"I am his Highness' dog at Kew,
Pray, tell me, sir, whose dog are you?"
POPE.
The last remark in the preceding chapter was elicited by the appearance
of a stranger, who, at the moment of its utterance, rode up to the
station, and knocked at the open door of the house. Upon being desired
in the stentorian voice of the owner of the place, from the room in
which he sat, to "come in," a rather gentlemanly-looking man of about
the middle height and relative age, presented himself before the
conclave; and said: "I have to apologize, gentlemen, for intruding upon
your privacy; have I the pleasure of addressing Dr. Graham?"
"That is my appellation," replied the individual in question.
"And mine, sir, is Moffatt, of the Sydney firm of that name,
wool-buyers; possibly it may be known to you. I am purchasing wool, and
if you have not already disposed of your clip, will be happy to make you
an offer. I have come over-land, right through the New England district,
and having consumed more time on the road than I intended, I find I am
rather late for the stations in these northern parts; they having got
most of their clips away."
"Well, sir, I have got mine off too; all but a few bales," replied the
proprietor of Clintown.
"If you have not already made any arrangements relative to its
disposal," remarked the buyer, "I can judge of your clip by what you
have remaining, and make you an offer for the whole; and, if we come to
terms, you can intimate the sale to your agents before its arrival at
port, and instruct them to deliver it to my order."
"All right," exclaimed the squatter, "we'll talk about business
presently; join us in a nobbler, there is the bottle. You will find a
glass over there," and he pointed to an hermaphrodite piece of
furniture, standing at one side of the room.
The stranger thanked his host, and taking his seat, while he assisted
himself to a "stiff ball," said, "Pray, don't let me disturb the
conversation that you were engaged in at the moment of my abrupt
entrance."
"Well," said Brown, "to resume our topic, I differ from you Doctor. I
don't think we, even as a class, would be benefited by a return of the
old penal system, and I will tell you why. In the first place, I don't
believe that their labour was cheaper than that of free men, for never
could the convicts be made to do a proper amount of work; they had no
will to do so. What they did was only what the compulsory system had the
power of enforcing; just so much as not to be actual idleness, which
they were only too ready to indulge in when they momentarily escaped the
strict surveillance of the overseers; who frequently were necessarily
men of their own class, and connived with them in their derelictions.
Besides, then we were never free from bush-rangers, and, with all
practicable vigilance, sometimes the convicts would escape to the bush,
and continually place our lives and properties in danger; so all things
considered, bad as our straits now are, I would not wish to see a return
of the penal times."
"You have forgotten to mention another drawback to the system,"
suggested the stranger, "and that is the immoral influence such a class
of men have upon the community, and the contamination to which your
family is liable."
"Hang the immoral influence, as you call it," exclaimed the Doctor;
"whose morals are they going to effect, I should like to know? Ours? my
word! if we can't take care of them, I would ask you, who can?"
"By Jove! Graham," exclaimed Smithers, laughing, "it would be hard for
any fellow to vitiate yours."
At this sally of Bob's, the man of physic laughed too, and replied:
"Well, I mean the prisoners have only got themselves to mix with, so
what signifies any consideration for their morals; they can't make
themselves worse than they were when they are first convicted."
"There, sir, you are mistaken," said Moffatt. "You will admit that there
were many who were serving their time as convicted felons who had come
to that position by some false step in life, of which they deeply
repented; but that, being mixed up with the vilest ruffians
indiscriminately, they were subjected to this immoral influence of which
I speak. We are perfectly aware that many (but for their one offence)
honourable and exemplary men, who would scorn to do even a mean action,
as derogatory to their natures, have been so subjected; and what has
been the result of their contact with these vilest of the vile--villains
whose hearts and souls were devoted to the practice of infamy--wretches,
whose hearts, as Tom Hood said, were "inscribed with double guilt?" Has
it not been a general debasement, and a levelling in most instances of
the would be virtuous, to the standard of the despicable criminals
themselves? I know it has been argued by many that an honourable man
would shun the influence of such; and that the ruffians themselves,
having no kindred feelings with their conscientious companions, would
not trouble them, but afford the penitent every opportunity of avoiding
a contact. But it was not so. What escape had a man of feeling,
education, and penitential desire, from society such as was general
among the convicts? None! He was compelled to endure it; and, upon a
perpetual exhibition of vice and infamy before his eyes, hearing it
highly spoken of, joked upon, and even lauded, he too frequently ceased
to abhor it; began by degrees to look upon it with a callous
indifference, and then to acquire, and practise, what before the very
contemplation of would have been revolting to his nature; and ultimately
he became as hardened a wretch as any of the rest. I say this was too
frequently the case; and only shows that there was an immoral influence
at work, even amongst the prisoners themselves. The employers of the men
were sufferers by it likewise; for, by the cultivation of penitence in a
willing subject, the employer secured the services of a valuable
servant; whereas if the moral dispositioned man became as debased as the
vile ones he was as unprofitable as they. But the evils of the system,
in a moral point of view, were more particularly felt by the employers
in the fearful example made to their families. Just picture to yourself
rearing a young family subject to the dreadful contamination of such a
school; the influences of which tuition all the academies of punctilio
in the universe would be unable to eradicate. Happily for us, and for
posterity, those times are past and never can nor will return, however
much individuals in certain classes may desire. The mass of the
population would never permit the re-introduction of such an incubus on
civilisation, Christianity, and morality; but pardon me, sir, I am
warming on the subject; it is one I have always abhorred, for I have
constantly witnessed its fearful iniquities."
"What you say," replied Dr. Graham, "may be all very well with regard to
people that have families and live in towns; but you must remember that
squatters are the stay of the colony, and must be supported. What would
the colonies be but for their exports of wool? and how, I would like to
know, is that staple commodity to be obtained if the squatters are not
enabled to procure labour? At present we pay higher wages than any other
country in the world, notwithstanding which we cannot get sufficient
labour to do our work. It is a question that affects the entire
country; for if we do not get labour our staples will decrease, and
that, you will admit, will be a public calamity. The long and the short
of the matter is simply this, we must have labour, and the government
must exert itself to procure it. If it does not, we ought to advocate a
return of convicts."
"Well, sir," replied Moffatt, "I don't pretend to dictate to you
personally, presuming that you are the best judge of your own affairs.
Wages in the colonies are certainly high, but then the employers can
well afford to pay the high rates; and, but in these remote parts, I
have heard few complaints of the scarcity of labour. Until your district
becomes more settled you will have to expect it, for it is one of the
inconveniences of an unsettled country; but as soon as it becomes better
known and more occupied, I think you will find that labour, as in
everything else where there is a supply and demand, will find its own
level."
"That's very true," said Brown, "but, remember in the meantime, we are
sufferers; what are we to do?"
"I can scarcely tell you," said the other, "but fear you will have to
put up with it. It is, as I have said, a contingent incidental on your
remote location. You can't force labourers to settle in a country, of
which they know little, and that little disparaging. You must offer some
inducements to tempt men out into these wilds other than high wages.
What militates considerably against you, I imagine, is the current
belief that the blacks are rather dangerous neighbours."
"It is all very well for people that are not affected as we are, to tell
us we must put up with it," said Brown; "but, assuming that labour would
find its own level as you state; that is, I imagine, by offering
security against the blacks, if we admitted that the blacks were
dangerous (though we deny it); does it not follow, that we, in these
districts, are entitled to some consideration on the part of our rulers?
We contribute to the support of the state, and are therefore entitled
to protection from the government; but are we likely to get that? I
don't believe it. We are just allowed to struggle on as best we can. But
it will result in this; we will have to take the remedy into our own
hands; labour we must have, and if our own countrymen will not accept
our employment, even at exorbitant wages, we will have to procure it
from some foreign source."
"May I enquire," said Mr. Moffatt, "the source you would propose?"
"It is immaterial which," replied Brown; "whatever would be found the
most advantageous, the people that would be most industrious, and whose
labour could be obtained at the cheapest rate of wage. I have often been
at a loss to understand why the Victorian government has adopted such
stringent laws to endeavour to keep the Chinese out of Melbourne. They
are essentially an industrious class of people, and just the very sort
of men we want; they make excellent shepherds, more attentive to their
work than Europeans, less difficult to please in their rations, and can
be obtained at far less wages."
"I can enlighten you," said the wool-buyer, "if you are ignorant as to
the reason of the Victorian people desiring a restriction on the immense
influx of Chinese immigrants. They have been landed in that colony in
thousands, and may be said, though forming an integral part of our
population, to be a distinct people and nation. They speak their own
language only, have their own religion, are proverbially the laziest,
filthiest, and most immoral people contained in the state, and come
without their females. So that they do not settle amongst us; but those
that are sufficiently fortunate to make money return with their gains to
their own country to excite the avarice of their countrymen; while those
that are not successful are left to starve and die, or commit
depredations on our settlers. They swarm together in large numbers in
small tenements in our large towns; and, by their vice and filth,
generate noisome diseases amongst themselves, and pestilence in the
neighbourhood in which they live; and their abodes and their persons are
alike mephitic. They are in fact the scum of our population, and far
more degraded even than the denizens of the vilest purlieus of Britain's
metropolis. They, as doubtless you are aware, live and migrate in large
bodies, from one to other of the diggings, blighting each locality in
their transient passage, as swarms of locusts. They stab one another,
and commit murder amongst themselves, of which the authorities never
hear. They commit depredations on the whites, for which they are never
punished from the difficulty in detecting the delinquent; and, as I said
before, they spread disease wherever they go. They are therefore no
benefit to the country; for, with the exception of rice and opium, they
consume no mercantile commodities, but annually drain a considerable
quantity of gold from it. It is considering these facts, and that they
are filling places that could be advantageously occupied by our own
countrymen, that the colonists of Victoria have attempted to restrict
their entrance into the country, by the exaction of a ten pound
poll-tax. I am only sorry to see that the example is not followed by the
other colonies, for while Victoria stands alone, she will never succeed
in keeping the evil away."
"And I am very glad to think the other colonies are liberal-minded
enough not do so," said Brown. "You will please to bear in mind that
this is a free country, and it is a lasting disgrace to Victoria that
she refuses admission to any foreigner. The government of Great Britain
might as well attempt to exclude certain people or classes from the
asylum of her shores."
"No, sir," replied Moffatt, "there it does not signify. Her own
population would more than counterbalance any influx; but here it is
different. The news of our gold fields, spread by rumour, and the
return of successful diggers to China, have generated a spirit of
adventure in that country which shows itself in the emigration of swarms
of her people to our shores. Already as many as sixty thousand Chinamen
are in Victoria; and they being acknowledged an inferior and by no means
desirable class of settlers, even if they remained, it was deemed
expedient to stop or at least check their immigration. As the complaint
was desperate, so, necessarily, was the remedy. As you say their
entrance into the country could not be prohibited, so the tax was levied
on them to discourage their coming."
"And I think it was a most iniquitous tax," said Brown. "It has been
urged against the Chinamen that they consume nothing but rice, and that
on the diggings they are in the way of British colonization. Now it is a
proverbial fact that they are ousted from all good 'claims;' which, if
of any value, are instantly 'jumped' by the diggers, while the poor
Chinamen are forced to take up the abandoned and worked out 'claims,'
where Europeans have found a continuation of labour unprofitable. On the
yield from these holes they manage to live, so it is evident that
instead of their being a curse to the country, as has been affirmed,
they are positively a benefit; for the gold, if they do take any out of
the country, is only that which, but for them, would never have been
extracted from the earth."
"That is a perfect fallacy," replied the other; "Chinamen will no more
work on bad ground than white men; and as to their working abandoned
'claims' that is a thing that is done every day now; for formerly, when
the diggings were in their glory, claims yielding what would now be
considered 'paying quantities,' were thrown up by their holders for some
more promising ground. But in these times diggers are content to try
over all the old ground; so the assertion that the practice is confined
to the Chinese is fallacious."
"However, be it as it may," said Brown, "the Chinese have a perfect
right to come here if they please; and I should like to see them landing
in Moreton Bay in as many thousands as they do in Melbourne. Then we
should have an opportunity of getting shepherds, whereas now we
experience considerable difficulty. Some of the settlers on the northern
part of the coast have for sometime agitated the question of the
introduction of coolie or Chinese labour into those parts; arguing that
the climate is admirably adapted for the growth of cotton and sugar,
though too tropical for the European to labour at agriculture in the
sun. It would, however suit those accustomed to such a temperature; and
without them the resources of the country will never be developed. I
perfectly agree with them, and think the introduction of some cheap
labour, such as that, would be of immense advantage to the country."
"I must again differ from you, sir," said the stranger; "their
introduction would be of incalculable mischief to the entire colony."
"How so?" asked the other, "will you explain?"
"Certainly," replied Mr Moffatt; "it would little matter to you,
perhaps, who only want to realise your fortune, and return with it to
your native land. But how different is it with the labouring man who
settles here with the intention of making this his home for the
remainder of his days? Let us consider the prospect it offers to the
colony in this light. It is argued that the northern parts of this
island are possessed of a climate that will not admit of the manual
labour of Europeans; and that without the introduction of tropical
labour the country must remain unproductive. Now, admitting this theory,
it naturally follows that, with the exception of owners of property and
capitalists, the population would be a mixed and foreign one; and would
form a state peculiar in itself, and different in its language and
manners from the other colonies. This, be it remembered, in the midst
of a British colony, inhabited by the Anglo-Saxon race. Now, it must be
manifest that this people, forming no inconsiderable part of our
population, must be either admitted to the privileges of British
subjects, or governed as a conquered race or an inferior people.
Assuming, then, that they are to be recognised as a class of free
immigrants, which is in accordance with your own opinion, they at once
become colonists, over whose actions we have no undue control. They
would be entitled to all the privileges of our constitution, and,
consequently, could not be debarred the exercise of the franchise. To
say nothing of the absurdity of having a Chinaman or coolie returned to
a seat in our legislature, and other incongruities; what would be the
effect of their introduction upon our own working population? we will
see. This desirable class of labourers with whom you desire to inundate
us, we will assume, are introduced into the country in swarms,
ostensibly for the cultivation of tropical produce in the northern
latitudes of this colony. They are engaged at wages commensurate to the
exigencies of competition, so as, as you say, to enable the cultivator
to develop the resources of the country by raising a marketable
commodity to compete with the slave-grown produce of the western
hemisphere. What is the result? Is it to our advantage? Certainly not!
The value of our exports are increased, you say, but at what a fearful
sacrifice? Granted that these coolies are engaged, and for a period of
years say, and that they are bound stringently by penalties to the terms
of their agreement. To enforce this, or even to carry on your work, you
must have the services of some interpreter; at whose mercy you must ever
be, even if you are so fortunate as to obtain one. I would ask you,
then, what security have you for the due performance of your labourers'
contract? None but their agreement. And how can you in a court of law
prove its legality, or the liability of the contracting party, when
that party is totally unacquainted with your language and you with his;
and he does not admit its validity? But even granting that one or two
refractory coolies could be subdued, where would be your remedy if
scores or hundreds repudiated their contracts, and refused to work for
you at the wages offered to them? That they would so refuse I am firmly
convinced, for we are all aware that two differently remunerated classes
of labour of the same description co-existent is incompatible with the
laws that govern commerce; and men would be found, as you yourself have
admitted, who would be ready to obtain their services in other
capacities by the offer of higher wages; while the coolies, in their
turn, would readily accept an improvement in their positions, without
considering the violation of their contract, the nature of which they
would doubtless have but an imperfect idea, if not be entirely ignorant.
Thus they would be continually drawn off from their intended occupation
to fill positions to the exclusion of the white man; and the cotton and
sugar cultivator would require to give an equivalent to the European's
wages, or supply the places of those who abscond by a fresh importation.
In such an emergency it is more than probable that the latter would be
the course adopted. Hence we would have a perpetual influx of these
undesirable immigrants, who would merely serve a probationary term with
their importers, and then mix with our white population on terms of
equality. Is it not evident then that Asiatic labour would be brought
into direct competition with European? and who can deny that the result
would not be disastrous to the latter? Some strait-laced philosophers
and fireside philanthropists, who see the miseries of their
fellow-creatures through the beeswing of their after-dinner potations,
dictate the means for the amelioration of the sufferings of their race
with the same self-sufficient spirit that they rule the destinies of
their own household. These argue that the introduction of the heathen
immigrants to our shores would be an inestimable blessing to humanity,
and add an additional lustre to the cause of Christianity, by the
intercourse of the two races, and a consequent enlightenment and
christianizing of the disciples of feticism. But this I deny, for debase
the European labourer by reducing his means to that of the Asiatic
(which I affirm would be the consequence of this influx), and instead of
the latter being elevated to the level of the former, the former would
be rather dragged down to that of the latter. Without going so far as to
question the omnipotence of the Almighty I firmly believe that the moral
condition of the Asiatic would not be ameliorated in the slightest
degree by the contact; while humanity and Christianity would receive a
blow in the demoralization of our countrymen. Depend upon it, sir, the
expediency of the introduction of cheap labour is a fallacy; whereas the
very existence of our religion, and the realization of our future
greatness, depend upon the settlement of the wastes of our colony by a
thorough British population."
"But, my good sir," said Brown, "how do you reconcile to your objection
the thesis that, as the European cannot labour in field service in the
tropical heat of the northern part of our colony, without the assistance
of Asiatic labour the productions of our land will lay dormant?"
"That," replied the other, "I also deny. I believe European labour is
practicable in our climate, even in the remote north; and in support of
my belief I could name numerous precedents. Was it not a Spanish
population that peopled South America? an European that later settled
Texas? and is even now (I allude more particularly to the Germans)
growing cotton in that province to compete with the slave-grown produce
of the States? Have not the French settled Algiers, and cultivated its
soil, even producing that desired staple, cotton? But to come nearer
home; have not our own brave countrymen in India incontestably proved,
in the trials of the last fearful campaign, without having been inured
to the climate, the capability of the Englishman to withstand its heat?"
"But still," said Brown, "the price at which we purchase our labour
would never enable us to cultivate either sugar or cotton profitably. We
must have cheap labour to perform the work; and, for my own part, I
can't see but that, if coolies be introduced into the country as
labourers for a specific purpose, they could be compelled by the law of
the land to continue at that labour. If the introduction for that
purpose is found desirable, the practice of their immigration could be
legalized by an enactment that at the same time would bind them to the
species of work for which they were engaged, and make their hire or
employment for any other purpose, or in any other part of the country
beyond the tropical boundary, a felony punishable by a heavy penalty."
"That was just the point I was coming to," replied Mr. Moffatt; "but
first I will answer your previous objection. It is practicable for
Europeans to cultivate the soil to the northward, though they will do so
in the manner most advantageous to themselves. If they find the
cultivation of cotton and sugar unprofitable they will turn their
attention to other products; but I am inclined to believe that cotton
could be profitably cultivated even by our own expensive labour. I have
a friend, resident in the vicinity of Brisbane, who has grown some
cotton as an experiment, and the result, even in this temperate climate,
has been most satisfactory. The cotton he sent home was submitted to
some of the first judges in Manchester and Liverpool, who pronounced it
of the finest sea-island description, and superior to any obtained from
the United States. Now this cotton was cultivated from the ordinary
American sea-island seed; so that its fineness arose, not from any
excellence in its germ, but the peculiar adaptation and efficiency of
the soil in which it was grown; and which does not differ from the land
on our entire coast line. This shows that our cotton would be of
superior quality, and consequently of greater value. Another fact to be
remembered is this, that in 'the States,' owing to the frost and
severity of the winter, the plant is only an annual; while with us, as
my friend has discovered, from the absence of frost the cotton tree
becomes a perennial, and increases its yield each season; while the
staple does not deteriorate in quality. Thus, it will be seen, we should
have considerable advantage in the cost of production over the American
planter; notwithstanding his slave labour. But to return to the coolies;
with regard to their forced compliance with the terms of their
agreements,--to effect which, you say, certain enactments would have to
be passed to meet the exigencies of the case,--I believe the first step
would be the dismemberment of those districts from the parent colony,
and their erection into a separate state; so as to preserve the
stringencies necessary in its government from infringing the
constitution of the other colonies. Now in this new state the
preponderance of the population would be black, who would in fact
comprise all the working part of it; and it would necessarily follow
that the government of the state would be comprised of the employers of
this very labour, their servants, or sycophants, or at least those whose
interests would be intimately connected with theirs. So that they might
be necessarily expected to legislate so as to entirely meet their own
views, and subvert the rights and freedom of their foreign labourers.
The system would then descend into a compulsory labour; and, but for its
name, would in nowise differ from slavery; worse in fact than actual
slavery, from the fact of the stimulus of protection to one's own
property being wanting in this case, that would in the other act as a
preventive against unusual tyranny and oppression. So that the right of
disposal by death, might reasonably be expected, would be exercised
almost with impunity. Depend upon it, sir, such a system would give rise
to a state of things, not only deplorable, but derogatory to a Christian
nation. But I am convinced it never would gain the countenance or
consent of the home government, who, for its own honour, could not
tolerate the introduction of coolie labour on such terms; and our own
population would never suffer its introduction on terms of equality."
"Well, sir," replied Brown, "though I don't admit myself a convert to
your way of thinking, I still believe there is some truth in your
arguments; but the thing we can't get over is the want of a labouring
population here in the bush; and if we can't induce our own countrymen
to emigrate we must try others."
"Believe me, sir," said Mr. Moffatt, "it is not a want of inclination
that deters thousands of Britain's redundant population from flocking to
our shores; it is the supineness of our short-sighted government, who,
instead of creating a fund for the introduction of an agricultural
population by the sale of the waste lands of the colony, or by the grant
to every immigrant of a piece of land equivalent in value to the amount
he has paid for his passage, lock up the lands from agricultural
settlers in the fear lest their interests should clash with the
pastoral. This suicidal policy has long been manifest; in no way more so
than by the fact that we are obliged to depend upon a foreign supply for
our very articles of common consumption; whereas nowhere could they be
produced with greater advantage than within our own territory. By all
accounts you are likely, in this district, to be separated from New
South Wales; and one of your first acts in your legislative independence
should be to facilitate the settlement of your agricultural lands. The
two interests, that and the pastoral, may be separately maintained
without detriment to either, and with immense advantage to the state."
"Oh, hang these politics!" cried Graham; "sink all dry arguments just
now, you have made me quite thirsty with merely hearing your clatter.
Never mind the agricultural lands, coolies, or Chinamen, though I would
be very happy to see them and hope we will be able to get a supply of
them soon. We will just polish off another bottle of grog, while we
screw a spree out of Smithers here." With this little prologue he left
the room for a few minutes, returning with a bottle which he placed on
the table, and took his seat while he continued: "Bob tells me he is
going to 'put his foot into it.' You know he has long been engaged to
that niece of Rainsfield's (a deuced fine girl, by Jove!), and he states
he is to be married in about a month. Now I say, if he does not give us
a spree before he throws us overboard, we will cut him as dead as a
herring after he is 'spliced.' What do you say, Brown?"
"Most assuredly," replied that individual, "Smithers ought to entertain
his bachelor friends before he withdraws himself from their clique; and
I have no doubt he will."
"He tells me too," said the Doctor, "that those young fellows at Fern
Vale have behaved scurvily to him, that one of them has tried to cut him
out, and striven hard to set the girl against him. Now I would propose
that Smithers give a spree at Brompton, and get his brother to invite
the guests for him; then he would be able to have his girl and her
friends there, and these young Fergusons too. We could have some
glorious fun, get up some races or something of that sort, to please the
women and amuse ourselves; besides, it would answer the purpose of
showing off his girl and introducing her to his friends, at the same
time that it would annoy his rival. And for the matter of that we might
oblige him by picking a quarrel with young Ferguson, and giving the
fellow a good drubbing, just for the satisfaction of the thing. Eh, gad!
Bob must promise to give us a spree, or we won't let him out of this
house. It is not often one of our fellows gets spliced; and we can't
lose one without a jollification. You had better promise at once, Bob."
"Well, for my part," replied Bob, "I would give you a spree in a minute,
but how am I to get it up? I would not know who to ask; and, besides, no
one would come to my invitation except such fellows as you, who would
drink all day, or until you had drained the house dry of liquor."
"Get your brother to do it," replied the Doctor, "and work round to the
blind side of his wife. I'll be bound she's woman enough to join in it
heartily; the mere prospect of the thing will be sufficient inducement
to make her fall into your views; and depend upon it she will not only
undertake the whole affair, but get together a good company for you."
"But there is another thing," urged Bob, "if we are to invite fifty or a
hundred people to our place we will have to find quarters for most of
them, and how shall we manage that?"
"Nothing easier in the world," replied the contumacious Doctor; "give up
all your spare room to the women folks, and we fellows can shake down
anywhere, camp under a tree if you like; or those that don't like that,
let them take the wool-shed."
"Well, I'll see if the thing can be managed," replied Bob, "and let you
know in good time."