadvice of which great men keep a stock for the benefit of thesmall, and then handed over to Mr. Benjamin Hawes, the lateUnder-Secretary for the Colonies, who in due course handed himover to Mr. Gairdner, the chief clerk, who transferred him to astylish young gentleman, name unknown, who stood with his back tothe fire, a pot of stout in his right hand, and delivered himselfsomething in the following strain:—"Well, you're appointedto this berth in Australia? Consider yourself lucky; you'll makeyour fortune. Now, these colonial fellows are in a deuce of ahurry, so you must lose no time. Let me see the shipping list.Ah! here's a ship sails on Friday for Adelaide. This isMonday—you must go on Friday—your passage will bepaid, and all right."

Mr. Wilson remonstrated on the shortness of the time, but itwas of no use: the colonists were in a "deuce of a hurry." Hesuggested that Adelaide was a considerable distance from Sydney.The objection was pooh-poohed—knowledge of colonialgeography is not an indispensable qualification for colonialoffice. Poor Mr. Wilson was hurried off by the ship to Adelaide.Arrived there, he had to wait nearly a month for a conveyance toSydney. Arrived in Sydney, and installed in his office, he wasquestioned as to the latest improvements in the Irish nationalsystem. He knew nothing about it, had never heard of it, hadnever seen any of the books; he had been master of an excellentChurch of England school. So, after four years' delay, indesperate haste, the Colonial Office had sent off the wrong man,to the wrong place!

In justice to Mr. Wilson it is right to add, that, being aclever and conscientious man, he applied himself to the study ofthe Irish schoolbooks, and has performed the duties of his officewith credit to himself and advantage to the colony.

In South Australia, by an act of the Legislative Council,passed in August, 1847, the governor is authorised to appoint aboard of education, who shall have power, under his sanction, tomake regulations for giving effect to the ordinance. No aid to begiven to schoolhouses. The salaries issued to teachers will be inproportion to the children taught, not less than twenty, betweensix and sixteen years of age, 20 being the lowest and 40 thehighest sum. The governor to appoint visitors and inspectors. Thereports to be laid before the Legislative Council, and one publicexamination to take place yearly. The boards, previous to theintroduction of an elective Legislative Council, consisted of thejudge of the Supreme Court, the advocate-general, the colonialchaplain, a dissenting minister, and a layman.

The University of Sydney, established by an Act of theLegislative Council, was opened in October, 1852, on thefollowing scale and plan:—A fee of two pounds must be paidon matriculation, and two guineas for each course of lectures.All students matriculated the first year, were required to attendthe lectures on classics and mathematics, and to be attired inacademical costume. Six scholarships, of £50 a year each, tenablefor three years, have been established.

The candidates for matriculation in October, 1852, wereexamined in Mathematics: in the ordinary rules of Arithmetic,vulgar and decimal Fractions; the first four rules of Algebra,and the first book of Euclid. In Classics: in the sixth book ofHomer's Iliad; the first book of Xenophon's Anabasis; the firstbook of Virgil's Æneid; the Bellum Catilinarum of Sallust; and inthe History and Geography connected with those portions of thoseworks. In the same session the Principal lectured to the UpperDivision on Thucydides, Bk. 1; Sophocles, Antigone: Sallust,Bell. Jug.; Horace, Epistles. To the Lower Division, on Xen.Anabasis, Bk. 1; Hom. Iliad, Bk. 1; Cicero de Senectute; Virg.Æneid, Bk. 6. The Professor of Mathematics lectured on Euclid,first four Books; Arithmetic, and Algebra. Lectures were alsodelivered daily on Chemistry, Natural and ExperimentalPhilosophy, by a third professor.

The following are the subjects on which the candidates forscholarship were examined:—Mathematics: Arithmetic andAlgebra, as far as Quadratic Equations inclusive; first fourbooks of Euclid; the popular Elements of Statics and Dynamics.Classics—Greek: The Medea of Euripides; Xenophon'sAnabasis. Latin: First six books of Virgil's Æneid; Cicerode Amicitia; Roman Antiquities; Translations from English intoLatin; Questions in Ancient History connected with the foregoingworks.

It is much to be regretted that no provision has hitherto beenmade for founding professorial chairs of English Literature,Modern History, and Moral Philosophy. Some such counteractinginfluences are needed in a country where at present publiclibraries are unknown, literary influences do not exist, andwealth and official rank are the only recogniseddistinctions.

The Supreme Court of New South Wales consists of achief and two puisne judges, who exercise the powers of the threeCourts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer atWestminster, and have criminal jurisdiction. They go on circuittwice a year to Bathurst, Goulburn, Maitland, and Brisbane.

In common law the "new rules" of pleading are in force.

One judge sits in equity (by delegation) with the powers of avice-chancellor, and there is an appeal from his decision to theSupreme Court.

The proceedings are by bill and answer. The equity rules of1841 are in force; but in 1849 a reform was introduced, by whichthe proceedings for obtaining a rule nisi in a common law court,by affidavit, and a defence by affidavit, were, in a variety ofinstances, substituted for the tedious complication of the oldchancery system.

The Supreme Court also exercises, in the person of one of thejudges appointed for the purpose, those functions as regards thevalidity of testamentary dispositions, letters of administration,&c., which in England are performed by the EcclesiasticalCourts; but no court exists for deciding on questions of divorce,alimony, &c.

The Master in Equity presides over an Admiralty Court.

The Supreme Court exercises jurisdiction in bankruptcy andinsolvency. One of the judges presides, exercising powers similarto the commissioners in England, with an appeal to the SupremeCourt.

Estates of insolvents are vested in official assignees.

A person can be made a bankrupt or insolvent either bypetition of creditors or by his own petition.

A Court of Conscience, presided over by a singlecommissioner, who decides, not according to law or evidence, butaccording "to equity and good conscience," like the courts whichhave been superseded in England by our County Courts, is held forthe metropolitan county of Cumberland in Sydney, and one for themetropolitan county of Bourke in Melbourne, which hasjurisdiction up to 30.

The magistrates, paid and unpaid, in the other districts havejurisdiction up to £10 absolutely, and up to 30 by mutual consentin cases of simple debt, but not in actions for damages ordisputed rights to land, &c.

Under the enactments of the "Masters and Servants Act," twomagistrates can decide on disputes as to wages and service: theycan commit a servant refusing to perform his written agreement,and levy a distress on the property of a master or his agent ifwages are unpaid; and, by a recent law, this power extends tocontracts made in England.

The division of barrister and attorney is maintained in thecolonies.

English barristers and Scotch advocates are admitted at onceto practise.

The judges appoint a board of examiners, and admit any man ofgood character to practise as a barrister, after passing anexamination in classics, mathematics, and law.

Attorneys and writers to the signet are admitted to practiseof course.

Persons who have served their articles and not passed inEngland may be admitted in the colony. The result is, thatparties who have been or would have been rejected in England, inconsequence of tainted character, are able to practise in NewSouth Wales.

Three important law reforms are due to the exertions of RobertLowe, Esq., now member for Kidderminster, during the time he wasa member of the Legislative Council, and practised at the bar inSydney:—

1. The substitution in 1849, in the Colonial Equity Court, ofthe common law proceedings on application for a rule nisi insteadof the tedious delays of bill and answer.

2. The abolition of imprisonment for debt on final process. InAustralia to commit a man to prison virtually amounted todestroying all his property.

3. Arrangements for admitting gentlemen to the bar withoutproceeding to England, provided they are able to pass anexamination in classics, mathematics, and law, before examinersappointed by the judges. The sons of Australian gentlemen, forwant of friends accustomed to the state of society in theuniversities, are usually ruined.

In South Australia there is a Supreme Court, composed of onejudge, who also presides in the Vice-Admiralty Court, acommissioner in the Insolvent Court, and three policemagistrates.

{Page 310}

CHAPTER XXVIII.

STATISTICS OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

We are in possession of very exactstatistics of New South Wales; but in Victoria, in consequence ofthe confusion into which every public department has been thrownby the revolution in ordinary colonial pursuits, and the enormousinflux of population, it has been impossible to prepare the sameaccurate collection of statistical facts. The same causes havedepressed South Australia.

It is sufficient to observe, that all the natural productionsenumerated in the statistical account of New South Wales, may begrown or manufactured in the other two colonies, the soil andclimate being essentially the same.

POPULATION.

By the census taken on the 1st March, 1851, the populationconsisted of 108,691 males and 81,260 females, making a total of189,951. The increase to the 31st December, 1851, had been 9,043males and 5,243 females. The increase in the males, arose fromimmigration, 5,799; from births, 3,244. In the females, fromimmigration, 2,091; from births, 3,152. The decrease to the 31stDecember was 4,702 males and 2,367 females. The decrease in themales arose from deaths, 1,344; departure from the colony, 3,358;and in the females from deaths, 823; and from departures, 1,544.The total increase was 14,286; the total decrease, 7,069, leavingthe nett increase, during the three quarters of the year,7,217—viz., by births, 4,229; by immigration,2,968—the increase by births being a fraction more than 2per cent., and by immigration about 1¼ per cent. The number ofmarriages in the year 1851 was 1,915, and they were solemnised asfollows:—Church of England, 765; Church of Scotland, 426;Wesleyan, 100; Independents, 8; Baptists, 4; Church of Rome, 605;Jews' Synagogue, 7. Since the year 1837 the returns show, almostwithout exception, an increase in the births and a decrease inthe deaths over and above the proportionate increase ofpopulation.

IMMIGRATION.

The total number of immigrants introduced at the publicexpense was, in 1832, 792; in 1833, 1,253; in 1834, 484; in 1835,545; in 1836, 808; in 1837, 2,664; in 1838, 6,102; in 1839,7,852; in 1840, 5,216; in 1841, 12,188; in 1842, 5,071; in 1843,nil; in 1844, 2,726; in 1845, 497; in 1846, nil; in 1847, nil; in1848, 4,376; in 1849, 8,309; in 1850, 4,078; in 1851, 1,846making a total number of immigrants, introduced during the twentyyears at the public expense, of 64,807; consisting of 21,653 maleand 25,595 female adults, and 17,559 children under fourteenyears of age. The total cost to the colony for this immigrationwas £1,134,511 15s. 6d. In 1832 the cost per head was £6 13s.8d.; in 1833, £10 16s. 10d.; in 1834, £10 9s. 7d.; in 1835, £180s. 9d.; in 1836, £16 4s. 6d.; in 1837, £17 13s. 10d.; in 1838,£16 18s. 11d.; in 1839, £18 17s. 6d.; in 1840, £22 12s. 5d.; in1841, £17 0s. 2d.; in 1842, £16 9s.; in 1844, £16 9s. 9d.; in1845, £19 4s. 2d. The averages for the remaining years are notgiven, but they have been about £15 per head. The whole of thisexpenditure has been borne out of the territorial revenue of thecolony, although it has at times been found necessary toanticipate that revenue by borrowing upon its security. Thedebentures issued by the Government for this purpose amount inall to £336,800; and the nett proceeds realised by the sale ofthese debentures is £338,286 15s. 1d. The amount of debentureswhich has been paid off was £149,700; and the amount outstandingon the 31st of December, 1851, £187,100. The interest paid ondebentures has been £33,786 14s. 1d.

EDUCATION.

In the year 1840 there were in the colony 159 schools, with4,639 male and 3,935 female scholars—total, 8,574. In 1841,192 schools, with 4,935 male and 4,124 femalescholars—total, 9,059. In 1842, 232 schools, with 5,698male and 4,635 female scholars—total, 10,333. In 1843, 279schools, with 6,286 male and 5,103 female scholars—total,11,389. In 1844, 313 schools, with 6,814 male and 5,776 femalescholars—total, 12,590. In 1845, 327 schools, with 7,813male, and 6,641 female scholars—total, 14,454. In 1846, 338schools, with 8,613 male and 7,650 female scholars—total,16,263. In 1847, 376 schools, with 9,848 male and 8,752 femalescholars—total, 18,600. In 1848, 382 schools, with 10,267male and 8,722 female scholars—total, 18,989. In 1849, 444schools, with 10,721 male and 9,250 female scholars—total,19,971. In 1850, 493 schools, with 11,214 male and 10,170 femalescholars—total, 21,384. In 1851, 423 schools, with 11,118male and 10,002 female scholars—total, 21,120. The schoolsin the year 1851 consisted of the Protestant and Roman Catholicorphan schools, with 345 scholars, maintained by Government at anexpense of £5,212 3s. 11d.; the Church of England denominationalschools, with 4,998 scholars, receiving 5,321 5s. 3d. fromGovernment, and paying £2,324 2s. 7d. by voluntary contributions;the Wesleyan schools, with 891 scholars, receiving £588 9s. 2d.from the Government, and £665 11s. 2d. from voluntarycontributions; the Roman Catholic schools, with 3,310 scholars,receiving £2,576 15s. 4d. from the Government, and £985 17s. 1d.from voluntary contributions; the National schools, containing2,861 scholars, receiving from Government £6,766 10s. 3d., and£1,179 17s. 3½d. from voluntary contributions; private schools,consisting of 227 in number, containing 6,721 scholars.

LUNACY.

The next chapter in the colonial statistics is a very painfulone one, we fear, that is scarcely equalled in its mournfuldetails by the experience of any other British colony. It is areturn of the lunatics in the colony. The first establishmentmentioned is that at Tarban Creek. During the year 1851, 50 maleand 35 female lunatics were received into the asylum; 18 malesand 14 females were cured, 9 males and 18 females improved, 14males and 4 females died. On the 31st of December, 1851, thereremained in the asylum, 42 males and 24 females, supposed to becurable; 25 males and 27 females supposed to be incurable. Totalin the asylum, 118. In the establishment at Paramatta for freelunatics there were admitted in the year, 8 males and 17 females;there were cured, 3 males and 3 females. On the 31st of December,1851, there remained in the establishment, 5 males and 6 femalessupposed to be curable, and 51 males and 50 females supposed tobe incurable. Total in the establishment, 112. In the Convict,Lunatic, and Invalid Establishment at Paramatta (the invalidsbeing for the most part helpless and imbecile), there werelunatics—males 5, females 2, supposed to be curable; males95? females 20, supposed to be incurable. Total, 122. The totalnumber of lunatics in the asylums of the colony is 352, or aboutone in every 550 persons.

CRIMINALS.

The return of the convictions in the colonial courts of thecolony is one of a much more agreeable nature. In the year 1839,the convictions for felony were 741; in 1840, 652; in 1841, 563,in 1842, 542; in 1843, 523; in 1844, 488; in 1845, 442; in 1846,463; in 347, 396; in 1848, 360; in 1849, 437; in 1850, 451; in1851, 641. The convictions for misdemeanour in 1839, were 125; in1840, 149; in 1841, 78; in 1842, 94; in 1843, 76; in 1844, 78; in1845, 78; in 1846, 115; in 1847, 85; in 1848, 85; in 1849, 97; in1850, 104; in 1851, 113.

Thus the total convictions in 1839, were 866, while in 1851,with a population nearly double, they were reduced to 574. Thecapital executions were in the same manner reduced from 22 in1839 to 2 in 1851.

SQUATTING STATISTICS.

The order in council, dated 9th March, 1847, came intooperation on the 7th of October that year; under which the landsof the colony were divided into three classes—the settled,the intermediate, and the unsettled districts. The settleddistricts in the colony of New South Wales comprise the whole ofthe nineteen counties, the counties of Stanley and Macquarie, thetowns in the country districts with the lands immediatelyadjacent, all the land within three miles of the sea, and thelands at the head and along the banks of some principalrivers.

The intermediate districts in New South Wales comprehend thecounty of Auckland, Gipps' Land, and some other partially settleddistricts.

The unsettled districts comprise all the remaining lands ofthe colony.

In the unsettled districts occupation leases are given forfourteen years with the right to cultivate for the consumption ofthe establishment of the lessee, and no further: the amount ofrent being ten pounds per annum for the estimated capability ofthe run to carry 4,000 sheep or an equivalent number of cattle;the capability of the run to be determined by two valuers, oneappointed by the commissioner of the district, and one by theoccupier. During the lease the land can be sold to only theoccupant. The lease may be renewed for the whole run if noportion is sold, or for any portion of the run, provided thatone-fourth of the whole remains unsold.

In the leases there are reservations for public purposes, andconditions for the payment of rent, &c., punishable by theforfeiture of the run in case of non-observance.

In the intermediate districts, the leases are confined toeight years, it being, however, a condition that at the end ofevery successive year from the date of the lease, the governormay, by giving sixty days' previous notice, offer for sale thewhole or any part of the lands on the said run.

In the settled districts the leases are given from year toyear only.

This, then, is the position, politically speaking, in whichthe pastoral districts now stand; under the constitutional act of1850 the population outside the boundaries were allowed theelective franchise. At present, however, the squatting districtshave been erected, under certain combinations, into electoraldistricts, and exercise very considerable influence in thelegislature of the country.

In the year 1810, twenty-two years after the establishment ofthe country, the sheep of the colony were 25,888 head, and thecattle 12,442. In the year 1821, the number of sheep hadincreased to 119,777; in 1828, it was 503,691; in 1834, itreached one million; in 1843, the number of sheep was 3,452,539;in 1844, 3,743,732; in 1845, 4,409,504; in 1846, 4,909,819; in1847, 5,673,266; in 1848, 6,530,542; in 1849, 6,784,494; in 1850,7,092,200; in 1851, 7,396,895. In 1837, the export of wool was4,273,715 lbs.; in 1840, it was 7,668,960 lbs.; in 1845, it was10,522,921 lbs.; in 1850, it was 14,270,632 lbs.; in 1851, it was15,268,473 lbs.

By the authorised returns for the year 1851, the number ofsheep within the settled districts was 2,263,386, beyond thesettled districts it was 5,133,509. The proportion of cattle andother live stock between the two classes is very nearly thesame.

The returns of the number of horses, horned cattle, and pigsare as follows:—

In the year 1851, the number of horses within the settleddistricts was 81,083; horned cattle, 451,263; pigs, 59,439.Beyond this settled districts there were horses, 35,214; hornedcattle, 923,994; pigs, 6,081.

In the year 1843, the export of tallow was 4,660 cwt.; in1844, 48,029 cwt.; in 1845, 64,440 cwt.; in 1846, 18,117 cwt.; in1847, 58,478 cwt.; in 1848, 71,304 cwt.; in 1849, 84,454 cwt.; in1850, 128,090 cwt.; in 1851, 86,460 cwt.; in the year 1850, theestimated value of the export of tallow was £167,858. In the year1850, 190,791 yards of woollen cloth were manufactured in thecolony.

During the year 1851, the exports derived from pastoralpursuits in this colony exceeded 1,000,000. The live stock of thecolony in proportion to the whole adult and infant population ofthe colony (197,168) is as follows: To every individual 37 sheep,six and a half horned cattle, two-thirds of a horse, and onethird of a pig.

It is probable that the community of New South Wales is, inproportion to the number of its population, the largestmeat-consuming one in the world; certainly it is the largestconsuming community of beef and mutton, as there is little fish,and scarcely any game.

The pastoral pursuits of the colony afford an export verynearly amounting to £6 per head for every man, woman, or child inthe colony.

AGRICULTURE.

Let us first compare the operations of the last twoyears:—

LAND IN CULTIVATION.

Notwithstanding the gold-excitement year, agriculturaloperations in the main staples of subsistence considerablyincreased on the previous year. The breadth of land undercultivation for wheat shows an increase exceeding sixteen percent.; for maize, about eight per cent.; for tobacco, more thanforty-three per cent.; while the total under cultivation shows anincrease of more than five per cent.

We have next to compare the quantities of

PRODUCE

Of wheat an increase approaching 500,000 bushels, or upwardsof fifty per cent.; of maize, nearly 260,000 bushels, or aboutfifty-seven per cent.; of barley, more than 9,000 bushels, orupwards of seven per cent.; of potatoes, more than 4,000 tons, orforty-five per cent.; and of tobacco, 7,600 cwt., or the immenseratio of one hundred and forty-five per cent. On the other hand,oats and hay show a falling off; the former to the extent of morethan 4,000 bushels, or about eight per cent.; the latter to theextent of 8,000 tons, or about eighteen per cent.

We subjoin a statement of the average

PRODUCE PER ACRE.

With the exception of hay, an increase in every article.

The Grape.—In 1848, 508 acres of vineyardproduced 33,915 gallons wine; brandy, 751. In 1850, 1,069¾ acres,111,085 gallons wine; 1,985 gallons brandy. In 1851, 1,060 acres,84,843 gallons wine; 1,641 gallons brandy.

The wine imported in 1851 amounted to 273,856, the export ofcolonial wine, 3,000 gallons.

MANUFACTURES.

The manufactures of the colony are at present very limited;and they have in fact in some branches considerably diminished oflate years. Three years after the foundation of the colony,brickmaking commenced; and the first brick building built ofcolonial bricks was erected in 1791. In 1805 the first sailingvessel was built; in 1815, the first steam-engine was worked inthe colony. In 1820, colonial tobacco was first manufactured, andcolonial spirits first distilled; and in 1831 the first colonialsteam-boat was launched.

Distillers.—There were two distilleriesestablished in the year 1837, and these have remained in fullwork, except at short intervals, up to the present time. Underthe old system of very high duties on foreign spirits, thesedistilleries made large profits; but even these were insufficientto satisfy the proprietors, and illicit distillation took placeto a considerable extent in 1846; however, more stringentregulations for the inspection of distilleries were enacted, andthe duty on foreign rum was reduced from 7s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. Theprofits of the distillers then began to fall off, and the largestof them was compelled to shut up, but it has recently been againset to work by a sugar-refining company, and the two distilleriesare now turning out from 7,000 to 10,000 gallons weekly. Nearlythe whole of the spirits distilled in this colony aremanufactured from sugar and molasses. In addition to thesedistilleries there is one extensive rectifying and compoundingestablishment; and in former years there were three or four. Inthe year 1837 there were seven breweries—three in Sydney,two in Parramatta, one in Windsor, and one in Maitland. In 1844there were twelve; in 1845 there were fifteen; in 1846, sixteen;in 1847, fifteen; in 1848, twelve; in 1849 twenty-one; in 1850,nineteen; and in 1851, seventeen.

Beer.—The beer brewed at these breweries is drankto a very considerable extent in the colony by the humblerclasses, but a very large portion of it is an unwholesomebeverage, being adulterated with many deleterious articles.Medical men have attributed death in many instances to theexcessive use of this drink. The two largest breweries in thecolony are in Sydney; and as they are carried on by men ofrespectability and large capital, the profits are large. Thequantity of beer consumed in the colony is very great, as inaddition to the home-made, the importation of the article in 1851amounted to 57,000. The colonial beer is very inferior to theBritish, and is sold at less than half the price. It is probable,however, that a better article will soon be produced to supplythe deficiency of English beer which frequently exists. One ofthe Sydney brewers has lately succeeded in producing a beer whichsuccessfully competed with the English beverage for somemonths.

Sugar.—There are two sugar-refining companies in thecolony, one of which has been established ten years, the otherfour. The Australasian Sugar Refining Company carries on a verylarge trade, supplying not only nearly the whole of the homeconsumption, but also the wants of the neighbouring colonies. Theraw sugar is procured for the most part from Manilla, and thetrade to that settlement is much encouraged by theseestablishments. The prices charged by the company for its sugarin ordinary times are about 45s. per cwt. for loaf, and 34s. percwt. for crystallised. The quantity of refined sugar manufacturedin 1847 was 39,600 cwt.; in 1848, 26,000 cwt.; in 1849, 35,000cwt.; in 1850, 51,000 cwt.; and in 1851, 74,000 cwt.

Soap and Candles.—There are twelve soap andcandle manufacturers in the colony, and they produce aconsiderable quantity of both articles both for home consumptionand for exportation. With the exception of sperm candles, indeed,the whole colony is supplied by the home manufactories. Thecolonial soap has of late years nearly superseded the Englisharticle, which used to be imported in large quantities. The soapmade in the colony is preferred for use, while it is produced ata cost of about 3d. per pound. The quantity of soap manufacturedin 1847 was 19,925 cwt.; in 1848, 18,900 cwt.; in 1849, 24,623cwt.; in 1850, 25,986 cwt.; in 1851, 33,065 cwt.

Tobacco.—There are at present only sixmanufactories of tobacco in the colony, but in 1849 there werefifteen; and in 1850, fourteen. These, however, were on a smallscale, and the quantity manufactured was but small. Many samplesof tobacco grown and manufactured in the colony have beenpronounced by competent judges equal to Virginian; but a veryconsiderable prejudice exists against it. The reduction of theduties on foreign tobacco in the last session of the Council willprobably retard the progress of the production and manufacture ofthis article; but with an abundance of labour there is noquestion that this branch of industry will be again profitablyresorted to. The quantity of tobacco manufactured in 1847 was1,321 cwt.; in 1848, 714 cwt.; in 1849, 2,758 cwt.; in 1850,3,833 cwt.; in 1851, 4,841 cwt.

Cloth.—There are five woollen cloth manufactoriesin the colony, the largest of which is the Messrs. Byrnes', atParamatta. This establishment is very extensive, and is conductedby its enterprising proprietors on the true British principle.There was also a large manufactory at Maitland, but the workshave been interfered with by a serious fire, which took placethere some time back, and this accounts for the falling off inthe production last year. The cloth principally manufactured inthe colony is tweeds, and the quality has been much improved inthe last few years. The quantity of cloth and tweeds manufacturedin the colony in 1847 was 175,088 yards; in 1848, 164,749 yards;in 1849, 180,197 yards; in 1850, 190,791 yards; in 1851, 114,394yards.

In addition to the larger factories thus enumerated, there aretwo hat manufactories, fifty-five tanneries, nine salting andmeat-preserving establishments, four potteries, two coppersmelting establishments, and fifteen iron and brass foundries.The export of unmanufactured leather is very considerable,amounting in 1851 to 562,215 lbs., valued at £11,665. Theconsumption of colonial leather in the colony is also very large,both for shoes and boots, and for coach-building and harness. Theother establishments we have enumerated are chiefly employed insupplying the colonial consumption. The lighter handicrafts in asmall way are pursued with great avidity and considerable skillin the towns of the colony, especially in Sydney. There areplenty of expert jewellers; and the articles of colonialworkmanship, manufactured from colonial gold and colonial gems,would, in many instances, do credit to London establishments.Furniture, and some of the larger articles of cabinet ware, arealso manufactured with much taste in the colony. Many of thewoods of the colony are peculiarly appropriate to this trade,which, we have no doubt, will one day assume a very considerableimportance. There are also one or two small cutleryestablishments; but though very good knives and scissors, andeven surgical instruments, have been made in the colony, they areprincipally employed in repairing such instruments.

SHIP BUILDING.

Ship building has been engaged in to a very considerableextent, and the colonial vessels for the most part, as models ofsoundness and durability, are highly creditable to the colony.There is an abundance of excellent timber suited for everydepartment of ship building.

In 1840, the vessels built in the colony were 17; tonnage,1,196. In 1841, 33; tonnage, 2,037; In 1842, 25; tonnage, 1,297.In 1843, 41; tonnage, 1,231. In 1844, 15; tonnage, 498. In 1845,15; tonnage, 931. In 1846, 27; tonnage, 1,013. In 1847, 33;tonnage, 2,122. In 1848, 26; tonnage, 1,281. In 1849, 35;tonnage, 1,720. In 1850, 36; tonnage 1,605. In 1851, 24; tonnage939.

TIMBER.

In 1837 the import was in value £4,303; in 1838, £3,347; in1839, £8,260; in 1840, £15,254; in 1841, £13,192; in 1842,£11,559; in 1843, £3,457; in 1844, £1,553; in 1845, £6,235; in1846, 4,051; in 1847, 4,426; in 1848, 1,765; in 1849, 1,891; in1850, £2,159; in 1851, £3,721. The export has been, in 1837,£14,562; in 1838, £6,444; in 1839, £8,815; in 1840, £21,750; in1841, £7,004; in 1842, £5,806; in 1843, £9,534; in 1844, £7,989;in 1845, £7,319; in 1846, £7,060; in 1847, £7,158; in 1848,£5,591; in 1849, £12,988; in 1850, £17,138; in 1851, £17,462.

THE FISHERIES.

The return of the export of all the produce of the fisheriesof the colony, shows a very great decrease in late years. Thevalue of the oil exported in 1837 was £183,122; in 1838,£197,644; in 1839, £172,315; in 1840, £224,144; in 1841,£127,470; in 1842, £77,012; in 1843, £72,877; in 1844, £52,665;in 1845, £95,674; in 1846, £68,936; in 1847, £79,298; in 1848,£68,969; in 1849, £44,993; In 1850, £28,999; in 1851,£25,877.

AUCTION SALES AND DUTIES.

The return on auction sales and duties is more satisfactory.In 1840 the sales were £1,035,196 5s., and the duty was £15,52718s. 10d.; in 1841 the duty was £12,811 0s. 1d.; in 1842, £8,9008s. 2d.; in 1843, £5,865 15s. 5d.; from which it sank down by1847 to £4,834 6s. After that year the auction duties were takenoff articles of colonial produce, and the sales in 1848 were£649,815 16s. 8d., duties, £3,249 1s. 7d.; in 1849, sales£545,797 10s., duties, £2,728 18s. 9d.; in 1850, sales £1,143,6493s. 4d., duties £5,718 4s. 11d.; in 1851, sales £467,575, duties£2,337 17s. 6d.

SALE OF CROWN LANDS.

The sale of Crown lands is also a return of interest, as it isnow separated from the Port Phillip sales. In 1837, the amountsold was £116,474 18s. 5d.; in 1838, £79,130 6s. 10d.; in 1839,£92,968 1s. 9d.; in 1840, £97,498 10s. 11d.; in 1841, £19,23515s. 7d.; in 1842, £11,844 17s. 8d.; in 1843, £5,311 2s.; in1844, £6,745 14s. 8d.; in 1845, £11,563 13s. 10d.; in 1846,£11,249 19s. 3d.; in 1847, £2,929 19s. 2d.; in 1848, £7,624 6s.6d.; in 1849, £20,113 12s. 3d.; in 1850, £33,757 6s. 11d.; in1851, £64,425 17s. 6d. In the last three years, at leastone-third of the amount went to the credit of the generalrevenue, being the produce of the sale of the land on the site ofthe Circular Quay and old Military Barracks.

COIN IN THE COLONY.

The next return is of coin in the colony, contained in themilitary chest, and in the banks; and in 1845, when the amountwas greatest, it was £855,166; in 1846, £827,306; in 1847,£634,186; in 1848, £633,803; in 1849, £643,458; in 1850,£670,852; in 1851, £540,766.

GENERAL REVENUE.

The amount of the general revenue collected in the year 1851was £277,728 18s. 1d.; the territorial revenue was £204,508 7s.2d.; the Church and School Estates fund, £4,460 18s. 9d.; being atotal revenue of £486,698 4s.

The total expenditure of the general revenue was £290,361 6s.3d.; of the territorial, £153,747 3s. 7d.; total, £444,108 9s.10d.

THE POST-OFFICE.

The Post-office return is very interesting. In the year 1849,the year before the Uniform Postage Act came into operation, thenumber of post-offices in the colony was 88; the number ofpersons employed, 115; the number of miles travelled by themails, 586,675; the number of ship letters, 178,533; inlandletters, 383,353; town letters, 47,135; ship newspapers, 277,787;inland, 457,197; total letters, 609,201; newspapers, 734,984;income, £15,462 9s. 10d.; expenditure, £13,751 7s. 11d. In 1850,when the new Act came into force, the number of post-offices wasincreased to 96, and in 1851 to 101; the number of personsemployed, to 123; in 1851, to 137; the number of miles travelled,to 686,614; and in 1851, to 751,154; the number of ship letters,not affected by the new Act, to 179,406; and in 1851, to 202,480;the number of inland letters, from 383,353 to 592,026; and in1851, to 694,356; the number of town letters, to 70,877; and in1851, to 78,482; the number of inland newspapers in the firstyear rather decreased, as there was a postage charge of one pennymade upon them for the first time. The total number of letters in1850 was 842,309; and in 1851, 975,318. The income in 1850 wasreduced from £15,462 9s. 10d. to £13,646 5s. 9d., while theexpenditure was increased from £13,651 7s. 11d. to £15,732 11s.4d.; but in 1851 the revenue had increased to £18,252 1s. 11d.,while the expenditure was £16,324 13s. 4d.

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

The value of the total imports and exports of the colony ofNew South Wales, in each of the last eight years, was in roundnumbers as follows:

The imports of last year exceeded those of the previous yearby £230,500, or rather more than seventeen per cent.; while theexports show the far larger increase of £439,100, or thirty-twoper cent. So that in the first year of our gold discovery, theincrease of our exports was nearly double that of ourimports.

Comparing the figures of 1851 with those of 1844, it will beseen that during the last seven years both the imports andexports had rather more than doubled themselves.

Last year the exports exceeded the imports by £233,000, orabout 15 per cent. It should not be overlooked, however, that theexports of 1851 include colonial gold to the amount of £468,336,being the produce of about six months' digging.

The ratios per head of the population, at each of the last twocensuses, were about as follows:—

It thus appears that while the ratio of imports shows adiminution of three shillings per head, that of exports shows anincrease of £2 15s.; and that while in 1846 the imports exceededthe exports by £1 13s. per head, in 1851 the exports exceeded theimports by £1 5s.

TAXES AND CUSTOMS DUES.

The revenue of the colony of New South Wales is derived fromcustoms dues and the proceeds of pastoral licences, an assessmenton live stock, and the licences issued to gold diggers and thesale of land.

An inclination was at one time prevalent among influentialmembers of the Legislative Council to establish a protectivetariff, if the power of so doing should be conceded by theImperial Parliament; but more sound financial ideas have recentlyprevailed, and in 1852 the new Legislative Council established atariff of great simplicity and liberality, while the auctionduties have been abolished, as also all port and harbour dues. Infact, Sydney offers an example of a great free-trade port.

The duties now charged on goods imported to New South Walesare solely as follows:—Ale and beer in wood, 1d. pergallon; ale and beer in bottle, 3d. per gallon; coffee,chocolate, and cocoa, ¾d. per lb.; currants, raisins, and otherdried fruits, ½d. per lb.; brandy, proof strength, 6s. pergallon; gin, ditto, 6s. per gallon; rum, and all other spirits,4s. per gallon; perfumed spirits, of whatever strength, 4s. pergallon; all spirits, liqueurs, cordials, brandied fruits, orstrong waters, 6s. per gallon; refined sugar, 3s. 4d. per cwt.;unrefined ditto, 2s. 6d. per cwt.; molasses, 1s. 8d. per cwt.;tea, l½d. per lb.; manufactured tobacco, other than cigars andsnuffs, 1s. 6d. until the 31st day of December, 1853, andthereafter, 1s.; unmanufactured tobacco, Is; per lb. until 31stDecember, 1853, and thereafter 8d. per lb.; cigars and snuffs,2s. per lb.; wine, 1s. per gallon.

The eminent simplicity of this tariff has created the highestsatisfaction throughout the colony. The duties on spirits andtobacco, being articles of luxury and the use of which, indeed, awise policy would be as far as prudent to resist can be no burdenon any one.

The duty on tea and sugar is one which will so equally anduniversally affect all classes, that no injustice can beinflicted by it; and if it cause a fractional advance in theprice of these articles to the consumer, the absence of taxationon all other articles will enable him to procure those articlesat a proportionably cheaper rate. As long as money must be raisedby taxation for revenue purposes, the one great principle to beobserved is to make that taxation bear equally on all, and it iswise therefore to confine duties to those articles only which areof very general consumption.

It is confidently anticipated that this alteration of thetariff will have a most beneficial effect, both as regards theamount of revenue collected, and the encouragement it will giveto trade. Concurrently with the passing of this act, all portand harbour dues, and all auction duties, were repealed; andit may perhaps be said, that New South Wales affords the firstexample of a great commercial community abandoning almost withoutexception the legislative restrictions by which trade hash*therto been governed.

PORT PHILLIP.

The statistics of Port Phillip have not been prepared thisyear.

In 1851 the population of Melbourne was 23,000, of which12,000 were males. This population has been increased tosomething approaching 60,000, dwelling in huts and tents.

The population of 1851 was divided as to religion into 10,000Church of England, 3,000 Presbyterians, 1,600 Wesleyans, 1,500other Protestants, 5,500 Roman Catholics, 233 Jews.

The Quarter's Revenue for the quarter ending 30th September,1852, showed an increase of four hundred thousand pounds over thesame quarter in 1851. Every item of the revenue depending onconsumption shows an increase, the post-office only beingstationary. The gold licences produced 109,000, but consideringthat at least 60,000 diggers were at work, this item ought tohave amounted to £270,000.

The Live Stock were by the last returns:—Sheep,6,033,000; Cattle, 346,562; Horses, 16,734.

{Page 324}

CHAPTER XXIX.

[THE GOLD DISCOVERIES.]

In the month of April, 1851, New SouthWales and Port Phillip were enjoying an unexampled condition offinancial and commercial prosperity; the demand for labour wassteadily increasing, and in the elder colony several manufacturesand copper-mines were affording new investments for colonialcapital. The leading colonial journal was amusing its readerswith calculations of the period when all the pastoral land of thecolony would be overstocked with sheep and cattle. Thepoliticians had their grievances to discuss, among which was thelong delay in establishing a steam post.

In the midst of this satisfactory state of affairs, "throughthe Exchange of Sydney a horrid rumour ran" that a greatgold-field had been found near Bathurst. Very soon small"nuggets"—the word is Californian—arrived in thecity, and were handed about as curiosities. Thereupon a few scorepedestrians, chiefly of the humblest class, set out to walk toBathurst, 140 miles.

By the 2nd May there was no longer any doubt about thediggings; crowds of all ranks streamed across the Blue Mountains;the governor's proclamation gave official currency to thedazzling fact; the gold fever commenced.

When whispers and rumours had grown into a great fact, everybody wondered that the discovery had not been made before, as ithad been so often prophesied by various individuals, none of whomseem to have had, like Mr. Hargreaves, sufficient confidence intheir own judgment to travel to the district, and put a spadeinto the ground.

The history of the gold discoveries in Australia lies in avery short compass, but is worth telling. It illustrates manycurious things.

The first written reference to the existence of gold inAustralia is to be found in a despatch (not published at thetime) addressed by Sir George Gipps, 2nd of September, 1840, tothe Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which he encloses areport from Count Strzelecki, mentioning under gold "anauriferous sulphuret of iron, partly decomposed, yielding a verysmall quantity of gold, although not enough to repay extraction,"which he found in the Vale of Clwdd. It was known to a few thatan old shepherd of the name of Macgregor was in the habit ofannually selling small parcels of gold to jewellers; but thosewho watched him could discover nothing, and the common belief wasthat he sold the produce of robberies which had been melted up todestroy suspicion. The Rev. D. Mackenzie, in his "Gold-digger,"states that this old man has recently acknowledged that heobtained his gold from a place called Mitchell's Creek, beyondWellington Valley, about 200 miles west of Sydney.

The Rev. W. B. Clarke, one of the colonial chaplains, and ageologist of considerable acquirements, in 1846, privately, butunsuccessfully, directed the attention of some of his brothercolonists, among others of Mr. Manning to the gold-bearingregions of Bathurst. While in England Sir Roderick Murchison reada paper before the Royal Geographical Society, in 1844, comparedthe eastern chain of Australia to the Ural Mountains. In 1846, ayear before the Californian discovery, he addressed the RoyalGeological Society of Cornwall, recommending unemployed Cornishtin-miners to emigrate to New South Wales, and dig for gold inthe debris and drift of what he termed the "AustralianCordillera," in which he had recently heard that gold had beendiscovered in small quantities, and in which he anticipated, fromthe similarity with the Ural Mountains, that it would certainlybe found in abundance.

After these opinions had been made public, persons resident inSydney and Adelaide sought for and found specimens of gold, whichthey transmitted to Sir Roderick, who thereupon wrote to EarlGrey, the minister for the colonies, in November, 1848, statingthe grounds for his confident expectation that gold would befound in large quantities, and suggesting precautionary measures.Earl Grey never answered this letter, and neither took measuresnor sent out private instructions to prepare the governor for therealisation of the predictions of the man of science. As heafterwards explained, he thought it better that the people shouldstick to wool-growing.

The first printed notice by Mr. Clarke appeared in theSydney Morning Herald in 1847, in which, following in SirRoderick Murchison's footsteps, he compared Australia with theUral.

In 1848 a Mr. Smith, engaged in iron-works near Berrima,*waited upon Mr. Deas Thomson, the colonial secretary, produced alump of gold imbedded in quartz, which he said he had found, andoffered, on receipt of £800, to discover the locality. Onreference to the governor, a verbal answer was returned that, ifMr. Smith chose to trust to the liberality of the government, hemight rely on being rewarded in proportion to the value of thealleged discovery. The government suspected that the lump of goldcame from California, "and were afraid of agitating the publicmind by ordering geological investigations." Nothing more hasbeen heard of Mr. Smith.

[* Berrima, In the county of Camden, eighty-onemiles from Sydney.]

On the 3rd of April, 1851, Mr. Edward Hargreaves addressed aletter to the colonial secretary, after several interviews, inwhich he said that if the government would award him 500 as acompensation, he would, point out localities where gold was to befound, and leave it to the generosity of the government to makehim an additional reward commensurate with the benefit likely toaccrue to the government.

It seems that Mr. Hargreaves, while in California, was struckwith the similarity between the richest diggings of that countryand a district in the Bathurst country which he had travelledover fifteen years previously; and on his return to Sydney madean exploring expedition of two months, which realised hisexpectations.

The same answer was returned to Mr. Hargreaves as to Mr.Smith. He was satisfied, and on the 30th April wrote, namingLewis Ponds and Summerhill Creeks, and Macquarie River, in thedistrict of Bathurst and Wellington, as the districts where goldwould be found.

A copy of this letter was, by the governor's directions,forwarded to the colonial geologist, Mr. Stutchbury, with whomMr. Hargreaves was put in communication.

Messrs. Hargreaves and Stutchbury set out on their journey. Onthe 8th of May, a Mr. Green, a crown commissioner, wrote in greatalarm from Bathurst that "a Mr. Hargreaves has been employingpeople to dig for gold on the Summerhill Creek, who have foundseveral ounces;" and suggested "that some stringent measure beadopted to prevent the labouring classes from leaving theiremployments to search on the crown lands." On the 13th of May Mr.Green writes again, in still more alarm:—"A piece of goldvalued at £30 had been brought in, and that he feared that anyfuture regulations would be set at defiance."

Having frequently in the course of this work had occasion tostigmatise the mistakes and misdeeds of the local colonialgovernment, it is only common justice to say that the line ofconduct adopted by Sir Charles Fitzroy and his council on theoccurrence of the gold crisis reflects upon them the highestcredit.

A few dates will show how rapidly gold-gathering grew into animportant pursuit, stimulating agriculture, and overshadowing thepastoral interest.

May 14th. Mr. Stutchbury reported that he "had seen sufficientto prove the existence of grain gold."

19th. "That many persons with merely a tin dish have obtainedone or two ounces a day. Four hundred persons at work, occupyingabout a mile of the Summerhill Creek, fear that great confusionwill arise in consequence of people setting up claims."

22nd. A proclamation was issued declaring the rights of thecrown to gold found in its natural place of deposit within theterritory of New South Wales.

23rd. John Richard Hardy, Esq., chief magistrate of Paramatta,was appointed the first gold commissioner, with instructions toorganise a mounted police of ten men; to issue licences to golddiggers, at the rate of 30s. a month; to receive in payment goldobtained by amalgamation at £2 8s. per ounce, and at £3 4s. perounce for gold obtained by washing. And, to preserve the peaceand put down outrage and violence, he was further instructed toco-operate with the local police, and to swear in specialconstables from the licensed diggers.

25th. Mr. Stutchbury reported that gold diggers had increasedto one thousand; that lumps had been found varying in weight fromone ounce to four pounds; that the larger pieces were generallygot out of fissures in the rock, "clay slate," which forms thebed of the river, dipped to the north-east at various angles, thefissile edges presenting jagged edges, which had opened under theinfluence of the atmosphere, "the smaller grain gold beingprocured by washing the alluvial soil resting upon and filling inthe clewage joints of the slate;" that "gold was also found inthe planks of the ranges, proving that it had originated in themountains."

He observes:—"The workings at present are conducted inthe most wasteful manner, from the cupidity and ignorance of thepeople, which cannot be remedied until some officer is appointedacquainted with the proper mode of working, with power to enforceit. The best thing that could happen would be a severe flood,which would fill the diggings, and oblige them to begin, denovo, under proper restrictions."

Such is the constant hankering of government officials toteach and regulate commercial enterprise.

Mr. Stutchbury further reported that gold had been found inArgyle, on the Abercrombie River, in the creeks running north andsouth of the Canobolas Mountains, such as Oakey Creek, the wholelength of the Macquarie from Bathurst to Wellington.

About this time a considerable number of respectable personswere seized with terror, lest the whole framework of societyshould become disorganised, and anarchy and violence becomechronic.

When the existence of gold was first ascertained, there wereflock-owners who disapproved of the course pursued by thegovernor in raising gold-digging to the condition of a regularindustrial pursuit, and recommended "that martial law should beproclaimed, and all gold-digging peremptorily prohibited, inorder that the ordinary industrial pursuits of the country shouldnot be interfered with;" that is to say, some of the sameorder who have always patronised vagabond bachelor shepherds, andopposed the establishment of wives, families, and small farms inthe interior, were ready to risk a civil war rather than endangertheir wool crops.

But, fortunately, the governor had no taste for spilling theblood of his countrymen in a "futile attempt to stop the influxof the tide."

Provincial Inspector Scott, of the police, reports fromBathurst that the distance thence to Summerhill Creek is fortymiles, over a clear and denned but mountainous road, fit for thepassage of drays:

"Thought that the deposits of the creek would be exhaustedsoon—that any mechanics in full work would commit an act ofinsanity to resign their situations in search of gold; that onSabbath all parties left off work, and the Rev. Mr. Chapman, aWesleyan minister, preached to a large congregation. Further, Mr.Scott anticipated difficulty in preserving the peace, unlessprompt and energetic measures were adopted—viz., to swearin all respectable persons as special constables, and permit themto be armed; to grant licences to other classes (notrespectable), and take their arms away to be locked up inBathurst Courthouse."

From the letters of the provincial inspector of the same date,reporting the preparations he had made to assist the goldcommissioner, in case of the anticipated resistance, it isevident that no ordinary degree of alarm was generallyexperienced.

But, fortunately, the colonists of Australia proved themselvesmore orderly and sensible than the police and other timidindividuals had imagined; and in Mr. Hardy, the first goldcommissioner, the governor had selected a man of judgment,temper, and cool courage, who was determined to let theindustrious miners have fair play, and equally determined toenforce his lawful authority. His reports are all models ofstrong common sense.

For instance, when called before the Executive Council to beinformed of his appointment, he states, "that he does notconsider that he should have any difficulty in enforcing anobservance of any reasonable regulations, if twelve mounted menon whom he could depend were attached to him, all being soldierswho have but a short time longer to serve to entitle them toclaim their discharge with pensions." He does not desire toassociate civilians with soldiers. His confidence was notmisplaced.

June 2nd. Mr. Hardy arrived on Summerhill with eight extrapolice, lent by Major Went worth; found not the least desire toresist the government regulations, and did not keep the extraforce on the ground half an hour. An arrangement to intercept allnew arrivals, by sending them to an unoccupied ground, preventedconfusion.

On June 8th, four hundred and forty-six licences had beenissued; to two or three hundred new arrivals he had given a fewdays to pay; quiet and good order prevailed: "in one instancealone was there an inclination to disregard my decision. A tall,strong man, a butcher at Bathurst, who had been in the habit ofbeginning to work wherever he saw promises of lumps of gold,trusting to his strength to keep down opposition, began to workon another man's opening. I told him to desist; but as soon as Iturned my back, he began again saying he would work where heliked in spite of any one. I turned back immediately, and as Iwent up to him he dropped his pick and snatched up a spade as ifto strike at me. I instantly collared him, put him in handcuffs,and marched him off the ground, declaring my intention of sendinghim to Bathurst gaol. I sent up to my camp, with orders for apoliceman to get ready to take him in, and continued my walk. Onmy return, in about an hour, the man was very penitent, begged tobe let off, which I did: he has been working quietly ever since,and the neighbourhood has been relieved of a very unpleasant man.I have mentioned this to show how easily such a population may bemanaged. There is no occasion for any increase of forcehere."

There is no doubt that if convicts from Van Diemen's Landcould have been kept out of the gold-fields, there never wouldhave been any dangerous disturbances.

June 9. The government geologist reported the existence ofgold in the Turon, and other branches of the River Macquarie; andMr. Hardy, anxious that there should be no great accumulation ofdiggers, posted up notices of the new discoveries.

For this measure, as tending to stimulate gold-digging, forgiving time to new arrivals to pay for their licences, and fornot swearing in special constables, he was called to account bythe Executive Council.

The advantage of dispersing the daily-arriving armies ofdiggers, by giving them actual intelligence instead of mererumours for a guide, would seem obvious to any one except thoseMother Partingtons of legislation who still hoped to mop back thetide which had set in from other employments towards thegold-field.

June 11. Mr. Hardy writes:—"All anxiety as to thepayment of the licence fee is at end. I give parties who professthemselves unable to pay at the onset a few days. But it is wellunderstood, and invariably acted on, that no man works more thana few days without a licence; and it is partly from this knowncirc*mstance that so many leave after a week's fruitless labour.This is, after all, of a good tendency. Universally successfuldiggers would leave the colony in a bad position. The return totheir former employments adds greatly to the general benefit.

"With respect to special constables I do not think I need beunder any apprehension of any opposition to the payment oflicences. It was necessary on two occasions to break the cradles,and march the owners off the ground, not on account of anyrefusal to pay the licence fee, but because the parties hadworked the four or five days I had given them to determinewhether they were able to pay or not, and still professed theirinability to pay, and refused to take up their cradles andremove. In such cases, and indeed in all cases, instant anddetermined action is necessary, and disregard of possibleconsequences the safest policy. Some days ago several personswere working on Mr. Lane's land, and on the application of Mr.Rudder, who was in charge of the ground, I ordered them off. Halfan hour after I found one set of men still at work, and, althoughalone, and two miles away from my men, I did not hesitate to kickthe cradle into the stream, and take the owner a prisoner intothe town. If I had thought it necessary to call upon Mr. Rudderand those who were with him, instead of acting as I did, I shouldnot have succeeded better—I probably should not havesucceeded at all; and the probability is, that on the manyoccasions when I am necessarily alone, and in remote places, Imight meet with defiance, as one who could do nothing unless hispolice were with him. I can rely on myself; I have the mostperfect reliance on the men, one and all, that the government hasgiven me; but I could never rely on special constables, howeverrespectable: the more respectable the more unfit under thepeculiar circ*mstances."

The same good sense and firmness characterise Mr. Hardy'sanswer to the deputation of diggers who came up to present apetition and some resolutions for the reduction of the licencefee from thirty shillings a month to seven shillings andsixpence:—"I informed the deputation that I should advisethe government not to lower the licence fee, and I informed themof my reasons for so doing, as follows:—It was wellascertained that about eight hundred persons earned on an average£1 per diem; that about six or seven hundred earned from three tofour or five shillings a day; that about three hundred earnednothing; that the first-mentioned eight hundred were able,industrious, and persevering men, working in the numerousfavourable localities on the creek; that the second six or sevenhundred were men who worked some time less than a week withoutjudgment, and who had not the energy, strength, and bodily powersto be successful; that the last-mentioned three hundred were menwho did not work at all, but, after looking about for a day ortwo, went off in disgust; consequently, that to the eight hundredsuccessful diggers the thirty-shilling fee was positivelynothing, seeing that any man could live well on nine shillings aweek; that the remainder—the partially and totallyunsuccessful—would be much better employed in their pastavocations. That the government had to consider the generalinterests of the community, and not those of the diggers alone,and that those general interests would not be advanced byencouraging all the labouring hands of the colony to be employedin gold-digging."

In July the rush to the diggings had somewhat moderated, whenthe discovery of a hundredweight of gold revived and stimulatedthe excitement to a degree which affected all classes of society;and, after that discovery, crowds of gentlemen repaired to thediggings. This great prize having been raised by a gentleman (Dr.Kerr) who had not taken out a licence, the gold commissioner, inthe exercise of his duty, seized it, in order to assert therights of the crown. By an equitable arrangement it wasafterwards given up, a precedent having thus been established, onpayment of a royalty of ten per cent.

"In the first week of July an educated aboriginal, formerlyattached to the Wellington mission, and who has been in theservice of W. J. Kerr, Esq., of Wallawa, about seven years,returned home to his employer with the intelligence that he haddiscovered a large mass of gold amongst a heap of quartz upon therun whilst tending his sheep. He had amused himself by exploringthe country adjacent to his employer's land, and his attentionwas first called to the lucky spot by observing a speck of someglittering yellow substance upon the surface of a block of thequartz, upon which he applied his tomahawk, and broke off aportion. At that moment the splendid prize stood revealed to hissight. His first care was to start off home and disclose hisdiscovery to his master, to whom he presented whatever gold mightbe procured from it. As may be supposed, little time was lost bythe worthy doctor. Quick as horseflesh would carry him he was onthe ground, and in a very short period the three blocks ofquartz, containing the hundredweight of gold, werereleased from the bed where, charged with unknown wealth, theyhad rested perhaps for thousands of years, awaiting the hand ofcivilised man to disturb them.

"The largest of the blocks was about a foot in diameter, andweighed 75 lbs. gross. Out of this piece 60 lbs. of pure goldwere taken. Before separation it was beautifully encased inquartz. The other two were something smaller. The auriferous massweighed as nearly as could be guessed from two to threehundredweight. Not being able to move it conveniently, Dr. Kerrbroke the pieces into small fragments, and herein committed avery grand error. As specimens the glittering blocks would havebeen invaluable. Nothing yet known of would have bornecomparison, or, if any, the comparison would have been in ourfavour. From the description given by him, as seen in theiroriginal state, the world has seen nothing like them yet.

"The heaviest of the two large pieces presented an appearancenot unlike a honeycomb or sponge, and consisted of particles of acrystalline form, as did nearly the whole of the gold. The secondlarger piece was smoother, and the particles more condensed, andseemed as if it had been acted upon by water. The remainder wasbroken into lumps of from two to three pounds and downwards, andwere remarkably free from quartz or earthy matter.

"In the place where this mass of treasure was found, quartzblocks formed an isolated heap, and were distant about onehundred yards from a quartz vein which stretches up the ridgefrom the Meroo Creek. The locality is the commencement of anundulating tableland, very fertile, and is contiguous to anever-failing supply of water in the above-named creek. It isdistant about fifty-three miles from Bathurst, eighteen fromMudgee, thirty from Wellington, and eighteen to the nearest pointof the Macquarie river, and is within about eight miles of Dr.Kerr's head station. The neighbouring country has been prettywell explored since the discovery, but, with the exception ofdust, no further indication has been found.

"In return for his very valuable services, Dr. Kerr haspresented the black fellow and his brother with two flocks ofsheep, two saddle horses, and a quantity of rations, and suppliedthem with a team of bullocks to plough some land in which theyare about to sow a crop of maize and potatoes. One of thebrothers, mounted on a serviceable roadster, accompanied theparty into town, and appeared not a little proud of his share inthe transaction."

Dr. Kerr, the fortunate finder of this lump of gold, ismentioned in one of the Voluntary Statements from which we haveseveral times quoted as an excellent, kind master. Hisbrother-in-law, Mr. Suttor, of Brucedale, is a son of theintroducer of orange-groves, also one of the most deservedlypopular men in the colony.

Dr. Kerr's great prize revived the "sacred rage for gold"among the whole population, and Sydney seemed about to bedeserted. New discoveries in various directions were made.

The Bathurst district consists of elevated table-land,intersected by barren ridges, watered by a series of Australianrivers flowing from the Canobolas Mountains, most of which havebeen found to be auriferous. The journey to Bathurst was easilyperformed by mail-coach or on horseback. Arrived at Bathurst, theexplorer found himself in the midst of a rich pastoral andagricultural district, in which every fertile valley had a smallcolony of settlers, ready to supply flour, meat, milk, andbutter, at reasonable charges.

The gold-diggers, instead of settling in a wilderness infestedby grizzly bears and savage Indians, like California, foundthemselves in a district where a market was only needed to callinto cultivation thousands of acres of capital land—atFrederick's Valley, a gold placer of extraordinary richness,belonging to Mr. Wentworth; at Summerhill Farms, at King'sPlains, Pretty Plains, Emu Swamp, and the Cornish Settlement,where the crops in the severest droughts never failed.

The Summerhill diggings, which are now nearly exhausted, andthe style of life which prevails throughout the interior ofAustralia, are well depicted in the following sketch by acorrespondent of the Sydney Morning Herald:—

"Monday, June 2.—In the morning the ice was thick uponthe water in the dishes outside, and the ground covered with hoarfrost, as it always is here in fine weather at this season; hotdays and frosty nights.

"To an unscientific eye the gold country (Bathurst district)consists of a mass, not of ranges, but apparently of points ofranges, thrown together without any regular arrangement, butdovetailing into one another like the teeth of two saws placedclose together, face to face; these teeth again being cut intosmaller pieces by narrow precipitous gullies, many of them nearlyas deep as the main creek itself. Small creeks twist and twinedown these narrow gullies, which have a sudden bend everyhalf-dozen yards, into the Summerhill or main creek, which twistsand twines like the others, but on a larger scale. The banks ofthe gullies are precipitous on both sides, but in the main creekthere are alternate bluffs and low points, the teeth of the sawsloping gently down, diminishing in height as they do in width,till they come to a point overhung on the opposite side by a highbluff or precipice, which forms the inside of the nick of theopposite saw; and, as we stood upon the edge of the cliff, welooked down nearly two hundred feet over and along each side ofthe opposite point, dotted with tents and gunyas of bark orbranches, each with its fire in front, sending the blue smoke upinto the clear frosty morning air; some under the noble swampoaks at the water's edge, others behind and under the box and gumtrees which towered one above another till the rising branch wasmerged in the main ridge behind. The point was occupied by aboutfifteen parties cutting straight into the hill; and, as we lookeddown upon their busy movements, digging, carrying earth, andworking the cradles at the edge of the water, with the noise ofthe pick, the sound of voices, and the washing of the shingle inthe iron boxes of the cradles, I could scarcely believe that twomonths ago this was a quiet secluded gully in a far-outcattle-run, where a solitary stockkeeper or black fellow on thehunt were all that ever broke the solitude of nature. On sayingso to Scotch Harry, he said that he had stock-kept there fornearly twenty years, and when he came there were flocks ofkangaroos; these were driven off by the cattle, and now they wereas completely driven off by the gold-diggers, 'Little enough thefirst occupiers thought of gold,' I remarked. 'Yes,' answeredScotch Harry, 'and it would be well for some of these fellows ifthey thought as little;' and he told us of two who had gone madalready—one a shepherd, in the neighbourhood, found a piecewhile poking about his run, and came to him making a greatmystery about the place, till he could find no more, when he tookhim to it, but it was a chance piece, and not accompanied by fiveor six more, as is usually the case; the fellow, however, was notsatisfied, and continued searching about, till, from excitementand anxiety, he went mad; the other was a man who, after starvingfor two days, found 5 lbs. weight, fainted repeatedly, and is nowin confinement. Kerr said that two months ago hardly a travellerpassed his house in a week, now they were in crowds every hour;his children never thought there were so many people in the worldbefore, and wondered what it all meant; he could hardly believeit himself. We did not find our dray, but heard of it close athand, and sat down to look about us. Drays and parties of menwere arriving every few minutes, many of whom gave a cheer as ifthey saw fortune in their hand when they looked down upon theworkers in the bed of the creek below; some were putting up tentsand gunyas, and some working, but all busy and all in goodhumour, barring the men who were constantly leaving, and lookedsufficiently disgusted. We were a good deal puzzled how to getour baggage carried to Messrs. Roach and Barrington's, as itwould take us at least two days to carry seven hundredweight overtwo miles of such ridges, or down the bed of the creek, cut up asit is in every direction; but, just as the last rays of the sunwere leaving the top of the ridge, a party of nine nativewarriors, in their new government blankets, painted and armedwith spears and boomerangs, came winding down the bank. As theypassed through our camp, I asked the foremost if they would carryour baggage, to which they at once agreed, and camped withus.

"We were all astir at daylight, and found the water frozen inthe bucket, and the top of our blankets quite wet within thetent. The loads were adjusted, and the blacks, with the two men,started under the guidance of the company, and returned aboutnoon by a short cut, we remaining to erect the tent. On loadingthem again, one fellow complained that a pot of beef hurt hishead, so I gave him a roll of brown paper, but soon found mymistake, as not a man would move without the same, so that when Icame to the last there was not a scrap left; he had only beddingto carry, and I explained to him that no pad was necessary, buthe drew himself up and asked if I thought him a fool; 'Anotherone black fellow hab it.' He was evidently in earnest, and wouldhave left his load there and then, had I not clapped acalling-card on his shaggy bullet head, and he went off quiteproud; we gave them one shilling each and their rations, which ishigh pay for a black. Many return at once, without giving it oneminute's trial. I saw one party arrive, six respectable lookinghardworking men, all well provided with tools, clothes, andprovisions. As I stood conversing with one of them, who wasputting his things together to move to their tent, a parcelunrolled, and a Bible and Prayer-book fell out. He looked up, andsaid they should not forget these even for gold, to which Iassented, with the remark that men would get none the less goldfor minding them."

The Turon, which, like many Australian names, was scarcelyknown beyond its immediate neighbourhood before the golddiscoveries, rises in the county of Roxburgh, near Cullen Cullen,and flows, like the Summerhill Creek, into the Macquarie. On itsbanks Sofala has been founded. Here it was that the art ofcradling gold and washing gold was learned by thousands who havesince removed to Mount Alexander and other districts.

The gold-fields of the Turon include river-bed claims and drydiggings.

In the river-bed claims it is the object to clear a deep holeof water, and then wash the mud and sand which have been carriedthere in the course of ages; partly washed to the hand of theminer by the torrents of nature. "In dry diggings" the earthafter being raised must be carefully broken up and washed.

Fortunate diggers come from time to time upon lumps or"nuggets" of various sizes, which once excited great attentionand curious comparison between those found in quartz, in clay, inalluvial mould; but now in the auction-rooms of Sydney andMelbourne they excite no more attention, unless of rare beauty,than so much copper or lead.

The immediate result of the rush to the Bathurst gold-fieldswas to supply the district with labour at reasonable rates. Atraveller observes:—"We were much struck by the differencebetween their ideas of the mines and those of men at a greaterdistance. To the latter the gold country is a place with piecesof gold ready to be picked up without trouble, and they startoff, trusting to find food somehow, and quarters somewhere, asthey have done hitherto in the bush; but to these men here it isan open box forest, with severe frosts every night, sleet andsnow for weeks at a time, without any accommodations whatever, orrations, unless paid for in hard money, at three times the usualprice: if they turn out, they exchange their comfortable warm hutand regular meals for cold and hunger at once, so that there isno room for the imagination to work. And though they all intendto give it a trial when they get their discharge, and their wagesto fit them out, they expressed the greatest astonishment at thefolly of the men they saw passing every day, totally unprovided:they looked upon them as literally mad."

It would fill a volume, which we may at some future time betempted to write, to follow the history of the New South WalesGold Fields, with all the curious attendant anecdotes. At presentwe cannot do better than avail ourselves of the report made to aSydney paper by an eye-witness in the autumn of 1852:—

The time which has elapsed since Mr. Hargreavesannounced that extensive auriferous regions existed in the colonyhas done much less towards the development of the hidden goldentreasures of this province of the island than was at firstanticipated. In fact, during the last twelve months, since theattractions of Mount Alexander began to tell on the miningpopulation engaged at our diggings, we have made but littleprogress. With one or two exceptions, our present supplies ofgold are derived from the very same localities whence they werereceived last year, the only difference being, that they are indiminished quantity. The only diggings opened up since that timewhich have materially affected the increase in our production ofgold are those of Tambaroura and the Hanging Rock. Even thesewere known before that period, although their richness was notestablished. In July, 1851, parties were at work in the vicinityof the Bald Hill, and a short time after at the Dirt Holes; andabout the same time gold had been found, although in smallquantities, near the present diggings on the Peel. During thelast twelve months, the Turon and the Braidwood diggings haveretrogressed, partly in consequence of the incessant rainsimpeding as they do mining operations in the beds of creeks andrivers, but chiefly on account of the migration of the populationto the Victoria gold-fields.

The attractions of other gold-fields have drawn away the greatbody of adventurers—those who had no other motive to attachthem to the gold-fields here than desire of gain. The largeproportion of gold-diggers left are persons who have got apermanent interest in the country—inhabitants of the smallinland towns—where their families are resident, or settlerson farms in which all their property is invested. These personsdistributed over the face of the country, of course find it moreprofitable and convenient to devote their spare time to workingat diggings in the vicinity of their dwellings, and consequentlyare ever on the search for gold near home. There is hardly ashepherd's hut in the interior, where there is the slightestprobability that the precious metal may be found, which does notboast of a cradle and other mining implements, devoted to usewhenever opportunity offers.

The first locality which claims attention is Ophir, theparent diggings of the colony. Ophir may be regarded as belongingto what may be termed the Canobolas gold-field. This mountain,which is nearly a mile in height above the level of the sea, andis composed chiefly of trap rock, is the centre whence aconsiderable number of streams, including the Summerhill Creek,take their rise, and flowing through a country composed chieflyof schists and quartzites, are more or less auriferous. Gold hasbeen found throughout the length of the Summerhill Creek, fromits source at the Canobolas to its junction with the Macquarie,but most abundantly at Ophir, and Frederick's Valley, where theWentworth diggings are situated. The gold is chiefly of anuggetty description, and has been found in lumps of three orfour pounds in weight. At the Wentworth diggings, very fine goldhas been obtained in considerable quantities. The country aboutOphir is very broken and rugged, and the deposit of gold lies,for the most part, in the bed of the creek, as the banks are toosteep to allow of extensive dry or bank diggings. Towards theMacquarie the banks of the creek become still more rocky andabrupt, and there is not much likelihood of any extensive depositof gold having been formed. The bed of the creek at Ophir hasnever been sufficiently dry to allow of its being profitablyworked since the first rains after the opening up of the diggingson Fitzroy Bar. The population has never been very great sincethat period, and at present does not number over two or threehundred. The earnings at these diggings average from 10s. to 60s.per diem, and in a few cases much more. There are many parties atwork in the vicinity of the Canobolas, and on creeks flowing fromit. At the Tea Tree Creek and Brown's Creek, profitable diggingshave been opened, and the earnings are from 10s. to 20s. a day,but the number of persons engaged at these places is not large.The whole of the region surrounding this mountain, which issituated some forty or fifty miles to the westward of Bathurst,may be regarded as a gold-field comparatively unexplored, whichwhen the return wave of population and enterprise shall have setin to the gold-fields of this colony, will occupy noinsignificant position.

The Turon still claims the first position among thegold-fields of the colony in point of richness and extent.Sofala, the township which has been formed at the richestlocality on the Turon, is distant about twenty-five miles northfrom Bathurst. Fifteen miles above Sofala remunerative diggingswere opened at what is called the Gulf, and thence to thejunction of the river with the Macquarie, a distance of nearlyforty miles, digging operations having been carried on with moreor less success. The geological formation of the country is ofschist, intersected by quartz veins of various thickness, butthere are many other rocks present at different portions of theriver. The mountains are lofty, but with rounded summits andgently sloping bases, and the river flows for the greater partthrough a narrow valley between the ranges. The banks and slopeson the river side are seldom abrupt, and dry diggingsconsequently abound. The gold procured on the river itself ischiefly dust, generally of a very fine description, but coarsegold has been obtained in various places, and is abundant in thecreeks and ravines opening into the river. Lumps weighing as muchas seven pounds have been found The yield of gold on the Turonhas been in many instances most extraordinary, In several cases,from eighty to 100 oz. a day have been obtained by parties ofthree or four for days together; in numerous instances fromtwenty to fifty ounces a day have been procured, and from five tofifteen ounces were at one time a common yield. The gold has beenobtained in equal quantities in the bed of the river, and on thebanks and slopes in its vicinity. In the former case the greatestdepth to which it is necessary to go for the gold is from four toten or twelve feet, but the continual presence of water hasrendered it generally a matter of difficulty, and often ofimpossibility to get at the auriferous deposits. In the drydiggings the depth of the claims varies from the surface to fortyor fifty feet, and the largest deposits of gold are got in thepockets and crevices of the bed rock. In the river diggings theuseless surface soil is wholly removed, but in the dry diggingswhen a shaft has been sunk, the ground on the level of the golddeposit is tunnelled. The dry diggings on banks of the Turon areconsidered by many to he comparatively exhausted, but this is byno means the case in the opinion of more competent judges.Recently rich dry diggings have been discovered on the slope ofthe hill leading to the township of Sofala, and not more than apistol shot distance from the town. This ground has beenconstantly traversed by eager miners for many months, and isproved to abound in deposits of precious metal, which hundredshave left its vicinity to seek for at distant localities. Themining population of the Turon numbered at one time certainly notless than 10,000, but at present (September, 1852,) the number ofpersons engaged in digging on the Turon and its tributaries doesnot exceed 1,200. The average yield at these diggings, is from15s. to £3 or £4 a day, but the instances are numerous in whichlarge sums are earned in a very short period. The labour requiredis great, whether in the bed or the dry diggings, as in theformer the water has constantly to be contended with, and in thelatter, the conglomerate soil which has to be wrought through isalmost as hard as rock. Many of these tributaries, Big Oakey andLittle Oakey Creek especially, have yielded a large amount ofgold. On the tableland, where their source is, parties have beenat work for months, making large earnings; and more extensiveresearch would, undoubtedly, develop many rich deposits at thisplace. Along the Bathurst-road gold has been found, and atWyagden Hill, midway between that town and the Turon, operationson a large scale have been begun.

The Braidwood diggings next-claim attention. They areconfined chiefly to Major's and Bell's Creeks, which flow overthe tableland, above the valley of Araluen. They are not morethan ten or twelve miles distant from the town of Braidwood. Whatis peculiar in these diggings is the fact that they are situatedto the eastwards of the dividing range of mountains. These creeksbefore named join the river Moruya, which flows into the sea atShort Maven, on the east coast, between Bateman's Bay and TwofoldBay. Major's Creek and its tributary Bell's Creek have amplyrepaid those engaged in mining operations on them. The country isnot of so mountainous a description as at the Turon. Slate andquartz abound in the vicinity, but the bed-rock is granite, andthe gold has been found chiefly in what is regarded as decomposedgranite. The prosperity of these diggings has been seriouslyretarded by the incessant rains which have fallen during the lastseveral months, and the population has almost deserted them. Atone time there must have been nearly 2,000 persons on Major's andBell's Creeks and at Araluen; but at present there are not, atmost, more than 500. The average earnings at these diggingsapproximate to those at the Turon, and, as at the latter place,many instances of surprising good fortune have occurred. AtMungarlow, some fifteen or twenty miles from Major's Creek,remunerative diggings have been opened, and several nuggets havebeen found weighing up to eight or ten ounces. At the Braidwooddiggings the gold is generally fine, and it is reckoned to bevery pure. Dry diggings have been opened on Major's Creek, inwhich many parties are procuring four or five ounces of gold aday.

About thirty miles north of the Turon are the Meroodiggings. The Meroo is a river somewhat resembling the Turon inits general features, and in its banks and bars large deposits ofgold have been found. The geological character of the country issimilar to that of the Turon. The diggings already opened hereextend several miles along the river. The yield of gold isgenerally large, and the gold itself coarse, with occasionallarge nuggets. Several points on the Meroo have turned outuncommonly rich. The golden reputation of the Meroo itself,however, is small in comparison to that of one of its tributarycreeks, the Louisa, on whose banks such extraordinary masses ofthe precious metal have been found, and where the great nuggetvein lies. The country about the Louisa is generally of a flatdescription, and the declivities of the creeks are mild. Mr.Green, assistant commissioner, in a report on the Western GoldFields, has expressed his opinion that the auriferous groundavailable for dry diggings at this creek extends for severalmiles to Campbell's Creek, and that on the tableland, of whichthis forms a portion, 40,000 or 50,000 miners could findprofitable employment. Considering that this table land includesthe rich diggings at the Long Creek, the Dirt Holes, theTambaroura and other creeks, we do not think that it is anyexaggeration of the truth. At the Louisa beautiful specimens ofgold in the matrix are constantly procured, and nearly all thegold obtained here is coarse and not waterworn. Nuggets of largesize have been discovered. The hundredweight every one isfamiliar with. Brenan's twenty-seven pound lump was found at theLouisa, as was also the largest waterworn nugget yet obtained,weighing 157 ounces, besides numerous other nuggets of less size,which it would be tedious to enumerate. The heavy rains havegreatly interfered with all the diggings from the Meroo to theTuron, putting a stop to further operations, and compelling theminers to seek other places. This has been the case at LongCreek, the Devil's Hole, Pyramul Creek, Nuggetty Gully, MarriedMan's Creek, the Dirt Holes, &c. The gold at these places iscoarse, and the earnings are in many cases very large. Generallyspeaking a man may make certain of securing 20s. a day if theweather is favourable and he sticks to his work. The number ofdiggers on the Meroo, the Louisa, and the other places justnamed, may be put down at 1,500.

Between the Turon and the Pyramul, and parallel to both, lies theTambaroura Creek, which disembogues itself into theMacquarie several miles below the junction of the Turon. Thisplace has lately taken an important position among the diggingsfor richness and extent, and bids fair to retain it. The diggingsare situated chiefly on tableland, and the yield of gold, whenthe weather allows of operations being carried on, is very large.Many of the claims yield from two to twelve ounces a day. Thegold is coarse, and lies at various depths from the surface. AtGolden Gully, and at the Bald Hill also, the diggings are veryprolific, and to all appearance an extensive region teeming withgolden wealth lies around. Although mining operations are verymuch impeded by the frequent rains, which convert the tablelandinto a swamp, yet it is feared that in dry seasons these diggingswill be unworkable for want of water. The number of miners atwork at the Tambaroura and the vicinity is probably about1,000.

The Hanging Rock may be regarded as among the number ofthose gold fields whose richness has been established. It issituated at the River Peel in New England. The Oakenville,Hurdle, and Oakey Creeks, flowing into the Peel, have been foundto be rich in auriferous deposits, and a large tract of countryin the vicinity presents the same indications. The number ofdiggers at the Hanging Rock is about 200, who are doingexceedingly well. As much as twenty ounces per diem have beenobtained here, and dry diggings have been discovered whichpromise to be exceedingly rich. Although the richness of theHanging Rock diggings has been established, the extent andprobable productiveness are still matter of doubt.

These northern diggings are fifty miles from the Page River; thenearest road by Aberdeen, between Muswell Brook and Scone. FromGoonoo Goonoo, the head station of the Australian AgriculturalCompany is about twenty-seven miles. The whole of the country isextremely hilly, and in wet weather the numerous creeks presentan impassable barrier to the traveller.

The direct approach to the Hanging Rock is over a series of mostdifficult precipitous ascents, but there is a bridle path. TheHanging Rock is a prodigious mountain, the sides of which areoverhung with huge masses of rock, which seem on the point ofbeing precipitated into the yawning gullies beneath. The herbageis scant, affording but a bare subsistence for the horses andcattle. Descending over the ridge which shadows what is calledthe Rock, you arrive at the "Hanging Rock Creek," and the "SwampDiggings." All these are liable to interruption in the wetseason.

The bed of the creek is composed of a very compact mass,interspersed with quartz. The banks are chiefly a black, thickloam, intermixed with red, ferruginous clay. The richest claimsare where the quartz ridges dip down into the creek.

The Dry Diggings are in one of many deep gullies whichprevail in this region.

Oakenville Creek is in this (the rainy) season a narrow,rapid rush of water down the bed of a deep, precipitous, rockygully.

The Peel River Diggings.—The Peel River diggings aredivided into two classes. The field on the western side of theriver belongs to the Australian Agricultural Company, whosestations extend seventy or eighty miles along the banks of thisstream. The gold-field is situated about five miles from HangingRock, and was discovered in March, 1853. The company, in thefirst instance, endeavoured to raise a revenue by issuinglicences, but as only thirty-six were taken, while more than onehundred and fifty were at work, the deputy-governor adopted meansfor driving off all trespassers, and at length succeeded. Thegold is found on the banks of the river in thick ferruginousclay; in some instances nuggets are found clinging to the rootsof the grass. The greatest wealth is supposed to exist in thequartz ridges. The reporter found several lumps the size of aduck's egg, thickly speckled with gold.

The river diggings on the crown side are principally threespots:—Golden Point, Blackfellow's Gully, and BoldRidge.

Of the remaining gold-fields, which are so only by anticipation,their riches not having been developed, and but little beingknown of their extent, the Abercrombie is one of the longestknown, and probably one of the most important. Gold has beenfound in considerable quantities, not only in the river itself atthe Sounding Rock, or Tarshish diggings, but also on itstributary creeks, the Tuena, Mulgunnia, Copperhannia, andMountain Run. The Abercrombie lies some forty miles to thesouthward of Bathurst, and forms the upper portion of the LachlanRiver. Dry diggings abound on some of the creeks—the Tuenaespecially—and large earnings have been made here. The goldis coarse. The field may be regarded as unexplored, as there arenot more than 200 persons at work on it.

North of the Abercrombie lie the diggings at Campbell's Rivercalled Havilah, and those on the Gilmandyke and Davis Creeks, itstributaries. Gold was found at Havilah shortly after thediscovery of the Turon diggings; but as the yield was small, thelatter soon drew away the enterprising pioneers at Campbell'sRiver. The gold procured was very fine, but no locality has yetbeen discovered where the deposits are so plentiful as to entitlethese diggings to consideration. On the Gilmandyke and DavisCreeks coarse gold is obtained, and there are promisingindications of future richness. Perhaps about 100 miners areengaged at these diggings, who are making fair earnings.

There is about the same number of persons engaged in digging onWinburndale Creek, which rises on the tableland a few miles tothe northward of Bathurst, and, flowing in a north-westdirection, falls into the Macquarie several miles above thejunction of the Turon. No very sanguine anticipations areentertained as to the productiveness of these diggings, where,however, fair wages are made by the few persons engaged at them.It is far otherwise, however, with the regions adjacent to theMacquarie River. Gold has for a long time been found on thisriver, but the diggings hitherto opened have been isolated. Lateresearches, however, have brought to light auriferous deposits,where the depth of washing-soil is ten and even fifteen feet, andthese extend for miles along the banks of the river. Thecapabilities of such a gold-field may be guessed at where thesupply promises to be almost inexhaustible. Only in dry weather,however, can these be turned to account, as the river is a largeand important stream during the greater part of the year, andfrom the prevalence of water the claims cannot be worked. TheMacquarie receives the tributary waters of the Winburndale, theTuron, Summerhill, Tambaroura, Pyramul, &c., all auriferousstreams.

An extensive gold-field has been discovered at the Billabongrange, which lies nearly a hundred miles to the west of Bathurst,between the waters of the Lachlan and Bogan. Schists and quartzare the constituent rocks, and specimens of gold in the matrixhave been found. At the Snowy Mountains, to the southward, wheremany of the great streams of the colony, the Murrumbidgee,Murray, Snowy River, &c., take their rise, the researches ofthe Rev. W. B. Clarke, who was specially appointed by theGovernment to survey this district, have disclosed an extensivetract of auriferous country, and several localities which promiseto be highly productive. The severity of the weather in theseAlpine regions will, however, preclude mining operations beingcarried on for several months in the year. Over both theseextensive portions of country the utmost done in gold-digging areisolated efforts of a few prospecting parties, who are merelytesting the capabilities of the country. In these alone a vastfield for enterprise lies open to the world.

The last-discovered diggings in this colony, which have excitedthe most sanguine expectations of their future productions, areBingara, situated on the Courangoura Creek, which joins theGwydir, seventy miles to the north-west of Tarn worth. Thediggers who first discovered the treasures of this locality madeextraordinary gains in a short time, and the gold appeared to liein such abundance on all sides, as to be inexhaustible. The goldobtained has consisted chiefly of nuggets and coarse grain, verylittle worn. Nuggets weighing fourteen and sixteen ounces havebeen obtained. Upon the intelligence of the success of thesediggings a large number of persons started for them, and atpresent we dare say there are 300 on the ground. The diggings atpresent opened are situated on tableland, and it is feared thatthere will not be a sufficiency of water even in moderately dryseasons. The usual characteristics of a gold region, slate andquartz, abound; and a large extent of country in the vicinity hasthe same external appearance as that at the diggings at theCourangoura Creek. The country is very level, resembling thegold-fields of Victoria, and the samples of precious metalobtained resemble those of Mount Alexander in the coarseness ofthe grains and their rich appearance. At various places, betweenthe Hanging Rock and Bingara, gold has been found in someinstances lying on the surface of the ground. The distance ofthis gold-field from Maitland is upwards of 200 miles in a northby west direction. A considerable quantity of gold has beenreceived from it, and at present there is a large quantity in thehands of the miners.

According to the estimated number of diggers which we have statedas engaged in each locality, the total number at the placesparticularised is about 6,000. As there are numerous creeks andgullies throughout the country where miners are at work, butwhich are either too unimportant to be named such as the Jew'sCreek, the Crudine, &c.—or are altogether unknown, aconsiderable addition must be made to this number. If we add2,000 more to the 6,000, it will include all these detachedminers, and any possible deficiency in our estimate of the numberof diggers at the established gold-fields. The total number ofpersons engaged in gold-digging in this colony will then be about8,000.

Hitherto a pick and shovel and a cradle, with probably theaddition of a crowbar and pump, have constituted a miner'soutfit. At the diggings of Victoria, indeed, thousands of themore successful miners never use a cradle, the richness of theirclaims in large gold preventing the necessity; but at the Turonand other places, the fineness of the gold dust, and the mannerin which it is diffused throughout the soil, have necessitatedthe utmost skill and care in cradling. Lately, however, companieshave been formed in this colony for the more effectualdevelopment of the wealth of the gold-fields. About half-a-dozenof these companies have commenced operations. The Great NuggetVein Company are setting up expensive machinery on the banks ofthe Louisa for crushing the auriferous quartz of their claim atthat locality. The Turon Golden Ridge Quartz Crushing Company aremaking active preparations for developing the richness of anauriferous quartz vein on the Lower Turon, which promises themost splendid results. The Messrs. Samuel are proceeding withtheir exertions to drain the waterhole at Ophir. The AustralianMutual and the British Australian Gold Mining Companies havecombined operations, for the purpose of working the alluvialclaims on the Turon. They have secured ground at Lucky Point, andhave made considerable progress towards developing the goldendeposits of an island in the bed of the Turon contiguous toErskine Point.

Gold has been found throughout more than eight degrees oflatitude, from Bingara at the north to the ranges near CapeOtway, in Victoria. There is good reason for believing that itexists throughout twelve degrees, as samples of the preciousmetal were found by the late Mr. Roderick Mitchell, son of thesurveyor-general, as far north as Mount Abundance at the FitzroyDowns. The easternmost diggings in Australia yet discovered arethose at the Hanging Rock, about the 151 of E. long. A gold-fieldhas been discovered in South Australia, in about the 139longitude, twelve degrees to the westward; but whether gold willbe found throughout the intervening country it is impossible tosay. It has certainly been found as far westward, in Victoria, asthe 143rd meridian, and at Mount Cole and Mount William.

On Thursday, 2nd September, I joined a gentleman of Murrurundi,whose business required his attention here, and travelled overthe almost trackless ranges to the Isis, one of the rivuletswhich runs into the Hunter. Towards evening we reached thehospitable abode of a venerable Highlander, who here, high aboveall other human habitations, at the foot of the Liverpool range,aided by his stalwart sons, tends his numerous and thrivingflocks.

The next morning they directed our steps to a remarkable cave,the front apartment of which is adorned with stalactites, in theform of pillars and curtains. The entrance being turned upwards,is altogether hidden from most passers by; but when a descent hasbeen accomplished over the broken rocks, the main arch of thecavern has a fine appearance. To this cave the worthy andpatriotic Highlander has given the name 'Uamh Garrie,' Garry'sCave, from its resemblance to a cave of that name in theHighlands of Scotland.

There is a larger cave lower down the stream, which we had nottime to visit, but which some travellers have said will surelybecome an object of great interest, as soon as better modes oftravelling are afforded to the inhabitants of our towns andcities.

On leaving the Isis, we ascended the LiverpoolRange—crossing, at various elevations, on both sides of therange, tablelands of the most promising soil; where severalthousands of agriculturalists are likely to find a highlyremunerative field for their industry and skill as soon asmarkets for the gold-finding population of the neighbourhood, andmeans of transit to distant towns, make their settlementpracticable. In the afternoon, soon after crossing the Peel, wecame in sight of the perpendicular facing of rock which gives apeculiar appearance and a name to this mountain. The ascent tothis flat, near the summit, is a steep one of at least threemiles; did we not see the tracks, we could not believe itpossible for drays to be brought up it by any means. As thegolden creek runs in all directions from the top, and theprecious metal is found at all heights, there is no regular campof tents here as at the Turon and other places; the people arethinly scattered over a wide space, and hidden from one anotherby the ridges. Never, perhaps, did men pursue their daily toil insuch delightful and beautiful workshops as these ravines, wherethe dark foliage of the oak, the rugged and fantastic piles ofrock, and the numerous cascades, combine to form pleasantpictures. Among the diggers it is easy to discover many athorough gentleman, and many a worthy farmer, artisan, andsailor.

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CHAPTER XXX.

GOLD FIELDS OF VICTORIA.

The opening up of the gold fields ofVictoria followed quick, and soon eclipsed the river claims anddry diggings of the older colony.

Gold was sold in small quantities to a jeweller of the name ofBrentano, in 1848, which was found on the banks of the riverLoddon, at the foot of the Climes Hill, which is supposed to beof volcanic origin, and rises from a plane.

In August, 1851, after a reward had been offered for thediscovery of gold in the Port Phillip district, the diggings wereopened at the Climes, whence a piece of two pounds of fine graingold was sold. Afterwards they were successfully opened atBuninyong, a deep gorge formed by the bed of Anderson's Creek, inthe heart of stringy bark ranges.

The weather was unfavourable, and the first attempt to levylicence fees at the Climes created discontent. A different spiritfrom that at the Turon was displayed; the people struck theirtents and retreated further into the ranges; this led to thediscovery of Ballarat.

The commissioner having acted with great discretion, takenpains to conciliate, and applied his mechanical talent toconstructing a better cradle, an improved feeling wascreated.

In September the returns were better more nuggets one mangetting eight ounces in a week. Success soon brought two hundredup; and, the weather clearing, gold gathering became one of thetrades of Victoria, and licence fees, being found a protection,were paid willingly. Diggers combined to preserve order, heldmeetings, and settled all disputed points.

At Clunes the rock was mined—at Ballarat the soil onlywas washed.

In October the government escort was established, and largereturns were raised daily. By the middle of the month tenthousand men were at work with 1,200 to 1,300 cradles atBallarat. The estimated daily earnings were £10,000, veryunequally distributed.

In the same month a public meeting of the Ballarat diggers washeld, to adopt measures for securing a supply of water during thecoming dry season, and a subscription of one shilling a head wascommenced for the purpose of damming up the waters of the creek;the commissioner of crown lands was elected treasurer, and anysurplus was to go towards an hospital for the sick diggers.

In September the gold was found in such quantities round MountAlexander, the Mount Byng of Mitchell, as to attract largenumbers from Ballarat. At Mount Alexander gold was taken up withpocket-knives from soil a few inches below the surface in suchprofusion, that one man filled a quart pot with small nuggets inthe course of the day. A rush took place from all the otherdiggings to the last-found region, and in a very few days therewere eight thousand at work.

In November three tons of gold lay at the commissioner's tentat Forest Creek waiting for an escort, and not less thantwenty-five thousand persons were working at the spot.

On December 1st government issued a notice raising the licencefee to £3 a month; but this move met so much resistance that itwas almost immediately rescinded.

The dry weather setting in, the diggers in the course ofJanuary were reduced to 10,000 persons.

In January the new Legislative Council came to a series ofresolutions adverse to the licensing system, and suggesting anexport duty.

In the same month a working man found at the Forest Creekdiggings the largest lump of solid gold yet discovered, weighing27 lbs. 8 oz., perfectly pure, free from quartz or otherimpurity, which he sold to a Melbourne dealer.

In May, 1852, the numbers at Mount Alexander were estimated atfrom thirty to forty thousand souls.

Since that period the gold-fields round Mount Ballarat havebeen almost deserted, except by residents in the locality.

A TANDEM DRIVE FROM MELBOURNE TO BALLARAT, IN 1851.

"Having cleared the city we overtook the golden army ofbullock-drays moving northward, surrounded by companies of menand lads: occasionally a female is seen. Four bulldogs pull onecarriage, a great dog in the shafts of another, and a man pushingbehind at a load of near five hundredweight.

"Presently the splendid panorama opened to view an extensivesweep of plains, encircled by mountain ranges in the remotedistance. Far as the eye can reach, the pilgrimage, its linemoving along the undulations, now hid, now rising into viewEnglish and Germans, Irish and Scotch, Tasmanians.*****

"Sixteen drays at Yuille's Ford, and nearly two hundredpeople. It is nearly impassable, from the fresh current ofyesterday's rain. But the men, tailing on to the ropes by dozens,pull both the horses and carts through. Some there are pulling,some cooking their midday meals, some unloading the drays, somemoving off the ground. Over the ford the road is delightful, thescenery charming, the land more broken, and timbered like a park.Ladidak comes in view, a beautiful ravine formed by theconvergence of several hills, at the base of which the river sowinds that it must be crossed thrice.

"Where formerly was silence, only broken by the voice of thebellbird, now bullock-drays, bullocks, and bullock-drivers, areshouting, roaring, and swearing up the hill, or descendingsplashing through the once clear stream. On, on until the expanseof Bacchus Marsh opens, until lately a favourite meet of ourhounds.

"A camp of tents has been formed by those who think itdiscreet to put off the crossing struggle until their beasts havehad the benefit of a night's rest; loud is the ringing ofbullock-bells; meanwhile an impromptu bridge of a tree has beenthrown across the river, and men are crossing and recrossing likea stream of ants. A dray deep in the stream makes a completecapsize before it can be hauled through.

"Our tandem dog-cart dashes through gallantly, we reach thePentland Hills, where another encampment has been formed in thelong ravine; we trot on slowly, the moon bright, the skycloudless, a sharp frost nips the uplands, the campers eating,drinking, and smoking; architects, jewellers, chemists,booksellers, tinker, tailor, and sailor, all cold but cheerful.At the next station we halt and enjoy our friend's fire andsupper.

"The next morning broke bright and fresh; the ground was whitewith frost; at daylight the train of pilgrims were crossing theplain—the Germans with wheelbarrows led the way. At Ballanwe find the inn eaten out. A horse passes at speed bearing on hisback two horsem*n. We meet sulky parties of the unsuccessfulreturning, and see signs in small excavations of prospectingparties. The forest grows denser; toward evening we reach thehospitable roof-tree of Lal Lal, where at daybreak all thelaughing jackasses of the country seemed to have established arepresentative assembly. Ha, ha, ha! ho, ho, ho! hu, hu, hu! ringforth in every variety of key innumerous.

"The cavalcade in motion splashes through the broad river,where one driver, in his shirt, without breeches, walks besideand urges on his horses, fearful of his dray sticking on the way.Our next point is Warren Neep, where we refresh with a draughtfrom the delicious mineral spring. Two miles from Warren Neep thehills begin gradually to slope toward Ballarat. The forest treesare loftier and denser, but the surface soil is not so richlygrassed. The road emerges on to a rich bottom of considerableextent, and the hill to the left extends upwards in such a gentleslope as to diminish the appearance of its height. Within a mileand a half of Golden Point the tents begin to peer through thetrees. The Black Hill rises precipitously on the right from acreek that washes its base, and through its thick forest coveringthe road is visible down which the carriers are conveying theirearth.

"The bank of the creek is lined with cradles, and the washersare in full operation. Round the base of the mountain, on thefurther side, at right angles with this creek, the River Leeflows; and for half a mile along its bank the cradles are atwork. We descend, leave the road, cross the bottom, spring over adam, and are among the workmen. 'Rock, rock, rock! swish, swash,swish!'—such the universal sound.

"The cradle is placed lengthwise with the water. Thecradleman, holding the handle in his left hand, with astick or scraper to break the lumps of earth or stir up thecontents, keeps the cradle constantly going. The waterman,standing at the head of the cradle with a ladle of any kind,keeps baling water continuously into it. A third man washescarefully into a large tin dish the deposit that has fallenthrough the sieves of the cradle on to the boards beneath,carries it into the stream, where he stands knee-deep, and,tilting the dish up under the water, and shaking its contents,the precious metal falls to the bottom, while the earth and sandare washed out by the water.

"After long washing the glittering dust is seen along thebottom edges of the dish. This residuum is carefully washed intoa pannikin, dried over the fire, and bottled or packed forexportation. Meanwhile the 'cradleman' and 'waterman' examine thequartz stones in the upper sieve for quartz gold. Occasionallysome are found with pieces of quartz adhering, the rest arethrown aside. The cradle filled, the men are at work again, andthe rocking recommences. On the top of the hill the diggers arehard at work; the carriers descend the steep side, dragging aloaded sled filled with the gold-impregnated earth, some with tinvessels on their heads, others with bags on their backs. Theearth thrown down, they reascend the toilsome way; and this isthe process 'from morn till dewy eve.'

"Returning to the road, the outer encampment this side ofGolden Point became visible. A sound is heard like the continuousbeat of a thousand muffled drums, or the rushing of a mightywaterfall. As we issue from the trees the cause is beheld. Fromthe margin of the forest a broad swamp spreads, through which theLee runs. Over against you the broad shoulder of a bold hill ispushed out to meet its attacking waters, and round its base runthe swamp waters, uniting with the river. Along this the cradlesare ranged for about half a mile, on both sides of the creek anddown the river, forming the letter T with the ends upturned. Theyare crowded so closely together as barely to permit being worked,in some places in triple file. At this distance you see some ofthe excavations, and the carriers swarming up and down hill withall sorts of vessels, from the bag to the wheelbarrow. Theenormous ant-hive swarms like a railway cutting, where the crownof a hill is carried down to fill a valley.

"Higher up the hill's crest, along its sides, and stretchingdown to the swamp far away to the right and left, are the tents,thickly clustered and pitched, and, far beyond, the loftywhite-barked trees form a background. This is Ballarat!

"Crossing the swamp, we reach the commissioner's tent, wherehe is trying a depredator, who, for want of a lock-up, has beentied to a tree all through the hard night's frost.

"Troops of horses, drays, carts, and gigs, with their owners,are all around. Squatter, merchant, farmer, shopkeeper, labourer,shepherd, artisan, law, physic, and divinity, all are here.***You meet men you have not seen for years, but they recognise youfirst, for even your most intimate friends are scarcely to beknown in the disguise of costume, beard, and dirt.***'Welcome to Golden Point!' 'Ah, old friend! hardly knew you. Howare you getting on?' 'Did nothing for a week; tried six holes andfound no gold. My party, disheartened, left me. I formed anotherparty; sank eighteen feet until we came to the quartz, and dugthrough it, and now I have reached the blue clay. It is a capitalhole; come and see it.'

"Imagine a gigantic honeycomb, in which the cells are eightfeet wide and from six to twenty-five feet deep, with thepartitions proportionately thin, and to follow a friend to find ahole in the very midst is dangerous work—

'Lightly tread, 'tis hollowedground.'

"The miners move nimbly about, with barrow, pick, and bag,swarming along the narrow ledges, while below others are picking,shovelling, and heating the stove.

"'No danger, sir; our bank is supported by quartz. We've gotto the gold at last. Made an ounce yesterday. There was a mankilled yesterday three holes off; the bank fell down on him as hewas squatting down this way, picking under the bank, and squeezedhim together. His mate had his head cut, and was covered up tothe throat.'

"Down the shady excuse for a ladder, half the way, then ajump, and the bottom of the capital hole is gained. Nearly fourfeet of red sand formed the upper layer, next a strata ofpipeclay, below which lie the quartz boulders; then a formationof quartz pebbles, with sand impregnated with iron; thispenetrated, the bluish marl is reached in which the vein of goldis found.

"Down among the men washing there is nothing to be observed.The work is earnest—no time for talk.

"The commissioner has a busy time issuing licences. His tenthas the mounted police on one side, and the native police on theother. The black fellows are busy tailoring; one on the broad ofhis back, in the sun, with his eyes shut, chanting a monotonousaboriginal ditty.

"Three men are waiting their turn with the commissioner.

"'I say, Bill, this here's rayther respectableokipashun—that cove with the specs is a first-class swellin Melbourne, and there's a lot in the same party with him. Thegreatest nobs are all the same as uz snobs! I saw Mr.——— from the Barwon here this morning: he foundhis shepherd in a hole getting gold, and no mistake! He comeswith his brother to have a turn with the rest; but when he sawhim he looked non-plushed, and said to himself, "Well, I can't godown to this,"—and I believe the fool startedback;—but come, it's our turn now.'

"The evening shadows fall, the gun from the commissioner'stent is fired—the signal for digging to cease; the firesblaze up, the men gather round them for their evening meal, theirsmoke floats over the trees as over a city, the sounds of labourare hushed, but are succeeded by loud voices and ringinglaughter, mingled with the bells of the browsing oxen, and thedogs baying more loudly as the darkness grows more dark. A partyof gamblers are staking each a pinch of gold-dust on the turn ofa copper. The native police, lithe and graceful as kangaroo-dogs,are enjoying a round of sham combat; one black fellow attackswith a frying-pan; the other pretends to shoot him with hisknife: a painter might study their attitudes. Hark! to thesax-horns from the Black Hill floating to us across the valley;close at hand the sweet melody of the German hymn in chorusrises; and then down from toward the river comes the roaringchorus of a sailor's song. The space and distance mellow in oneharmonious whole all the sounds; and as we retreat they fall uponone wearied with hard labour, like the rich hum of an Englishmeadow in harvest time.

"A flash! a bang! another! now platoon-firing: becomeinfectious, the sounds of war mingle with and overpower themusic.

"The warm day terminated in a bitter cold night, and a stormof snow and hail ushered in Sunday—for we are 1,200 feetabove the sea. On the Sabbath digging and washing gold cease; butthe axe and the hammer ring continually, and the crash of fallingtimber booms over the hills. The miners, with what few wives arethere, are building huts, mending tents, gathering firewood, andwashing out their mud-stained garments.

"The men soon assume a clean and more civilised costume, formgroups, compare notes, make calls. The unsuccessful wander offinto remote spots, prospecting. Some start for the post-office.The tide of emigrants flows in, and men who never before dweltout of reach of an inn and a waiter have to learn now to campunder a tree and cook a chop without a frying-pan."

{Page 358}

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE DIARIES OF DIGGERS.

The disappointments in California hadrendered the English public cautious, but the arrival in the portof London of actual cargoes of gold, and letters from colonistsenriched by digging, presently brought the emigrating public tofever heat, and thousands of all classes and ages betookthemselves to Australia, and a large re-emigration took placefrom South Australia and New South Wales. From the correspondenceand journals of these adventurers—some of them experiencedcolonists we condense accounts of what they saw, omitting much ofwhat they thought, hoped, feared, and ejacul*ted.

PASSAGE.

"In the first place, take your own passage or berth foryourself: trust not to any one, not even a brother, for it.Second, make the bargain that no one is to be in the same berthwith you (that is, if you go in the second cabin orintermediate.) Bring on board a small barrel for holding water(not a tin can, on any account), a camp stool for sitting on, alock and key for your berth door, and a determination to make acompanion of no one all the voyage, and only seek a speakingfriend after you have been three weeks at sea. It is alsoindispensably necessary that every article you possess, exceptthe wearing apparel on your person, be locked in your trunks andthe keys in your pocket.

"In the accounts of the voyages to Australia you will noticethat much is said about the great heat; but, as far as myexperience goes, too little is said about the extreme coldweather which is experienced after rounding the Cape of GoodHope. It is necessary, therefore, to have a suit of very warmclothing, no matter how coarse it is, but warm it must be. If youwere not teetotalers, I should also advise you to bring with youtwo bottles of brandy and the same quantity of whiskey, but thatas your taste inclines.****

PORT PHILLIP.

"The headlands of Port Phillip were reached and entered, theanchor was thrown overboard, and our vessel from Liverpool, with175 passengers, had completed the voyage from England toAustralia in eighty-two days.****

"We thought then our troubles were over, but not so. Well, theanchor is dropped; and the captain, who has been up all night,hoarse with bawling and swearing, goes down below to sleep. Yougo below also to get breakfast, and find that the steward doesnot consider himself bound to serve the passengers with cleancups any longer. On being remonstrated with, his answer willprobably be, 'You may go to the devil.' Well, it is no usekicking against the pricks; therefore help yourself, and go tothe cookhouse for hot water, and get everything requisite forbreakfast. The talk then begins in the forenoon—after allthe beauties of the bay have been pointed out over and overagain, until you are absolutely sick of them—the cry thenis, 'Where is the pilot?' The answer from some one is, 'Oh, allthose ships are to go up the bay before us, and we must wait ourturn. It may be a week before we get up yet.' Day draws on, butno pilot. Next morning no pilot; still dirty plates, and thesteward grown more insolent. In the afternoon the pilot comes onboard. He says, 'The wind is against us, we may lie here a week.'All next day the wind is against us, but the following day abreeze springs up, the sails are spread out to the breeze, a manis placed in the chains to heave the lead, and off we go. In theafternoon we reach Hobson's Bay, still a part of Port Phillip,but a different creek. Well, the anchor is again dropped, thepilot leaves the ship, and another is added to the 150 ships atanchor in the bay. We are still eight miles from Melbourne, whichlies on the Yarra Yarra. The cry then is, 'When shall we getashore?' 'Oh,' replies one, 'the inspector must come on boardfirst, and the captain must go on shore to deliver up his papers,and a lighter or steamer must be engaged to take us up.' Well, intwo days no steamer or lighter appeared: and Mr.W——— and I went off' with a steamer that wasplying about among the shipping, and paid 5s. each for a sail ofeight miles. We reached Melbourne. We asked where a house was tobe had. The reply was, 'There are no houses to let in Melbourne.'Lodgings we could have got at 2 each a week, but that we did notwant. All that day we walked through the town searching for ahouse, but found none. We returned to the ship, and paid 7s. eachfor another sail. We came on shore next day for 2s. 6d., walkedall day, and again failed in our object; but that night we stayedin an inn on shore, and next morning we had the pleasure ofsecuring a wooden erection, miscalled a house, of two rooms, atthe moderate rent of £1 per week. Joyfully we returned to theship, expecting that a lighter would be alongside to take ourluggage and our wives to the house we had rented; but, alas forthe courtesy and attention of our captain! no such comfortawaited us. 'It will be here to-morrow,' was his reply when askedabout it. To-morrow came, but no lighter. Passengers got savage;some swore; some urged that a deputation should be sent to theagent of the ship, and to the magistrates of Melbourne. Thiscourse was adopted; two gentlemen were deputed to go. They went.The agent told them he knew nothing about it, and that they hadbetter get on shore with their luggage as best they could. Themagistrates said, 'Make your case known to a respectablesolicitor, and we will hear it.' Thus were we pushed about fromone to another. One man took his luggage ashore in a boat, at hisown cost, at an expense of £9 sterling. Had I followed hisexample it would have cost me as much. I went to the captain; heassured me the lighter would come in a few days, and, being sickof the ship, Mary and I, along with a Mrs. W———and her daughter, bolted from the ship, and left our luggage tothe care of Providence. We slept two nights in an inn. Mr.W———'s luggage came at the expiry of thatperiod in a lighter, and we then got his boxes into one of thewooden houses previously taken. There we lived for a fortnight.None of my luggage came ashore all that time. I was in the sameposition as the rest of the passengers, and after waiting andwearying our hopes almost out, we got everything safe and soundout of the lighter on the 1st of November. That, however, was butone-half of my troubles. Melbourne was flooded with young menseeking situations, which were not to be had."

After several unsuccessful applications for employment, andsome other mishaps, the writer continues—

"Sad, dejected, and weary, we reached Mr.W———'s house, where we slept all night. Nextday I got up my luggage and took one of P———'srooms, dressed myself in my best, went to the Argus office, quitein a state of desperation, and was civilly received, and offeredat once a situation at £208 per annum."

LANDING.

"Melbourne, Nov.4, 1852.

"Here am I at this moment seated on a trunk, with mywriting-desk opened on the top of another trunk, and a blazingwood fire on the hearth, with the lamp that served us on thevoyage lighted beside me. My wife is seated on my carpet bag,stuffed with dirty clothes, busily engaged in mending stockings,which yesterday she washed and dried at the front of the house.The floor is covered with canvass; the walls are of wood, throughwhich the light shines when the lamp is extinguished, and theroof is also covered with pieces of wood instead of good blueslates. Our mattresses, which served us on the ship—goodhair ones—are spread out in one corner of the room. Inanother is a load of wood, for which I paid this day the sum of£1 5s., and my large trunk stands against a partition, with thelid covered with all my books and papers. The house has tworooms. Mr. Hutton and his wife stay in one apartment, James Pettand his wife are living in the other. There, now you have apicture of our domestic economy; and when I add that both Maryand I are cheerful and happy in it, I give you full liberty toenjoy a laugh at what I have the honour to call my firsthouse.

"The advance of Melbourne, in a commercial point of view, issurprisingly rapid, and so far her prosperity seems to be basedon a safe monetary foundation. The business part of the city iscrowded each day by an anxious throng, mostly parties preparingfor or returning from the diggings. In one lot you will see thelately arrived 'new chum,' with his carefully cultivatedmoustache, raised on the voyage, a la Bond-street; hisleathern overalls, his fancy stick, and his 'swag' done up inMackintosh. In another you may behold the 'old hand,' the waryold file who has campaigned it at the Turon, at Braidwood, and atthe Mount, and who is now preparing for a trip to Bendigo, butwho declares that there is no use going till the roads are open.With him there is none of your finery. A pair of stout boots, ablanket, and the everlasting 'hook-pot,' complete his equipment.Anon you enter a gold-buyer's shop, and perceive a partydisposing of the proceeds of their adventure. One party of threethat I saw the other day had 145 lbs. weight to dispose of.Another, a sailor lad, had 28 lbs., the produce of three months'work at the Bendigo. Such instances are of no rare occurrence; inshort they are rather the rule than the exception.

"I have said much about the immorality of the place; it is butfair to state that my remarks apply only to a certain class, whoare, as it were, beyond the pale of society, but whose conductexercises a pernicious influence upon the whole social system. Ihave been to most of the churches on Sabbath, and I was pleasedto find all of them well filled with respectable and attentivecongregations. In one particular the clergy are reaping a goldenharvest from the diggings themselves. I allude to the demandwhich there is for their services in that ceremony which bindsthe sexes together 'for better for worse' through life. And letme inform you that a digger's marriage here is no everydayaffair, though they be upon each successive Sunday. The turn-outon all occasions is spicy. I have seen even the wheels of thevehicles (six in number) adorned with rosettes of love ribbons;the jarvey and the horse covered with white so profusely that ata distance they might pass for a small locomotive pyramid ofsnow. And such dresses as are worn by the brides and bridesmaidssuch silks,—such satins, such orange blossoms!

"The city itself, though well laid out, is in the mostwretched condition as regards all sanitary regulations, and asregards what is still of more immediate consequence to itsinhabitants—protection for life and property. The rains,which have not yet ceased for the season, continue to pour downin incessant torrents, covering all the flat and marshy groundaround the city, and within it it is no exaggeration to say thatthe streets are like so many rivers of mud, and in many instancesknee deep. So deep and so dirty are the streets, that one out ofevery three pedestrians you meet in the course of the day, hashis nether man encased in a pair of huge leather boots—noother way of getting along with safety being available. Add tothe filthy state of the streets the fact that there is no gas inthe town, nor attempt made to light it in any way, and that waterfor culinary purposes is so dear as to become an article ofluxury rather than of use, and you will be able to form someslight idea of the sanitary condition of this city.

"There is not household accommodation for one-third of itspresent occupants. I have seen instances of over-crowding insleeping apartments since I came here, that were it to occur inany other country in the world would breed almost instant fever.It is no rare thing to see twenty stout and stalwart men, eachrequiring as much air for the proper inflation of his lungs as anox, stretched upon the floor of a close, confined, unventilatedroom, night after night; and for this accommodation variousprices are charged, from one-and-sixpence to half-a-crown. Nor inthis respect are what may be termed respectable taverns muchbetter. I know an instance where four men were sleeping in oneroom, in a respectable hotel, and were all thrown into dirtysheets, handed on the first morning of their sojourn, dirty, nayfilthy towels; and after the lapse of four days I happened tomeet with one of the party, and making inquiry as to whetherthere had been any reform in the toilet department—'No,'said he, 'the same nasty things are there yet. We asked for achange, but were told that if we did not like them we mightchange our quarters, and so we are just as before.'

"A few evenings since I was at the house of a friend of thatpeace-loving class called Quakers, and several other gentlemenwere there besides, when we were all at once startled by a heavyrap at the door. Our host and 'friend' immediately opened it,when a herculean savage thrust a great bullet head inside, and inthe most insolent tones demanded either money or a night'slodging. Friend John expostulated, but, being rather diminutivein stature, the intruder paid but little attention to him untilhe perceived the company, when he retired grumbling and swearing,'What, though he was a government man, he had as good a right tosummit as any other.' It is generally believed here that theparties who are the ringleaders, at least, of those vagabonds arethose gentlemen whom Earl Grey so pathetically describes asbearing favourable comparison with the free emigrants who havecome here."

THE SUBURBS OF MELBOURNE.

"In the neighbourhood of the capital of Victoria there aremany pleasant spots, where one given to rambling may spend aquiet afternoon, and where 'ye manners and ye customs of yepeople' may be learned as clearly as if you mingled in all theireveryday avocations. Amongst the most popular places of resortare, St. Kilda and Liardet's Beach, both situated on the marginof the noble bay, nearly opposite William's Town. AlthoughMelbourne possesses a tolerably fair steam fleet, in the shape ofvarious tug boats, belonging chiefly to Captain Cole, not one ofthese vessels is allowed to ply on Sunday; and hence there is,upon one day in the week at least, a very great demand forhorse-flesh. The bazaars and livery stables upon a Sunday morningpresent a very animated spectacle; for here almost everymasculine biped of the genus hom*o considers it hispeculiar privilege to mount his horse on Sunday, without, be itremembered, the smallest reference to the fact as to whether hecan ride or not.

"St. Kilda lies about three miles from Melbourne, on the southside of the Yarra, and as there is no highway, except the usualbush ruts after the Prince's Bridge is crossed, the walk or ride,which you please, is very pleasant. Arrived at the village, youare somewhat surprised at the appearance of rapid growth whicheverything indicates. Houses (wooden, of course) are in course ofconstruction, some nearly finished, others but commenced; and yetso eager are the people for house accommodation, that theshingles are scarcely on the roofs before they are tenanted. AtSt. Kilda there is a very fine hotel, at which they charge veryfine prices; but then, in the go-a-head city, as Melbourne is nowcalled, who cares for a handful of silver? I was much pleased toobserve here a taste more generally diffused for the cultivationof flowers than is to be found generally about Melbourne.

"The ramble from St. Kilda to Liardet's Beach, by the marginof the wide and noble bay, a distance of about two miles, is veryagreeable; although, beyond the broad expanse of water, dotted,nay, closely studded with shipping at anchor, there is nothing torelieve the dull monotony of the place. At Liardet's, however,the scene changes, and from the solitude of the shore and yourown reflections, you are once more aroused by the din of humanvoices. Here they are again—shopkeepers, shopmen, diggers,ladies, diggers' wives, horses, hackney carriages, shandies,gigs, and almost every possible, and sometimes very questionablemodes of conveyance, all congregated on the sand. Pedestrianswandering, promenading, flirting, drinking, laughing, talking, onthe pier and in the shade of the cool verandahs; pic-nics in thescrub; mirth and merriment everywhere; boatmen lustily bawlingfor passengers, and waiters for more drink at the bar of thehotel. Tents are pitched upon all the ground surrounding thishouse of entertainment, wherein many a new chum for the firsttime indulges in a glass of ale, and when he has paid sixpence,declares that it is not half so good as Burton or Alton.'

"A good deal of novelty is added to this scene by the constanttransit to and from a large ship, the Duke of Bedford,which is here moored off the pier, and turned into a modellodging-house. 'Bed and board, sir,' said our conductors onboard, the other day, 'for two pounds a week; delightful marineresidence and boatage found into the bargain.' Decidedly theaccommodations are excellent, and the worthy proprietor keeps agood table. His apartments are full. It would be well if a fewmore of the dozens upon dozens of idle ships lying in harbourwere turned to an equally useful and profitable account to theirowners. I was a good deal surprised to find, amidst all therecreations of all classes and all kinds who visit the beach uponSunday, so little riot or intoxication. Except upon the arrivalof a lot of 'new chums,' with more money than sense, you willhardly observe any riot or drunkenness. Noise there is, but stillthere is order.

"The road from the beach to town lies through a low marshyscrub, which presents not one single pleasing feature, except wediverge at the Emerald Hill and take a look in at the encampmentof the tents of gold-diggers in transitu to the Mount orelsewhere. There are the coverings erected by poor new-comers toshelter them from the heavens, and to make a temporary but saferefuge for themselves, their luggage, and their families. And,oh! such squalor, such misery. It is pitiable to see well-dressedand genteelly-reared females, young and tender infants, as wellas grown-up persons, crouching and squatting in miserablewigwams, of which a North-American Indian would be ashamed. Butwhat can the creatures do?

"The botanic garden is another favourite resort for theMelbournites upon Sunday; but its visitors are of a differentclass. This is the ground where half the 'matches' which graceour churches daily are contracted. Here it is that newly-marriedhusbands display their brides during the honeymoon. Such a blazeof silk and satin, such bonnets, such feathers, flowers(artificial, of course), and such ribbons! I was particularlystruck with the freshness and beauty of many of the charmingbelles who frequent the gardens, contrasting strongly with thegeneral sallow and somewhat acclimatised style of female beautyprevalent about Sydney. They are generally handsome, and fresh incolour.

"The charges to which poor confiding passengers are subjectedto before landing here from the bay are monstrous. These peopletake their passage at Liverpool or London on the faith thatthemselves and luggage will be delivered at Melbourne the same asat Sydney; but guess their astonishment when they find that theyhave 4s. each to pay for steam-boat fare up, and 30s. per ton fortheir luggage; and when they get on the wharf, there are otherdues which, as the wharves belong to private individuals, arefixed at such rates as their honours please.

"When the Lady Head arrived here from Liverpool theweather was most inclement—wet pouring down in bucketfuls,and the dirt, slop, and mud more than knee-deep, not only in thethoroughfares, but in every spot where it was possible for humanbeings to set foot. In this state of affairs I saw more than 400poor people thrust upon our wharves, without food or shelter, butwhat their scanty bedding supplied. In this state of affairs, Mr.Cole allowed the poor sufferers the use of the sheds on hiswharf. Happening to be there in the early part of the night, Iascertained that a young woman, the wife of an intelligentScotchman, gave birth to her first-born child.

"The public buildings of Melbourne are of a most inferiordescription, both in point of architectural style and internalaccommodation. The only building of note at all adequate to itsrequirements is the Mechanics' Institution; and it has now to dothe treble duty of concert hall, assembly room, and town hall,including offices, &c., for the town clerk. The libraryattached to the institution is very good indeed, and the roomsspacious and commodious. The Legislative Council sits now in St.Patrick's Hall."

DIARY OF A JOURNEY FROM MELBOURNE TO BENDIGO.

"Sep. 8th.—Left the camp, passed throughFlemington, about three miles out of Melbourne; roads in adreadful state. Hundreds going to and returning from thediggings. Met several of those who came down in theWaratah with us, who had been up at the diggings, and hadreturned already, having 'ta'en a scunner' at it, as they say inScotland. A most beautiful country, as green as emerald, hillsrichly sloping, and clotted with umbrageous trees. The country,from the appearance of the soil and formation of the hills,appears to be admirably adapted for the cultivation of the vine.The mimosa, which is a much handsomer tree here than in New SouthWales, being large and shady, appears scattered through theforest, and lacing now in full bloom, presents to the view aperfect mass of beautiful golden flowers. Travelled to-day onlyfive miles, the roads being ankle-deep.

"9th.—Our horses strayed away during the night,and we did not find them until mid-day. Just after starting itcommenced to rain slightly. Crossing Keila Plains the roads wereawfully bad, and to add to our ills the rain poured down inregular torrents. Had our horses not have been first-rate ones wemust inevitably have stuck fast, as during the whole day they hadheavy pulling, men on foot being unable to walk the road withoutsinking knee-deep. We had two horses in the cart, and had about12 cwt. on it. Notwithstanding the plight in which we were, wecould not but admire the scenery, which was beautifullyvaried—now broad, undulating meadows—now groves ofshea-oaks, eucalyptus, and mimosa; while the grass everywhere wasgreen and soft as silk. Crossed the Broad Meadow, and came to thefoot of Gellibrand's Hill. Several drays were at the bottom ofthis, trying to get up, but it was with the greatest difficultythat they reached the summit, five or six bullocks falling downat a time through the slipperiness of the road. Ascended itwithout much difficulty, and encamped on the top of it. Travelledseven miles.

"10th.—Roads worse than on either of the previousdays, the ground being quite rotten and swampy. Countryresembling parts of Liverpool Plains; timber principally box. Inthe evening a suspicious looking character came to the camp,having no boots or hat on, telling us that he had been robbed,and threatening vengeance on the thief. Our clothes-box being inthe cart, C——— wanted to have it brought intothe tent, as our fortune he said was in it, upon which some witin the camp replied that it was a ragged one. The fellow,however, who appeared to be a shepherd for some one in thevicinity, after staying some time, and using some ferociouslanguage in reference to his spoliator, departed quietly, but notbefore we had given him several hints that his room was moreacceptable than his company. Eight miles.

"11th.—When at breakfast this morning, a largebrown snake came out of the log that was burning, and went into apool of water close by. Those who doubt the fact of a snake'shaving legs might have been convinced of it by seeing this one,as the legs were distinctly visible after they had been swollenby the heat, and much resembled those of a caterpillar, only theywere much larger. Roads very swampy. Kept along the Deep Creekfor a considerable part of the day, Mount Macedon being in sighton our left hand. Much of the scenery very picturesque,especially on the Deep Creek, the trees consisting ofhoneysuckle, cherry-tree, mimosa, eucalyptus, &c. There is aspecies of thorny mimosa growing here, which I have never seen inNew South Wales, and the foliage of which is very pretty. Came tothe Rocky Waterholes' Plain, where we met a bullock driver, whoinformed us that gold had been found within a few miles on astation belonging to Mr. Rigg. We determined upon inspecting thenew gold-field, and leaving the others with the cart, three of usstarted in search of it. After going about half a mile, we cameto Rigg's house, when we were directed to the diggings, about aquarter of a mile distant. When we got there, there were about adozen men, two of whom only were at work; the rest having come,like ourselves, to see the place. The two men who had discoveredthe gold informed us that they had been working there about afortnight—no one knowing it until the day before. They hadsunk several holes on the top of a pretty high hill—thegullies as yet being too wet to allow of a hole to be sunk inthem. From what we could learn from themselves, and from washingseveral tin dishfuls of earth taken from the bottom of the holeswhich they had sunk, it did not appear to us that much could bedone in that spot, although it seems very probable that a richgold-field will be discovered somewhere in the neighbourhood.About four feet below the surface there was a vein of quartz,which was extraordinarily rich in ore. Every stone that we brokewas dotted with minute specks of gold. One of the men showed us apiece that he had obtained from one of the holes, about the sizeof a pea. The soil through which they sunk was decomposed slate,resting on a bed of pipeclay. The appearance of the countryaround is very picturesque, particularly near the banks of theDeep Creek gently sloping hills, dotted with umbrageousgum-trees, and covered with a thick sward of grass as green asemerald. Went back to our mates, intending to proceed about halfa mile further before we pitched our tent. Crossing a flat, wewere obliged to divide the load into two; but notwithstandingthis, we got bogged, and were obliged to unload and take thehorses out. Camped on Rigg's station. Five miles. The mosquitoesvery troublesome, which one would not expect at this time of theyear.

"12th (Sunday).—Stayed at encampment. Some wentout to inspect the new diggings, and returned bringing with themseveral pieces of quartz full of specks of gold. The majority,notwithstanding, determined on proceeding to Bendigo, inpreference to stopping to give the place a trial. Four menencamped with us this night, who reported a fight about a claimat the diggings, in which two or three men were killed, andseveral wounded. They told us also that a nugget of pure gold,weighing upwards of 28 lbs., had been found at Eagle Hawk Gully,Bendigo. The Deep Creek, on which the new diggings are situated,runs eastward. If, therefore, gold in abundance be found there,it will be somewhat in contradiction to geological theories. Thedistance is twenty-five miles from Melbourne.

"13th.—Very bad roads again. Country undulatingand more thickly timbered; box and stringy-bark ranges. Getbogged, and take the horses out. Ascended Pretty Sally's or theBig Hill. The soil excellent, and cultivation on the very top ofthe mountain. The road which we came and that to Sydney meet onthe top of this hill. Magnificent view from the top of thehill—open plains, wood-crowned heights, shady valleys, andtowering hills—'places which pale passion loves' the viewextending on one side to the sea coast, and the habitations ofman alone being wanting to make the scenery perfect. Descendedthe hill and encamped at the foot of it. Twelve miles. A tallHighlander who was at a camp close by came down to converse withsome of his countrymen who were with us, and afforded us muchamusem*nt.

"14th.—Passed through Kilmore; the land veryrich; saw the wife of the man who had obtained the 28 lb. nuggetat Bendigo. She informed us that her husband had sold it for £4per ounce. About midday it commenced to rain very hard; roadsindescribably bad; got bogged and unloaded, pulled the dray out,went a few yards and got bogged again; pulled the dray out again,and camped on the side of a ridge; the ground everywhere, both onthe road and ranges, being perfectly rotten. Up nearly all nightdrying our bed-clothes, &c., which had got wet through.Obliged every night to cut poles and boughs to put under us, theground being a regular quagmire. The tinkling of the oxen'sbells, which one hears at every encampment, gives somewhat of anoriental character to the scene. Six miles.

"15th.—Crossed Donohoe's Creek; broke one of thetraces in crossing, with fair pulling. If the horses had not beenextraordinarily good they could never have kept on, in the statein which the roads were. Came to a creek in which there wereseveral drays stuck—one with nine horses—it beingunable to cross. There is scarcely a dray you meet on the roadthat is not accompanied with one or two women, oftentimes withfamilies of children, all bound for or returning from thediggings. Got bogged in crossing the creek, unloaded, and thenhad great difficulty in getting over, as the horses had nofooting, and sank up to the shoulder. The country very beautiful,compensating in part for the badness of the roads, which were theworst we had encountered. The hills and valleys were covered withflowers—daisies, white and yellow butter-cups, snowdrops,&c., while the mimosa bloomed along our path, adding freshbeauty to the scene and fragrancy to the air. Each succeedingscene only impresses more forcibly on the mind theappropriateness of the title bestowed upon the country by Sir T.Mitchell, of 'Australia Felix.' The country is well grassed andwatered, the timber low and branching, without any underwood, andmore beautiful and picturesque than any park. Just beforeencamping got bogged the second time, the ground being verydeceiving, the horses sinking to their middle in a place whereyou would least expect it. Encamped in a most beautiful andromantic valley, on the banks of a deep creek, with largewaterholes—which some fanciful individuals of our partyimagined might be the retreats of the far-famed bunyip.Honeysuckle, mimosa, and eucalyptus were the most common trees,and formed beautiful groves. Five miles.

"16th.—Crossed two very bad creeks; met a greatnumber of drays; crossed box hill and stringy bark ranges; thelatter always dreary-looking. Witnessed some beautiful scenery;hills rising over hills, covered with grass and shady trees; thevalleys enamelled with flowers. Passed Morrison's station—abeautiful place. Ascended the Dividing Range. Granite in largemasses begins to appear; quartz predominates in this to a veryunusual extent, and this fact may probably throw some light onthe richness of the Victoria gold-fields. The rocks are ofttimesof very peculiar forms, and in remarkable situations; largemasses of tons weight, and quite round, lying on top of oneanother; the least effort being sufficient to remove them, andsend them headlong down the mountain. The ranges are very low,and in fact the whole country is remarkably level; a circ*mstancewhich is contrary to one's preconceived notions of a gold-bearingregion. The roads much better, and lined with diggers homewardand outward bound. The soil decomposed granite, which appears tobe the only rock in the neighbourhood. The honeysuckle is metwith here much farther from the coast than in Australia Proper,and grows in all sorts of soil and situations. Crossed Morrison'sCreek, over which there is a bridge, the passage over which israther unsafe, in consequence of the late heavy rains. Overtooktwo horse teams from Goulburn, which had been four months on theroad, having been detained in crossing the river a week orfortnight at a time. Splendid views from the axis of the mountainranges; sheep and cattle feeding on the wood-crowned hills, andin the fertile valleys, and forming a charming and enticingpicture of pastoral life. Encamped, having for beds the branchesof the gum wattle, as soft and luxurious as a bed of down.Fourteen miles.

"17th.—Crossed scrubby stringy bark ranges; gotbogged, and were obliged to lay logs for twenty or thirty yardsin order to get through roads pretty good except in the gullies,which were desperately bad; fragmentary quartz in greatabundance, and strong indications of gold; got bogged the secondtime near the M'lvor Inn; most beautiful scenery; roadsexcellent, and as level as possible for the last three miles ofthis day's journey; encamped in the most delightful valley thatthe eye of man could behold. Never before did the country seem sojustly to merit the appellation of the 'blestAustralia'—never before did the mimosa seem to bear suchlovely blossoms, or shed such fragrant odours—never beforedid the air seem so pure, clear, and inspiriting as in thatdelicious valley. The herbage soft, green, and luxuriant. Flowersof all hues, white, and purple, and crimson, and gold, andviolet, in which those of a golden colour predominated, enamelledthe hills and valleys, grateful alike to the sight and smell.Buttercups, dandelions, eglantine, daisies, snowdrops, &c.,completely covered the ground; the first-mentioned, inparticular, growing as richly as possible over acres, nay, milesof ground. The trees are principally mimosa and honeysuckle, andhere and there some giant of the eucalyptus order grew inhandsome clumps, some in full blossom, others without any, butnot the less beautiful; while between them were green openspaces, on which the sun poured down a flood of light. Tocomplete the scene the M'Ivor meandered through the valley, eachwinding-turn disclosing 'some fresher beauties varying round.'Travelled to-day eleven miles.

"18th.—Travelled along the course of the M'Ivorfor eleven miles. The scenery equal, if not superior, to that ofyesterday. Even those who are usually unmindful of naturalbeauties were unable to gaze on the landscape without giving ventto passionate exclamations of admiration; English, Irish, andScotch, all concurred in agreeing that they had never before seenanything so beautiful. To add to our pleasure the roads wereexcellent, and as level as a bowling-green. The formation of thecountry is principally schistose, with an abundance offragmentary quartz. Crossed the M'Ivor, and came on to box flats,in which swamp oak appeared for the first time. Scrubby ranges,box, and stringy bark; coarse grass and herbs like those at theTuron; country more level than at the Turon. From the geologicalstructure and general appearance I should imagine that gold wouldbe found somewhere in the neighbourhood in abundance. Roads verybad again. Crossed a box flat entirely consisting of hillockshaving the appearance of waves, and very uniform in their size.It seems as if the land had been thrown up in a fused andslightly agitated mass, and then suddenly cooled. Came to theCampaspie River, and had a fresh view of the celebrated MountAlexander; romantic scenery, great abundance of trap rock. Whenwe got here, we were told we could not cross, as the river wasup. About forty drays were encamped on the banks, waiting thefirst opportunity to pass over; we accordingly pitched our tenton the bank of the river, intending to cross over on Mondaymorning, the stream being then considerably swollen and runningrapidly. To-day eighteen miles.

"19th (Sunday).—Remained in camp. An immensenumber of people, on foot and on horseback, crossed the Campaspieto-day, on their way to and from the diggings, The river fellconsiderably during the day and previous night. About sunset thesky became overcast with heavy clouds, threatening immediaterain, and therefore we thought it advisable to cross the river atonce, as it was probable we should be detained on its banks aweek or two if it should happen to rain. Packed up accordingly,and started to cross over, one of the party riding the leadinghorse. When about half way over, the leader laid down, whichcirc*mstance was nearly causing an unlucky termination to ourpassage; fortunately, however, she rose again, and we crossedwithout further trouble, although the water was above the bed ofthe cart, and running with a strong current. It was lucky for usthat we did cross, as it rained hard during the night.

"20th.—Raining hard during the forenoon, but finein the afternoon. Passed over box and gum forests, scrubby inplaces, and thinly-timbered well-grassed flats. The country ingeneral, so far as this, was as fine as could be wished for. Thegrass every where soft, silky, and as green as a field of youngwheat. Unlike that of New South Wales, the grass and pasture hereconsists of nutritious herbs and very fine grass, growing in athick sward, and completely hiding the soil. Hills and valesalike were covered with flowers, principally of a yellow colour,and growing as thick as they could—presenting to the eye ofone accustomed to the almost flowerless fields of Australia anunusual and beautiful appearance, realising in some respects thedescription given of English meadows. Everywhere, too, themimosa, loveliest of the flowering trees of Australia, anddestined to be as much celebrated in the lays of her poets as thehawthorn has been in those of the British bards, scented the airwith its perfume, and dazzled the eye with its rich yellowblossoms. Passed over some barren ranges covered with quartz, theonly thing pleasant on them being some flowering shrubs, chieflyof the mimosa species. Through some fertile flats, the roads verylevel and good, as indeed they were during the greater part ofthe day—the only fault in them being a bog here and there,which after our previous bad roads we considered a mere nothing.Met several men who were returning from the diggings, and fromwhom we learned that robberies and murders had of late been veryfrequent at Bendigo. On Wednesday last, near thirty drays werestopped by a large gang of bushrangers in the Black Forest, andrum, tobacco, and other property taken from them to a greatamount. One man lost upwards of £700 worth of gold. No less thanthree murders have been committed during the last week atBendigo, one in Eagle Hawk, another at Peg Log Gully, and anotherin the Long Gully. One of the murdered men, we are informed, hadhis head completely severed from the body. Our informants told usthat they had heard cries of 'murder' from the tent in which oneof the unfortunate men was killed, but hearing some one (probablyone of the perpetrators of the crime) laugh at the same time,they thought that the men were joking among themselves. Thepolice are out scouring the bush in all directions. We thankedour stars that we had not gone by the road through the BlackForest, as we had at first intended, since being indifferentlyarmed, how much soever we might have wished to display ourheroism, we should have had but little chance of doing so.Crossed Emu Creek; the country of slate formation; quartz inabundance. An immense number of people passing to and from thediggings; men, women, and children along the whole road from thisto Bendigo. Came to Bullock Creek, where we saw the places thatthe diggers had made for cradling during the dry weather, whenthe washing stuff had to be carried here from Bendigo, a distanceof seven or eight miles. Four seizures of sly grog-sellers'carts, &c., were made here by the commissioner and policethis morning. Passed over barren ridges, the timber on whichconsisted of iron bark, box, gum, and stringy bark. This was thefirst time I had seen iron bark in Victoria. Quartz in greatabundance, every ridge being covered with it. The country, in itsgeological structure and general appearance, very much resemblesthat on the Long Creek in the Western diggings. The ridges areunusually uniform in their size, lower than one would be inclinedto imagine in a gold region, and have all the same direction. Thestrike of the strata is north by west and south by east;schistose formation well developed; and quartz in unusualabundance. The whole, or nearly the whole, of the country overwhich we passed to-day, has every appearance of being a richgold-field, but it has not yet had a fair trial. About threeP.M. came in sight of the commencement of theBendigo diggings, or what is called the Back Creek. Pitched ourtent on the Back Creek. Travelled to-day a distance of 16 milesthus making the whole distance to Bendigo 107 miles, which Ithink is correct, although less than what we were informed itwas.

"We, however, travelled upwards of 140 miles, having to makeso many detours in order to avoid bad places in the roads.

"R. W."

A FOOT JOURNEY TO MOUNT ALEXANDER.

"We started for these mines on foot, each carrying hisswag—mine weighed 50 lbs. We had no other alternative, forthere was no dray to be got. I found the roads as bad as I hadheard. We saw about 100 drays on the road stuck fast. We couldonly make fifteen miles a day, so it took us seven days; and whenwe arrived I was knocked up with cold, owing to being continuallywet through between heavy rains and wading through creeks up tothe middle. I and another got lost once on the mountains foreight hours; but, as luck would have it, we fell in with ourparty at the Bendigo diggings, which, when all mustered,consisted of five. To-day ends our first week's work; my shareconsists of £15, besides half an ounce I made myself.

"I enjoy very good health now, otherwise it would be a hardcase, as doctors charge £5 5s. for looking at you.

"You would scarcely know me. My hair is very long, I wear anold cap, a flannel shirt next my skin, and a blue one over all,with a belt round my waist, where hang a brace of pistols and aknife eighteen inches long, and a pair of antepopelos up to myhaunches. I am always covered with mud and soaked with water. Youmay judge of the weather when I tell you, that when we rise inthe morning our blankets are covered with frost."

FOREST CREEK.

"The surface of the hills in this district, in many places, isquite white from the quantity of small quartz, from the size of apin's head to a man's head. I tried surface washing, and knockedout an ounce a day, taking eight or nine inches of the surfacelike the above, the quartz being embedded in black loam. I alsofound gold in a red clay under the above, say from nine tofifteen inches under the surface. This was heavier gold, as if ithad by gravity gone through the loam and rested in the clay. Therichest surfacing here has been on Spring Hill, which is thehighest part of the range between Forest Creek and Fryer's Creek,the summit being about 600 feet above these creeks, which arefour or five miles from each other. Surfacing is as uncertain assinking. You may wash a whole day and get nothing, or you mayhappen upon some ounces in a square foot. I have tried manyplaces, and invariably found at least a few streaks of gold ineach dishful.

"The quartz lying in this soil I may liken to the fruit in agood plum-pudding. Where there is gold on the surface, there issure to be gold lying on the rock below.

"Sinking in gullies and flats, I have always found the claypredominating, generally lying in strata more or less mixed withgravel, and sometimes a stratum of pure gravel or pure sand; thelatter is reckoned a bad sign. In this sort of sinking you cometo the rock at various depths to twenty-five feet; I have seennone deeper. Hill sinking is more tedious, as the strata arealways harder—going through a hard red conglomerate gravel,or a hard white cemented quartz, very gritty the base rock isoften forty or fifty feet down.

"These base rocks, on the top of which the gold lies, aresandstone, generally red, and pipe-clay. This pipe-clay appearsto be slate in a softer state. It is laminated, and will cuteasily with a knife. The top of the slate is softish for four orfive inches, and contains gold. It is this top that is scrapedoff with a knife and washed. The pipe-clay is seldom a goodgold-bearing bottom. All the rocks run almost north andsouth—are in laminæ and on edge, like a ream of paperplaced on its edge, not laid flat. Often you will find thesedifferent sort of bottoms in the same hole.

"We have done very little here for six weeks past ingold-finding, though we have worked hard. In the above time wehave seen (three of us) the bottoms of ten holes, two of themupwards of twenty feet deep, and all turned out not worth thewashing. We have just bottomed two others, nearly twenty feetdeep; two or three days will show what it will turn out. In myhole I have to-day commenced mining; but I do not expect to seegold in any quantity till I get six or seven feet in. I took outa few pounds of gold about two months ago, but I am sorry to saythat it is all spent, everything is so expensive. I have alsobeen speculating foolishly in things I knew nothing about, andnaturally got burned. I cannot, therefore, leave this till I havemade a few pounds. By persevering at the digging, I have no doubtfortune will favour me at last, Spring, of course, is the besttime for digging, so that it is not likely I shall be in NewZealand soon, unless my luck turns very soon."

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

South Australia seemed about to be depopulated by the rush tothe gold diggings of Victoria, when the happy idea was suggestedof establishing an overland route, so as to give Port Adelaidethe advantage of a gold escort. The following journal gives abetter idea of the country and bush life than the most elaboratedescription:—

JOURNAL OVERLAND BETWEEN ADELAIDE AND MOUNT ALEXANDER.

Having conceived that a shorter and better routecould be found between Adelaide and the Victoria gold-fields, andthat the adoption of a regular escort of mounted police to bringthe gold from the mines would be a benefit to South Australia,and his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor having approved of thesame, I received instructions on the 6th instant to proceedforthwith, and in obedience thereto left Adelaide on the 10thFebruary, at nine o'clock, A.M.

During the day overtook numerous parties travelling overland inalmost every description of vehicle; many were on foot, advancingwith a firm step, and head erect, as if determined to face andsurmount whatever hardships might cross their path. Arrived atMount Barker at twelve o'clock, rested a couple of hours, andagain started for the crossing-place at Wellington, which Ireached at half-past seven, P.M.; thus making thedistance in eight hours and a half, including the two hours' reston the way. The present line of road between Mount Barker and thecrossing-place on the Murray is very circuitous, and might begreatly improved by cutting a direct line across the scrub,starting from near Mr. Ray's station. I imagine that ten milesmight thus be saved in the distance; and Corporal Hall, of themounted police, who is stationed here, informs me that the groundis sound, and good travelling over. Overtook the police lightcart at Langhorn's Creek, the driver of which had started fromAdelaide the day previous, and was furnished with instructions tothe officers in charge at Mount Gambier and Mosquito Creek policestations to join me without delay at Mount Alexander, to form anescort hack to South Australia.

Wednesday, 11th.—The sun rose at twenty minutes past five.Got up early to prepare for the journey; saw the horses safelyacross the Murray; fitted packsaddle to carry water, &c.;secured the services of an intelligent native, and rigged him outat the store with a new blanket, shirt, and half a pound oftobacco, with which he seemed highly delighted. The number ofpersons, horses, and carts daily crossing the ferry, is trulyastonishing. I ascertained that no less than 1,234 passengers,1,266 horses and bullocks, and 164 carriages of all descriptionspassed during the month of February. The fees collected were £6414s. 2½d.

Thursday, 12th.—Rose early; had the horses well fed andsaddled. At seven o'clock made a final start; taking aneast-south-east course; my party, consisting of myself, twoconstables, one native, and five horses, the extra one being usedas a pack-horse to carry water and provisions. The morning cooland cloudy, and very favourable for travelling. During the firstfew miles I cut the surveyor's tracks several times; crossedextensive well-grassed plains, extending seven or eight miles;good travelling ground. Entered some low scrub, rather sandy;made for a scrubby-looking range, distant about ten miles.Following same course, came to a belt of shea-oaks(casuarina), with a little grass in the centre of a flat;here there is a splendid well, or cave, with abundance of water.The survey party had encamped at this spot, and had secured thetop of the well by fixing, a cask sawn in half. As we approacheda number of bronze-winged pigeons flew from within. Watered thehorses by means of my oiled calico tent, and pushed on, keepingsame course towards two peaks. Halted for a few minutes in avalley amongst some light-looking sandy ranges; very littlegrass, no water. Native says water could be obtained by digging.Distance from last halting-place ten miles. Passed through heavy,sandy country, densely scrubby; saw some native signal fires tothe north-east. The scrub became still more dense as weproceeded, and impeded our progress greatly; added to this, thepack became every moment entangled in the branches, so thattowards night I found myself forced to fall back upon the beatentrack which cuts that part of the desert known as the HundredMile Scrub. Made the road at dusk, but saw no signs of the surveyparty having passed. Pushed on about a mile further, and encampedamongst some shea-oaks, honeysuckles, and a variety of shrubs,with plenty of grass, and a good supply of water. Shortly afterencamping, two drays belonging to the survey party came up, thedrivers of which informed me that the rest of their party weresinking a well, about ten miles back, in a well-grassed patch ofcountry of about fifty acres in extent, well wooded. Doubts were,however, entertained as to their succeeding in obtaining water.They had already sunk twenty feet. Wrote a letter to the DeputySurveyor-General, acquainting him with the object of my journey,and enclosing a copy of the Colonial Secretary's letter,addressed to me on the subject. Distance travelled this day,thirty miles.

Friday, 13th.—A drizzling rain during the night, whichsoaked us completely; left camping-place by eight o'clock;traversed extensive open country, sandy, and covered with lowbush or heath. About four and a half miles from last camp foundwater in three different spots amongst the shea-oaks. Numerousremarkable granite rocks crop out of the ground near this, andwill not fail to indicate the precise spot to travellers. Thewells can be much improved by deepening. At noon halted torefresh the horses in a flat, with a fine spring of water, goodfeed, convenient halting-place. The road to-day I found veryheavy on account of the sandy nature of the soil; the heat of thesun excessive. Rested two hours, and pushed on; distance fromlast camp, sixteen and a half miles; horses much refreshed; twoand a half miles further, again found water and feed; five milesmore, discovered another well—the latter requires deepeningand cleaning, however, before it is made available. Observed thetracks round the wells of a great number of emus; thebronze-winged pigeon is likewise seen about the water a sureindication that that great desideratum to the wearied travelleris at hand. Passed two or three small plains well grassed,containing from fifty to one hundred acres, surrounded withscrub—no water; possibly it could be obtained by sinking,as the soil differs-from the generality of that found in thescrub: it is of a rich black loam, and might be made useful forgrowing hay and other produce. Encamped for the night amongst theshea-oaks; here two or three wells have been sunk in which wefound abundance of water. This spot makes an excellentcamping-place, as there is plenty of feed for the horses:distance, forty miles.

Saturday, 14th.—Morning cloudy; fine travelling weather.Got up early; not much refreshed, however, in consequence ofhaving been disturbed by the howling of the native dogs, whichwere prowling about our camp. These animals are perfectlyharmless, and have never been known to attack any one. It wouldbe well, however, for bushmen to drive them off when heard in thevicinity of their camp, as they are apt to gnaw the tethers, andthereby loosen the horses: a good, useful kangaroo-dog willalways scare them away. Moved off from the camp at six o'clock,A.M.: on emerging from the scrub which surroundedour camp, we entered a large plain, covered with heath, extendingto the eastward, as far as the eye could reach, bounded by aridge to the north-north-east—a conspicuous hill bearingeast-south-east, near which, the native informs me, there is asheep-station: steered direct for it. The road passes at itsbase, and winds round to the left. The road, although sandy, ismuch less so than yesterday. I noticed a great variety of newshrubs, one in particular was pointed out to me by my sablecompanion he informed me it bore a fruit in winter which thenatives are very fond of; it is sweet-tasted like sugar. Saw anemu quietly feeding in the plains. As soon as it noticed us itmade off, and would in a few moments have been out of sight, butold Cusack commenced whistling in a peculiar manner, which, to mysurprise and great amusem*nt, not only put a stop to its furtherretreat, but actually brought it back to within a few yards.After surveying us for a few moments, it again started off at awonderful speed. I have frequently in my bush excursions riddenafter this extraordinary bird, but although well mounted, seldomsucceeded in overtaking it; it gains fresh impetus at everystride. Reached the hill above described; distance from our lastencamping ground, fifteen miles. Observed the fresh tracks ofsheep; but being anxious not to delay a moment I did not attemptto look for the station. This will make a good halting-place fortravellers, as there is plenty of wood, grass, and water. Theroad after this is extremely heavy, the soil being composed ofsand. Arrived at a deserted sheep-station; the feed luxurious,the country well timbered with gum, shea-oak, blackwood, andother trees. Distance from hill where sheep-tracks seen, fifteenmiles. I may here remark, that on reaching this station thedesert ends. The traveller will find abundance of feed and waterin a well wherewith to recruit his horse before again proceedingon his journey. Marked a tree, and left a note for Mr. M'Laren,directing him where to find water. Altered my course to the east,and pushed on to Mr. Scott's station; distance, eight miles. Haddinner, resumed my journey, and encamped at the Woolshed Station.This station is supplied with excellent water from a chain ofdeep water-holes; water permanent.

Sunday, 15th. Finding the water-kegs were veryinconvenient (causing considerable delay in my progress), and aswater could now be obtained with certainty, I determined uponleaving them at the station until my return. Resumed my journeyat seven o'clock, after our morning meal. Passed through the samesort of country rich and fertile; water at intervals at fromthree to five miles My attention was drawn to a very gracefultree (swamp-oak) quite peculiar to this locality; the leaf issimilar to the casuarina, with this exception, that the formerstands erect whereas the latter droops; it is likewise dissimilarin taste—the one being acid and the other bitter: the woodis very hard, and is much used by the settlers for fencing andbuilding purposes. Crossed the Boundary line at eight miles. Onemile to the eastward of the line Messrs. Lloyd and Young have astation. I called but both were from home Moved on, and haltedtwo hours at one of their out-stations, and had dinner. At this,as well as at every other station I have called at, a woman"hutkeeps," while the husband is minding the sheep. Hutkeepers,shepherds, and other labourers are as difficult to be obtained inthis province as in South Australia; all are gold-digging mad.Continued an easterly course; came to a lagoon, and had to turnto the north in order to head it. The country through, which Irode this day surpasses anything I have met with in SouthAustralia; vast extensive plains, with luxurious herbage,everywhere meet the eye: these are intersected by belts of finetimber of all kinds. In crossing one of the plains, saw a mob ofwild cattle; no sooner did they perceive us than they startedoff, tearing over the ground and raising such clouds of dust, onemight have imagined a herd of buffaloes. Came across oldsheep-tracks; but could not spare time to look for the station.Suddenly came to a long lagoon, stretching to the north and southfor several miles. After refreshing ourselves with a pannican oftea, pushed on, altering my course to the southward for somedistance to head the swamp. As this delayed me considerably, andtook me out of my course, I determined upon crossing, and made adash accordingly. Succeeded, but found it boggy, and water ratherdeep, occasionally reaching to the saddle-flaps. I have not theleast doubt but what this awkward spot can be avoided by goinground. Same sort of country; occasionally undulating, wellgrassed, and timbered. Travelled till late, and encamped amongstsome large timber, with abundance of grass. I deemed we hadtravelled this day thirty miles.

Monday, 16th.—Horses are looking well and keep in goodcondition. One or two of them have unfortunately sorebacks—a matter which, particularly in hot weather, isdifficult to guard against on long journeys. Saddled the horsesand started, keeping my old course; heard the bark of a dog, andon going towards it found that we had encamped within a mile ofone of Major Firebrace's out-stations (sheep); here there is apermanent spring of splendid water. Heat of the sun dreadful.Reached a deserted sheep-station, found water near the hut:distance from our camp, fifteen miles. Our course then took aneast-south-east direction, across a heath, sandy and badtravelling. Mount Arapiles bearing south-east; followed thebeaten track, and entered some scrub; slow travelling, heavysand; this I regret to say continued for fifteen miles. I havesince been informed that ten miles of this heavy part of the roadcan be avoided by continuing same course at the sheep-station,and not turning to the east-south-east, as I was directed to doby the hutkeeper at Major Firebrace's station. By following theline which I now indicate, Mr. Patterson's station on the Wimmerawill be made, and from thence a track will be found leading, tothe village of Horsham, which is on the direct route to MountAlexander (see map.) After leaving the scrub we came out on someopen country, near two salt lakes, Mount Arapiles distant tenmiles. Entered some thickly-timbered country, well grassed,halted for two hours to refresh the horses-at some water which wefound in a swamp on the left of the road; ten minutes afterresuming our journey crossed the Wimmera River. This is a finestream, not unlike the Onkaparinga, near Hahndorf; the holes are,however, considerably larger and deeper, some, I dare say,measure thirty yards in breadth and from two hundred to threehundred in length; the soil on either bank for miles, cannot, Iam satisfied, be anywhere surpassed for its fertility andrichness. Passed the station of Messrs. Baily and Hamilton, andmoved on, keeping along the north bank of the river to MajorFirebrace's station. The Major was from home; his son, however,hospitably entertained me and my party; to him I feel muchindebted for a great deal of valuable information respecting theline of route which we have still to travel. Distance made thisday, thirty-five miles. At night it thundered and lightenedconsiderably, which greatly cooled the air; heavy drops of rainfell.

Tuesday, 17th.—I got up very early and left the housewithout disturbing the family, and started. The regular beatenoverland road passes close to tins station; we got upon it andfollowed it the whole of the day; it is rather circuitous, as itfollows the windings of the river: by a little observation manymiles might be saved during a day's journey. Passed several finestations. The homestead is invariably enclosed by a substantialfence, and stands in die centre of a paddock of from 300 or 400acres. From inquiries which I made, I find that none of the landbelongs to the squatters; they rent it from the Crown with apre-emptive right of purchase. Passed numerous parties on theirway to the diggings, some encamped, others travelling. Came tothe-village of Horsham, distant twelve miles from the station ofMajor Firebrace; after a stay of a few minutes at the "pub,"resumed my journey. Here is a police-station, a store, ablacksmith, and one or two wooden houses. Travelled during theday pretty smartly, and arrived about nine o'clock,P.M. at the village of Glenarchy. The village issimilar to Horsham, about the same size, and containing about thesame number of houses. I was forced, much against my inclination,to pass the night at the inn, in consequence of the want of feedin the neighbourhood. I did not at first like the appearance ofeither the building or the inmates, and in truth I was notdeceived; the accommodation was bad, beds filthy, full of bugs,charges exorbitant, and extremely uncivil withal. The rascallyhostler had the impudence (as I was giving directions about thefeeding of my horses) coolly to tell me to feed them myself!Distance made, forty-four miles.

Wednesday, 18th.—Made rather a late start; obliged to ridepack-horse, in consequence of my own having a galled back. Onreaching Mr. Green's station, distant twelve miles fromGlenarchy, turned off to left, to avoid the village of Burnbank,thereby saving a distance of twenty miles to Mount Alexander:indicated the spot by marking a gum tree with the words, "Take tothe left." This track leads through a well-watered country, withplenty of grass, to the Navarre Inn, kept by a person namedMackoy, distant from Glenarchy thirteen miles. A glance at themap will at once point out how the saving is effected. Rested thehorses two hours, and once more moved on; a high range in thedistance, beautiful in appearance, much resembling the MountLofty Range of South Australia. On leaving the inn the roadbecame very circuitous; it winds by the bank of a creek, wellwatered, into the heart of the mountains: good travelling almostlevel.

Thursday, 19th.—Up by the break of day; felt muchrefreshed, having slept soundly all night; effected a good startat half-past six o'clock; road led through a beautiful valley,with a creek meandering through it; the country then becameundulating, exceedingly beautiful and romantic, the rising slopesand valleys studded here and there with shrubs of everydescription, amongst which I noticed the silver wattle, or VanDiemen's Land acacia, predominating. Passed Mr. M'Kinnon's sheepstation nine miles; country more hilly, densely timbered; thestringy bark, blue and white gum, box, and many other treesfamiliar to a South Australian, are found in the hills. Crossed acreek near the station of ————. I couldnot help remarking that the water in all the creeks, as I getnearer and nearer to Mount Alexander, is of a singularly darkcolour, perfectly clear, however, when taken out, and sweettasted. Query can this be an indication of During the day passedthrough open forest land, plains, and now and againdensely-timbered flats of from three to four miles in extent.Made Mr. Bucknall's station; crossed a large creek a few hundredyards below the house. The country here, as we emerged from thethick timber, changed like magic; hills appeared in our frontextending to the right and left for miles, grassy, but perfectlybare of a single tree; these again were bounded to the east andsouth-east by a more distant, remarkable, high-peaked range, toall appearance of the same character. Turning the head to thenorth-east a ridge, thickly wooded, similar to that alreadydescribed, is seen, behind which rises the already far-famedMount Alexander; entered the thick wood seen sometime back; againemerged into a large plain, crossing which we came to the RiverLoddon, where the diggings commence, thus accomplishing thejourney between the Murray and it in eight days. Encamped on theeast bank of the river; good feed and water; distance travelledthis stage, fifty-nine miles.

Friday, 20th.—Visited Forest Creek and Adelaide Gully;conversed with many of the South Australian gold seekers, andinformed them of the purport of my visit; shortly after it wasmade known throughout the diggings that I had arrived, I was metby crowds, who expressed their delight at the success which I hudhad in making so quick a journey, at the news I was bearer of,and at the establishment of a mounted escort to convey the goldto Adelaide. I have since been assured that hundreds will remittheir hard-earned earnings by the present escort, and will socontinue if it be regularly established, instead of having tosend it to Melbourne, or otherwise dispose of it, at a shamefulloss, to agents who reside at the mines. It affords me muchpleasure to note that the Adelaide diggers in general haveobtained, and still continue to obtain, more gold-dust thanothers. The greatest good feeling appears to prevail amongstthem, and I can confidently assert that nine out of ten will, assoon as possible, return to settle permanently in SouthAustralia, rather than remain in Victoria.

FROM BENDIGO TO MELBOURNE.

BY A RETURNED SYDNEYDIGGER.

Dear ———, Weleft Bendigo on Tuesday, about 12 A.M., andarrived in Melbourne on the Friday following, about 2P.M. Previous to leaving we had to sell two cartsand horses. The mode of disposing of such articles at Bendigo israther peculiar, but answers better than any other. The cart isdriven through the diggings with a flag, or rather a substitutefor one in the shape of a handkerchief, flying in front, and thewords "For Sale" chalked in large letters on the sides and back.The same plan is pursued with respect to all other articles forsale, and answers admirably; the goods being speedily disposedof. There are several purchasers of second hand tools, &c.,but as these parties of course buy to make a profit, the modeabove described is generally resorted to by the diggers. Thepractice has even reached Melbourne, as I saw several cartsdriven about the town with the words "For Sale" on them inletters of enormous magnitude.

Having disposed of the carts we set out on our journey with lighthearts, although the day was excessively hot.

The first day, having had a late start, we only went as far asthe junction of the road leading to Forest Creek.

You will recollect that we went up by the Kilmore road, which atthat time, though by far the longest, was the best for drays. Theroad by which we came down, usually called the "Kyneton Road," ismuch shorter, and at all times better for foot-men, inconsequenceof the great number of accommodation houses which are situatedalong the whole road at about the rate of one to every two orthree miles. The roads at this time of the year are in splendidcondition, and, as there is abundance of grass and water, nothingcan be more agreeable than travelling on them. There is no lackof public-houses, moreover, where the weary traveller may solacehimself with a cheering cup, but for which he has to pay atrather a high rate: spirits and beer at nearly all the inns are1s. 6d. per glass. Provisions, too, are far dearer than at thediggings. The four-pound loaf is 5s., and beef is 9d. per poundat the Bush Inn, which is only thirty-six miles fromMelbourne.

On Wednesday morning we were up by day-break and on the road. Wewalked ten miles to the Robert Burns hotel, where we hadbreakfast, which, considering the price of things, was not verydear, being only 3s. Here we got a lift in a cart for £1 each asfar as the Broad Meadow, which is within ten miles of Melbourne.The number of people whom we met on their way to the diggings wasastonishing. Most of them were evidently new arrivals; and beingunaccustomed to carrying heavy swags, many of them appeared to bequite worn out. More than one-half of those whom we met woreveils, and at a distance might easily be mistaken for women.

Women, too, there were in abundance bound for the gold-fields,many of them with large families, seemingly bent upon making thediggings their home for some time. The country through which wepassed was most beautiful, being luxuriantly grassed and butlightly timbered. In fact it might be described as a successionof undulating plains, there being scarcely trees enough torelieve the scenery from the charge of monotony. We had dinner atthe Columbine where there is a township, which seems rapidlyprogressing; wooden houses, some of them very elegant, springingup in all directions. The Columbine was running at the time witha considerable body of water, which was as clear as crystal. Inthe middle of summer, however, the country is completely parchedup, and there is not a drop of water to be had on the road formiles. The government has at length bestirred itself with regardto the road, and there are now numerous parties at work metallingit. When approaching Kyneton, we met six men drawing a ladencart, arranged in the form of a wedge, one leading, two in themiddle and three behind. This is no uncommon thing to see on thediggings, but it is rather unusual on the roads from Melbourne.They appeared to be a party of recent arrivals from England. Wepassed through Kyneton, which, since the diggings have commenced,has been making considerable progress, being the principal townbetween them and Melbourne. About three miles from Kyneton isCarlsruhe, 5 there is a large police-station. As we were passingthere was a sergeant ilfing about a dozen recruits, most of themboys, in every variety of costume, from the blue shirt to almostno shirt at all; but in this respect they are only like the restof the Victorian police. It was impossible to refrain fromlaughter while watching their movements, which disrespect on ourpart caused the sergeant to look austere, although he saidnothing. After going about three miles beyond Carlsruhe we campedfor the night.

"Thursday morning we were on the road as soon as we hadbreakfast, and after travelling about three miles came to theentrance of the "Black Forest," of evil memory. During the morelawless days of the Victorian gold diggings, it was the customfor travellers to wait on the verge of the forest until asufficient number were collected to insure their passage throughit in safety. Latterly, however, the place, although offeringuncommon opportunities of concealment to the bushranger, hasbecome so quiet, that no more fear is entertained by those whopass through it than on any other portion of the road. The BlackForest well deserves its name, for it is as gloomy a place as theimagination could well conceive. It is situated at the foot ofMount Macedon, and extends for several miles in all directions.The timber, chiefly stringy-bark, is very large—indeed byfar the largest that I saw in Port Phillip. The stringy-bark ofitself is a dismal looking tree, and is here more so, from havingits trunk blackened with fire. The underwood, too, is very thick,which adds to the gloom of the forest. Some years ago there weregreat fires in several parts of Victoria, which occasioned animmense destruction of life and property. The day on which thefire took place, or in which it was at the highest pitch, isstill known in Port Phillip by the name of Black Thursday. Tracesof this fire are to be seen in several other localities besidethe Black Forest. The part of the forest through which we passedwas about twelve miles across, commencing at a place calledWood's End and ending at the Bush Inn. There are now severalaccommodation houses in the forest, which were much needed.

The road through the forest was crowded with teams; and itcertainly would have been a difficult matter for any gang ofbushrangers to have committed any depredations, as they wouldhave been obliged to "stick up" hundreds of drays. One of mycompanions counted no less than seventy-five drays within thespace of a mile. It must be taken into consideration, also, thatthere were three or four other roads to the diggings, on all ofwhich the traffic was nearly as great as on that of which I amspeaking. After leaving the Bush Inn you again come into an opencountry of trap formation. The soil, though uncultivated, isevidently fertile, and would be admirably adapted to thecultivation of the vine. The most peculiar feature of the sceneis Mount Macedon, which is visible both from Melbourne and thediggings, rising almost abruptly from the surrounding country. Inconsequence of its vicinity to Mount Macedon, scarcely a daypasses on which more or less rain does not fall in the BlackForest,—a fact which was exemplified when we passed throughit. The trees in many places after leaving the forest are dyingout, and as there are no new ones springing up to replace them,it seems probable that in time a great portion of Victoria willbe quite destitute of timber. From Spring Hill, distant abouttwenty-seven miles from Melbourne, there is a splendid view overKeilor Plains, which are clothed with the most luxuriant verdure.The view extends as far as the sea coast, and on a clear day theshipping in William's Town can be distinctly seen. We camped thisnight at Jackson's Creek, where there was the greatest abundanceof feed and excellent water.

Friday morning was cold and rainy, and as we had to travelthrough an open country, we found it impossible to keep ourselveswarm. We crossed the Deep Creek, which flows between banks of agreat height, and in the winter season carries all before it. Thecountry is of granitic formation, and along the banks of thecreek highly picturesque, though tame enough everywhere else.What forcibly strikes the traveller in Victoria is the entirelyuncultivated state of the country, and the almost total want ofgardens and orchards, notwithstanding the fertility of thegreater portion of the soil. In this respect, also, the contrastbetween Melbourne and Sydney is very unfavourable to the former,the numerous gardens and shrubberies in and around Sydney givingit an infinitely superior and more delightful appearance thanMelbourne. From the Deep Creek you have a first-rate view of theshipping at William's Town, which to one coming from the interioris a more agreeable sight than could be imagined. Leaving thedrays at the Broad Meadow, we struck across the country until wecame to the old Sydney mad, which we followed until we arrived atFlemington, where we met the governor starting on a tour throughthe gold-fields. After leaving Flemington, which is about threemiles from Melbourne, if you have been the road before, you areperfectly bewildered at the change that has taken place in ashort space of time. Wooden houses and tents have arisen as itwere by the power of Aladdin's lamp, and have completely alteredthe appearance of the scene.

Now you begin also to see some of the bustle that necessarilycharacterises such a stirring place as Melbourne. You feelyourself, moreover, safer, as it were, than previously, althoughI doubt if you have any reason for so doing. However, your planis to consider every man as a rogue you may meet between Bendigoand the Flag-staff. You now begin to get fairly in the city, andafter a few minutes' walk you are in Collins Street, theprincipal street of Melbourne. Here you witness such a bustlingscene as you are altogether unprepared for, notwithstanding yourpreviously conceived opinions of the great traffic that mustexist in Melbourne. It is literally impossible to walk throughthe streets without being jostled and squeezed at every step; andif you for a moment deviate from the foot-path, you run the mostimminent risk of being knocked down by a cart or cab, whichcompletely block up the streets. Melbourne is swarmed with Jews,and being easily recognised as a gold-digger as you are walkingdown the streets, you are every half-dozen yards accosted by themsomething in the following style:—"Any gold tor sale, sir?""£3 10s. to-day for gold, mate." "I say, old fellow, have you gotany gold to sell?"—the salutation being framed according totheir different ideas of which will be most acceptable, thefamiliar or the polite style. You are so pestered with thesewasps, that you are compelled at length, in self-defence, toreturn them some saucy answer, which, being well accustomed to,they receive with the most philosophical indifference. Next youtake a stroll along the wharves, where goods of every descriptionare lying piled in immense heaps, and completely exposed to thedestructive influence of the weather. The wharves are, ifpossible, more crowded than the streets, and if not particularlyalive to your own safety, you stand every chance of taking a coldbath in the Yarra.

Here and there are groups collected around some recent arrivalsby the English vessels, who are selling off their superfluousgoods, most of which they are obliged to dispose of at a loss.But what matters this? They have reached this El Dorado, the landof their long-cherished hopes. Look now to the south side of theYarra, and there you will see a perfect city of tents. It isestimated that there are between three and four thousandindividuals living there, and there certainly cannot be less.These are all new arrivals, sojourning here for a time, untilthey resolve upon whether they shall go to some employment, orshape their course for the gold-fields. Everywhere you go in thisgolden city your olfactory senses are disagreeably assailed withalmost unbearable stenches, which must at no distant periodoccasion some frightful epidemic. The influenza is now raging inMelbourne to an unusual extent, and the great numbers of funeralsthat take place daily tell but too sadly the "common tale" ofhumanity. It needs no great wight to foretel that some terribledisasters will befal Melbourne if the people do not speedilybestir themselves to introduce a better state of socialaffairs.

To-day I was at the Victoria Gold Escort Company's office, anestablishment admirably conducted. Those holding escort receiptsmay obtain their gold or money in a few hours after the escortarrives, whereas at the government office there are the mostunnecessary and provoking delays. The name of the depositor isnot written in the receipts given by the company, but istranscribed into a book kept for that purpose, together with theamount said to be deposited. The receipt merely states that somany ounces or pounds are said to be in the bag, neither moneynor gold being counted or weighed. The bag is tied and sealed,and received thus by the depositor, the company not holdingthemselves in any way responsible for the amount. Omitting thedepositor's name in the receipt is obviously an excellent plan,and prevents a great deal of fraud.

I have been employed the greater part of the day in looking outfor a vessel. So many people are hurrying home just now that itis a matter of some difficulty, notwithstanding the number ofvessels laid on for Sydney, to obtain a passage for that port. Ihave at length obtained one in the Wild Irish Girl, thepassage-money being £9, which is an advance of 3 on what thecabin passages were formerly.

With these extracts, which afford so perfect an idea of thelife and the land of the diggers, we conclude our attempt todescribe the Australian Gold Regions. New creeks, rivers, andmountains are daily announced as the sites of inexhaustibletreasures, the last being generally for a time considered therichest. The Ovens, near the River Murray, is now exciting a gooddeal of attention in New South Wales, and has caused thedesertion of localities previously in great repute,* while thediscovery of two enormous nuggets at Ballarat has caused a vastre-emigration to the first discovered Victorian gold-field.

[* Mr. Stutchbury, the government geologist,found in the Cudgegong River small specimens of ruby, sapphireand chrysolite, topaz, hyacinth, amethyst, and cairngorm, andexpects to find emerald and aqua marine.]

The South Australians have not yet been successful indiscovering a gold-field worth working. At Echunga 1,208 licenceswere in the first instance issued, but of these only 166 wererenewed once, only 64 twice, and 7 three times. At the lastaccounts 180 persons were at work.

The following is a list of the outfit required for four golddiggers. The cradles sold in England are for the most part toys,not strong enough to bear rough work. English carts, forges, andpumps, unless made from colonial directions, are not worth theirfreight for real use:—

To this must be added the cost of a tent; and at any of theVictoria diggings, a cart, a team, and provisions for sixmonths.

While New South Wales and Victoria were becoming wealthy andpopulous on the strength of their gold-fields, the able-bodiedpopulation of South Australia proceeded en masse to theneighbouring colonies. Two measures wisely and promptly adoptedby the local government and the Legislative Council saved SouthAustralia. By an act, rapidly passed through the legislature, inJanuary, 1852, gold of 22 carats was made a legal tender at thebanks at the rate of £3 11s. per ounce against an issue ofbank-notes. It thus became the interest of South Australiandiggers to bring the produce of their labour to their own colony,there to employ it in purchasing land at government sales, inpaying duties on imports, and in other modes in which it wasworth more money than in the gold provinces. South Australia wasthe first province to strike gold tokens, which passed there fortwenty shillings, and in England are worth about twenty-threeshillings.

At the same time that the Bullion Act was passed, the overlandroute to Mount Alexander was opened, and a government escort wasestablished.

The system prevalent in South Australia of selling land insmall lots in quantities always in advance of demand, afforded afurther inducement to the return of gold-diggers to settle onsmall farms. The results have been most satisfactory; a regularexport trade in agricultural produce has been established betweenPort Adelaide and the gold colonies.

The Legislature of New South Wales have passed a Gold MiningAct, of which the following are the most importantclauses:—

Clauses 2, 5, and 8, withhold the ordinary privileges ofmining from any persons who are not British subjects, except onpayment of double fees or royalties. Clause 2 gives power to theexecutive to grant leases or licences for gold mining, in regardto auriferous tracts, for twenty-one years; and clause 10authorises the demand of a fee, not exceeding £25, from anyapplicant for quartz vein or auriferous tracts, which is to bereturned if his application is not granted. Clause 3 gives powerto suspend pastoral leases or licences, in so far as may benecessary to mining operations, upon the runs to which theseleases or licences pertain, and to make compensation for suchsuspension according to a previously established rule. Clause 4.No sort of occupation may be carried on within any auriferoustract of crown lands without licence except the pastoral andagricultural. Women not mining, and children under fourteen yearsof age, are exempt from this rule. Clause 11. Persons employed inmaking tunnels or drains are to be permitted, on condition thatthey give security that they will pay the due royalty upon anygold they may accidentally find in the course of their work.Clause 9 allows a half-licence to be taken after the fifteenthday of any month, the applicant not having been guilty ofanything during the previous half month to furnish a sufficientground of objection.

An idea of the financial importance of the gold exports may begathered from figures:

NEW SOUTHWALES.

VICTORIA.

COMPARATIVE PRICES AT MELBOURNE, IN

[* Flour is usually sold in Melbourne by the tonof 2,000 lbs., instead of 2,240 lbs., as in the United Kingdom.If reckoned by the ton of 2,000 lbs., the price is respectively£15 and £22 10s.]

The Melbourne Argus of January 3 estimates the numberof diggers at the Victoria Mines at 100,000, earning on anaverage an ounce per man per week.

The forebodings of the pastoral proprietors, who saw in thegold discoveries the desertion of all their labourers and thedestruction of their flocks, have not been realised. A very largeper centage of the armies of emigrants who are daily landing onthe shores of Australia either find themselves prevented fromtaking to the pursuit which led them to emigrate, by the expenseand toil of the journey to the interior; or, after having triedgold-digging, are compelled to abandon labour harder than theycan endure. These disappointed ones fall back upon the stapleemployments of the colony, and either turn farmers or acceptsituations as gardeners, shepherds, agricultural labourers,&c.

We have every reason to believe that while the great prizes ofthe gold-fields are suffered to attract a steady stream ofself-supporting emigration, the overplus, unfit for such alaborious occupation, will be sufficient to maintain the flocksof sheep and herds of cattle which have hitherto supplied in wooland tallow the principal exports of the gold colonies.

The first effect of gold mining has been to give a value, inthe shape of beef and mutton, to sheep and cattle, which hadpreviously been only worth money to shear or boil down. Anotherresult will be the establishment of towns and villages,surrounded by agricultural farms, in districts which, under thepastoral system, seemed condemned to perpetual barrenness andsolitude. The question of opening the navigation of the Murray,by clearing away shoals, rocks, and snags, will perhaps besuccessfully solved by the gold-diggings at Albury.

If these anticipations be realised, gold will prove a mostvaluable agent in stimulating colonisation. Every gold-diggergives occupation to at least three other men, in feeding him,clothing him, and conveying backwards and forwards what heproduces, and what he consumes. The profits on meat lately givento the dogs supports many a butcher in a gold district, and landonly used by sheep becomes worth the toil of tillage.

It is a most favourable feature of the Australian gold-fields,that they are within reach of settled communities, surrounded bylive beef and mutton, and by land of the best quality, which onlyneeds the plough and the hoe, roughly handled, to produce greatcrops of wheat, maize, and every green vegetable. These landswill not remain untilled.

The Australian gold-digger, unlike the Californian, has nosooner filled his pockets than he sets to work to settle his wifecomfortably in a neat cottage with a garden, reserving thechances of another visit to the mines if he should find morecapital needful.

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CHAPTER XXXII.

CONCLUSION.

In the preceding pages we have followedstep by step the series of social, commercial, and politicalevents which have established three free and prosperous colonieson the island-continent of Australia; the progress of thepastoral interest from the eight merinos imported by M'Arthur tothe fourteen millions of fine-woolled sheep which now graze overAustralian pastures; the progress of emigration, from the fewscore officials, soldiers, turnkeys, and rum-traders, who, for aquarter of a century, formed the only free additions to thenative-born population, to the present time, when armies ofemigrants, counted in tens of thousands, arrive from allcountries of Europe and America; the progress of the value ofland from the period when a bribe of rations and the aid ofgovernment-fed slave labour was needed to induce a colonist toaccept a farm, to the present year, when land is sold by the footat the rate of thousands of pounds per acre; the progress oftrade from the mere barter of the year 1800, with importsdependent on the expenditure of the home government, to the year1853, when millions of Australian exports in gold and wool createa new and profitable export for almost every branch of Britishmanufactures, and afford employment for an amount of tonnagewhich British shipowners find themselves unable to supply; theprogress of political institutions, from the irresponsibledespotism of the first governor and gaoler, to the concession ofthe amplest powers of self-government and taxation, with fullcontrol of land and land funds, customs and casual revenues, tothe three Legislative Assemblies of New South Wales, Victoria,and South Australia, by the Conservative Duke of Newcastle.

These rapid strides of the English-speaking Australiancolonists, in which the acquisition of political rights has keptpace with the enlargement of their material resources, we haveendeavoured to trace with a firm and impartial pen. We concludeour task at a moment when the brightest prospects seem opening tothe three colonies; when, released from the baneful control oftransmarine bureaucracy, permitted to exercise with the mostperfect freedom those rights of self-government which are soessential to the full development of the powers of an Englishrace; relieved from the contamination of old world felonry; withall the aid that can be derived from the capital, the credit, thecolonisation, and "cheap defence" of the parent state, Australiaseems starting on the race of empire with greater advantages thanhave ever fallen to the offshoot of a great nation in ancient ormodern times. Free institutions, unrestricted commerce, amplerevenues, without debt, and without the taxes which a defensiveforce, naval or military, would require nothing can retard theprogress of our Australian fellow-countrymen, if they prepare ingood time to counteract the money-worshipping, utilitarianspirit, and low tone of commercial morality which are the bane ofnew communities.

An antidote is to be found in the teaching of zealousChristian ministers, and in the study of those treasures of theliterature, art, and science of the old world, which no modernmaterial El Dorado can excel.

The regulation of the future colonisation of the Australianswill rest with the colonists themselves. If they are wise, theywill give no encouragement to that system of pauper emigrationwhich the Government Commissioners have long patronised. Nopopulation can be more difficult to govern than a mob ofuneducated peasantry, suddenly transferred from indigence to thewages of a gold country. It is the interest alike of the coloniesand of this country, that the influence of rude men who crowd tothe gold diggings should be counterbalanced by a stream ofindustrious, educated, intelligent families, the yeomen andfrugal mechanics, with large families, who swell the ranks of"Family Colonisation," men who would be prepared to carry oncolonisation by cultivation, and reproduce on the fertile landsof Australia the farms and villages of England. We commend to theattention of the Colonial Legislatures, the fathers of thismany-childrened class, who are led to emigration, not bydiscontent, not by vain Utopian longings, but by

"The pride to rear an independent shed,
And give the lips they love unborrow'd bread,
To skirt their home with harvests widely sown,
And call the blooming landscape all their own,
Their children's heritage in prospect long."

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APPENDIX.

The Legislative Council of New SouthWales, on the recommendation of the Committee (whose report wegive below, I.), have passed an Act (which we also give, II.),rendering it lawful to make contracts with emigrants in this orany other country,—to bind them to work for wages settledin Europe—to repay the cost of their passage toAustralia—to compel emigrants sent out by the EmigrationCommissioners to repay part of their passage money—toapprentice boys and girls above the age of thirteen for fouryears, at £5 for two years, and £10 for two years, withboard.

The principle that emigrants should repay part or all the costof their passage is sound, but whether the mode proposed by theParliament of New South Wales will work, we may be permitted todoubt.

Attempts to make labourers or mechanics work for less thancurrent wages have always failed in this country, and so havecontracts binding men to serve a particular master in a skilledtrade.

If the Council had made the passage-money paid by the colony adebt due by the emigrant, that would have been reasonable; but tobind a man in Europe to serve a master he has never seen, in anemployment he has never practised, for wages to be fixed by themaster, is to sow the seeds of perpetual litigation anddiscontent, especially as the magistrates who will have to decidethe disputes are inevitably employers of labour; and no man is asafe judge in his own cause.

In like manner the theory of apprenticing minors isreasonable, but this legislation is one-sided.

The wages will often be inadequate, and no provision is madein the Act for the inspection or protection of those apprenticedorphans. There may be Mrs. Sloanes in Australia as well as inEngland.

We feel for the hard position of the great stockowners andother employers of labour in the difficult position in which theyare placed by the labour attraction of the gold-fields, but weventure to hint that the only law which will bind the labourer tohis employer under such circ*mstances, is the law of kindness."One man can lead the ox to water; a hundred cannot make himdrink."

I.

Second Report of the Select Committee ofthe Legislative Council, appointed on the 10th June, 1852, "toinquire into and report upon the most speedy and effectual meansof introducing into the colony a supply of labour adequate to itsrequirements."

THE number of applications which are now pouring-inupon the Emigration Commissioners for passages to this colony,under the existing regulations, is so great, that it is evidentthe territorial revenue as at present administered can no longerof itself sustain the charge, nor can it supply an immigration atall commensurate with the large and growing requirements of thecolony. The fact, too, that the immigrants who are thusintroduced at the public expense, are under no obligation toembark on their arrival in the ordinary industrial pursuits ofthe colony, which was the primary object of their introduction,and is the sole ground upon which any expenditure of the publicrevenue for such an object can be justified, renders it both justand necessary that they should not only be compelled, as apreliminary measure, to enter into such an engagement in Englandfor a term of not less than two years, but that they should alsobind themselves to repay, by equal yearly instalments, a certainsum towards their passage-money, which your committee have fixedat 13. It is considered that this amount ought to be repaid byall statute adults, that is, by all persons above fourteen yearsof age, because they can earn wages which will enable them torepay without difficulty; but no contributions will be requiredfrom the mothers of families, and children under that age. Whilstit is obviously but just that the immigrant who is likely tobenefit so largely by being brought to this colony at the publicexpense, should be compelled to refund this stipulated amount tothe public treasury on the one hand, it has been deemed equitableon the other hand, first, that he should be allowed on hisarrival to repay (if he can) his passage-money; second, that fora certain short period after his arrival here (to be fixed bypublic regulation) he shall be permitted to choose his employer,so as to enable him to obtain the current rate of wages; andthird, that after serving an employer for one year he shall be atliberty to pay any balance of passage-money 'due by him, ongiving three months' notice to his employer, and so terminate hisagreement. To carry out the details of this new system, it willbe necessary that the immigrant, in England, should indenthimself in England to the immigration agent in the colony, andthat this officer again should have power to bind him byindenture here to any competent employer, so as to carry theseregulations into effect. For this purpose a local enactment willbe necessary, which your committee will prepare.

Your committee further recommend, that the ImmigrationCommissioners should be instructed, as a general rule in thedistribution of passages by emigrant vessels, to give apreference to emigrants hired under indenture in England bycolonial employers, or for them by their English agents, so longas they belong to any enumerated classes now eligible for bountyemigration; but with an understanding, nevertheless, that theyare to be subject to the repayment out of their wages, of theamount of passage-money, viz., 13, thus fixed by yourcommittee.

As some misunderstanding seems to exist in England as to thenecessity that such indenture should be stamped, it may be aswell here to observe, that, by the 9th Geo. IV., cap. 83, allindentures of this sort are expressly exempt from the stamp duty;and to make this exception the more certain, a clause to the likeeffect will be introduced into the legislative measure which willbe required to carry out these recommendations.

Your committee having-learnt by advices lately received fromEngland, that there are large numbers of boys and girls of goodcharacter, of thirteen years of age and upwards, in the orphanschools and other eleemosynary establishments of the UnitedKingdom, towards whose emigration to this colony the guardiansand other managers of such establishments would contributelargely out of parochial or other funds, with a view as well tothe relief of such establishments from the cost of theirmaintenance, as to the advantageous settlement of the apprenticesthemselves in the colony, recommend that whenever any such boysor girls are under indenture to the immigration agent of thiscolony for the time being, to serve an apprenticeship of fouryears, the two first for wages at the rate of 5 a year, and thetwo last for wages at the rate of 10 a year, a contribution of ata rate not exceeding 8 for statute adults, should be made towardstheir passage-money from the territorial revenue, and be repaidby the employer at the time the apprentice is indented to him bythe immigration agent, provided the remainder of theirpassage-money and their outfit be contributed by the guardians orother managers of any such institutions at home.

The emigrants of the enumerated classes, and to whom yourcommittee recommend that passages should be furnished under theforegoing stipulations as to indenture and repayment, are asfollows:

No payment will be required for the wives of personsof the above classes, or any of their children who may be underthe age of 14 years; all children above that age must be paid foras statute adults.

Your committee, in thus recommending a complete alteration in thepresent bounty system, feel that a new era has arisen in thewhole of the colonies forming the Australian group, which rendersthem the most eligible of all the countries in the globe as afield for immigration, not from the United Kingdom alone but fromall Europe; that the necessity, therefore, which has hithertoexisted to hold out extraordinary inducements to intendingemigrants to select these colonies as a future home, has entirelyceased; that all future immigration therefore should, if its costbe not in the first instance defrayed out of the funds of theimmigrants themselves, be at least for the most part of aself-supporting character, so as to relieve that branch of ourpublic revenue which has hitherto been almost exclusively devotedto this object from this absorbing-charge; and to enable ithereafter to be devoted to those internal improvements which thecontinued progress of population and civilisation will renderindispensable: and that in order to carry out these views, thepresent system of bounty emigration from the mother countryshould be abolished, and all future immigration, to this colonyat least, be established on that self-supporting, or nearlyself-supporting, basis which is indicated in this Report, unlesssome unforeseen necessity for a deviation from it shouldarise.

As to the following resolutions referred to this committee on themotion of Mr. Donaldson—

1st.—That this House considers that a sum of not less than10,000 out of the amount now in course of transmission to Englandby the Governor-General, might with great propriety be applied infurtherance of the object of the Family Colonisation LoanSociety, in such manner as might be arranged between theSecretary of State for the Colonies and the London Committee ofthis Society, whether by way of guarantee funds, or by actualappropriation, as might be decided on.

2nd.—This House being of opinion that the FamilyColonisation Loan Society, established by Mrs. Chisholm, andrepresented in London by a Committee consisting of the RightHonourable the Earl of Shaftesbury and others, forms a valuableadjunct to the other means employed for the promotion ofemigration of a good character to the Australian colonies.

Your committee propose that the provisions of the intended localenactment shall be made applicable to emigrants brought out underthe regulations of this society.

Your committee have no hesitation in recommending theseresolutions for the adoption of your honourable House, and thatthe sum of £10,000 out of the amount now in course oftransmission to England for emigration purposes, be held at thedisposal of the London Committee of the Colonisation LoanSociety, presided over by the Earl of Shaftesbury.

With regard to the report from the immigration agent for 1851,and the despatches from the Secretary of State, referred to yourcommittee, they are at present only enabled to observe that anyrecommendations or regulations suggested in them which may be atvariance with any of the suggestions of your committee, whichrefer to the suppression of the present bounty system and thesubstitution in its stead of the more largely self-supportingsystem recommended in this report, should give way to the viewsof your committee on this most important subject.

W. C. WENTWORTH,Chairman.

Legislative Council Chambers,
Sydney, 1st October, 1852.

{Page 399}

II.

An Act to regulate the Indenting ofAssisted Immigrants and others in the United Kingdom andelsewhere, and their employment in this Colony for a certain timeafter their arrival therein.

Whereas, the present system ofbounty emigration has become highly burdensome and impolitic, byreason that the emigrants sent out under that system, at the costof the territorial revenue, are not required, on their arrival inthis colony, to take service, or to repay any portion of thepublic money thus expended in providing-them with a passage tothis colony, and it is expedient that the said system should bereformed: Be it therefore enacted, by His Excellency the Governorof New South Wales, with the advice and consent of theLegislative Council of the said Colony, as follows:

I.—Every male of or above the age of fourteen years, andevery unmarried female of or above that age, who shall hereafterbe provided with a passage as an emigrant to this colony by HerMajesty's Emigration Commissioners, and who shall not pay thefull cost of his or her passage, previously to his or herembarkation to this colony, or the embarkation of the wife orfamily of any such male emigrant, shall, before obtaining anauthority for such embarkation, sign an indenture in the form orto the effect set forth in the Schedule A to this Act annexed:Provided that no emigrant of the class of country mechanics shallbe required or bound to pay more than the sum of fifteen poundssterling for his passage, inclusive of any deposit made by him inthe United Kingdom under any regulation then in force, and thatno other class of emigrants shall be required or bound to paymore than the sum of thirteen pounds sterling for his or her saidpassage, inclusive as aforesaid.

II.—If any immigrant so under indenture shall, on his orher arrival in the colony, or within any period thereafter to beprescribed by the immigration agent in this colony for the timebeing, not exceeding fourteen days, pay to such immigrationagent, on behalf of the government, the full sum set against hisor her name in the said indenture, every such indenture shallthereupon be cancelled, so far as it relates to every immigrantpaying such sum.

III.—The immigration agent for the time being, or anyperson deputed by him for that purpose, with the approbation ofthe governor, shall have authority, with or without the consentof any such immigrant, not so paying his or her passage-money, orany balance due therefor, to make and sign in his or her name,and on his or her behalf, a contract of service with anycompetent employer for the term of two years, to be computed fromthe day on which such contract is made and signed, by anagreement in the form or to the effect in Schedule B to this Actappended; and every such employer shall thereupon pay into thehands of such immigration agent, for the use of the government ofthe colony, half the amount then due to the government for thepassage of every immigrant so bound; and such employer shallundertake to pay the balance of the passage-money required by theregulations from such immigrant, at or before the expiration oftwelve calendar months from the making of such contract; suchemployer being hereby authorised to deduct such payments, so tobe made, on behalf of any such immigrant, from his or her wages,as such wages accrue or become due, by eight equal deductionsfrom the same, during such term of two years.

IV.—Every immigrant serving an employer under any suchcontract, may, at any time after the expiration of the firstyear, cancel the same, by giving such employer three calendarmonths' notice thereof, in writing, and by paying such employerthe amount of money then remaining due for his or herpassage.

V.—It shall be lawful for any artificer, domestic servant,handicraftsman, mechanic, gardener, servant in husbandry,shepherd, herdsman, wool-sorter, coachman, groom, vine-dresser,or other labourer, and also for any male or female, being abovethe age of eighteen years, and for all and every other classesand class of labourers, workmen, tradesmen, or artificers,whether they be subjects of Her Majesty or of any foreigncountry, by indenture or other agreement duly executed, tocontract with any person or persons about to proceed to oractually resident in this colony, or with the agent or agents ofany such person or persons in the said colony, for any period notexceeding the full term of five years.

VI.—Every emigrant already under indenture, or hereaftercontracting, by indenture or otherwise, to serve any employer inthis colony, shall be liable to repay to such employer, any sumwhich he or she may contract with such employer, or with anyagent of such employer, to repay, for whatever object advanced,and whether his or her passage were paid for in the firstinstance by such employer, or were paid by the said EmigrationCommissioners out of the public funds of this colony, and repaidor secured by such employer to such commissioners, or to theimmigration agent of the said colony.

VII.—It shall be competent to Her Majesty's EmigrationCommissioners by a written instrument, in the form or to theeffect in Schedule C to this Act appended, to engage on behalf ofthe immigration agent of this colony for the time being, any boyor girl of and above the age of thirteen years, from any orphanor other public school or eleemosynary establishment in any partof the United Kingdom, or from any parishes or boards ofguardians, or parents or guardians willing to contribute at therate fixed by the regulations towards their passage to thiscolony; and the said commissioners shall be at liberty, if theyshall see fit, to contribute the remainder of their passage-moneynot exceeding for any such boy or girl the sum of eight poundssterling out of any fund belonging to the said colony at theirdisposal.

VIII.—Such boys and girls, on their arrival in the colony,may be bound by the immigration agent for the time being, byindenture, in the form or to the effect in Schedule D to this Actappended, to proper employers, who, upon the execution of anysuch indenture, shall pay the balance of the passage-money due tothe government for such boys and girls; and shall enter into theagreement for their due maintenance and support, and also for thepayment to them of wages at the rates and times in the saidindenture mentioned.

IX.—If any owner or master of any ship or vessel shallcontract, in writing, with any emigrant, either from the UnitedKingdom, or from any foreign country, for his or her conveyanceto any port in this colony, and any such emigrant shall engageeither to pay any portion of his or her passage-money, notexceeding ten pounds, within six days after his or her arrival,or to execute within the same period, with the concurrence of theemigration agent of this colony for the time being, or hisdeputy, an indenture of service for two years, to some competentemployer, at such rates of wages as may be agreed upon betweenthe parties, or as the immigration agent may deem reasonable, andby which the employer engages, upon the execution thereof, to payor secure the amount of passage-money remaining due from suchemigrant; then every such emigrant shall be held bound to the duefulfilment of such contract, in the same manner, and subject tothe same penalties and punishment for non-performance, as if heor she had arrived under indenture to Her Majesty's EmigrationCommissioners in England, under the provisions of this Act.

X.—The provisions of this Act shall extend and apply, asfar as the same can be applied, to all contracts and indentures,entered into in any part of the United Kingdom of Great Britainand Ireland, by any emigrant brought out to this colony at theexpense of any society organised or established in any partthereof for the promotion or encouragement of emigration to thiscolony, and to all contracts or indentures of service orapprenticeship which may be entered into by any emigrant orapprentice after their arrival here, with a view of repaying orsecuring to any such society the whole or any part of thepassage-money of any such emigrant or apprentice.

XI.—All such indentures, or other written agreements as arehereinbefore mentioned, shall, in all courts, and before alljustices within the said colony, be deemed to be valid, inwhatever country they may be executed, and shall be of the likeforce and effect within this colony, as if they had actually beenmade and executed by the respective parties thereto within thesame; and every such contract of service or indenture ofapprenticeship as hereinbefore mentioned, executed by theimmigration agent for the time being of the said colony, whetherexecuted or not by the party to be bound thereby, or with orwithout his or her consent, shall be as valid and binding on suchparty as if the same had been executed by such party, or by anyparent, guardian, or other lawful authority by or on his or herbehalf, and shall subject such party for any breach thereof, orof any condition or contract therein contained, upon summaryconviction by or before two or more justices, to the like tines,penalties, and punishments as are now or may be hereafterprovided by law for any wilful violation of the provisions of anyordinary contract of service or indenture of apprenticeship, orfor any misdemeanor, miscarriage, misconduct, or ill-behaviour ofany master, servant, or apprentice within the said colony; and ifany such party, whether he or she be of the full age oftwenty-one years or not, shall abscond from the service of anyemployer to whom he or she shall be under such contract ofservice or indenture of apprenticeship, as hereinbeforementioned, without lawful excuse, shall be liable for a firstoffence to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, at thediscretion of the convicting justices, for a period not exceedingthree calendar months; and for every subsequent offence toimprisonment with or without hard labour, for any period notexceeding six calendar months; and the periods of such abscondingand imprisonment shall not be deemed to be a part of the term ofservice mentioned in any such contract of service or indenture asaforesaid.

XII.—Any person who shall employ, retain, harbour, orconceal any immigrant of any of the classes or descriptionsmentioned in this Act, during the time such immigrant shall beunder contract to serve any employer in this colony, who shallhave paid, or come under engagement to pay, the whole or anyportion of the passage-money of any such immigrant, shall beliable to pay such employer at the rate of five shillings a dayfor every day such immigrant may be so employed, retained,harboured, or concealed by any such person, up to the full amountor sum not exceeding fifteen pounds, which such employer may haveso paid, or came under engagement to pay; and every complaint forso employing, retaining, harbouring, or concealing any suchimmigrant, may be heard and determined in a summary way beforeany two justices of the peace, who, in addition to any damagesthey may award, by virtue of this Act, may give the complainantfull costs: Provided always, that if upon the hearing-of anyinformation under this section any person so employing,retaining, harbouring, or concealing any such immigrant, shallprove to the satisfaction of the justices hearing the same, thathe has not been guilty of undue negligence, such informationshall be thereupon dismissed.

XIII.—Every indenture or other written agreement officiallytransmitted to the immigration agent of this colony, by HerMajesty's Commissioners for Emigration in England, shall beconclusive evidence in any court or before any justices, of thesignature or consent of the several parties thereto, whose namesare therein or thereunder written or mentioned, and shall requireno further proof of its authenticity than its production in anysuch court, or before any justices, by or on behalf of suchimmigration agent, or by or on behalf of the employer of any suchimmigrant; and any certificate under the hand of the saidimmigration agent that any such immigrant came out as such in anyvessel bringing out assisted immigrants, shall be receivable inany court, or before any justices, and shall be conclusive as tothe identity of such immigrant, and as to all the facts thereincertified to be true.

SCHEDULES REFERRED TO.

A.

We whose names are severally hereunder written, inconsideration of a passage being provided for us and (as the casemay be) our respective wives and families by Her Majesty'sEmigration Commissioners, at the expense of the colony of NewSouth Wales, severally bind ourselves either to repay to theimmigration agent of that colony, for the time being, the sumsset against our respective names, in sterling British money,within fourteen days after our arrival in the said colony, or totake service with any employer 'in the said colony with whom wemay agree during that period and who' shall be approved of by thesaid immigration agent, and shall forthwith pay to him one-halfof the sums set against our names respectively, and shall bindhimself to pay the residue thereof to the immigration agent forthe time being in twelve calendar months, or within any shorterperiod of the date of such employment. And in default of ourmaking any such agreement with the consent of the saidimmigration agent, and in the form prescribed by law or theregulations of the government, we hereby agree and bind ourselvesto take such other employment and to accept such wages as thesaid immigration agent may procure for us respectively; and wehereby, respectively, give him full power and authority, with orwithout our future consent, to sign on our behalf a contract ofservice with any employer whom he may select on our behalf, forthe term of two years, to be computed from the date of suchcontract, it always being understood that any such employer shallbe at liberty to deduct from any wages that accrue or become dueto us respectively during the said term, at the rate ofone-eighth of the sums so set against our respective names ineach three calendar months of such service; and further, that atany time after the expiration of the first year thereof, we shallbe respectively at liberty, on giving our respective employersthree calendar months' previous notice, to put an end to suchcontract and service by paying up the balance of the said sumsthen due by us for our passage."

Witness

B.

No.

185.

Memorandum of Agreement made this day between A. B., Esq., theimmigration agent of this colony for the time being of the firstpart, C. D., a free immigrant, per ship,of the second part, and E. F., of,the third part. The said C. D. engages to serve the said E. F. asa and otherwiseto make generally useful for the term of two years, to be computed fromthe date hereof; and also to obey all the said E. F.'s or his orher overseer's or authorised agent's lawful and reasonablecommands during that period; in consideration of which servicesthe said E. F. doth hereby agree to pay the said C. D. wages, atthe rate of pounds shillings(£ ) per annum,payable quarterly, to provide him (or her) with the understatedrations weekly, and to defray the expense of his (or her)conveyance to the place at which he (or she) is to be employed,it being always understood that the said E. F. is to be atliberty to deduct from any wages that may accrue or become due tothe said C. D., by eight equal quarterly deductions, the sum of £ being the full sum due by the saidC. D. to the government of this colony for his or her passagethereto.

WEEKLYRATION:—

And the said E. F. hereby agrees to pay to the saidimmigration agent immediately upon the execution of thismemorandum the sum of £ being one-half of the amount ofpassage-money due by the said C. D. to the said government, andto pay the residue thereof to the said A. B. or to such otherperson as may then be the immigration agent for the time being,at the end of one year from the date hereof.

C.

We the undersigned or undernamed parties severallyagree and bind ourselves, with the consent of all or any personsnow in authority over us, to serve any employers to whom we maybe respectively bound by the immigration agent for the time beingof the colony of New South Wales, as apprentices, for the term orperiod of four years, to be computed from the date of ourapprenticeship in the said colony, for such wages orremuneration, after payment by such employers of the sums due forour passages to the said colony, as to the said Immigration Agentmay seem meet; and we do hereby authorise and empower him, or hisdeputy duly appointed with the approval of the government of thesaid colony, to bind us out as such apprentices, immediately uponor at any time after our arrival in the said colony.

Witness

D.

Indenture of Apprenticeship made thisday ofA.D. between A. B.,immigration agent for the colony of New South Wales, or C. D, hisdeputy (as the case may be), of the first part, E. F., animmigrant (male or female as the case may be) per ship, being of the age ofyears, of the second part, and G. H., of,of the third part. The said A. B. (or C. D.) doth hereby bind thesaid E. F. to the said G. H. as an apprentice in the trade orcalling of (here describe particular occupation), andotherwise to make (himself or herself as the case may be)generally useful for the term of four years, and also to obey allthe said G. His lawful and reasonable commands, or those of(his or her) authorised agent, during that period; inconsideration of which services the said G. H. hereby agrees topay the said party of the second part wages quarterly, at therate of five pounds per year for the first two years, and at therate of ten pounds per year for the residue of the said term, andto teach or cause (him or her, as the case may be) to betaught such trade or calling during the said term; and to provide(him or her, as the case may be) with lodging, and eitherwith board, or a weekly ration (at the option of the said G. H.)consisting of

In witness whereof the said A. B., as such immigrantagent as aforesaid, or the said C. D. (as deputy of suchimmigration agent), for and on behalf of himself, and the said E.F., and also the said G. H., have affixed their names and sealsto this Indenture of Apprenticeship.

(L.S.)
(L. S.)

Witness

{Page 405}

INDEX.

ABSTRACT of the New Constitution for the Colonies
Adelaide, a lady's description of
Adventures of John Buckley
Agreements between masters and servants, as arranged by Mrs.Chisholm
Agricultural stock, prices of, in 1792
"Algerine Clauses," the, of Governor Gipps
America, transportation to
Andrew Thompson, a valuable colonist
Anecdote about letter-franking
Ant-eater, engraving of the
Anti-convict contest, the
Antipodes Islands, sketch of the
Anti-transportation League, the
Apology for Earl Grey's colonial policy
Appendix
Archdeacon Scott
Arnheim's Land
Arrest of John M'Arthur by Governor Bligh
Arrival of overlanders at Adelaide
Arrival of the first judge in New South Wales
Association of Tasmanian settlers
Association, the Squatters'
Australia from 1520 to 1770
Australia, Geographical portion of
"Australia," as named by Flinders
Australian Agricultural Company, the
Australian declaration of rights
Australian discovery, records of
"Australian" newspaper established

BALLARAT, gold-washing at
Bass' and Flinders' explorations
Bass, George, particulars regarding
Bathurst Plains, discovery of
Batman's estate at Port Phillip, how first obtained
Battle of the District Councils
Bendigo to Melbourne, diary of a journey from
Bingara diggings, the
Bishoprics in Australia
Black Forest, Bendigo to Melbourne by the
Blacks under gunyah, sketch of
Bligh, Governor, arrival of
Bligh, Governor, cowardice wrongly imputed to
Bligh's expulsion from the Governorship
Blue Mountains, Macquarie's journey across the
Blue Mountains, passage found across the
Blue Mountains, road made across the
Bonded myrmicobius, or ant-eater
Botany Bay
Bounty system, evils of emigration by the
Bourke's Church and School Act
Bourke's regulations regarding convicts
Boyd's evidence on emigration
Boyd's protective association
Braidwood diggings, the
Breweries in New South Wales
Brisbane Downs, discovery of
Brisbane's (Governor) insult to the Presbyterians
Brisbane's regulations for the sale of land
Brisbane, Sir T., recal of
Bristol, Judge Jeffries at
Bronze-winged pigeon, sketch of the
Bubble, bursting of the South Australian
Buckley's adventures at Victoria
Burra-Burra mines, profits of the
Burra Burra mines, results of the
Burra Burra mines, struggle for the purchase of the
Bursting of the South Australian Bubble

CAPTAIN STURT'S discoveries
Case cooked for the House of Commons
Cathedral, Roman Catholic, founded at Sydney
Cattle, value of, in 1796
Charles Campbell, Mr., on the price of labour
Children cradling
Chisholm, Mrs., colonial opposition to
Chisholm, Mrs., liberal treatment of, by the settlers
Chisholm, Mrs. Caroline
Church and School Act for New South Wales
Church, first brick-built
City of Adelaide, description of the
City of Melbourne, approach to the
Climate of Australia, the
Cloth, manufacture of, in New South Wales
Colonel Gawler's Government of South Australia
Colonel Torrens' Colonisation Scheme
Colonial Commissions, Mrs. Chisholm's
Colonial Constitution, abstract of the new
Colonial Lunatic Asylums, management of
Colonial opinion, defiance of, by Earl Grey
Colonial policy, Earl Grey's apology for his
Colonial revenue under Governor Gipps
Colony of Swan River founded
Commissioner Bigge's Report
Committee of the House of Lords
Committees on emigration
Company, the Australian Agricultural
Comparative prices of labour at Melbourne
Conclusion
Contest between Governor Gipps and the colonists
Contest, the anti-convict
Contradictions in labour market
Convicts employed to make roads
Convicts, first batch of
Convicts selected for promotion by Macquarie
Convicts, treatment of, by Governor Darling
Convict ships, early management of
Convict system, colonial report on the
Cook's first landing-place
Cook's voyages
Correspondence of Rev. Henry Styles
Correspondence with Parliamentary Agent
Costume of the South Australian overlanders
Counties in the Port Phillip district
Cowper, Parson, unjust treatment of
Cow Pastures, how originated
Criminals, number of, in New South Wales
Crown lands, sale of, in New South Wales
Customs' dues and taxes in New South Wales

DAMPIER'S three visits to New Holland
Darling's land regulations, effect of
Darling's treatment of the convicts
Debt, the, of South Australia
De Caen's shameful treatment of Flinders
Defaulting Registrar, the
Description of Port Jackson
"Devil and the Governor," the
Diaries of Diggers
Diary of a journey from Melbourne to Bendigo
Diggers, diaries of
Dingoe, or native dog, the
Discovery of Bathurst Plains
Discovery of land at Adelaide
Discovery of Mount Alexander
Dispensary opened in Sydney
Distilleries in New South Wales
District Councils
Dodging the Commissioner
Dog, the native, or dingoe
Do-nothings, the, in the colonies
Dover emigrant to South Australia, the
Drive to the Burra Burra, a
Dr. Kerr's hundred pound nugget
Dr. Lang and his opinions
Dr. Leichardt, portrait of
Duck-billed platypus, sketch of the
Dugong, or sea-pig, description of
Dutch, explorations of the

EARL GREY on the land question
Earl Grey's despatches to Van Diemen's Land
Earl Grey's indifference about the gold discoveries
Earl Grey's unchanging policy
Eastern Australia, tabular view of
Education in Australia, past and present state of
Edward Hargreaves, portrait of
Election of Councillors
Emigrant females, dispersion of
Emigrant, sketch of a successful
Emigrants, proposed mode of apprenticing
Emigration
Emigration, Boyd's evidence on
Emigration, committees on
Emu, engraving of the
Evidence of Mrs. Chisholm before the Legislative Council
Explorations of Wentworth and his companions
Exports and imports of New South Wales
Exports and imports of South Australia
Expulsion of Governor Bligh
Extract from Macquarie's first despatch

FAILURE of Mr. G Wakefield's South Australian Charter
Failure of the South Australian gold-fields
Fair agreements between masters and servants
Famine and mortality in 1792
Father O'Flynn expelled from the colony
Father Therry
Female emigrants, treatment of, on board government ships
Females, distribution of, in the bush, by Mrs. Chisholm
First Australian newspaper established by a convict
First Australian steamer launched
First brick church built
First gold-commissioner appointed
First Governor, immense powers given to
First Governor of New South Wales
First insurrection at Sydney
First judge, arrival of the
First official proclamation about the gold discoveries
First overland journey from Sydney to Port Phillip
First revolution in New South Wales
Fisheries of New South Wales, the
Flinders, infamous treatment of, by De Caen
Flinders, neglect of, by the British government
Flinders, Matthew, portrait and account of
Flood, the Gundagai
Foot journey to Mount Alexander
Forest Creek, gold-seeking at
Francis Scott, Mr., the colonial correspondence with
Franking letters by Mrs. Chisholm
Free grant of land to emigrants
Future evils of the land system

GENERAL Post Office established in New South Wales
Geographical description of South Australia
Gentlemen emigrants to South Australia
George Barrington a thriving farmer
George Bass, account of
Gibbon Wakefield and South Australia
Gibbon Wakefield's colonisation scheme
Gipps, Sir George, integrity of
Gipps', Sir George, acknowledgments of Mrs. Chisholm'sservices
Gipps' Land, first discovery of
Gipps' treatment of the colonists
Gold diggings at Ophir
Gold discoveries, history of the
Gold, first mention of the existence of
Gold escort, sketch of the
Gold diggers at dinner
Gold fields, failure of the South Australian
Gold fields of Victoria
Gold first found about 1840
Gold seeking at Forest Creek
Gold washing at Ballarat
Gold washing, illustration of
Governesses, sham
Government Gazette, establishment of a
Government of Sir Charles Fitzroy
Government of Sir Richard Bourke
Governor Bligh, arrest of, by the colonists
Governor Bligh, arrival of
Governor Bligh, tyrannical conduct of
Governor Bourke's administration
Governor Darling's administration
Governor Fitzroy's declaration
Governor Gawler's enthusiasm and innocence
Governor Gipps's administration
Governor Grey's administration
Governor Grose, arrival of
Governor Hindmarsh, doings of, at Adelaide
Governor Hunter, arrival of
Governor King, arrival of
Governor Macquarie, arrival of
Governor Macquarie's departure for England
Grant of land to John M'Arthur
Grass trees
Graves, gold seekers', on the Turon
Grey, Governor, administration of
Grey-headed vampire
Grievances, colonial, under Governor Gipps
Grievances unconnected with land
Grose, Governor, arrival of
Gulf of Carpentaria, why so called
Gum trees near Melbourne
Gundagai flood, the

HANGING ROCK diggings, the
Hargreaves', Mr., gold discoveries
Hawkesbury, great flood on the river
History of Port Phillip
History of the gold discoveries
History of South Australia
"Home," description of the building used by Mrs. Chisholm asa
House of Lords' committee
House of Lords' committee, Mrs. Chisholm before the
How to appoint a colonial schoolmaster
Hundredweight of gold found
Hunter, Governor, arrival of
Hyde-park barracks, convicts at

IMPORTS and exports of New South Wales
Imports and exports of South Australia
Increase of free emigrants in 1849
Inscription on Flinders' obelisk
Integrity of Governor Gipps

JAMAICA, transportation to
Jemmy Nyrang
Johnstone, Major, unrewarded by the colonists
Joseph Smith, statement of
Journey across the Blue Mountains by Governor Macquarie
Journey from Port Jackson to Port Phillip
Judge Jeffries, legend of

KANGAROO ISLAND, in theory and practice
Kapunda mine, discovery of the

LABOUR, comparative prices of, at Melbourne
Labour market, contradictions in the
Land Board, establishment of a
Land auctions
Land, free grant of, to emigrants
Land-fund system of emigration
Land, grant of, to John M'Arthur
Land jobbing, Earl Grey on
Land mania in New South Wales
Land mania, result of the
Land orders, Mr. Lowe's pamphlet on the
Land question, Mrs. Chisholm on the
Land question, the
Land system, future evils of the existing
Land tenure, laws of
Land, upset price of, raised
Lang the agitator
Lake Alexandrina, discovery of
La Pérouse, monument to
Last letter from Dr. Leichardt
Laughing jackass, engraving of the
Law in New South Wales
Lead first discovered at Adelaide
Legislative Council, answer of the, to Earl Grey
Legislative Council, first meeting of, at Sydney
Legislative Council, Mrs. Chisholm's proposition to the
Leichardt's expeditions, account of
Leipoa, description of the mounds built by the
"Letter from Sydney," Wakefield's
Life at the Summerhill diggings
Life in Adelaide before the crisis
Lodger, a pleasant, at Melbourne
Lodging-house, a novel
Lodgings in Melbourne
Lord Grey on the convict system
Lord Stanley and Mr. Cardwell
Lord Stanley's appointment of a prothonotary
Lowe's (Mr. Robert) pamphlet on the land orders
Loyalty of the Australians
Lunacy in New South Wales
Lunatic Asylum, management of a colonial
Lyre-bird, description of the

MARINE lodging-house, a
M'Arthur (Mr. Peter) on the price of land
M'Arthur's enterprise and success
Macquarie, arrival of Governor
Macquarie's colonial tours
Macquarie the first talented governor
Magistrate, a convict appointed as a
Major Johnstone, trial of, at Chelsea
Management of early convict ships
Mania, result of the land
Maneroo, discovery of
Maneroo Plains, exploration of
Manufactures in New South Wales
Megapodius, engraving of the
Melbourne, description of the city of
Melbourne first planned out by Sir R. Bourke
Melbourne, morality of the diggers in
Melbourne to Ballarat, tandem drive from
Merino ram, the
Middle District, counties south and west of the
Mines of South Australia
Mitchell (Sir Thomas) and his works
Morality in Melbourne
Mound-building birds, family of
Mount Alexander, foot journey to
Mountains in New South Wales, list of
Mount Alexander, first discovery of
Mount Disappointment
Moore (Mr.) on the land question
Monument to La Pérouse
Mrs. Chisholm's appeal for her emigrants' "Home"
Mrs. Chisholm's "Countess"
Mrs. Chisholm's departure from the colonies
Mrs. Chisholm's "Home" for female emigrants
Mrs. Chisholm's colonial commissions
Mrs. Chisholm's colonial statistics
Mrs. Chisholm's registry-office
Mudie's attack on Sir Richard Bourke
Murray, steam traffic on the river

Names of towns in New South Wales
Native dog, sketch of the
New Australian constitution, how received
Newcastle, sketch of
New constitution for New South Wales
New South Wales, early incidents in
New South Wales, early judicial system at
New South Wales, first governor of
New South Wales, first revolution in
New South Wales, geographical sketch of
New South Wales, history and origin of
New South Wales, land mania in
New South Wales, list of counties in
New South Wales, new constitution for
New South Wales, "Voluntary Statements" of the people of
Nobs and snobs in South Australia
Northern counties of New South Wales
Nugget of gold, engraving of a large

OBELISK to Flinders at Port Lincoln
Objections to "indenting" emigrants
Obnoxious Order in Council, withdrawal of the
Official report on District Councils
Ophir diggings, account of the
Opossum, sketch of an
Origin of transportation
Overland journey between Adelaide and Mount Alexander

PALMER, disgraceful cowardice of Captain
Pamphlet, Mrs. Chisholm's first
Paradox, or water-mole, description of
Parliamentary report of 1812
Particulars regarding George Bass
Parson Cowper, shameful neglect of, by government
Passage, discovery of a, across the Blue Mountains
Peel River diggings, the
Platypus, or paradox, sketch of
Policy, Earl Grey's apology for his colonial
Population of New South Wales
Port Jackson, description of
Port Jackson, why so named
Port Phillip declined sending representatives to Sydney
Port Phillip district, mountains in the
Port Phillip, history of
Port Phillip, or Victoria
Port Phillip satisfied with the new Constitution
Port Phillip statistics
Port Phillip, why so called
Portrait of Edward Hargreaves
Portrait of the first gold-commissioner
Post-office returns for New South Wales
Post-office, the, at Sofala, Turon river
Practice versus theory
Presbyterians insulted by Governor Brisbane
Press, liberty of the, conceded to New South Wales
Price of labour, Campbell on the
Price of land, Leslie Foster on
Princess Royal outcroppings
Prisoners, recollections of
Proceedings of the Australian Agricultural Company
Proceedings in South Australia
Profits of the Burra Burra mines
Promotion of convicts by Governor Macquarie
Protective Association, Mr. Benjamin Boyd's
Prothonotary, Lord Stanley's appointment of a
Public works effected by Governor Macquarie

Question, Earl Grey on the land

REAPERS, soldiers hired as
Rebels, transportation of
Reception of the new Constitution in South Australia
Recital of Henry Hale
Recollections of prisoners
Records of Australian discovery
Registrar, the defaulting
Registry-office, Mrs. Chisholm's
Religion-in Australia, state of
Religious denominations in Australia
Remonstrance of the Sydney Legislative Council
Report, Mrs. Chisholm's remarkable
Report of Commissioner Bigge
Report of Dr. Lang's committee
Report of Parliamentary committee in 1812
Report of the colonial-grievance committee
Reports of the Commons' committee on South Australia
Report on the convict system
Retirement of Sir George Gipps
Responsible government
Results of Governor Macquarie's administration
Right sort of emigrants, the
Rivers of Australia, the
Rivers of New South Wales, list of
Rivers in the Port Phillip district
River Torrens, real and alleged capabilities of the
Roads first made by convicts
Road made across the Blue Mountains
Roman Catholic cathedral founded at Sydney
Romantic doings at Adelaide
Rude speeches of Governor Macquarie
Rum-drinking in New South Wales
Rum hospital at Sydney

SATIN, or bower-bird, the
Schaffer, appointment of Mr.
Schoolmaster, singular appointment of a colonial
Schools in New South Wales
Scott, Archdeacon
Sea-pig, or dugong, description of
Sectarian zeal, singular instance of
"Self-supporting" colony, statistics of a
Sham governesses
Shelter, want of, for emigrants
Shepherd's hut, sketch of a
Ship-building in New South Wales
Shoal Bay, harbour of
"Shovelling" out emigrants to Australia
Sir Charles Fitzroy
Sir George and the Gibbet
Sir Richard Bourke's foresight
Sir Roderick Murchison's opinion regarding gold in Australia
Sir Thomas Brisbane's government
Sir Thomas Mitchell's evidence on the land question
Sketch of an opossum
Sketch of the lyre-bird
Smith's (Mr.) discovery of gold unheeded
Snobs and nobs at Adelaide
Soap and candle manufactures in New South Wales
Soil, varied character of the Australian
Soldiers hired as reapers
Songs of the Squatters
South Australia, difficulty in procuring a governor for
South Australia, history of
South Australia, proceedings in
"South Australian Gazette," establishment of the
South Australian Land Company, formation of the
Special survey system, effect of, in South Australia
"Spectator," the Sydney, to Mrs. Chisholm
Spirit currency in the colony
Squatters' Association, the
Squatters, songs of the
Squatting statistics of New South Wales
Statement of Mrs. Smith
Statistics, Mrs. Chisholm's colonial
Statistics of Port Phillip
Steam-boat first launched in Australia
Steam traffic on the Murray river
Straw-necked ibis, engraving of the
Styles' (Rev. Henry) correspondence with Mrs Chisholm
Suburbs of Melbourne
Success of Mrs. Chisholm's female emigration
Sudds and Thompson, treatment of, by Governor Darling
Sugar refining in New South Wales
Summary of Governor Gipps' administration
Summerhill diggings, life at the
Swan River, colony of, founded
Swan River Settlement, failure of the
Sydney cove, why so called
Sydney, dispensary opened in
Sydney, first insurrection at
Sydney, first meeting of the Legislative Council at
Sydney Legislative Council, remonstrance of the
Sydney, Roman Catholic cathedral founded at
Sydney, rum hospital at

TABULAR view of New South Wales
Tambaroura Creek diggings
Tandem drive from Melbourne to Ballarat
Tasmanian settlers, association of
Tasman's voyages
Taxes and customs' dues in New South Wales
Tenure, the laws of land
"The Assyrian came down," &c.
Theory versus practice
Thompson and Sudds, treatment of
Timber, import and export of, in New South Wales
"Tityre tu Patulæ," an Australian version of
Tobacco, manufacture of, in New South Wales
Tours, Macquarie's annual
Towns, names of, in New South Wales
Transportation first legalised
Transportation of rebels
Transportation, origin of
Transportation to America
Transportation to Jamaica
Trial of Major Johnstone
Turon gold-fields, the
Turon, gold-seekers' graves on the

UNIVERSITY of Sydney
Unchanging policy of Earl Grey

VAMPIRE, the grey-headed
Van Diemen's Land, Earl Grey's despatches to
Van Diemen's Land, first penal settlement founded in
Victoria, first Legislative Council assembled at
Victoria, list of counties in
Victoria, or Port Phillip
"Voluntary Statements" collected by Mrs. Chisholm

WAKEFIELD'S colonisation theories
Wakefield's "Letter from Sydney"
Water-mole, description of
Wentworth's, Lawson's, and Blaxland's explorations.
Wesleyan chapel opened at Sydney
"Wives wanted!"
Wool-growing, success of M'Arthur in
Wool projects of Mr. M'Arthur
Women, Macquarie's protest against, as colonists
Wonga wonga pigeon, description of the
Works of Sir Thomas Mitchell

YARRA Yarra, the

PETTER, DUFF, AND CO.PLAYHOUSE-YARD, BLACKFRIARS.

[END.]

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