This is Port Adelaide! Port Misery would be a better name; for nothing

in any other part of the world can surpass it in everything that is

wretched and inconvenient, packages of goods and heaps of merchandise

are lying about in every direction as if they had cost nothing. Stacks

of what were once beautiful London bricks crumbling away like

gingerbread, and evidently at each returning tide half covered with the

flood; trusses of hay, now rotten, and Norway deals, scattered about as

if they had no owner--iron ploughs and rusty harrows--cases of

door-frames and windows that had once been glazed--heaps of the best

slates half tumbling down--winnowing-machines broken to pieces--blocks

of Roman cement, now hard as stone, wanting nothing but the staves and

hoops--Sydney cedar, and laths and shingles from Van Diemen's Land in

every direction; whilst on the high ground are to be seen pigs eating

through the flour-sacks, and kegs of raisins with not only the head out,

but half the contents; onions and potatoes apparently to be had for

picking up. The sight is disheartening. What with the sun and the

rain--the sand and the floods--the thieves with four legs and the

thieves with two--the passengers hug themselves at the recollection that

_they_ have brought no merchandise for sale, glad enough to be able to

take care of themselves. The sooner they get out of this horrid hole the

better, so they enquire if there is any coach to the town--they are

answered by a careless shake of the head, and so, like good settlers,

they determine to set off and walk, carrying their light parcels with

them, and leaving the heavy things with a friend who refuses to go any

further. They ask for a drink of water before starting--there is not

such a thing to be had; but the bullock carts are expected down every

minute with the usual supply! "What, no water?" exclaims our passenger.

"No, sir, but the Commissioners are sinking a well, though they have not

yet found any but salt water; but they are going to dig in another

place, shortly, we understand."

Away they start for the City of Adelaide, and after ten minutes of rough

walking through the loose sand, which is fatiguing enough, they gain the

firm and beaten road, with the cheerful hills before them, glad enough

to have overcome their morning troubles. Though very warm the walk is

agreeable, and out of a cloud of dust before them, they soon descry a

dray or two, each drawn by a long line of bullocks. They perceive by the

splashing of the water from the open bungs that the casks contain the

daily supply for the port, and the drivers very cheerfully give them

all a drink; this enables them to walk on with renewed spirits, over the

naked plain, and, tired and dusty, in about seven miles more they reach

another iron store, the property of the Commissioners, where they now

begin to see a few marquees and huts, and people walking about. They

step across the "Torrens," without knowing it, and enquire for the inn.

They are directed to the Southern Cross Hotel, then kept by a German Jew

of the name of Levy, considered the best house in this settlement, and

here we will leave them for the present, hungry, thirsty, and

fatigued--covered with dust and perspiration--and with feelings of shame

and disappointment at being so taken in!

CITY OF ADELAIDE.

"When things are at the worst, they mend," is a common saying, and a

true one; and so it was with our passengers. Though rough, dirty and

uncomfortable, they enjoyed the Jew's dinner or table d'hôte, though it

consisted merely of a baked leg of mutton at the top, with a baked

shoulder at bottom and a dish of small potatoes in the middle--nothing

else whatever--neither pie, pudding, or cheese; but they had given

themselves a good wash, and a change of linen, and a bottle of Barclay

and Perkins at dinner had now restored them to good humour.

They found that the company at the table was much better than the

dishes, and that they had all gone through the same miserable landing at

the Fort, and some of them had even suffered considerably by falling

down in the mud; so, as we draw comfort out of other men's misfortunes,

and it is better to laugh than weep, our newly-arrived emigrants began

to think the place was not so bad after all. They were, at any rate,

great travellers, and were determined to make light of troubles and

inconveniences, as all travellers do. They saw that the gentlemen at

table were a very nice set of fellows, and as they had evidently had to

rough it, much more formerly, than was necessary at the present day,

they should make up their minds to think well of everything--to look

only at the advantages of the Colony--and in their letters to any London

friends, they were resolved decidedly to recommend the place--but not a

word about the mud.

The Town of Adelaide, as depicted on the maps, is the very beau ideal of

all possible cities--there is an elegance and vastness of design about

it, that almost makes one blush for the comparative insignificance of

London and Stromboul; of Paris and Canton;--but on going to the spot,

like many other works of art and imagination, it resembles the picture

very slightly--it is altogether on too large a scale; and of all the

follies committed by the inexperience of the surveyor-general, who is,

nevertheless, in every other respect a most gentlemanlike, entertaining,

and intelligent person, next to its inland situation, this monstrous

extent of Adelaide will turn out to be the most fruitful of complaints.

You may lean against any tree in the City and exclaim, "This shadowy

desert, unfrequented woods, I better brook than flourishing peopled

towns."

And yet there are sprinkled up and down the place a few substantial

buildings; one belonging to the Company, on an enormous scale--another

good brick house to Mr. Hack--another to the enterprising Mr.

Gilles--one to Mr. Thomas, and a couple of new taverns. The rest of the

dwellings are made of very slight materials, and the number of canvas

tents and marquees give some parts of the settlement the appearance of a

camp. Most of the new-comers settle down on what is called the Park

Lands, where they are handy to the little rivulet, and they run up a

Robinson Crusoe sort of hut, with twigs and branches from the adjoining

forest, and the climate being fine and dry, they answer well enough as

temporary residences. The principal streets have been laid out in the

survey of the town 132 feet wide, which is nearly twice as wide as

Portland Place, and the squares are all on such a scale of magnitude,

that if there were any inhabitants in them, a cab would almost be

required to get across them.

Before any person has been ashore at Adelaide twenty-four hours, even

the greenest and most inexperienced put these two very natural

questions; First--Why did you make the plan of the future town so large?

Answer--Because the land was of no value, and it was a pity to be

crowded when there was so much room! And the Second question is--Why did

you select the town eight miles from the landing-place? Answer--Because

we preferred being away from the nasty sailors, and thought it better

not to be annoyed with the demoralizing influence of a Sea Port!

Unless this is promptly remedied, the "Wisdom of our ancestors" will not

become such a favourite saying in South Australia, as it is in the Old

Country, for the town, including the park lands, is already eight miles

round, with 3,000 inhabitants only. This, from persons who are all for

concentration, seems strange; and the consequence is as might have been

expected, that in the daytime persons are constantly losing themselves

in the midst of the city. Whilst at night it is impossible to move out

of the house without company, unless you have any desire to sleep under

a tree. This has happened to the oldest inhabitants, about whom many

droll stories have been told. Some of the highest officers in the

colony, after wandering about for hours in the dark, either running

against trees, or falling over logs, or into holes, have chosen rather

to give it up in despair, content to take a night's lodging beneath a

tree, than run the risk any longer of breaking their necks although in

the midst of the township, and when day-light appeared, not perhaps more

than a pistol-shot from their own hut. It is hardly possible that such a

blunder as this is, this Adelaide and Port Adelaide, can much longer be

tolerated by the respectable parties about proceeding to the Colony, and

there is not the remotest chance that the unnatural abortion can ever

come to good. Another town of more modest and moderate pretensions will

rise up in the land-locked basin of Port Lincoln, along the margin of

the deep water, consisting of 640 acres, divided into building lots of

one rood each, which will be enough for a population of 50,000 persons,

which is as many as the most sanguine friend of the Colony can

anticipate for a century to come. There, under the shelter of Boston

Island, or in Spalding Cove, the merchant may leave his office and walk

across a plank into the last ship that arrived from England, and all the

hundreds of bullocks now employed dragging up waggon loads of rubbish

and merchandise from Adelaide Swamp to Adelaide Township, may then be

dispensed with and go a-ploughing, as they ought to have done long

since, which will save £20,000 a year to the settlers in the item of

land carriage alone, and by being employed on the farms instead of on

the road the Colony will not require such frequent importations of farm

produce from Van Diemen's Land, to the great impoverishment of the

community. What, abandon Adelaide! I think I hear the carriers exclaim.

Oh no, let Adelaide remain as before, it will always answer well enough

for a country village, and stand a monument to the folly of the

projectors, but let the Governor and Civil Establishment move their

head-quarters without loss of time, to Port Lincoln, before more money

is thrown away. Every month that this measure is delayed it is made

more difficult and therefore should not be postponed at all. The buyers

of the 1,200 town acres would feel much disappointment at the measure,

as the market would be spoiled for the sale of their building lots, but

they would be rightly served for asking a monopoly price to respectable

new-comers, who ought to be enabled to obtain a town allotment for a

trifle of the Government.

In New South Wales they are sold by auction as applied for, and put up

at 20_s._ each, at which price they are generally knocked down; but with

a view to prevent any monopolizer buying them up, to the injury of the

_bona fide_ settler, every purchaser must sign a bond to the Government

in a penalty of £20, that he will build a house on the allotment, of a

certain value, within three years, or otherwise the land reverts

absolutely to the Crown, and the penalty is enforced too. This is as it

should be, and the evil working of the old system ought to have been

forseen, but at South Australia the Commissioners and Survey Department

disdained to copy anything from such a colony as Sydney and made the old

saying good about advice, that those who want it most like it least. Now

the late Governor, Captain Hindmarsh, was quite the opposite of this,

and was most diligent in seeking out the best way of doing everything,

and was not above learning even from those ignorant neighbours, New

South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. Here is a proof.

(Copy)

"Government House, _25th April, 1838._

"The Council being about to meet this morning to discuss a subject with

which Mr. Horton James is particularly well acquainted; the Governor

will thank Mr. James, if he would do him the favour to attend the

Council this morning about half-past nine o'clock, to give the Council

his opinion on the subject.

"T.H. JAMES, ESQ., Adelaide."

The character of the late Governor, Capt. Hindmarsh, pleased me

exceedingly, not only for the frankness of his manner towards strangers,

and the easy terms on which he admitted every respectable resident to

his table, but by his constant, steady, and unremitting attention to

business. Many difficulties of a new and serious nature would sometimes

suddenly involve him, during my residence in the colony, especially in

reference to the native blacks, who had been committing some violences

in the camp. The settlers were very violent and rash, calling loudly for

immediate and strong measures of retaliation, and going up in mobs to

Government House, thirsting for revenge against the natives. But the

Governor on all occasions acted with a praiseworthy and becoming

firmness, and would listen to nothing like reprisals on an unarmed and

naked population; and while he took the most upright, they turned out to

be the wisest and most successful measures he could have adopted for the

pacification of the place, which in a day or two became as quiet as

ever, and the danger so much talked of was disregarded and forgotten,

entirely owing to His Excellency's pacific treatment. Notwithstanding

his severe and inflexible adherence to these measures, in accordance to

his instructions, and in opposition to the murderous wishes of some of

the settlers, Captain Hindmarsh, after the hours of business, surrounded

by his amiable and accomplished family, was just the same as ever,

zealous, enthusiastic and humane, when speaking of the colony and its

black population; and gentle and sincere in his intercourse with his

friends; never exhibiting the slightest degree of reserve, parade or

affectation, but winning all hearts by his attention to his guests. It

is hard to say why such a suitable person was recalled. He seems to have

been sacrificed to clamour; but to accuse, and prove, are very

different, and in any enquiry that may be hereafter instituted, Captain

Hindmarsh will, I am sure, come off without reproach.

FOUNDATION OF VICTORIA

+Source.+--Batman's Journal, Victorian Pamphlets, Vol. cxxvii, pp.

10-13, 16-22

Convictism in Tasmania caused great dissatisfaction among the free

settlers; in 1835 John Batman crossed the Strait in search of fresh

pastures. Melbourne stands on the site he selected for "the future

village."

_May 29th._ Daylight had no sooner broke this morning--and never had its

cheerful return been so ardently longed for--than we were again greeted

by the sight of Port Phillip Heads, at a distance not apparently

exceeding eight miles. By 9 a.m. we were between the Heads, with the

tide running out, and nearly at low water; a heavy surf and the wind

light and baffling. We effected an entrance with difficulty at a part of

the bay where the width was about a mile and a quarter. We succeeded,

however, in entering one of the finest bays, or basins of water, well

sheltered, that we remember to have seen. Within the Bay the water was,

compared to our late tossing in the boiling and foaming waters outside,

as smooth as a mill-pond, and our little bark floated gently along like

a sleeping gull. I shall, however, take this opportunity to remark that

it will be desirable to enter its mouth only at the times of the tide

running in. We continued our course down the bay, and found the country

everywhere of the same richly-grassed character.

_May 30th._ Robinson Crusoe was never better pleased with the appearance

of the first ship which arrived, and rescued him _from_ his desolate

island, than I was with the vessel which proved the means of thus

opening to view a country capable of supporting a future nation, and

which, we trust, will be the means of relieving the Hobart Town country

of its over-stocked cattle, and the Mother Country of her surplus and

half-starved peasantry. Futurity must develop this prophecy! Further

travelling and examination only added to my pre-conceived estimate of

this extremely interesting and extensive territory; consisting of plains

or downs at least twenty miles long by a width of 10 miles, and the

distance may have been greater, but for the interruption of hills more

than ordinarily high, which broke the horizon in different directions.

One of these vistas, which I have at present in view, cannot form a less

area than 100,000 acres. Its general character presents that of

cultivated pasture for centuries past; the few trees appear as though

they owed their plantation to the hand of man. All the high hills are

covered with grass to their summits.

I discovered the fires of the natives or aboriginal inhabitants of this

marvellously fertile country, and felt delighted beyond expression that

the task of its discovery should have devolved upon myself.

_June 2nd._ My Sydney natives came on board this morning for the purpose

of assisting in packing up, and otherwise making preparations for our

contemplated expedition into the interior. As it continued to rain

heavily and a heavy bank of fog prevailed, and prevented our seeing any

distance, I proposed, rather than lose time to go with the vessel to the

river (Saltwater), and from thence take my departure for the bush. We

made the river by 3 p.m., and observed that the whole of the coast at

the head of the bay was clear of timber, and a constant plain covered

with grass.

Near the head of the river, on the point, was a plantation of she-oak.

We endeavoured to sail up the river, but found the water not more than a

fathom deep.... To-morrow, weather permitting, I intend taking my

departure up the river.

_June 3rd._ Everything being in readiness, we left the vessel about 9

a.m., and proceeded in a boat up the river for about five miles.... In

travelling further up we passed over several rich flats, about a mile

wide, by two or three miles long, destitute of trees, and covered

knee-deep with grass, from which hundreds of tons of good hay might be

made. The land was of the best description, equal to anything in the

world, nor does it appear subject to being flooded. For twenty-six miles

we continued following the course of this river, and found on both sides

of it, as far as the eye could stretch, fine open plains, with a few

trees of the oak species; one striking object was the absence of fresh

water all throughout this distance. Just before sundown as we were

preparing to camp on the bank of the river, I caught sight of a damp

place, and, on sending one of my men, Gumm, to make a hole with a stick

to the depth of two feet, we had in the course of an hour a plentiful

supply of good water.... I have named this place Gumm's Well.

_June 4th._ Recommenced our journey up the river at 8 a.m.; after

travelling four or five miles, I turned off to obtain a view of Mounts

Collicott, Cottrill, and Solomon.... We continued travelling over the

plains, and in eight miles again made the river. Having crossed the

river, we travelled over the richest land I had ever seen in my life;

marsh mallows with leaves as large as those of the cabbage tribe, and as

high as my head. We recrossed at a native ford, and we observed on a

wattle tree, which they had been stripping of the bark, scratches or

marks of figures, representing blacks in the act of fighting. These

figures I copied as near as I was able.

_June 6th._ We made an early breakfast and resumed our journey in order

to reach the camp of the blacks, the smoke of whose fires we had seen

yesterday. We travelled over land equal to any that we had seen, a deep

black diluvium with grass three or four feet high, and thinly-timbered.

After travelling eight miles we struck the trail of the natives which in

a short time led us to a branch of the tribe, consisting of one chief,

his wife, and three children--fine, plump, chubby, healthy-looking

urchins they were. To this distinguished royal chieftain of the prairies

I gave one pair of blankets, handkerchiefs, beads, and three

pocket-knives; upon the receipt of these presents, he undertook the part

of guide. We crossed a fresh water creek with good land on either bank.

Our new guide informed us that he would take us to his tribe, at the

same time naming many of their chiefs. After travelling about eight

miles, we were surprised to hear a number of voices calling after us,

and on looking round encountered six men, armed with spears fixed in

their wommeras. We stopped; and they at once threw aside their spears,

and came up to us in a most friendly manner possible. We all shook hands

and I gave them knives, tomahawks, etc., whereupon they took the lead,

and brought us back about a mile, to where we found huts, or gunyahs,

and a number of women and children. We sat down in the midst of these

sooty and sable aboriginal children of Australia; amongst whom we

ascertained were eight chiefs belonging to the country near Port

Phillip, over which we had travelled, and with which we had so much

reason to be pleased. The three principal chiefs were brothers. Two of

them were fully six feet high and tolerably good-looking; the third was

not so tall but much stouter than the others. The other five chiefs were

equally fine men. And a question, to myself, here arises, and the answer

as speedily follows, viz., now is the time for entering into and

effecting a purchase of their land. A full explanation, that my object

in visiting their shores was to purchase their land, they appeared to

understand; and the following negotiation or agreement was immediately

entered into. I purchased two large blocks or tracts of land, about

600,000 acres, more or less, and, in consideration therefor, I gave them

blankets, knives, looking-glasses, tomahawks, beads, scissors, flour,

etc. I also further agreed to pay them a tribute or rent yearly. The

parchment, or deed was signed this afternoon by the eight chiefs, each

of them, at the same time, handing me a portion of the soil; thus giving

me full possession of the tracts of land I had purchased.

This most extraordinary sale and purchase took place by the side of a

lovely stream of water, from whence my land commenced. A tree was here

marked in four different ways, to define the corner boundaries. Good

land, to any extent, either for stock or tillage, with good water was

here in abundance, ready for sheep, cattle, or the plough. Our

negotiation was terminated by my Sydney natives giving our

newly-acquired friends a grand corroborree at night, much to their

delight. The group consisted, altogether, of forty-five men, women, and

children.

Sunday, _June 7th._ I awoke this morning with the agreeable

consciousness of my being able, like Alexander Selkirk, of school-boy

memory, to say: "I am monarch of all I survey; my right there is none to

dispute." With a view, however, of securing this right more permanently,

I busied myself with drawing up triplicates of the deeds of the land I

had purchased, and in delivering over to the natives more property. This

was done on the banks of the lovely little creek which I have named

Batman's Creek, as a memento of the novel and interesting transaction

occurring on its banks. After the purchase and payment at the conclusion

of the preliminaries, I had made preparation for departing, when two of

the principal chiefs approached, and laid their royal mantles at my

feet, begging my acceptance of them. Upon my acquiescing, the gifts were

placed around my neck and over my shoulders by the noble donors, who

seemed much pleased at their share in the transaction, and begged of me

to walk a pace or two in their (now my) princely vestments. I asked them

to accompany me to the vessel, to which request I received a rather

feeling reply, by their pointing, first to their children, and next to

their own naked feet, importing that they could not walk so fast as

ourselves, but would come down in a few day. In the course of the late

transaction, I had no difficulty in discovering their sacred and private

mark, so important in all their transactions, and universally respected.

I obtained a knowledge of this mark by means of one of my Sydney

natives, Bungit, who, going behind a tree, out of sight of the females

made the Sydney aboriginal mark. I afterwards took two others of my

natives, and the principal chief of Port Phillip to whom I showed the

mark on the tree, which he instantly recognized, and pointed, also, to

the knocking out of the front tooth. This mark is always made

simultaneously with the loss or extraction of the tooth. I requested

the chief through the interpretation of my Sydney natives, to give the

imprint of his mark. After a few minutes hesitation, he took a tomahawk

and did as he was desired, on the bark of a tree. A copy of this mark is

attached to the deed, as the signature and seal of their country.

About 10 a.m. I took my departure from these interesting people. The

principal chief could not be less than six feet four inches high, and

his proportions gigantic; his brother six feet two inches, also a fine

man. I recrossed Batman's Creek, and travelled over thinly-timbered

country of box, gum, wattle, and she-oak, with grass three of four feet

high. Travelling twelve miles down we came, subsequently, upon a

thinly-timbered forest of gum, wattle and oak. Here, for the first time,

the land became sandy, with a little gravel. The grass was ten inches

high, and resembled a field of wheat. We have not seen the slightest

appearance of frost. After leaving this forest, we came upon the river I

had gone up a few days before. Intending to come down on the opposite

side and hail the vessel, I crossed on the banks of the river, a large

marsh, one mile and a half broad by three or four long, of the richest

diluvium; not a tree was to be seen. Having crossed this marsh we passed

through a dense tea-tree scrub, very high, expecting to make the vessel

in the course of an hour or two, but, to our great surprise, when we got

through, we found ourselves on the banks of a much larger river than the

one we had originally gone up.

As it was now near sundown, and at least two days would be required to

head the river, I decided upon allowing two of my Sydney natives to swim

across it, and go to the vessel, distant about seven miles, to fetch the

boat. Bullet and Bungit started on this enterprise, and returned in

about three hours from the time of their departure. Their return with

the boat was most opportune as we had got on the point of junction of

the two rivers, where the tide had set in, and was already up to my

ankles. I first despatched the party with the dogs in the boat to the

opposite bank, and, on the return of the boat, myself and old Bull, who

had cut his foot, went in first-rate style, to the vessel. I hope my

travelling on foot will terminate, at least for some time. I had now

accomplished a most arduous undertaking, and, in order to secure the

fruits of my exertions I intend leaving Gumm, Dodds, Thomson, and three

of my Sydney natives--Bungit, Bullet, and old Bull--as overseers and

bailiffs of my newly acquired territory, and of the possession of which

nothing short of a premature disclosure of my discovery on the part of

my companions, can possibly deprive me. These people I intend leaving at

Indented Heads, as my head depot, with a supply of necessaries for at

least three months. The chiefs of the Port Phillip tribe made me a

present of three stone tomahawks, some spears, wommeras, boomerangs, and

other weapons of warfare.

_June 8th._ This morning the winds set in foul for Indented Heads, and,

having made several attempts to get out of the river, we gave it up as

hopeless. We went in the boat, up the large river coming from the east,

and after examination six miles up, I was pleased to find the water

quite fresh and very deep. This will be the place for the future

village.

TRANSPORTATION

+Source.+--Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on

Transportation (Molesworth, 1838), pp. 8-10, 31-33, 43

As Australia was shown to offer greater and greater attractions to

free settlers the agitation against transportation increased. In

1838 the British Government appointed a Select Committee to inquire

into and report upon the whole system. Their verdict is given

below.

To plant a colony, and to form a new society, has ever been an arduous

task. In addition to the natural difficulties arising from ignorance of

the nature of the soil, and of the climate of a new country, the first

settlers have generally had to contend with innumerable obstacles, which

only undaunted patience, firmness of mind, and constancy of purpose,

could overcome. But, whatever the amount of difficulties attendant on

the foundations of colonies, those difficulties were greatly augmented,

in New South Wales, by the character of the first settlers. The

offenders who were transported in the past century to America, were sent

to communities the bulk of whose population were men of thrift and

probity; the children of improvidence were dropped in by driblets

amongst the mass of a population already formed, and were absorbed and

assimilated as they were dropped in. They were scattered and separated

from each other; some acquired habits of honest industry, and all, if

not reformed by their punishment, were not certain to be demoralized by

it. In New South Wales, on the contrary, the community was composed of

the very dregs of society; of men, proved by experience to be unfit to

be at large in any society, and who were sent from the British gaols,

and turned loose to mix with one another in the desert, together with a

few task-masters, who were to set them to work in the open wilderness;

and with the military, who were to keep them from revolt. The

consequences of this strange assemblage were vice, immorality, frightful

disease, hunger, dreadful mortality among the settlers; the convicts

were decimated by pestilence on the voyage, and again decimated by

famine on their arrival; and the most hideous cruelty was practised

towards the unfortunate natives. Such is the early history of New South

Wales.

After sentence of transportation has been passed, convicts are sent to

the hulks or gaols, where they remain till the period of their departure

arrives. On board convict vessels the convicts are under the sole

control of the surgeon-superintendent, who is furnished with

instructions, as to his conduct, from the Admiralty. The precautions

which have been taken against disease, and the better discipline now

preserved in these ships, have applied an effectual remedy to the

physical evils of the long voyage to Australia, and prevented the

mortality amongst the prisoners which prevailed to a fearful extent

during the earlier periods of transportation. Little diminution,

however, has taken place in those moral evils, which seem to be the

necessary consequences of the close contact and communication between so

many criminals, both during the period of confinement previous to

embarkation, and during the weariness of a long voyage.

As soon as a convict vessel reaches its place of destination, a report

is made by the surgeon-superintendent to the governor. A day is then

appointed for the colonial secretary or for his deputy to go on board to

muster the convicts, and to hear their complaints, if they have any to

make. The male convicts are subsequently removed to the convict

barracks; the females to the penitentiaries. In New South Wales,

however, regulations have lately been established, by which, in most

cases, female convicts are enabled to proceed at once from the ship to

private service. It is the duty of an officer, called the principal

superintendent of convicts, to classify the newly-arrived convicts, the

greater portion of whom are distributed amongst the settlers as

assigned servants; the remainder are either retained in the employment

of the government, or some few of them are sent to the penal

settlements.

On the whole, your Committee may assert that, in the families of

well-conducted and respectable settlers, the condition of assigned

convicts is much the same as the condition of similar descriptions of

servants in this country; but this is by no means the case in the

establishment of all settlers. As the lot of a slave depends upon the

character of his master, so the condition of a convict depends upon the

temper and disposition of the settler to whom he is assigned. On this

account Sir George Arthur, late Governor of Van Diemen's Land, likened

the convict to a slave, and described him "as deprived of liberty,

exposed to all the caprice of the family to whose service he may happen

to be assigned, and subject to the most summary laws; his condition"

(said Sir George) "in no respect differs from that of the slave, except

that his master cannot apply corporal punishment by his own hands or

those of his overseer, and has a property in him for a limited period.

Idleness and insolence of expression, or of looks, anything betraying

the insurgent spirit, subject him to the chain-gang or the triangle, or

hard labour on the roads."

On the other hand, a convict, if ill-treated, may complain of his

master; and if he substantiate his charge the master is deprived of his

services; but for this purpose the convict must go before a bench,

sometimes a hundred miles distant, composed of magistrates, most of whom

are owners of convict labour. Legal redress is therefore rarely sought

for, and still more rarely obtained by the injured convict.

With regard to the general conduct of assigned agricultural labourers,

there was a considerable diversity of opinion. The evidence, however, of

Sir G. Arthur, appears to your Committee to be conclusive on this point,

with regard to which he wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies

in the following terms:

"You cannot, my Lord, have an idea of the vexations which accompany the

employment of convicts or of the vicissitudes attendant upon their

assignment. Their crimes and misconduct involve the settlers in daily

trouble, expense, and disappointment. The discipline and control of the

convicts in Van Diemen's Land is carried, perhaps, to a higher degree

than could have ever been contemplated. Many of the convicts have been

greatly reformed when in the service of considerate and judicious

masters; but, with all this abatement, there is so much peculation, so

much insubordination, insolence, disobedience of lawful orders, and so

much drunkenness, that reference to the magisterial authority is

constant, and always attended with loss of time and expense to the

settlers. There can be no doubt things appear better in the colony than

they really are; for, in numberless instances, masters are known to

submit to peculation rather than incur the additional expense of

prosecuting their servants. Two hundred felons, after having been for a

longtime under confinement in the gaols or hulks of England, and

subsequently pent up on board a transport, are placed in charge of the

masters or their agents to whom they have been assigned. The master has

then to take the convict to his home (either to the other extremity of

the island, a distance of 140 miles, or nearer, as the case may be), and

well would it be if he could get him quietly there, but the contrary is

of too frequent occurrence. Either with some money the convict has

secreted, or from the bounty of some old acquaintance, the assigned

servant, now relieved for the first time for some months from personal

restraint, eludes the vigilance of his new master, finds his way into a

public-house, and the first notice the settler has of his servant, for

whom he has travelled to Hobart Town, for whose clothing he has paid the

Government, for whose comfort he has, perhaps, made other little

advances, is, that he is lodged in the watch-house with loss of half his

clothing, or committed to gaol for felony."

The members of the anti-emancipist party in New South Wales attribute

the increase of crime in that colony partly to alleged relaxation of

convict discipline under Sir Richard Bourke; partly to the action of the

Jury Laws, which permit persons who have been convicts to become jurors;

and lastly, to the increasing number of emancipists.

The first-mentioned cause of the increase of crime in New South Wales

refers to the Quarter Session Act, passed in 1833; by that Act, the

summary jurisdiction of single magistrates over convicts, was somewhat

diminished, and a magistrate was prevented from inflicting more than 50

lashes for a single offence, instead of 150 which he might have given

before at three separate inflictions. These complaints do not seem to

your Committee to have the slightest foundation in fact, and Sir Richard

Bourke appears to have acted with wisdom, justice, and humanity in his

treatment of the convict population.

With regard to the second alleged cause of the increase of crime,

namely, the jury laws, your Committee need hardly repeat, that the

well-proven effect of transportation is to demoralize, not to reform an

offender; therefore, in a community like New South Wales, wherein so

large a proportion of the population are persons who have been convicts,

to permit such persons generally to sit upon juries must evidently have

an injurious effect. Your Committee, however, must observe, that under a

good system of punishment, an offender should, at the expiration of his

sentence, be considered to have atoned for his crimes, and he should be

permitted to commence a new career without any reference to his past

one.

With regard to the last alleged cause of the increase of crime, namely,

the increasing number of emancipists; little doubt, your Committee

think, can be entertained of the pernicious consequences of annually

turning loose a number of unreclaimed offenders on so small a community

as that of New South Wales.

One of the supposed advantages of transportation is, that it prevents

this country from being burthened with criminal offenders, after the

expiration of their sentences. It is now, however, evident that

transportation does not tend to diminish the sum total of offences

committed in the British Dominions; it may, perhaps, relieve Great

Britain and Ireland from a portion of their burthen of crime; though,

from the little apprehension which transportation produces, that fact

may be reasonably doubted. On the other hand, it only transfers and

aggravates the burthen upon portions of the British Dominions, which,

like New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land, are least able to bear it.

In 1836, the free population of New South Wales amounted to 49,255, of

whom about 17,000 had been convicts. In 1834, the free population of Van

Diemen's Land did not exceed 23,315, of whom about 3,000 were expirees.

Of the state of society in the towns of these colonies, a general idea

may be formed from a description of Sydney, according to the accounts

given of it, by the Chief Police Magistrate and by Mr. Justice Burton.

In 1836 Sydney covered an area of about 2,000 acres and contained about

20,000 inhabitants; of this number 3,500 were convicts, most of them in

assigned service, and about 7,000 had probably been prisoners of the

Crown. These, together with their associates amongst the free

population, were persons of violent and uncontrollable passions, which

most of them possessed no lawful means of gratifying; incorrigibly bad

characters, preferring a life of idleness and debauchery by means of

plunder to one of honest industry. Burglaries and robberies were

frequently perpetrated by convict servants in the town and its vicinity,

sometimes even in the middle of the day. No town offered so many

facilities for eluding the vigilance of the police as Sydney did. The

unoccupied bush near and within it afforded shelter to the offender and

hid him from pursuit. He might steal or hire a boat and in a few minutes

place an arm of the sea between himself and his pursuers. The want of

continuity in the buildings afforded great facilities for lying in wait

for opportunities of committing crime, for instant concealment on the

approach of the police, and for obtaining access to the backs of houses

and shops; and the drunkenness, idleness, and carelessness of a great

proportion of the inhabitants afforded innumerable opportunities and

temptations, both by day and night, for those who chose to live by

plunder. The greater portion of the shopkeepers and the middling class

had been convicts, for the tradesmen connected with the criminal

population have an advantage over free emigrants.

Those of the emancipists who were possessed of property had generally

acquired it by dishonest means, by keeping grog-shops, gambling-houses,

by receiving stolen goods, and by other nefarious practices; they led a

life of gross licentiousness; but their wealth and influence were such

that one-fourth of the jurors who served in the civil and criminal

courts during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, belonged to their number.

More immorality prevailed in Sydney than in any other town of the same

size in the British Dominions; there, the vice of drunkenness had

attained its highest pitch; the quantity of spirits consumed in Sydney

was enormous; even throughout the whole of New South Wales the annual

average, for every human being in the colony had reached four gallons a

head. Such, according to the authorities already quoted, are the towns

to which transportation has given birth; and such are the inmates

furnished to them by the criminal tribunals of this country.

Your Committee having, in the preceding pages of their Report, discussed

the nature and effects of transportation, and what alterations can be

made in the existing system, now consider that they have submitted the

most unquestionable proofs that the two main characteristics of

transportation, as a punishment, are inefficiency in deterring from

crimes, and remarkable efficiency, not in reforming, but in still

further corrupting those who undergo the punishment; that these

qualities of inefficiency for good, and efficiency for evil, are

inherent in the system, which, therefore, is not susceptible of any

satisfactory improvement; and lastly, that there belongs to the system,

extrinsically from its strange character as a punishment, the yet more

curious and monstrous evil of calling into existence, and continually

extending, societies, or the germs of nations most thoroughly depraved,

as respects both the character and degree of their vicious propensities.

Your Committee, therefore, are of the opinion that the present system of

transportation should be abolished, and will now proceed to offer a few

observations as to the description of punishment which, in their

opinion, ought to be substituted in the stead of transportation.

INDEPENDENCE OF VICTORIA

+Source.+--Port Phillip Gazette

In 1844 New South Wales (including the Port Phillip and Moreton Bay

districts) was granted representative government, but the distance

between Sydney and Melbourne and the disproportion of

representatives made it a farce as far as Port Phillip was

concerned. Melbourne proceeded to demonstrate to the British

Government the necessity for Separation. Victoria was established

as a separate colony in 1851.

_Jan. 3rd, 1848._ The Separation Despatch.--To such writers as cannot

comprehend the policy of the Russell administration, it is common to

decry everything which they have attempted, as stupid and impracticable;

but we, who deem ourselves wiser in our generation, view their conduct

in a very different light, and give them credit for no ordinary talent;

great energy, and more perseverance in our affairs, than can be, under

existing circumstances, ascribed to any Ministry in our day. They took

office at a period of great political excitement, and still they have

devoted much attention to Colonial interests; and they have

extraordinary claims upon our beloved Victoria, having granted us that

boon we long demanded in vain from former Ministers.

The Despatch officially announces that Earl Grey is to bring in a Bill

for the Separation of this, from the Middle District at last, and that

we will form a Colony of our own, under the new name of Victoria. The

Constitution of this Colony will to some extent be identified with those

of the other Australian Colonies.

At present, Earl Grey has put forth simply the general principles; the

details, he says, will form matter for serious consideration and anxious

deliberation.

We anticipate some of the Sydney papers will be coming out with a

cart-load of nonsense; running down Earl Grey's plan, but we will defend

it from their senseless and ignorant declamation.

Monday, _July 10th, 1848._ Political Gazette. The Elections.

Our readers must be aware that the writs for the election of members to

serve in the new Legislative Council of the Colony of New South Wales,

have been issued, and that his Worship the Mayor of Melbourne will hold

a meeting of the electors of the City of Melbourne, in front of the

Supreme Court House, La Trobe St. on Tuesday, 25th day of July, for the

nomination of a member to serve in said Council for the Electoral

District of Melbourne.

Wednesday, _July 19th, 1848._ The Elections.

The outrageous attempt to thrust Mr. Adam Bogue upon the District, as

one of our members for the Legislative Council, has displayed that we

are looked upon as a refuge for the destitute; and that the opinion of

Port Phillip in Sydney is, that any beardless boy without name,

character, or property may be raised upon our shoulders into an office

of great influence, and almost supreme importance.

We have the welfare of the district sincerely at heart, and we advise

the electors to return no members from Sydney. Let them nominate Port

Phillip men and Port Phillip residents whether they can go to Sydney or

not. We entreat the electors not to be made the instrument of

destruction to themselves; let them not elect Sydney members to plunder

Port Phillip.

Electors, place five Port Phillip men in nomination, and one half of

them may go up to Sydney, who would be worth a thousand Sydney Adam

Bogues.

Remember that the nomination will take place to-morrow, opposite the

Court House at noon. We have no wish to treat the pretensions of any

person who comes forward as a candidate for a public office with

disrespect; but we cannot regard the attempt of a young man of neither

standing nor capital to thrust himself into the Legislative Council on

Port Phillip influence, other than a piece of impertinence. We should,

however, have passed it unnoticed, had not this very same person

insulted every man in this Province so recently, by endeavouring to

throw Port Phillip out of the line of steam communication with

England--when Port Phillip wanted a friend he gave her a kick, and this

should have been the last district for Mr. Bogue to make an offer of his

services to.

Wednesday, _July 26th, 1848._ To-day's Election.

We approved of the principle of returning no members for the Legislative

Council (so far as the District was concerned) and we regret that an

attempt is about to be made to overthrow these proceedings, by returning

a Member for Melbourne in the person of J.F.L. Foster, Esq.

This is a question upon which, we are aware, some difference of opinion

exists; but, having commenced the principle, so far as the District is

concerned, we ought to carry it out; if we act otherwise it will be

thrown in the teeth of the citizens of Melbourne that they disfranchised

the District and then returned a Member on their own account to

represent their city.

There required, however, to be unanimity to accomplish this, and some of

the electors having proposed Mr. Foster as a fit and proper person to

represent the City; those who were in favour of carrying out the

principle already adopted at the District Meeting, had nothing left but

to bring forward an opponent to Mr. Foster, and in the person of the

Right Hon. Earl Grey has this opponent been found.

True, did the City wish to send a practical man, we are willing to

accede that Earl Grey is not in a position to sit and work for us in the

Council, but we wish, by electing a man who cannot act, at any rate for

eighteen months, to carry out the principle which the Electors of the

District have already agreed to be correct; we deem it then the duty of

every honest man in this community to give his vote to Earl Grey, not so

much out of respect for His Lordship, as to carry out a principle; a

principle to which we consider the honour of Melbourne to be pledged.

Mr. Foster is, no doubt, a very excellent kind of man, but having been

withdrawn by his friends, on the morning of the District Election, we

must look upon him as shelved for the present. Let us then return Earl

Grey as one member, and it may do us more good than we can well conceive

at present, as it will give His Lordship a practical illustration of our

helplessness, and thus hasten on Separation.

Hasten then, electors to the poll! and record your vote in favour of

Earl Grey and SEPARATION!!

The Poll commences at Nine o'clock this morning.

Saturday, _July 29th._ Domestic Gazette. Election of a Representative

for the City of Melbourne.--On Wednesday last, no little commotion was

created by the election of a member (nominally) to represent the

interests of the Citizens of Melbourne in the Legislative Council, but

the thinking portion of the community having arrived at the conclusion

that representation in the Legislative Council at Sydney, under existing

circumstances, was a farce, had determined, virtually, upon adopting a

similar course to that pursued at the nomination of Candidates for the

District, and the Right Hon. Earl Grey was consequently proposed as a

fit and proper person to represent our interests in the Legislative

Council, and this proposition, with two or three exceptions, met with

unanimous approval at the meeting. After the first hour's polling, it

was clear that Mr. Foster had no chance, and as this became more and

more apparent as the day advanced, some hundreds of voters who had

intended to support the favourite were deterred from doing so under a

conviction that their votes would not be required, and the unfavourable

state of the weather counteracted the desire to be present at the scene

of action. It was understood that the Mayor would, on the following day,

declare on whom the election had fallen, and at noon, many hundred

persons and, notwithstanding the still unfavourable state of the

weather, assembled outside the supreme Court House, and a few minutes

afterwards the excellent Band of the Total Abstinence Society, might be

seen wending their way to the spot, headed by Mr. J.P. Fawkner.

The Mayor addressed the Meeting as follows:--"Gentlemen, I have called

you together again for the purpose of declaring on whom the late

election has fallen, but previously to doing so I will read two

protests, one of which has been sent to a deputy returning officer, and

the other to myself." His worship then read the protests, which are as

follows:--"I, the undersigned burgher of Bourke Ward, do hereby protest

against the Returning Officer receiving any votes for the Right Hon.

Earl Grey, on the following grounds:--

"First, that Earl Grey as a Peer of the British Parliament cannot hold a

seat in a Colonial House of Legislative Representation.

"Second, That he cannot move Her Majesty in two distinct Legislatures.

"Third, That he is not qualified according to the Act.

"Fourth, That he is an absentee, and there is no one present to

represent him--to state that he will sit if elected.

(Signed) "Sidney Stephen, Barrister-at-law."

The Mayor remarked that these protests were very respectably signed, and

were deserving of attention, but although they were signed by numerous

lawyers he believed he was relieved of all difficulty on the subject by

being guided by the 96th clause of the Constitutional Act which rendered

it imperative that all complaints of this nature must be addressed in

the form of a petition to the Governor and must be addressed by one of

the candidates, or one-tenth of the whole of the electors. Several other

authorities were then referred to by His Worship, who expressed himself

thoroughly satisfied as to the course he ought to pursue, and announced

the following as the final state of the Poll in the Respective Wards.

WARDS GREY FOSTER

Gipps Ward . . 50 . . 17

La Trobe Ward . . 102 . . 15

Bourke Ward . . 43 . . 32

Lonsdale Ward . . 100 . . 28

___ ___

295 92

leaving a majority for Earl Grey of 203, who was declared amidst

enthusiastic cheering, to be duly elected as a member of the Legislative

Council for the Electoral District of the City of Melbourne.

GOLD

+Source.+--A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53

(Mrs. Charles Clacy), pp. 19-29, 82-85

Gold was discovered in Australia at a time when the people of every

nation in Europe were demanding a greater share in their respective

governments. Many who immigrated in search of gold took a leading

part in making the Australian Governments democratic.

Melbourne, 1852.--The non-arrival of the Mail-steamer left us now no

other care save the all-important one of procuring food and shelter.

Scouts were accordingly despatched to the best hotels; they returned

with long faces--"full." The second-rate, and in fact every respectable

inn and boarding or lodging-house were tried, but with no better

success. Here and there, a solitary bed could be obtained, but for our

digging-party entire, which consisted of my brother, four shipmates, and

myself, no accommodation could be procured, and we wished, if possible,

to keep together. "It's a case," ejaculated one. At this moment the two

last searchers approached, their countenances not quite so woebegone as

before. "Well?" exclaimed we all in chorus, as we surrounded them, too

impatient to interrogate at greater length. Thank Heavens! they had been

successful! The housekeeper of a surgeon, who with his wife had just

gone up to Forest Creek, would receive us to board and lodge for thirty

shillings a week each: but as the accommodation was of the indifferent

order, it was not yet as _une affaire arrangée_. On farther inquiry, we

found the indifferent accommodation consisted in there being but one

small sleeping-room for the gentlemen, and myself to share the bed and

apartment of the temporary mistress. This was vastly superior to

gipsying in the dirty streets, so we lost no time in securing our new

berths; and ere very long, with appetites undiminished by these petty

anxieties, we did ample justice to the dinner which our really kindly

hostess quickly placed before us.

The first night on shore after so long a voyage could scarcely seem

otherwise than strange, one missed the eternal rocking at which so many

grumble on board ship. Dogs (Melbourne is full of them) kept up an

incessant barking; revolvers were cracking in all directions till

daybreak, giving one a pleasant idea of the state of society. The next

few days were busy ones for all, though rather dismal to me, as I was

confined almost entirely indoors, owing to the awful state of the

streets; for in the colonies, at this season of the year, one may go out

prepared for fine weather, with blue sky above, and dry underfoot, and

in less than an hour, should a _colonial_ shower come on, be unable to

cross some of the streets without a plank being placed from the middle

of the road to the pathway, or the alternative of walking in water up to

the knees.

Our party, on returning to the ship the day after our arrival, witnessed

the French-leave-taking of all her crew, who, during the absence of the

Captain, jumped overboard, and were quickly picked up and landed by the

various boats about. This desertion of the ships by the sailors is an

every-day occurrence; the diggings themselves, or the large amount they

could obtain for the run home from another master, offer too many

temptations. Consequently, our passengers had the amusement of hauling

up from the hold their different goods and chattels; and so great was

the confusion, that fully a week elapsed before they were all got to

shore. Meanwhile, we were getting initiated into colonial prices--money

did, indeed, take to itself wings and fly away. Fire-arms were at a

premium; one instance will suffice--my brother sold a six-barrelled

revolver for which he had given sixty shillings at Baker's, in Fleet

Street, for sixteen pounds, and the parting with it at that price was

looked upon as a great favour. Imagine boots, and they were very

second-rate ones, at four pounds a pair. One of our between-deck

passengers who had speculated with a small capital of forty pounds in

boots and cutlery, told me afterwards that he had disposed of them the

same evening he landed at a net profit of ninety pounds--no trifling

addition to a poor man's purse. Labour was at a very high price,

carpenters, boot and shoe makers, tailors, wheelwrights, joiners,

smiths, glaziers, and, in fact, all useful trades, were earning from

twenty to thirty shillings a day--the very men working on the roads

could get eleven shillings per diem, and many a gentleman in this

disarranged state of affairs, was glad to fling old habits aside and

turn his hand to whatever came readiest. I knew one in particular, whose

brother is at this moment serving as a Colonel in the army in India, a

man more fitted for a gay London life than a residence in the Colonies.

The diggings were too dirty and uncivilized for his taste, his capital

was quickly dwindling away beneath the expenses of the comfortable life

he led at one of the best hotels in town, so he turned to what as a boy

he had learnt as an amusement, and obtained an addition to his income,

of more than four hundred pounds a year as house carpenter. In the

morning you might see him trudging off to his work, and before night

might meet him at some ball or soirée among the elite of Melbourne.

I shall not attempt an elaborate description of the town of Melbourne,

or its neighbouring villages. The town is very well laid out; the

streets (which are all straight, running parallel with and across one

another) are very wide, but are incomplete, not lighted, and many are

unpaved. Owing to the want of lamps, few, except when full moon, dare

stir out after dark. Some of the shops are very fair; but the goods all

partake too largely of the flash order, for the purpose of suiting the

tastes of successful diggers, their wives, and families; it is ludicrous

to see them in the shops--men who before the gold-mines were discovered

toiled hard for their daily bread taking off half-a-dozen thick gold

rings from their fingers, and trying to pull on to their rough,

well-hardened hands the best white kids, to be worn at some wedding

party, whilst the wife, proud of the novel ornament, descants on the

folly of hiding them beneath such useless articles as gloves.

The walking inhabitants are of themselves a study; glance into the

streets--all nations, classes, and costumes are represented there.

Chinamen, with pigtails and loose trousers; aborigines, with a solitary

blanket flung over them; Vandemonian pick-pockets, with cunning eyes and

light fingers--all, in fact, from the successful digger in his blue

serge shirt, and with green veil still hanging round his wideawake, to

the fashionably attired, newly-arrived "gent" from London, who stares

round him in amazement and disgust. You may see, and hear too, some

thoroughly colonial scenes in the streets. Once, in the middle of the

day, when passing up Elizabeth Street, I heard the unmistakable sound of

a mob behind, and as it was gaining upon me, I turned into the enclosed

ground in front of the Roman Catholic Cathedral to keep out of the way

of the crowd. A man had been taken up for horse-stealing, and a rare

ruffianly set of both sexes were following the prisoner and the two

policemen who had him in charge. "If but six of ye were of my mind,"

shouted one, "it's this moment you'd release him." The crowd took the

hint, and to it they set with right good will, yelling, swearing, and

pushing with awful violence. The owner of the stolen horse got up a

counter demonstration, and every few yards the procession was delayed by

a trial of strength between the two parties. Ultimately, the police

conquered; but this is not always the case, and often lives are lost and

limbs broken in the struggle, so weak is the force maintained by the

colonial government for the preservation of order.

THE DIGGINGS

Of the history of the discovery of gold in Australia I believe few are

ignorant. The first supposed discovery took place some sixty years ago

at Port Jackson. A convict made known to Governor Phillip the existence

of an auriferous region near Sydney, and on the locality being examined

particles of real gold-dust were found. Every one was astonished, and

several other spots were tried without success. Suspicion was now

excited, and the affair underwent a thorough examination, which elicited

the following facts: The convict, in the hope of obtaining his pardon as

a reward, had filed a guinea and some brass buttons, which, judicially

mixed, made a tolerable pile of gold-dust, and this he carefully

distributed over a small tract of sandy land. In lieu of the expected

freedom, his ingenuity was rewarded with close confinement and other

punishments. Thus ended the first idea of a gold-field in these

colonies.

Suddenly, in 1851, at the time that the approaching opening of the

Crystal Palace was the principal subject of attention in England, the

colonies of Australia were in a state of far greater excitement; as the

news spread like wildfire, far and wide, that gold was really there. To

Edward Hammon Hargreaves be given the honour of this discovery. This

gentleman was an old Australian settler, just returned from a trip to

California, where he had been struck by the similarity of the geological

formation of the mountain ranges in his adopted country to that of the

Sacramento district. On his return he immediately searched for the

precious metal; Ophir, the Turon, and Bathurst well repaid his labour.

Thus commenced the gold-diggings of New South Wales.

The good people of Victoria were rather jealous of the importance given

by these events to the other colony. Committees were formed and rewards

were offered for the discovery of a gold-field in Victoria. The

announcement of the Clunes diggings in July 1851 was the result; they

were situated on a tributary of the Lodden. On 8 September those of

Ballarat, and on the 10th those of Mount Alexander completely satisfied

the most sceptical as to the vast mineral wealth of the colony. Bendigo

soon was heard of, and gully after gully successfully attracted the

attention of the public by the display of their golden treasures.

EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY

+Source.+--The Gold Digger (Rev. David Mackenzie, M.A.), pp. 28-31

The excitement produced throughout the colonies, but especially in

Sydney and Melbourne, by the publication of the gold discovery, may be

inferred from the following facts: In one week upwards of 2,000 persons

were counted on the road to the Bathurst diggings, and only eleven

coming down. Hundreds of men, of all classes and conditions, threw up

their situations, and leaving their wives and families behind them,

started for the diggings. Whole crews ran away from their ships, which

were left to rot in our harbours, the men having willingly forfeited all

their wages, clothes, etc. Within one week the prices of the following

goods rose twenty-five per cent. in Sydney: flour, tea, sugar, rice,

tobacco, warm clothing, and boots. Throughout all the towns nothing was

saleable but provisions and diggers' tools and clothing. Every man who

could handle a pick or spade was off, or preparing to be off, for the

gold-fields. The roads were crowded with travellers, carriages, gigs,

drays, carts, and wheelbarrows; mixed up in one confused assemblage

might be seen magistrates, lawyers, physicians, clerks, tradesmen, and

labourers.

The building of houses, bridges, etc., was suspended for want of

tradesmen, nearly all of them having gone to the diggings. Many houses

might be seen half-finished for want of men to proceed with the work,

though the owners or contractors were offering enormously high wages to

any that would complete the work. The fields were left unsown, flocks of

sheep were deserted by their shepherds. With one stockholder who has

twenty thousand sheep, there remained only two men. Masters were seen

driving their own drays; and ladies of respectability and ample means

were obliged to cook the family dinner. Servants and apprentices were

off in a body; and even the very "devils" bolted from the newspaper

offices; in short, the yellow fever seized on all classes of society. In

twenty-four hours prices of provisions doubled at Bathurst and the

neighbouring places. In all our steamers and trading vessels the rate of

passage was raised, in consequence of the necessary increase in the

wages of seamen. All the trades held their meetings, at which a new

tariff of charges was agreed upon; and even the publicans raised at

least twenty-five per cent. the prices of their wines, beer, and

spirits.

Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand poured upon our shores shiploads of

adventurers, attracted by the golden news; and South Australia is now

almost drained of its labouring population, one of the consequences of

which is that the shares in the famous Burra Burra copper mines there

have fallen from £230 to £45, a fall which has entailed ruin on

hundreds.

In walking along the streets of Sydney or Melbourne you hear nothing

talked about but gold; you see nothing exhibited in shop windows but

specimens of gold, or some article of equipment for the gold-digger. In

every society gold is the interminable topic of conversation; and

throughout the colonies the only newspapers now read are those which

contain intelligence from our golden fields.

Soon after the discovery the Government of New South Wales, seeing that

it could not prevent the community from digging for gold on Crown lands,

quietly made virtue of necessity, and merely sought to legalize and

regulate the diggings by the following announcement, published in the

"Official Gazette":

THE GOLD MINES

Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, _23rd May, 1851._

Licenses to Dig and Search for Gold.

With reference to the Proclamation issued on the 22nd May instant,

declaring the rights of the Crown in respect to Gold found in its

natural place of deposit within the territory of New South Wales, His

Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, has

been pleased to establish the following Provisional Regulations, under

which Licenses may be obtained, to search for, and remove the same:

1. From and after the first day of June next, no person will be

permitted to dig, search for, or remove gold on or from any land,

whether public or private, without first taking out and paying for a

License in the form annexed.

2. For the present, and pending further proof of the extent of the

Gold-field, the License fee has been fixed at £1 10_s._ per month, to be

paid in advance; but it is to be understood that the rate is subject to

future adjustment, as circumstances may render expedient.

3. The Licenses can be obtained on the spot, from the Commissioner who

has been appointed by His Excellency the Governor, to carry these

regulations into effect, and who is authorized to receive the fee

payable thereon.

4. No person will be eligible to obtain a License, or the renewal of a

License, unless he shall produce a certificate of discharge from his

last service, or prove to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that he

is not a person improperly absent from hired service.

5. Rules, adjusting the extent and position of land to be covered by

each License and for the prevention of confusion, and the interference

of one License with another will be the subject of early regulation.

6. With reference to lands alienated by the Crown, in fee simple, the

Commissioner will not be authorized for the present to issue Licenses

under the regulations to any persons but the proprietors, or persons

authorized by them in writing to apply for the same.

By his Excellency's command,

E. FEAS THOMSON.

VICTORIA IN 1854

+Source.+--The Golden Colony (G.H. Wathen, 1855), pp. 49-53, 78-81

Even on the spot it is often very difficult to learn when, by whom, and

in what manner, a new gold district is first discovered. When the yield

of an old working begins to fail, the diggers throw out small

"prospecting" parties of twos and threes, to explore promising

localities. These "prospectors" may occasionally make important

discoveries; but far more frequently they are the result of chance, or

of the desultory efforts of shepherds and other servants of the settlers

resident in the particular locality. It sometimes happens that a digging

party, travelling from one district to another, camp for a night in a

valley which they may think looks very promising. Being delayed here,

perhaps, by the loss of their horse, or some other accident, they sink a

pit or "hole" in a "likely spot." At length some one strikes a rich

deposit. If so, it cannot long remain a secret. A few dozens or scores

are shortly at work on the adjacent ground; and if these too are

successful the news spreads like wild-fire, and within a week all the

roads and tracks leading to the spot are covered with diggers and their

carts, on the way to the new Dorado--the _newest_ being always by report

the _best_ and richest. In a few days the hills around the new working

are dotted over with white tents, the forest around them quickly

disappears, being felled for firewood. Government, on hearing of the

discovery, sends down a Commissioner with a body of horse and foot

police. These establish a camp on some central elevated position, and an

irregular wide street of tents springs up like magic in the valley

below. There are stores, large and small; butchers' shops; doctors'

little tents; and innumerable refreshment booths, where, under the guise

of selling lemonade and home-made beer, an extensive illicit trade is

carried on in vile, adulterated, and often poisonous spirits. The

blacksmith is always one of the first on the ground, and presently

extemporises a forge out of a few loose stones or turf-sods. Flags are

flying from the stores and shops, and give gaiety to the scene. The

Union Jack floats proudly above the Government camp on the hill, and

military sentinels are on duty before the gold-tent.

As the diggers reach the spot they pitch their tents on the lower slopes

of the hills or in the green flats. At night their watch-fires gleam far

and wide, and from a neighbouring height the place has the appearance of

a large town illuminated. A new goldfield is the favourite resort of

horse stealers, thieves, and miscreants of all kinds, who, lost in the

crowd and confusion, here find ample opportunities for carrying on their

nefarious practices. Their common haunts are the "sly grog-shops" which

spring up like weeds on all sides. Here they rendezvous, and concoct

those deeds of darkness which have given the colony such an unenviable

fame.

Horses are stolen and ridden off to Melbourne, Geelong, or to the

nearest goldfield and sold by auction. The roads leading to the new

diggings become infested with bushrangers; stories of being "stuck up"

(or robbed) are more and more frequent; till at length a cartload of

ruffians, heavily handcuffed, is seen moving towards the Government Camp

well guarded by mounted troopers. These are the bushrangers who have

been hunted down and just captured by the troopers. And now for a time

the roads are safe.

No life can be more independent and free than that of the Australian

digger; no travelling more agreeable than summer travelling in the Bush;

carrying about with you in your cart your tent, your larder, and all

your domestic appointments. In choosing a halting place for the night

you have the whole country open to you--no walls or hedges to shut you

in to a dusty turnpike road. You drink from the clear running creek; the

soft green turf is your carpet; your tent your bedroom. Your horse duly

hobbled, enjoys the fresh pasturage around. The nearest fallen tree

supplies you with fuel for your evening fire.

One of the most fruitful sources of discontent was the method of

collecting the gold revenue. When the first discoveries were made at

Ballarat, the Melbourne Government, following the example of that at

Sydney, issued regulations by which all miners were required to procure

a monthly license to dig for gold, and to pay 30_s._ for the same. But

how was this tax to be enforced among a migratory population, living in

tents scattered through a forest? The mode adopted was, to send out

armed bands of police, who, coming down suddenly on a gully or flat,

spread themselves over it demanding of everyone his license. A few

mounted troopers formed part of the force to cut off defaulters who

might attempt to fly. All who could not produce their license were

captured and marched off, probably some miles, to the nearest

magistrates, and, after some detention, were either fined £5, or

imprisoned for a month. Such a system naturally led to great discontent

and irritation. At some of the goldfields a curious plan was hit upon

for evading these inquisitorial visits. No sooner was a party of police

seen approaching than the diggers raised the cry of "Joe! Joe!" The cry

was taken up, and presently the whole length of the gully rang with the

shouts "Joe! Joe! Joe!" and of course all defaulters instantly made off

for the depths of the forest.

The dissatisfaction was exasperated by the method of collecting the

license fee. The collector did not call on the tax payer, but the latter

had to seek the collector. The digger was compelled to walk from his own

gully to the Commissioner's Camp--distant, perhaps, several miles--and

then often wait for hours under a fierce sun while a crowd of others,

who had arrived before him, were paying their 30_s._, or weighing their

half ounce of gold. Greater facilities were indeed subsequently offered

for the payment of the fee, but the mode of enforcing it continued the

same. The diggers complained loudly and unceasingly of these harsh and

un-English measures. "First you tax our labour," said they, "and then

you collect your tax at the point of the bayonet." The dislike of the

system was universal; disputes were frequent, and collisions between the

police and diggers sometimes occurred.

Another of the diggers' grievances was the extreme insecurity of life

and property on the mines. While the police force were snugly housed at

headquarters, in a peaceable and orderly neighbourhood, the populous and

remote gullies were the nightly scenes of deeds of robbery and violence.

Every evening men were knocked down and brutally treated or "stuck up"

and robbed. Every night horses were stolen, tents broken into, and

"holes" plundered of gold by the "night fossickers"--miscreants who

watched for the richest "holes" during the day, marked them, and

plundered them at night. In October 1852 at a place called Moonlight

Flat (near Forest Creek), these desperadoes had become so numerous and

shameless, and their outrages so frequent, that the miners rose _en

masse_ against them. A public meeting was convened; blue-shirted diggers

made stirring appeals to their auditory; a deputation was appointed to

proceed instantly to Melbourne to remonstrate with the Government, and

to implore it to adopt energetic measures for extirpating the "hordes of

ruffians" that infested their neighbourhood, and the persons of many of

whom were well known there.

THE BUSHRANGERS

+Source.+--The Golden Colony (G.H. Wathen, 1855), pp. 138, 143-150

The combination of convictism in Tasmania and gold in Victoria and

New South Wales produced bushranging on a large scale. Convicts now

had a chance of living well if they escaped, and many took

advantage of the opportunity.

If the Australian roads in winter may be well likened to those English

roads of 200 years ago, out of which the King's Coach had to be dug by

the rustics, so may the Australian Bushranger be regarded as the

legitimate representative of the traditionary highwayman who levied toll

at Highgate, or stopped the post-boy and captured the mailbags in Epping

Forest. The real, living bushranger is, however, more of a ruffian and

less of a hero than our ideal highwayman; for time, like distance,

softens down the harsh and the coarse, and gives dignity to the ignoble.

Never, perhaps, did a country offer so tempting a field to the public

robber as Victoria did during the first year or two after the gold

discovery. The interior was wild and uninhabited, abounding with lonely

forests. Travellers were numerous, and mostly carried money or gold; for

none were poor. The roadside public-houses were daily the scenes of

drunken revelry. The police were few and untrained; and the mixed and

scattered population at the several diggings offered a ready asylum in

case of pursuit. Add to all this that, separated from Victoria by a mere

strait, was the depot for the most accomplished villains of Great

Britain, and it needed no prophet to foresee that the roads of the new

gold country would very soon be swarming with thieves and desperadoes.

It is no uncommon occurrence in the Australian Colonies for a large

number of shearers or others collected in the hut in the country to be

"stuck up," that is, subdued and bound, by two or three determined

bushrangers. Fifteen or sixteen strong active men may be thus treated,

and have been, frequently. At first, one is ready to conclude either

that they must have a private understanding with the robbers or else be

the veriest poltroons. I thought so myself till I had an account of one

of these affairs from a man who had been one of a large party thus

"stuck up" by two very notorious bushrangers, the life and death of

whom, would furnish materials for a romance. Their names were Dalton

and Kelly, and they will long be famous in the annals of daring and

outrage in Van Diemen's Land.

Dalton was a stout, powerful man, and about thirty years of age at the

time of the rencontre I am about to describe. His accomplice Kelly, was

about twenty-three years old. They were both prisoners of the Crown in

Van Diemen's Land. Dalton was transported at an early age, and had for a

time been confined in the "Ocean Hell" of Norfolk Island, the gaol of

the double-damned convict; but was afterwards taken back to Van Diemen's

Land. From the same informant I learned some particulars of their

escape. They were confined in a penal establishment on a strait or an

arm of the sea, wide enough, it was thought, to preclude the possibility

of flight. Dalton, Kelly, and five or six other prisoners, however,

weary of a wretched life, determined to risk that life for liberty; and

having one day eluded the vigilance of their guards, attempted, though

their legs were weighed down with fetters, to swim to the opposite

shore. One after another their strength failed them; they sank and

disappeared till at length only Kelly and Dalton survived. Kelly's

strength was rapidly waning, when Dalton called out to him "Catch hold

of me, Kelly! I can swim another hour yet."

When at last they both got safe to land, Dalton exclaimed, "Well, thank

God, I shall have one comrade at any rate."

They now quickly freed themselves from their irons, procured arms, and,

knowing that they would certainly be hotly pursued they at once started

on a marauding expedition, visiting the neighbouring stations in

succession, and pillaging each; intending eventually, to make their way

across Bass's Straits to Victoria. Dalton was a very formidable fellow;

strong, active, and resolute, reckless of human life, and now rendered

desperate by despair. He was, too, a first-rate marksman, and could

"stick up a glass bottle."

What follows is an account given me by my informant. Kelly came up to

the hut, which was full of men. I was standing at the door at the time,

but did not know who the man was. When he came close he asked me if I

had heard that the bushrangers were out. I answered "Yes, I had." Then

he pointed his gun at me, and said "I'm one of them. Go into the hut." I

went in, but on turning round I saw one of my mates standing against the

hut in a corner, with another man standing over him, covering him with

his gun. The other was Dalton, Kelly's mate. After I had gone into the

hut, Kelly stood at the open doorway, with his gun pointed at those

inside, swearing he would murder the first man who moved an inch. There

were about fourteen men in the hut. Then he asked if there were any

prisoners among them. One man said that he was. Kelly then ordered him

to tie their arms together, one by one.

While doing so, one man complained that he was being tied too tight; but

this only drew forth another volley of oaths and threats from Kelly.

When all were secured, Kelly went out to assist Dalton who still stood

over the man whom he had pinned to the wall of the hut, threatening to

shoot him if he stirred. Kelly then tied up his hands while Dalton

continued covering him with the gun. He was then marched into the hut to

join the others. And now Dalton began walking up and down the hut

haranguing his prisoners. "He'd no doubt" he said "that some of them

might be good and honest men, and some scoundrels. That for his part, he

wouldn't hurt a hair of any good man's head, if he could help it. But he

had been forced to take to this sort of life. It wasn't his fault. He

had been lagged (transported) when only twelve years of age; had since

then over and over again tried to obtain his freedom by good conduct;

but they wouldn't give it him, and it was useless to try any more by

fair means. And he had now sworn to gain his freedom, or lose his life

in the attempt. He didn't want to hurt anyone. What he wanted was money;

and money he would have, come what, come might. He'd show them presently

whether he was game or not. He'd go into the master's house and bring

out, single-handed the man he wanted, no matter how many he might find

there. But let them beware. If any man dared to move or tried to escape

he swore he'd scatter his brains about the yard, and blow the roof off

his head."

Dalton now left the hut, and went to the house of the settler, their

master, which was close at hand. All this time the household knew

nothing of what had been passing in the hut. He entered, and went

straight up to the sitting-room, where several gentlemen and ladies

happened to be collected. He opened the door, and deliberately advanced

with his gun pointed at those within. But a lady, who chanced to be

behind the door, on seeing the levelled gun, slammed the door in the

robber's face. This was a timely diversion, and the signal for a

general scattering of those present.

The men in the hut were subsequently tried for collusion with the

bushrangers; but when asked how they could suffer two men to "stick up"

so many, one replied to the magistrate, that, with their permission, he

would himself "stick up" the whole Bench.

The free servants were acquitted; those of the party who were prisoners

of the Crown were sentenced to imprisonment; but on Government being

petitioned by their free mates, who protested the innocence of all, they

were liberated.

After this the two bushrangers boldly carried on their depredations,

roaming about from station to station, "sticking up" the men, and

robbing the masters; while a large party of the police were following on

their track. One day they came to a hut full of men, and, opening the

door, tried the old plan of intimidation by standing with loaded

double-barrelled pieces in the doorway, and threatening with deep oaths

to "drop" the first man of them, who moved hand or foot. But it happened

that several of the pursuing constables were within the hut. One of

them, named Buckmaster, rushed towards Dalton. The robber fired and the

constable fell dead. Dalton still stood unmoved in the doorway, with his

levelled gun, and calmly said "Ah, how d'ye like that? Now, then, I'm

ready for another!" This coolness saved them both and for a time they

escaped capture. But such an outrage on one of their officers roused the

Government. A large reward was offered for the capture of the two

bushrangers, and they were hunted through the island more hotly than

ever.

Driven to desperation, they seized upon a whaleboat; by threats pressed

four boatmen into their service, and actually compelled them to work the

boat across Bass's Straits to the opposite shores of Victoria. Here they

safely landed on the solitary coast of Western Port and made their way

up to Melbourne. News of the escape of these formidable and

blood-stained freebooters had been immediately transmitted to the

authorities of Victoria. As they had left Van Diemen's Land in an open

whaleboat, there was no doubt but that they would make for the Western

Port shores; and the Victoria police, stimulated by the hope of a large

reward, were keenly looking out for two persons answering to the

published description of the robbers. The boatmen who had conveyed them

across the Strait were seen and arrested at Dandenong, between Western

Port and the Capital; but no further trace of the bushrangers could be

obtained. The Melbourne newspapers furnish us with the conclusion of the

tragedy.

The following account of the capture of the chief of these desperadoes,

from the Melbourne "Argus" is more like a page from a romance than a

passage in real life. It is one more instance of what appears like a

special Providence laying its resistless hand on a murderer at the very

moment when he seemed to have secured his escape, and dragging him forth

to public justice. Within four hours after his capture, Dalton would

have been on board a ship bound for England.

"Between eleven and twelve o'clock on Friday night, Dalton entered a

coffee-shop in Bourke Street, in company with a man who had engaged to

put him on board the _Northumberland_ at daylight the next morning from

Sandridge, and for which he was to pay £4. This man, we understand, was

quite ignorant of the person he was bargaining with. Dalton asked the

proprietors of the shop, if they could change him some Van Diemen's Land

Notes for gold, as he was about to embark for England. They could not do

it, but a gentleman named Brice, formerly a cadet in the police force,

suspecting all was not right, said that he could, as he was a

gold-broker, if Dalton would only accompany him to his office. To this

Dalton consented, and placed three £20 and one £10 notes of the

Launcestoun Bank in his hands. They then left the shop together; the

night was extremely dark; the stranger, however, led the way, Dalton and

the boatman following close behind. After proceeding some little way,

they turned into Little Collins St. and by the back entrance, into the

yard of the Police Court. Here it was so dark that the outline of the

building could not be distinguished. The guide then showed them the door

of his alleged office which was no other then the clerk's room of the

Swanston St. watch-house. The man at the door was in plain clothes, and

within were several of the detective officers, and two

watch-housekeepers at the books, all, however, in private costume. Once

in, Mr. Brice stated that he had brought these men to the station on

suspicion of having come by the notes wrongfully.

"Dalton at this time must have known where he was, but made no

observation beyond affirming that they were his, and making some

remarks relative to his being brought there on so paltry an accusation.

During this he was smoking a cigar, and behaving himself in a careless

nonchalant manner. Meanwhile, the detectives were making use of their

eyes, and seeing if the descriptions they possessed corresponded with

the figures before them. The watch-house keeper finding that Mr. Brice

had no charge to prefer against him, returned Dalton his notes, who was

about to leave the office, when Detectives Williams, Murray, and Eason

pounced upon him, and fixed him in a corner. Dalton endeavoured to draw

a pistol from his belt, but was prevented and overpowered. Finding

himself mastered, he said, 'You have got the reward of £500. My name is

Dalton!' He then said if he had only seen the bars of the station-house

window, as he was entering, he would have sent a ball through his

conductor. He further said that he had been in the Police Court that

morning, and had recollected going up a flight of steps which he did not

see that night, as he had been led in the back way, and had he but seen

these steps, his guide would have been a dead man. He was then

handcuffed and searched, and two large horse-pistols heavily loaded and

capped, besides a small one, were taken from his belt; he was then

locked up."

Kelly, the other accomplice, was arrested the next day, and both were

sent back to Van Diemen's Land, tried, and executed.

ANTI-TRANSPORTATION MOVEMENT

+Source.+--Port Phillip Gazette, 21st January 1851

The uselessness of protests against Transportation from the various

states, proved the necessity for the whole of Australia to act

together in external affairs. Thus the inauguration of the

Anti-Transportation League was the first step towards Federation.

BREAKFAST TO THE TASMANIAN DELEGATES

On Monday, the members and promotors of the Launceston Association for

securing the cessation of transportation, entertained at Public

breakfast the gentlemen delegated to represent the interests of the

Colony at the Australian Conference, which is about to be held in

Melbourne. A cold collation was prepared at the Cornwall, and about 100

gentlemen sat down, amongst whom were many magistrates and gentlemen

representing the most influential and respectable portions of the

northern and midland districts. Breakfast being concluded, the Chairman

rose, and said, it was a matter of pleasure to him to meet so large and

respectable a body of gentlemen, some of whom he had known for a quarter

of a century. They had not assembled to petition; it was a truth

deplorable and sad that petitions had hitherto been unavailing and they

were now met to force from Her Majesty's Government, relief from an evil

of which history presented no parallel. (Hear, hear.) Petition after

petition had been transmitted home, but the prayers of the Community had

been constantly rejected. It now remained to try other means.

The Rev. J. West rose and said he felt some embarrassment in addressing

that meeting. He, however, felt grateful for their recognition of his

appointment, and should rely on their indulgence during the few moments

he might address them. The colonists had been led up to a position from

which it was impossible to recede. Van Diemen's Land must obtain a share

in the general freedom, or for ever sink. They had petitioned for a

cessation of transportation; whilst there was a possibility of the other

colonies receiving a portion of the convicts annually sent from Britain,

they expected by the more general distribution to experience some

relief. But the resistance of the other colonies had removed the faint

anticipation, and shut up to us this last hope--to our union with them.

When it was proposed to solicit the co-operation of the adjacent

colonies, some persons prophesied a failure; it was thought by some,

improbable that the colonies would feel any interest in our fate. But

the heart of an Englishman is ever susceptible of pity; and when we

spoke of our wrongs they listened; and when we exposed the enormous

danger, they consulted their own safety, and came forward to our help.

Let us look well to our position. We have to change the policy and

contend against the power of a mighty Empire. In the effervescence and

excitement of public speaking it was not at all surprising that a threat

should sometimes be uttered; but many years must elapse before an appeal

to physical force would bear even the semblance of reason. We have, then

a mighty Empire to contend against--one which can laugh our threatening

to scorn. And what are the weapons we must employ? What, but the weapons

of truth? We must diffuse right information; we must expose our

wrongs--and we must appeal to the justice of the British Nation. Let

the evils and injuries under which this fair domain of the Crown now

suffers, be laid before the English people, and a cry will be heard from

Land's End to the opposite shore, "transportation shall cease because it

degrades the British name." (Cheers.) The injuries resulting from

transportation to the colony are various. A gentleman, however eminent

his station and virtues, going to a distant part of the world must

cautiously suppress the fact, that he came from Van Diemen's Land, or

even this quarter of the globe. (Hear, hear.) Yes, Sir, our sons, who

have quitted this colony in search of a home denied them in the land of

their birth, have been compelled to conceal the place from which they

came, and to drop into the box, by stealth, those letters which were to

relieve parental anxiety, and express their filial affection. And is

this to be for ever endured? Shall our own children never know the

pleasure and pride of patriotism? Shall we not ask all the colonies of

the Australian empire to aid us in our struggle? Shall we not confide in

the justice of Australasia?

When it is said that England cannot support 4,000 or 5,000 offenders the

question naturally occurs: What has she not done? Did not England for

her Continental wars incur a debt of £800,000,000: did she not give

£20,000,000 to free her West India slaves; did she not expend £7,000,000

to combat the famine of Ireland? Is not the proposed expenditure for the

National Executive of the present year an evidence of her boundless

opulence? And yet to save a trifling outlay compared with the injustice

now done, the representative of Her Majesty is compelled to carry about

under his skirts a parcel of convictism; to deposit these tokens of

imperial interest he is driven to have recourse to artifice, trickery

and falsehood. (Hear, hear.) As England glories in her past history, and

has found means to keep afloat that flag which has never been lowered;

so she must find means to carry on a nobler struggle with her own

poverty and crime. Hitherto, Van Diemen's Land has not been heard at

home; but if by the united voices of the other colonies, a sort of

telegraphic communication can be opened with Britain, if a speaking

trumpet be formed, we shall be heard. When he (Mr. West) heard that

Ministers had departed from their promise that transportation should

cease, he was astonished and desponding--he thought that if a promise so

solemnly given could be so recklessly broken, hope was delusion. But as

in the moral, so it is in the political world. The Divine Being

frequently ordains that good shall arise out of apparent evils; that a

tedious delay shall make the remedy more perfect. Had we been relieved

when Ministers promised; then, transportation to the other colonies

would have been continued, and its evils accumulate there. (Hear, hear.)

When it was proposed that all the colonies should receive a share of

convicts, all things considered, he, (the speaker) for one could not

have then objected to Van Diemen's Land being joined in the co-partnery.

Had such been the case a century might have elapsed before the reproach

of convictism had been removed from this hemisphere. But the refusal of

the other colonies occasioned by the injuries inflicted on this, has

roused us all into action, and now all declare that not a man, no, not

one--in fetters shall be landed in Australia. (Tremendous cheering.)

If an unfortunate offender becomes as a penitent desirous of amending

his life, and disposed to conform to the usages, and claims of honest

society, he will find no man here spitefully to remind him of his former

errors. But if he is brought wearing the badge of disgrace we will not

have him. We will say to the British Government "Until you can with

safety discharge him into your community, he shall not enter ours."

(Loud Cheers.) This is the righteous principle upon which we have taken

our stand. Whilst we were disputing among ourselves who should bear the

load, we were likely to be sacrificed by our ungenerous divisions. But

we have now a new principle; and a principle is a wedge--if sufficient

force is applied, every obstacle will be riven into shivers. We now say

that no man should be an involuntary gaoler, much less shall the

inhabitants of these colonies be the penal slaves and gaolers of the

British Empire. (Cheers.) We assert that a community should deal with

its own crime, at least so deal with it that in its disposal it shall

not injure those who never offended--so at least that the honest and

industrious labourer should not be brought into unfavourable comparison

and competition with the hardened criminal, so that, at all events our

sons shall not be driven from their homes to seek employment in distant

lands--to meet there suspicion and contempt. These are the wrongs of

which we complain--wrongs which could never have been perpetrated but in

oblivion of that first great Law, alike the basis of private and public

virtue: "do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." The

Rev. gentleman resumed his seat amidst loud and prolonged cheering.

W.P. WESTON, ESQ.--It was with mingled feelings that he rose to address

that meeting; but when he ascertained that Mr. West was to accompany

him, he lost all fear, and at once accepted the invitation.

It had not been considered necessary to furnish them with written

instructions how to act; it was left entirely to their own judgement;

they had, as it were, a _carte blanche_; but he thought it advisable to

mention one or two points towards which he and his colleague would

direct public attention on the other side of the Straits. The first was,

that transportation as hitherto conducted, was altogether and entirely

rotten. He anticipated no very great difficulty in establishing that

point. The next was, that no country had a right to force its crime upon

a distant and unoffending one; it was a moral wrong. He was much struck

at a remark which appeared in the Public journals in Melbourne. It seems

to have been the custom of some persons to collect all the filth and

rubbish from their persons and during the night to force it upon the

premises of their neighbours. Now, these persons were designed

miscreants, the paragraph commenced "the miscreants have been at work

again." But he considered that the Government who would force a mass of

moral filth upon a small and helpless colony were miscreants in the very

worst sense of the term. (Hear, hear.) However severely the evils of

convictism may have been felt in this community, they will be felt at

Melbourne in a greater degree. Any evil may be counter-balanced and

perhaps removed, if it can only be seen. The convicts come to this land

under restraint and are completely at the disposal of the Government,

but after completing their education in a chain-gang, and filling up, as

it were, the measure of their iniquity they go over there where they are

unknown to the police and consequently their crimes escape detection.

The very worst characters amongst us proceed to the neighbouring

colonies as soon as an opportunity offers. This fact accounts for the

insecurity of property at Melbourne. A short time ago he was there and

not more than two or three days after his arrival the linen which had

been put out for washing, was stolen. Shortly after whilst the family

were sitting at tea, information was given that the bedroom window was

open and upon proceeding to ascertain the cause it was discovered that

a thief had effected an entrance and carried off whatever he could lay

his hands upon.

A letter lately received mentions that six gentlemen's horses in one

locality had been robbed and that Melbourne was full of thieves. (A

laugh.) No opportunity had previously offered of talking to the

Melbourne people upon the subject, they were so occupied in endeavours

to obtain separation from Sydney that every question was lost sight of;

but now the matter was settled he did not apprehend any difficultly in

establishing this point also.

We are a loyal people, and have given abundant proof of our loyalty; but

it is not an unalterable principle. There is an old Spanish

proverb--"The sweetest wine makes the sourest vinegar," and so it will

be with us.

But the British Government must, and will yield, for they will find it

will be to their interest, as well as their duty to grant the reasonable

request of the Australian Colonies. (Cheers.)

Three cheers were then given for the Chairman, and three more for the

Queen, and the meeting terminated.

THE LAND QUESTION

The adjustment of the English land laws to Australian requirements was a

difficult task. The question was discussed in New South Wales in 1855,

but South Australia, under the leadership of Torrens, was the first to

effect reform (1859).

LAND QUESTION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

+Source.+--Speeches on the Reform of the Law of Real Property (Torrens,

1858), pp. 5-6, 8-11

Extract from an address to the Electors of the City of Adelaide

delivered in the Theatre on 31st January, 1857. (From the South

Australian Register of February 2nd, 1857).

The next topic which I have put down to address you upon, is one with

respect to which I should have wished to have had time to arrange my

thoughts--it is the cheapening of the law of Conveyancing of real

property. (Applause.) Next to affording fair facilities for obtaining

possession of the waste lands of the Crown, and converting them into

cornfields and homesteads of independent yeomanry, it is the duty of

the State to afford a cheap and at the same time a secure mode of

conveying that property from man to man. (Hear, hear.) I have for years

felt that the law of England in that respect, which we brought with us,

required amendment. In looking also to the laws of other countries with

respect to the transfer, mortgage, or encumbrance of real property, I

have come to the conclusion that the law of England is inferior to most

of them with regard to cost and security of title. The old Conservative

feeling of England adheres with a sort of veneration to laws and usages

respecting title which originated under the feudal system, and is loath

to abandon them for a system adapted to the requirements of modern

civilization. I would illustrate my views by observing that, in ancient

times, before the Wars of the Roses, a baron, or even a yeoman, would

surround his residence with a moat to be crossed only by a drawbridge,

and instead of the convenient door of modern times, he would have a

portcullis, which he would raise or let fall to admit a friend, or

exclude a foe. A visitor, too, would have instead of gaining immediate

access, to sound a horn at an outer gate, and hold parley with a warder

upon a lofty tower, before he could gain admission. There could be no

doubt that all these ceremonies and parleyings were necessary in those

days, but it does not follow that we should carry them out in our times.

Were any person now, to surround his residence with a deep and broad

ditch, and observe those ceremonies when a visitor called upon him, we

would call him insane; yet, that is precisely what we do with regard to

the transfer of real estate, observing still the tortuous roundabout

methods of conveying, resorted to in those days for the purpose of

evading the oppressions of feudalism. Nay, the analogy is so strong,

that in our Law Courts, and Deeds we still use the same barbarous Norman

French jargon in which the parley was in those ancient days held at the

gate of the baronial residence. (Hear, and applause.) It is perhaps

presumptuous of a person who has not received a legal education, to

address his mind to this question; seeing, however, that the persons

who, by ability, and education, are best fit to cope with the subject,

are not willing, or, at least have not done so, I have taken the task

upon myself. (Hear, hear). With your permission, I will give you an

outline of the plan. The purchaser of land from the Crown shall receive

a title deed, a land grant, as at present to be executed in duplicate,

and one copy filed in the Registrar-General's office. When an original

purchaser sells the land to another, he shall transfer it by a simple

memorandum, which being brought to the office of the Registrar-General

the original land grant must be surrendered, and then the Registrar will

issue a new title to the second purchaser direct from the Crown. (Hear,

hear.) This will get over the difficulty of tracing title through all

manner of intricate transactions between purchasers, and instead of a

man having to carry about an immense bale of papers, he would have one

simple document, which would, nevertheless, be a title valid and

indisputable, because it would be an original land grant. (Great

applause.)

Speech delivered on 4th June, 1857, in the Legislative Assembly by

the Hon. the Treasurer, Mr. Torrens, on the introduction of his

Bill for amending the law relating to the Transfer of Real

Property.

Mr. Speaker, I do not attempt to remedy the evils complained of, by

amendment of the existing law; that I believe to be impossible: I

propose to abolish a system irremediably wrong in principle, and to

substitute a method which I believe will, when explained, commend itself

to the House as consistent with common sense, perfectly feasible, and

effectual for all purposes required.

The first and leading principle of the measure which I introduce, is

designed to cut off the very source of all costliness, insecurity,

litigation, by abolishing altogether the system of retrospective titles

and ordaining that as often as the fee simple is transferred, the

existing title must be surrendered to the Crown, and a fresh grant from

the Crown issued to the new proprietor.

The principle next in importance prescribes that registration _per se_

and alone shall give validity to transactions affecting land. Deposit of

duplicate of the instrument, together with the record of the transaction

by memorandum entered in the book of registration and endorsed on the

grant by the Registrar-General, to constitute registration. This method

is designed to give confidence and security to purchasers and

mortgagees, through the certainty that nothing affecting the title can

have existence beyond the transactions of which they have notice in the

memoranda endorsed on the grant.

My third principle aims at simplicity and economy by prescribing certain

stereotyped forms of instruments available to each occasion to be

supplied at the Registry Office, so that any man of ordinary sense and

education may transact his own business, without the necessity of

applying to a solicitor, except in complicated cases of settlements or

entails, which are unusual in this colony.

Many will admit that the system which I recommend might have been

introduced at the first founding of this colony, with facility and very

great advantage, but doubt its practicability now that titles have

become complicated. Admitting a difficulty, I deny that it is

insurmountable, or such as should cause us to hesitate in securing the

advantage of transfer by registration. I do not propose a scheme

involving violent or arbitrary interference with existing titles, but

would leave it optional with proprietors to avail themselves of it or

not. It will thus be gradual in its operation, yet will put titles in

such a train that the desired result will eventually be obtained.

Mr. Speaker, I cannot conclude without expressing my grateful sense of

the compliment which the House has paid me, in listening with such

marked attention to an address extended to an unusual length upon a

subject admitted to be dry and unexciting.

I propose, it is true, a sweeping measure of reform, yet not more

thorough than the nature of the case imperatively demands. In this view,

I am again borne out by the high authority of Lord Brougham, who, in a

speech which I have before quoted, thus expresses himself: "The present

system has grown out of ingenious devices to evade the oppressions of

feudal tyrants, but under it we are subject to the tyranny of the legal

profession, and burdens little less grievous. The reform, to be

effectual, must be thorough. _Delenda est Carthaga_ must be our motto."

THE LAND QUESTION IN NEW SOUTH WALES

+Source.+--Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History (Sir Henry

Parkes, 1892), pp. 70-71, 81-90, 148, 153

On July 3, 1855, I, (Sir Henry Parkes) moved for the "appointment of a

Select Committee to enquire into the state of agriculture, with special

reference to the raising of wheaten grain, and to the causes of

hindrance or failure in that pursuit, whether arising from the habits of

the people, the policy of the Government, or the physical character of

the country." To understand the interest that fairly attached to my

motion, we must review, or rather glance at, the state of the colony.

The colony still included the whole of Queensland, and embraced an area

of 978,315 square miles. Men of leading positions with seats in the

Legislature, described it for the most part, as incapable of tillage,

and only fit for grazing sheep and cattle, and for "nomadic tribes." A

population not numbering more than 277,579 souls imported largely its

breadstuffs from South America and other foreign countries. It is now

well known that in all divisions of the colony--north, south, or

west--there are as rich wheat lands as in any part of the world; but

then the mass of the population were densely ignorant of the true

character of the country, and those who knew better, were in too many

instances personally interested in keeping them ignorant. The stories

that were told of the fruitless endeavours of industrious men to obtain

patches of land for a freehold home under the Order-in-Council seem, to

the present generation, like cruel bits of romance.

APPENDIX TO EVIDENCE OF MR. J. ROBERTSON (before Select Committee.)

On entering upon the subject under enquiry by the Committee, it is my

purpose to assume that the state of agriculture in general, and of wheat

culture in particular in the colony, is exceedingly unsatisfactory, and,

if not absolutely declining instead of progressing, is at least so with

reference to population. The causes of hindrance or failure of

agriculture generally, and of the raising of wheat, in particular, I

take to be the first and greatest, that for many years the policy of the

Government of the colony, whatever may have been its object, has

unquestionably tended not only to check the formation of new agriculture

establishments, but to depress existing ones.

While the agriculturist has been absolutely excluded from leasing any

portion of the public land, and thwarted, harassed and dispirited at

every turn in his efforts to obtain the submittal of such lands to sale,

and subjected to public competition at auction before suffered even then

to purchase, the grazier has been allowed to use them under a system of

leases, affording him the greatest possible facility of possession, and

at the lowest imaginable rental, namely, at the rate of 10_s._ per annum

for 640 acres, with the right, in an overwhelming majority of cases, to

purchase choice spots therefrom, without the slightest delay or trouble

and at the lowest legal price, namely, 20_s._ per acre, and absolutely

without competition.

Some of the difficulties above alluded to, as attending the purchase of

a farm from the Crown, by any other than the favoured pastoral class,

may be stated thus: The person seeking to do so must first make his

selection--a matter not very easy of attainment, for persons holding

land in a neighbourhood, instead of helping with information, almost

invariably place every possible obstacle in the way of the newcomer. The

selection made, the next step to be taken is to apply by letter to the

Surveyor-General to have it measured. Shortly thereafter, that officer

will reply and inform the writer that his application has been received

and submitted to the District Surveyor for his report as to whether the

land is fit for agriculture, etc., etc. and that when it is received the

Surveyor-General will communicate the result, intimating at the same

time that, should the District-Surveyor consider the land suitable for

agriculture, and should there be no other difficulty, such as its being

held under a squatting lease, or any of several others, it will be

submitted to sale by auction.

The applicant may now expect to hear no more of the land for three or

four months, when, if all goes on favourably, he will be informed that

the District-Surveyor, having reported satisfactorily, has received from

the Surveyor-General instructions to measure it. Now another wearying

delay of several months' duration will in all probability occur, before

the expiration of which, if the applicant is not a person possessed of

considerable determination of character, he will abandon, in despair,

all hope of ever becoming an Australian farmer, and help to swell one or

other of our overgrown towns, by accepting employment there. If,

however, he possess sufficient perseverance, he may visit the

District-Surveyor, and probably learn from him that the land cannot then

be measured, because the district under that officer is so very large,

that it would be highly inconvenient for him to move from one portion of

it to another to measure a single farm; that when several are applied

for in the same vicinity, he will proceed there; in the meantime he has

several months' work where he is, or the District-Surveyor may, after

expressing sympathy with the applicant's loss from delay, candidly

assure him that, in consequence of the great delay in receiving pay for

his public work, he is absolutely necessitated to accept private

employment in order to obtain sufficient cash to keep himself and party

of four men on, until the Government make him his remittance, now three

or four months due.

These and other preliminary difficulties the applicant must prepare to

encounter; but even when all are surmounted and the land measured there

will be two or three months' delay--in all probability eighteen months

or two years from the date of his first application--before it is

offered for sale. Then, at last, the applicant will obtain his land, if

he be fortunate enough to escape the determined opposition of some

wealthy person in the neighbourhood, or has money enough, and

determination enough to purchase it, that opposition notwithstanding.

If it is a fact that the agricultural interests of the country are

subjected to more climatic difficulties than are the pastoral interests,

I take it that that circumstance cannot, properly, be brought forward as

a reason why the agricultural interest should not, under our laws, have

a fair field and no favour, as compared with the pastoral interest, in

entering the market to borrow money in time of doubt and general want of

confidence in monetary matters. If the agriculturist, in borrowing money

to secure his crop, has to encounter a higher rate of interest than the

grazier has to encounter, in consequence of the risk of damage to his

crops from an unfavourable season being greater than the same in the

case of the produce of the grazier, surely there is no reason why he

should be compelled to submit to a still greater increase of interest,

to compensate the capitalist for the additional risk of the borrower's

insolvency before the crops are realised, especially when the grazier

is, through the aid of "The lien on Wool Act" exempted from paying for

such risk.

The effects of the policy of the Government, which I have described, may

be found, on the one hand, in the fact that the number of persons who

have been bred to agricultural pursuits, at present residing in the

towns of the colony, is, beyond example, excessive, showing our social

conditions in that regard to be in a most unsatisfactory state; and, on

the other hand, in the other fact, that the wholesale price of flour in

the colony is three times higher, per pound, than the wholesale price of

animal food, of the very best description--a state of things not to be

found in any other civilized country.

I am aware that the deficiency of agriculture, which is so remarkable

in this country, is attributed to the aridity of the climate by many

gentlemen whose experience entitles their opinions to respect; but, as I

have during the eighteen years last past annually cultivated and sown

with wheat a large quantity of land, in various parts of the Upper

Hunter District--a district generally considered to be unfavourable for

the purpose--and have, in that long period, only failed twice in

obtaining crops, and have reaped two self-sown, which in a great measure

compensated for even their loss. I can come to no other conclusion than

that, whatever may be the disadvantages of the climate they are not

sufficient to cause such neglect of agriculture as has occurred.

On the whole, I am confident that the difficulties placed in the way of

agriculture by the climate are as nothing compared with the overwhelming

obstacles furnished by the policy of the Legislature and Government of

the Colony.

Before concluding this communication, I cannot resist the opportunity it

affords to place on record my opinion, that even should all other means

fail of providing the country with an ample supply of agricultural

produce, a remedy may be found by allowing any person to enter upon and

occupy 80 acres of waste land, without competition or delay, and pay for

it at the upset price, four years thereafter; provided that he clears

and cultivates 10 acres the first year, and 10 additional acres in each

of the three succeeding years, and is at the end of the time residing on

the spot.

JOHN ROBERTSON.

Yarrundi, Aug. 6th, 1855.