Captain Dixon, commander of the _Skelton_, came to Van Diemen's Land in
1820. On his return to England, he published a small volume on the
capabilities of the country. He suggested the formation of a pastoral
company, with a capital divided into £100 shares, as a profitable
scheme. Causes foreign to this enquiry reduced the marketable value of
money, and awakened a speculative spirit in Great Britain: projects of
every kind found favour--a madness fraught with insolvency, fraud, and
ruin. But in the meantime the Van Diemen's Land Company had been formed.
Men of opulence and prudence, when compared with common projectors, were
concerned in its origin. They proceeded with caution, and postponed the
issue of their share list until their plans were laid. Nor did they
promise a dividend, but as the result of a considerable outlay, and at a
distant date. Yet they drew a brilliant picture of this colony, and
delineated in vivid language the riches of its soil, its relative
position, and its future destinies. "Such advantages," said they, "could
not long escape the penetration of the British public." It was, among
their objects, to relieve Great Britain from dependence on foreign wool;
to improve the quality of the Australian flocks: this object they have
contributed to accomplish.
They applied to Lord Bathurst for 500,000 acres of land. By his
countenance they obtained an act of parliament, under which the charter
of their incorporation, on the 9th November, 1825, passed the great
seal. By this charter they were authorised to employ their capital in
cultivation and sheep farming; to lend money on mortgage and to persons
engaged in fisheries; to undertake public works on security of tolls:
but they were debarred from banking and commerce.
Lord Bathurst consulted Colonel Sorell: he was favorable to the company;
but forwarned them that no large blocks of fertile land remained
unlocated. The company received a grant of 250,000 acres, to be taken on
the north-west coast in one square block; bounded by Bass's Strait on
the north; on the westward by the ocean; and by a line drawn from shore
to shore. After some debate, this land was valued to the company at two
shillings and sixpence per acre, and the whole quit-rent charged, was
"four hundred and sixty-eight pounds, sixteen shillings:" redeemable at
twenty years purchase--£9,575. In the measurement, one-fourth allowed
for useless land. The employment of convicts entitled the company to
remission of quit-rent; £16 annually each man.
Mr. Edward Curr, at first the secretary of the company, became their
agent. Having some time resided in Van Diemen's Land, he had returned to
England, where he published a book on the state of the country,
remarkable for its clear narrative and sober delineation. The first ship
dispatched by the company was the _Tramnere_ (1826), followed by the
_Caroline_. Some time was lost in selecting the settlement, and Circular
Head was chosen. On a closer inspection, the district was not found
encouraging. Near the shore the country is heavily timbered, and the
high lands towards the westward were found barren and cold. Mr. Curr
was anxious to bring his line as far possible towards the sun; but the
governor held him to the literal agreement, under an impression that the
grant was already improvident and excessive. The whole scheme was
distasteful to Arthur: a powerful company having interests of its own,
whose head-quarters were in London, might have been a counterpoise to
his influence, had it not been pushed to the extremity of an
inaccessible country. By the oversight or complaisance of Lord Bathurst,
the rule which made the outlay of capital the condition of a grant, was
not inserted in the covenant. The public works promised by the
proprietors were never undertaken, and their establishment was but a
larger farm than common. They ultimately obtained several blocks of
land, which gave them command of an intervening country of 150,000
acres, at Woolnorth; 20,000 at Circular Head, 10,000 at the Hampshire
Hills, 10,000 at the Middlesex Plains, 150,000 at the Surrey Hills, and
10,000 at the islands on the coast. The total actual cost, including
survey, was 1s. 6d. per acre.
The operations of the company were conducted on a liberal scale:
artizans were sent out. The proprietors were promised a remission of £16
for men, and £20 for women, on the quit-rent. This was the first
encouragement of free emigration to this quarter of the world. A road
was opened with Launceston, chiefly useful to absconders. The
importation of sheep and horses of great value, was beneficial to the
country. The sheep of the company cost £30,000 (1830), when they
exported wool to the value of £2,000. The servants of the company left
them on the expiration of their engagements: many before. The reports of
the proprietors eulogised the management of Mr. Curr, and affirmed that
the moral influence he had acquired rendered his government easy and his
people contented. They asserted that ardent spirits were excluded: there
were no police or prison, and none required. These statements varied
from fact. The company provided no religious teaching for its people;
and Mr. Curr, a Roman catholic, could not be expected to promote
heretical creeds.
The losses sustained by the company were great: the cold destroyed the
stock, and their crops often perished from moisture. On the Hampshire
Hills many hundred lambs died in a night. Sometimes the season never
afforded a chance to use the sickle: in the morning the crop was laden
with hoar frost, at noon it was drenched with the thaw, and in the
evening covered with dews; and thus rotted on the ground. The agent,
however, did not despair, and the company anticipated a dividend in
1834, at the latest!
The company provided a numerous staff; beside the agent, were a
commissioner, an agriculturist, an architect, and surveyors. Its local
affairs were confided to a council of three, Curr being the chairman;
but the divided sovereignty was impracticable, and the "Potentate of the
North," as he was sometimes called, soon reigned alone.
Servants engaged in Great Britain at low wages, on their arrival often
escaped from the farms, and exposed the agent to great vexation.
Sometimes they were pursued, and brought back by force: it was at last
agreed to cancel their indentures, on repayment of the cost of their
passage. In 1834, the population on the estate amounted to about 400
persons, of whom more than 200 were prisoners of the crown.
The New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land Establishment, formed at the
same time, received a grant of 40,000 acres. They engaged to improve the
stock of Van Diemen's Land, and introduced valuable horses. Colonel
Latour was a leading partner; Captain Thomas, speared by the blacks in
1831, was superintendent of the company's affairs, which however were
unprofitable for many years.
To these establishments the colony is indebted chiefly for the
introduction of valuable stock. In this they were rivalled by private
settlers. Bulls, of the Fifeshire breed, were imported by Mr. Patrick
Wood; of Normandy, by Captain Watson. Saxon sheep were imported by
Messrs. Gilles; from the flock of the Marquis of Londonderry, by Mr. R.
Harrison; by Mr. Anstey, from the flock of Sir Thomas Seabright; by Mr.
R. Willis, from that of Mr. Henty, of Arundel. Many others might be
mentioned, but these were in advance of the public companies; and by
1830, little could be added to the varieties of the fold or the stall.
Among those employed in the Van Diemen's Land Company's service was
Jorgen Jorgenson, whose adventurous life made him remarkable even among
vagabonds. He was born at Copenhagen, 1780. After some employment in the
coal trade, he accompanied the expedition of Flinders; and afterwards,
as mate on board the _Lady Nelson_, attended the first party to Risdon.
Having returned to Europe, and become commander of a privateer in the
service of his country, he was captured after a smart resistance by the
British ships _Sappho_ and _Clio_.
He obtained, while out on his parole, the merchant ship _Margaret and
Anne_, to carry provisions to Iceland, where the people were suffering
extreme privation. On a second voyage the governor, Count Tramp,
prohibited the intercourse: Jorgenson landed while the people were at
church, and aided by his seamen took the governor prisoner. He then,
with extraordinary impudence, issued a proclamation stating that he had
been called by an oppressed people to assume the reins of government. He
proceeded to reform its various departments: he lightened the taxes,
augmented the pay of the clergy, improved the system of education,
established trial by jury, formed an army consisting of eight soldiers,
and fortified the harbour with six guns. Having performed these
exploits, he returned to London in a prize taken from the island. His
proceedings were already known to the ministry, and he was arrested as
an alien at large. Jorgenson made no small stir by his appearance among
legislators and conquerors. After a variety of adventures, in which he
was often on the borders of crime, he pawned the linen taken from his
lodging, and was sentenced to transportation. In Newgate he was employed
as a dispenser of medicine. After four years detention he was released;
but was retaken, having neglected to quit Great Britain, and transported
for life. Such is the account he gave of his imprisonment. The penalty
might have been commuted; but he undertook to write on various subjects,
and created some trouble; he was therefore forwarded to this colony.
Here he was chiefly employed as a constable; detected many crimes, and
brought several to the scaffold. A woman, who had assisted him in
discovering certain offenders, became his wife; and he was often seen
fleeing from her fury through the streets. He, however, survived her,
and at length closed his singular career in the colonial hospital.
Jorgenson made great pretensions to literature. He wrote a treatise on
religion, and another on the treaty of Tilsit: in this country he
published a pamphlet on the funded system, and a narrative of his life
by himself. With a knowledge of the writer, it is amusing to read the
grave strictures of the London critics, who complained that he bounded
with amazing rapidity from one subject to another, without leaving a
trace of his track: now among the stars--then on a steam engine chasing
infidelity--or pelting atheism with meteoric stones.[148]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 148: Of the fitness of Jorgenson to discuss theological
questions, the reader may judge from the following passage taken from
his preface:--"No religion on earth, except the Christian, establishes
the link of the chain which must necessarily exist between the creator
and intelligent creature. After consulting history, chronology, the laws
of mechanism and the laws of nature, as unfolded by observation and
experience, he discovered that events must have happened nearly at the
time mentioned, and precisely after the manner described. At length his
mind was satisfied, that God had made our yoke easy and our burden
light."--_Religion of Christ the Religion of Nature._ Written in the
condemned cells of Newgate, by Jorgen Jorgenson, late governor of
Iceland. Capes, London, 1827.]