LEGISLATURE AND GOVERNMENT.
With some small variations the scheme as to parliament and executive
government is the same in South Australia as in the other colonies.
There are king, lords, and commons,--or in other language, Governor,
Legislative Council, and House of Assembly. The most remarkable
variation is to be found in the mode adopted for getting together the
Legislative Council or House of Colonial Lords,--which mode I regard
as the worst ever yet invented for summoning a chamber of senators. In
England our House of Peers is hereditary, the Crown having the power to
add to its number as it pleases,--and thus, at any rate, the country
does acquire the services of a body of legislative magnates without
any trouble to itself. It is a great thing to be a peer, and the peers
as a rule live up to the position which the country assigns them. In
the United States the senators of the National Congress are elected
from their different States by a complicated machinery which certainly
effects its object, by bringing the leading politicians of the day
into the Upper House, and by conferring on that House dignity and
reputation. In some of our colonies, in New South Wales for instance,
and in Queensland, the members of the Upper House are nominated by
the Crown,--or rather, in fact, by the responsible ministers of the
day, who are accountable for the selections which they make, and who
confer the honour on men anxious and for the most part able to take
a part in public affairs. As one party becomes stronger than another
in the colony, so does the minister of one party have more frequent
opportunities of introducing his friends into the Legislative Council
than the ministers of the other party,--and the preponderance of public
opinion is represented by the Upper as well as the Lower Chamber. In
other colonies, as in Victoria and South Australia, the members of
the Legislative Council are elected by the people,--but the manner of
doing so is different. In Victoria the whole colony is divided into
provinces, and each province periodically elects its members. Even
then the interest felt is not very great, as I endeavoured to explain,
when speaking of the Victorian legislature,--but the provinces do in
some sort identify themselves with their own members; and, though
the political feeling in the matter is mild, it exists and has its
influence. In South Australia the members of the Upper Chamber are
elected by the colony at large, and therefore when elections come
round, no political feeling is excited.
This Upper House consists of eighteen members. Every fourth year six
members retire, in February, and the votes of the entire colony are
taken as to the election of their successors,--so that the members
are elected for twelve years. There is a property qualification for
voting,--£20 leasehold, £25 household, or £50 freehold. Very slight
interest is taken in the elections,--as might be expected from such a
scheme. The distances in the colony are enormous, and each district
feels that as the election is to be made by the colony at large, its
own effect must be very small. When the result of a national election
is of extreme importance to parties,--as is the case with the election
of a President in the United States,--the country can be awakened to
the work; but no political animation can be aroused by the national
importance of sending six members to the Upper House. As a consequence
men do not vote except in the towns, and do not vote there with any
regularity. At the election of 1869, 4,468 votes only were cast, by
a body of 15,773 electors. Certain members who have long been in the
House keep their seats when the day for their re-election comes round,
because no one cares to disturb them; but every now and then some
obscure but ambitious and probably absolutely unfit individual puts
himself forward, and is elected, to the scandal of the House,--because
there has been no interest felt in the matter. The expenditure of a few
hundred pounds would almost certainly carry an election,--not because
a few hundred pounds have much force in the colony, but because the
amount of antagonistic force used is very small. I look upon this as
the very worst plan yet adopted for maintaining the existence of a
legislative chamber.
The Lower House consists of seventy-two members, who are elected by
thirty-six districts,--two members for each district. They sit for
three years,--or would do but for dissolutions. Manhood suffrage,
with vote by ballot as a matter of course, prevails; but residence
for six months is required for an elector,--so that the nomad tribe
of wandering vagrants who call themselves workmen, but are in truth
beggars, is excluded. The competition for seats in the House of
Assembly is sufficiently lively to show that a seat is desired, but it
is not very keen. At the time of the election for the House of Assembly
in 1870, there were 39,647 men in the colony entitled to be electors,
but only 17,233 voted.
I found the ballot to be generally popular,--because it tended to make
things quiet at elections. Sir James Fergusson, the governor of the
colony,--who as a Conservative member for a Scotch county, and as one
of the Conservative government at home, cannot have loved the ballot
here, in England,--thus expresses his opinion on the subject to the
Secretary of State:--“I am bound to state that the ballot is generally
and remarkably popular in the colony. To the people of the colony it
appears to give entire satisfaction.” I am bound to report this as the
opinion which I found to prevail among almost all classes as to the use
of the ballot in Australia. I give my evidence unwillingly, because I
myself very much dislike the ballot for English use, and believe that a
mistake is made by those who argue that because it suits the colonies,
therefore it will suit ourselves. With us the object is secrecy, which
I think should not be an object, and which I think also will not be
obtained. In the colonies secrecy is not desired, but tranquillity
is felt to be a blessing. It is clear that the ballot does assist in
producing tranquillity.
But it may be questioned whether even tranquillity at elections
is to be regarded as an unmixed blessing. Apathy is certainly not
desirable, and it may be that tranquillity will show itself to be
akin to apathy. Men are always eager as to that in which they are
truly interested, and real human eagerness will produce excitement
and noise. Broken heads are bad things, but even broken heads
are better than political indifference. They who have framed the
Australian constitutions and have selected the modes of election
for the legislative chambers of the colonies, have had before their
eyes an idea of human political excellence which has never hitherto
prevailed, and never will prevail till that good time comes which we
call the millennium. They have desired to produce great vitality in the
electors without any excitement at the elections. Men are not to rush
to the polls,--certainly not to go thither under stress of fear, or
bribery, or drink; but all men are to walk there in orderly strings,
under the pressure of a high sense of national duty. They are to be
debarred from the interest of personal contest by the ballot and other
means,--but are nevertheless to be constant in voting. The ballot,
and the other means, are successful for the required ends,--but the
people are indifferent as to the results. It is the boast of Australian
politicians that the elections are quiet. They are often too quiet. If
it be the case, as a great man once said, that any first six men caught
walking through Temple Bar, would make as good members of parliament as
any other six men, the South Australian scheme of voting for members of
the Legislative Council may be good,--but under no other theory.
I doubt whether South Australia can boast that its parliament contains
its best men. Neither do members of the government or members of
parliament in any of the Australian colonies have that relation to the
country at large which they certainly hold in England. In England the
premier is the head man of his country for the time; and in common
estimation with us, a member of parliament is felt to be a man who
has achieved honourable distinction. It is not so in the Australian
colonies generally, and certainly is not so in South Australia
specially. Prime ministers there have succeeded each other with
wonderful celerity. The first parliament with responsible government
was opened in Adelaide, on April 22nd, 1857,--not yet sixteen years
ago as I write,--and since that date twenty-seven different ministries
have been formed. I found that no less than six of these combinations
had been made by Mr. Ayres, who was the chief secretary or head of the
government when I was in Adelaide,--but even he has succumbed again.
There is, however, always this comfort to be extracted from such speedy
reverses,--that a quick return of triumph may be expected. When last
I heard of the colony Mr. Ayres was out; but very probably he may be
again in before this is published.
The real work of government is done in South Australia by the Governor
in Council with a cabinet of five. Of these one always sits in the
Legislative Council, and the other four are supposed to have seats in
the House of Assembly. The constitution requires that no minister shall
be in office above three months without a seat either in the Upper or
in the Lower House.
The debates are fairly well conducted,--at any rate without riot
or that personal abuse and continual appeal to the Speaker which
I have witnessed elsewhere. There is much useless and quite vapid
talking,--members making speeches without even an attempt at a new
point or a new argument, to which no one listens, but which are endured
with patience. It is understood that when a gentleman has taken the
trouble to get a seat, and is willing to sacrifice his time, he should
be allowed to air his voice, and to learn by practice to speak with
fluency. Mr. Lowe and Mr. Childers have taught colonial legislators the
possible results of such lessons; and why should any man throw away a
chance? I heard a debate on the great question of cab-lamps,--whether
legislation should content itself with requiring simply cabs to be
lighted at nights, or whether it should extend the precaution to
other vehicles,--on which two-thirds of a full House were eloquent.
I heard impassioned eloquence on the question whether the excellent
Bishop of Adelaide should be allowed to retain his right of walking out
of the room before other people,--a right which, as it came from the
Crown, the parliament could not take from him, but which he gracefully
abandoned when it gave annoyance to scrupulous politicians. Their minds
were much excited on this question. And I heard another debate as to
the governor’s salary, carried on with much energy. The Lower House,
with hot parliamentary zeal expressed in fervid words, decided on
cutting off £1,000 a year from the salary of future governors. But the
measure of retrenchment, though essentially a money measure, was lost,
because no seconder could be found for it in the Upper Chamber.
There was another great debate when I was in the colony,--of which,
however, I only heard a small portion, and it gave rise to an incident
which I will mention as giving an idea of the feeling displayed
towards the House. It was decided, as a new measure, that there should
be after-dinner sittings,--and on a certain evening there was an
after-dinner sitting. There was a spirited debate, which was conducted
with a fair amount of parliamentary animation. One of the leading
Adelaide newspapers, giving its history of the affair on the following
morning, described the speakers in round terms of having been--unfit
for parliamentary work, because they had dined. On the following day
one of the gentlemen attacked brought the matter forward on a question
of privilege, and there ensued a debate in which it was at any rate
shown that the accusation was altogether groundless. But nothing
was done. No one seemed seriously to think that the writer of the
article, or the editor, proprietor, or printer of the paper, should be
punished for the insinuations made. On the next morning the newspaper
in question ridiculed the complaining members for having adopted the
only meaning of the words of the article which they would bear. I could
not but think that had the “Times” or “Daily Telegraph” accused the
House of Commons of being generally unfit for its duties because it
had--dined, that the House of Commons would in some way have made its
displeasure felt. But I was anxious to know why such an unwarranted
attack should be made by one of the leading newspapers of the colony
upon the parliament of the colony,--and I received information on the
subject. The newspaper in question had to report the debates, and
disliked the trouble and expense of keeping reporters late into the
evening.
Few countries can, I think, show a more favourable account of their
public financial matters than that exhibited by South Australia.
Custom duties are the only taxation to which her people are subject,
and the amount paid by them in that shape averages no more than 25_s._
a head. On the 31st December, 1871, the population was 189,018, and
the duties levied in 1871 had amounted to £234,980. The total revenue
in that year had been £785,489, and the total expenditure, £759,339.
But the revenue so stated is made up of various sums, which have no
reference whatever to taxation. It includes the gross amounts received
from the post-office, from the railways, from the telegraph offices,
and from the water-works;--whereas the total of the expenditure
includes the expenses of those establishments. The revenue includes
also the money carried to the public credit for the sale and lease of
lands, which I find estimated for 1872 at £145,000. The public debt
amounted to £1,944,600 on the 31st December, 1871, which had been
chiefly,--I believe entirely,--expended on public works. One hundred
and thirty-three miles of railway had been opened in the country, the
working of which in 1871 had cost £88,000,--and which had produced
£111,000 by its traffic, thus giving £23,000 as dividends on the cost,
and paying about a quarter of the interest on the total of the public
debt.
In what I have said it will, I fear, be thought that I have intended
to depreciate the parliament of the colony. I have not sought to do
so, but I am merely giving my personal impressions of what I heard
and saw. Parliaments, like puddings, should be judged by the proof
of their results, as shown in the eating. One of the main works of
all parliaments is so to adjust the financial affairs of the country
entrusted to it, that the people shall not suffer from over-taxation,
that the public credit shall be maintained, and that a sufficiency of
revenue shall be collected to insure the safety and general well-being
of the community. If this be adequately done, a parliament need
certainly not be ashamed of its doings. And this is adequately done in
South Australia.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
[Illustration: MAP OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
_Stanford’s Geog^l. Estab^t London._
London: Chapman & Hall.]
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY HISTORY.
An ingenious but sarcastic Yankee, when asked what he thought of
Western Australia, declared that it was the best country he had ever
seen to run through an hour-glass. He meant to insinuate that the parts
of the colony which he had visited were somewhat sandy. It is sandy.
The country round Perth is very sandy. From Freemantle, the seaport,
the road up to Perth, the capital, lies through sand. From Albany,
the seaport at which the mail steamers stop, the distance to Perth is
about 260 miles, and the traveller encounters a good deal of sand on
the way. The clever Yankee who thought of the hour-glass probably did
not go beyond Perth. There is much soil in Western Australia which is
not sandy,--which is as good, perhaps, as any land in the Australian
colonies;--but it lies in patches, sometimes far distant from each
other; and there is very much desert or useless country between. In
this is, probably, to be found the chief reason why Western Australia
has not progressed as have the other colonies. The distances from
settlement to settlement have been so great as to make it almost
impossible for settlers to dispose of their produce. This has been the
first great difficulty with which Western Australia has had to contend;
and to this have been superadded others: the absence of gold,--an evil
not so much in itself as in the difference created by the presence
of gold in the other colonies, whereby the early settlers in Western
Australia were induced to rush away to Adelaide and Melbourne; its
remoteness from the populous parts of the Australian continent; the
fact that it is not the way from any place to any other place; the
denseness and endlessness of its forests; its poisonous shrub, which in
many places makes the pasturing of sheep impossible; and the ferocity
of the aboriginal tribes when they first encountered their white
invaders. These causes have made the progress of Western Australia
slow, and have caused the colony to be placed in a category very
different from that in which the other colonies are reckoned, and to be
looked at from an exceptional point of view.
The other Australian colonies were originally founded on some ground
or for some cause special to themselves. New South Wales, which was
the first occupied, was selected as a penal settlement for the use
of the mother country. Captain Cook had then but lately made himself
acquainted with the coast, and had specially recommended Botany Bay
to the British Government. Consequently, a young convict world, under
the rule of Governor Phillip, was sent to Botany Bay; and finding
Botany Bay unsuited for its purposes, the young world settled itself
at Port Jackson. From this establishment Van Diemen’s Land was an
offshoot, first colonised for the same purpose,--that of affording a
safe refuge to British criminal exiles. An effort was also made in
1803 to establish a penal settlement near the site on which Melbourne
now stands. And indeed the first attempt to set up the British flag
on that part of the Australian continent which is now called Western
Australia was a step made in the same direction. The governors of Port
Jackson, or New South Wales, as it came to be called, having been
nearly overwhelmed in their heroic struggles to find food for these
convicts fourteen thousand miles away from home, on a land which, as
far as they had seen it, was very barren, made a sister settlement,
first at Norfolk Island, then in Van Diemen’s Land, and thirdly at
King George’s Sound,--where stands the town of Albany, which place
is now the Southern District of Western Australia. A small party of
convicts, with Major Lockyer as their governor, were stationed here
in 1826,--but the convicts were withdrawn from the place when it was
recognised as belonging to the established colony of Western Australia.
After this fashion and for this reason, that of affording a home to
the transported ruffians of Great Britain,--the first Australian
settlements were made. South Australia was colonised by private
enterprise. Victoria and Queensland were separated from New South Wales
to the south and north as they became sufficiently populous and strong
to demand to be allowed to stand alone. But Western Australia arose
after another fashion. She was colonised because she was there,--not
because she was wanted for any special purpose, either by the community
at large or by any small section of it. We had claimed, and made good
our claim, to call all New Holland, hardly by this time known by the
name of Australia, as our own. We had done something on the east coast,
something in the southern island; some small attempts had been made to
utilise the south generally. There were still the west and the north
open to us. The northern coast, which even yet we have hardly touched
except for telegraphic purposes, was very hot and very unpromising. But
there came news to us that on an estuary which had been named the Swan
River, running out into the ocean at about the thirty-second parallel
of latitude, in a salubrious climate, a commodious settlement might be
formed. News to this effect was brought home by Captain Stirling in
1827, and in 1829 the captain, now promoted to the position of Governor
Stirling, returned to the Swan River, and founded the colony,--which
dates from 1st June of that year. He was preceded, by a few months,
by Captain Freemantle in the “Challenger,” who first hoisted the
British flag on the spot on which the town of Freemantle now stands.
In the month of August the town of Perth, twelve miles up the Swan
River, was founded, and in the following month lands were assigned
to the new-comers. In that year twenty ships arrived with settlers,
stores, several immigrants, and a few soldiers. I do not know that
these were specially high-minded men, flying from the oppressive rule
of an old country, as did the Pilgrim Fathers who were landed from
the “Mayflower” on the shores of Massachusetts;--nor that they were
gallant, daring spirits, going forth with their lives in their hands,
in search either of exceptional wealth or exceptional honour, as has
so often been done by the Columbuses and Raleighs of the world. They
certainly were not deposited on the shore because they were criminals.
They seem to have been a homely crew, who found life at home rather too
hard, and who allowed themselves to be persuaded that they could better
their condition by a voyage across the world. What was their position,
or what might have been their fate had they remained at home, no one
now can tell. They certainly did not have light work or an easy time in
founding the colony of Western Australia.
Ships continued to come. In 1830 there came thirty-nine ships, with
1,125 passengers, and stores valued at £144,177. I think it right to
state that I take my details as to these matters from the early numbers
of the “Western Australian Almanac,” which surely among almanacs
deserves to be placed in the very highest rank. I may say of all
Australian almanacs that they are much better than anything of the kind
in England, telling one what one does want to know, and omitting matter
which no one would read. Among them all, this “Western Australian
Almanac” should stand high, and will, I hope, show itself to be as
charitable as it is good, by pardoning the freedom with which I purloin
its information.
Troubles, heavy troubles, soon arose among the young colonists. The
heaviest, probably, of these early troubles came from the not unnatural
hostility of the natives. All the first years of the colony’s existence
were saddened by contests with the blacks--by so-called murders on
the part of the black men, and so-called executions on the part of
their invaders. Looking at these internecine combats from a distance,
and by the light of reason, we can hardly regard as murder,--as that
horrid crime which we at home call murder,--the armed attempts which
these poor people made to retain their property; and though we can
justify the retaliations of the white conquerors,--those deeds done in
retaliation which they called executions,--we cannot bring ourselves
to look upon the sentences of death which they carried out as calm
administrations of the law. The poor black wretches understood no pleas
that were made against them,--were not alive even to the Christian’s
privilege of lying in their own defence, and of pleading not guilty.
They speared a soldier here and a settler there, ran away with booty,
fired houses, and made ravages on women and children, doubtless feeling
that they were waging a most righteous war against a most unrighteous
and cruel enemy. When caught, they knew that they must suffer. In the
old records of the colony, one reads of these things as though all
the injuries were inflicted by the blacks and suffered by the whites.
Here, at home, all of us believe that we were doing a good deed in
opening up these lands to the industry and civilisation of white men.
I at any rate so believe. But, if so, we can surely afford to tell
the truth about the matter. These black savages were savage warriors,
and not murderers; and we too, after a fashion, were warriors,
very high-handed, and with great odds in our favour, and not calm
administrators of impartial laws.
I do not say that the black men were ill treated. I think that in
Western Australia, as in the other colonies, great efforts were made
by the leading colonists to treat them well, and, if possible, so to
use the country for the purposes of the new-comers as not to injure the
position of the old possessors. In this, however, the colonists failed
egregiously, and could not probably have avoided failure by any conduct
compatible with their main object. It was impossible to explain to the
natives that a benevolent race of men had come to live among them,
who were anxious to teach them all good things. Their kangaroos and
fish were driven away, their land was taken from them, the strangers
assumed to be masters, and the black men did not see the benevolence.
The new-comers were Christians, and were ready enough to teach their
religion, if only the black men would learn it. The black men could
not understand their religion, and did not want it; and, to this day,
remain unimpressed by any of its influences. But the white men brought
rum as well as religion, and the rum was impressive though the religion
was not. It is common to assert, when we speak of the effect which our
colonists have had on uncivilised races, that we have taught them our
vices, but have neglected to teach them our virtues. The assertion is
altogether incorrect. We have taught them those of our customs and
modes of life which they were qualified to learn. To sing psalms, and
to repeat prayers, we have been able to teach the young among them.
Of any connection between the praises and prayers and the conduct
of their lives, I have seen no trace. Many arts they have learned
from us, the breaking and training of horses, the use of the gun,
the skill and detective zeal of policemen,--for in Western Australia
and in Queensland the aborigines are used in this capacity,--and
some adroitness in certain crafts, such as those of carpenters and
masons. But we have been altogether unable to teach them not to be
savage. They will not live in houses except by compulsion. They will
not work regularly for wages. They are not awake to the advantages
of accumulated property. In their best form they are submissive and
irresponsible as children,--in their worst form they are savage and
irresponsible as beasts of prey.
Two institutions of a philanthropic nature are maintained in this
colony for black men and women, or for black children,--or, as I found
to be the case at the one which I visited, for half-caste children.
One at New Norcia, which I did not see, is in the hands of the Roman
Catholics, and was established by Bishop Salvado. There were, according
to the census papers, thirty-four adults and twenty-six children at
this place. They are associated with and instructed by a large number
of monks, and they are made to follow the ceremonies of the Church to
which they are attached, and perhaps to understand them as well as do
the white proselytes. And there is a Protestant establishment for the
teaching of children at Perth, which was first established at Albany,
but which has been transplanted to Perth by the present bishop. Here
I found twenty-two children, of whom fourteen were half-caste and
eight were natives. For each of these the colony paid one shilling a
day;--any further expenses incident to the establishment were defrayed
by the bishop. The registrar of the colony, in speaking of this
establishment in his last annual report,--that for 1870,--says that
“it has gone through a varied history of success and disappointment.
Several of the young women trained there have, from their educational
attainments and knowledge of music, been sent for, and have gone as
teachers at missionary stations in the neighbouring colonies, but it
is to be regretted that the numbers now under charge do not exceed
fourteen.” He goes on to say that “the acquirement of a home and
property is unknown to the natives of the bush, and it seems essential
for the success of any attempt to ameliorate their condition, that this
principle should be chiefly promoted and encouraged.” I quite agree
with this gentleman as to that which would be chiefly essential; but I
must say, at the same time, that I never found an aboriginal Australian
in possession of a house of which he was himself the owner or tenant.
For the establishment at New Norcia, the colonial government allows
£100 a year. I was also informed that £50 per annum was allowed for
a school maintained for native children by sisters of mercy. Of this
latter school I could find no trace.
It is calculated that in the settled districts of the colony, there are
at present about three thousand aboriginals, including men, women, and
children. That the number is decreasing very quickly there is no doubt.
Of these three thousand, nearly seven hundred are supposed to be in
the service of the settlers of the colony during some portions of the
year,--some for a few days at a time, or for a few weeks,--some perhaps
for a few months. They cannot be depended upon for continual service.
Their doom is to be exterminated; and the sooner that their doom be
accomplished,--so that there be no cruelty,--the better will it be for
civilisation.
The black men in Western Australia were certainly not treated with
exceptional harshness,--were perhaps treated with exceptional
kindness,--but they were very troublesome to the new-comers. There was
much of spearing on the one side, and much of shooting and hanging on
the other. There seem to have been two pertinacious chiefs, or resolute
leading natives, named Yagar and Midgegoroo, who gave a great amount of
trouble. They carried on the war for four or five years, by no means
without success. The records speak of them as horrible savages. They
were probably brave patriots, defending their country and their rights.
Midgegoroo was at last taken and shot. What was the end of Yagar, or
whether he came to an end, no one seems to know.
And there were many other troubles in the young settlement which, as
we read the record, make us feel that it was no easy thing to be an
early colonist. Food for the new-comers was often wanted. The young
crops of wheat, on which so much depended, were destroyed by moths and
red rust. There was great lack of any circulating medium. The soil,
though good in many places, was good only in patches very distant from
each other; and there were no roads,--so that the settler who produced
meat in one place could not exchange it for the corn and wheat produced
elsewhere. And there was no labour. That of all evils was perhaps the
one most difficult to be encountered and overcome. The black man would
not work; and the white man who had his block of ground thickly covered
with gum-trees and blackboys,--a large resinous shrub common in the
country is called by the latter name,--could not clear it and till it
and sow it with sufficient rapidity to procure sustenance for himself
and family.
It must be remembered in regard to all the Australian colonies that the
country, which has proved itself to be exceptionally rich in repaying
industrial enterprise, produced almost nothing ready to the hands of
the first comers. There were no animals giving meat, no trees giving
fruit, no yams, no bread-trees, no cocoa-nuts, no bananas. It was
necessary that all should be imported and acclimatized. The quickness
with which the country has received the life and products of other
countries is marvellous. In some districts of certain Australian
colonies,--especially of Victoria and Tasmania,--the English rabbit is
already an almost ineradicable pest; in others is the sparrow. The
forests are becoming full of the European bee. Wild horses roam in mobs
of thousands over the distant sheep and cattle stations. In Western
Australia grapes of an enormous size are sold retail at a penny a
pound. Mutton through the colonies averaged twopence a pound in 1871.
But everything was at first brought from Europe, and at first the
struggle for existence was very hard.
This struggle was very hard in the first infant days of Western
Australia; and there seems often to have arisen the question whether
upon the whole it would not be well that the settlement should be
abandoned. In 1832 the troubles were so grievous that the governor,
Captain Stirling, went home to represent matters. Could not something
be done for the poor strugglers? At the end of this year there were
only six hundred acres of land under grain, and the reason given for
so slight an advance was the difficulty, or almost impossibility,
of procuring seed. In 1834 the governor returned as Sir James
Stirling, and the struggle went on. In the same year was taken the
first step towards that resolution which has since given the colony
its present position and reputation, either for good or for bad as
it may be. A petition for convicts from home was got up at King
George’s Sound, where, as has been before stated, a small convict
establishment had been settled in early days by the then governor of
New South Wales. In Albany, at King George’s Sound, the comforts of
convict labour seem already to have been appreciated and regretted.
This petition, however, was repudiated by the colony at large. The
colonists were in a bad way,--but not yet so bad as that. At this
time the system of transportation had already become odious to the
other colonies,--especially to New South Wales. The stain of the
convict element had been felt to be disgraceful, and the very name was
repulsive and injurious. But convicts could be made to labour, to open
out roads and clear timber and build bridges, and do works without
which it is impossible that a young colony should thrive. And the
expense of convicts would be borne by the imperial revenue. Convict
labour, bad as it might be, meant labour for nothing. The mother
country, which would give but little else, in her desire to rid herself
of her own ruffians, would no doubt give that. It was known that the
mother country was hard pressed in that matter, not knowing what to do
with her convicted ruffianism, and that she would be only too happy to
send a few thousands to the Swan River. But the colony rejected the
petition which was originated at King George’s Sound, and would not as
yet condescend so far.
But things went from bad to worse. In 1838 there was a sad wail. Ten
thousand barrels of oil were taken off the coast, but not a barrel was
taken by an English or colonial vessel. All this wealth had fallen into
the hands of French or American whalers. And the murders went on, and
the hangings. And in 1840 all the wheat was destroyed by a moth. There
had indeed been glimpses of success. In 1832 a Legislative Council
first sat,--nominated of course by the governor; and in the same year a
newspaper was published,--in manuscript. Soon afterwards a theatrical
entertainment was given, and a printing-press was brought out, and a
public clock was set up, and churches were opened. Struggles were made
gallantly. Mr. Eyre, who was not so successful afterwards when he went
as governor to Jamaica, made his way across the country from South
Australia to King George’s Sound, through the most sterile region of
the continent, performing one of those wonderfully gallant acts by
which Australian explorers have made themselves famous. Fresh acres
were brought under cultivation. In 1843 the white population had risen
to nearly four thousand. But still things were very bad. We are told
that in 1844, from scarcity of money and other causes, the colony was
in a most depressed condition. In 1845 a second petition for convicts
was circulated,--not only at King George’s Sound, but throughout the
colony. It did not, however, find much favour, and was signed by no
more than one hundred and four settlers. The struggle still went on,
and on the whole very bravely. A literary institute was proposed, if
not opened. There was an exhibition of European fruits grown in the
colony. There was some success in whaling, instigated no doubt by a
feeling of British hatred against those French and Americans who had
come with their ships in the early days, and carried off the oil from
under the very noses of the colonists. New patches of good land were
discovered,--notably in the Toodjay district, about sixty miles from
Perth. A subscription of £30 was collected for the poor Irish who were
dying at home in want of potatoes. The public revenue in 1849 was
£16,000, and the expenditure only £15,800. With £200 in the public
chest and no debt, there was clearly a state of public solvency. But
still the complaints of the want of labour were very sore, and it is
recorded that in 1848 a great number of mechanics and labourers left
the colony for South Australia. This was the saddest thing of all, for
South Australia was only founded in 1836, whereas Western Australia was
seven years her senior.
In 1849 the colony yielded to its fate, and at a public meeting in the
capital, with the sheriff in the chair, a deputation was appointed
to ask the governor to take steps to make Western Australia a penal
settlement. And so the deed was done. Steps were taken which were very
quickly successful, and from that time,--or rather from 1st June,
1850, when the first convict arrived, down to 9th January, 1868, when
the last convict was put on shore at Freemantle, over 10,000 of these
exiles have been sent to a colony which still possesses a population of
only 25,000 white persons.
Of this same year, 1849, two other memorable statements are made. It
is said that coal was discovered in Western Australia, and that gas
admirably fitted for domestic purposes had been extracted from the
shrub called the “blackboy.” I regret to state that neither the gas nor
the coal are at present known in the colony. Whether there be coal or
not in this part of Australia is still one of the secrets of nature.
Search is being made for it now under government auspices, by the
process of boring,--not I fear with much promise of success. I am told
that geologists say that there is coal, but that it lies very deep in
the earth.
From 1850 down to 1868,--and indeed to the present day and for many
a day to come,--the history of Western Australia is and will be that
of a convict colony. Whether it is well that a young and struggling
settlement should be assisted after such a fashion is a question on
which they who have studied the subject in regard to Australia differ
very much. As regards the colony now under review, I am inclined to
think that it could not have been kept alive without extraneous aid;
and I do not know what other sufficient extraneous aid could have been
given to it. It may be well to explain here that the exportation of
convicts to Western Australia was discontinued, not in deference to
the wishes of the colony itself, nor because the mother country was
tired of sending them,--but because the other colonies complained. The
convicts when released got away to South Australia and Victoria,--or,
at any rate, the Victorians and South Australians so reported; and thus
the stain was still continued to the young Eastern world. The other
colonies remonstrated, and therefore convicts are no longer sent to the
Swan River.
But there are still in Western Australia nearly 2,000 convicts. On 1st
January, 1872, there were exactly 1,985, including holders of tickets
of leave and of conditional pardons. In addition to these there are the
remainder of the 8,000 who have worked out their sentences,--or, in
the language of the colony, have become expirees,--and their families.
The whole labour market of the colony, as a matter of course, savours
of the convict element. No female convicts were sent out to Western
Australia, and therefore an influx of women soon became above all
things desirable. Women were sent out as emigrants, in respect of
whom great complaint is made by the colony against the government at
home. It is said that the women were Irish, and were low, and were
not calculated to make good mothers for future heroic settlers. It
seems to me that this complaint, like many others made in the colonies
generally, has been put forward thoughtlessly, if not unjustly. The
women in question were sent that they might become the wives of
convicts, and could not therefore have been expediently selected from
the highest orders of the English aristocracy. Another complaint
states that the convicts sent there were not convicts of the kind
ordered and promised. There was,--so goes the allegation,--a condition
made and accepted that the convicts for Western Australia should be
convicts of a very peculiar kind, respectable, well-grown, moral,
healthy convicts,--who had been perhaps model ploughmen at home,--and
men of that class. I have always replied, when the allegation has been
made to me, that I should like to see the stipulation in print, or at
least in writing. I presume the convicts were sent as they came to
hand,--and certainly many of them were not expressly fitted to work
on farms at a distance from surveillance. The women, I do not doubt,
were something like the men;--and in this way a population not very
excellent in its nature was created. But the men worked for nothing.
It is certainly true that the convict element pervades the colony.
If you dine out, the probability is that the man who waits upon you
was a convict. The rural labourers are ticket-holders,--or expirees
who were convicts. Many of the most thriving shopkeepers came out as
convicts. There are convict editors of newspapers. A thorough knowledge
of the social life of the colony is needed in order to distinguish the
free-selecter from him who has been sent out from Great Britain to work
out his period of punishment. Men who never were convicts, come under
the suspicion of having been so, and men who were convicts are striving
to escape from it. The effect is that the convict flavour is over
everything, and no doubt many would-be immigrants are debarred from
coming to Western Australia by the fear that after a year or two their
position would be misconstrued. In this respect a great evil has been
done.
But it may be doubted whether the colony would have lived at all
without an influx of convicts. They who at last asked for them,--so
unwillingly,--were clearly of that opinion. There are many in the
colony now who express much regret that the settlement should ever
have been contaminated by a criminal class, and who profess to believe
that nothing but evil has come from the measure. Such regrets are
natural, but cannot be taken as indicating any true conception of
the difficulties which caused the settlers to ask for convicts.
Others declare, and I think with more reason, that the colony could
not have lived but for the questionable boon. The parent colony, New
South Wales, could not have been founded without convicts. The land
was not a land of promise, overflowing with milk and honey. It was a
hard land, with much barren soil, often deficient in water, with but
few good gifts apparent to the eye of the first comers. The gold was
lying hidden and unsuspected among the distant water-courses, and
in the bosom of the mountains. The large pastures had to be reached
across mountains which were long impervious to explorers. In telling
the early tale of New South Wales I have endeavoured to explain how
great was the struggle to maintain life on the first settlement; and
the struggle was made only because it was necessary to Great Britain
that she should find a distant home for her criminal exiles. The
convicts were sent; and the attendants on the convicts, with convict
assistance, made a new world. The same thing has been done in Western
Australia, and the results will at last be the same. As soon as the
exiles arrived at the Swan River imperial money fostered and comforted
the struggling settlement. Not only was work done by the men who were
sent, but for every man sent money was expended. There were imperial
officers, comptroller-generals, commissary-generals, commandants,
superintendents, surveyors, chaplains, accountants,--all paid from
home. And the convicts did work,--not indeed so well or with such
result as paid labourers,--but still, after the convict fashion, with
considerable effect. If the men individually were bad workmen, yet
their number was great. And it was work gratis,--costing the colony
nothing. Such roads have been made as the other colonies,--always
excepting Tasmania,--do not possess. Public buildings have been
erected, and an air of prosperity has been given to the two
towns,--Perth and Freemantle, the only towns in the colony,--which
could hardly have come to them yet but for this aid. And imperial
funds are still spent largely,--though no doubt the money flowing
into Western Australia from that source will yearly become less
and less. The comptroller-general has gone home, and there is doubt
whether there will be another comptroller-general. The comfortable and
somewhat imposing house, in which the old comptroller used to live,
at Freemantle,--in dignity only second to that of the governor,--has
been made a hospital. The numbers are decreasing both of officers
and men. The head convict establishment is at Freemantle, and the
glory of Freemantle is over. The men are no longer allowed to work on
distant roads, because the gangs are expensive when kept at a distance.
Everybody is talking of retrenchment. The Home Office is still called
upon to pay, but can no longer get rid of a single ruffian in this
direction, and of course looks closely to the expenditure. In Western
Australia generally much blame is thrust upon the government at home
because of its parsimony, and hard things are said of the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer, because it is supposed that he has ordered
the withdrawal of the gangs from the roads. The present Chancellor of
the Exchequer is a vigorous man, but I hardly think that his vigour
has gone so far as this. The retrenchment has probably sprung from
the zeal of officers here, who have felt it to be both their duty and
their interest to respond to the general demand for economy expressed
by their superiors at home. But still there is money coming, and still
there is work done; and it may be that this will last till the colony
can exist and prosper without further aid. In this respect great good
has been done.
Whether more of good or more of evil has befallen Australia generally
from its convicts, is a question which will not be decided to the
satisfaction of the English world at large for many a year to
come,--though the day for a general decision will come. But this may
be said of the system with certain truth,--as it may of all human
institutions,--that now, when the sweets of it have been used and
are no longer sweet, the advantages are forgotten and the evils
borne in mind. The Bill Sykes physiognomy of a large proportion of
the population is to be seen daily throughout Western Australia. And
the roads and buildings are also to be seen. But men remember whence
Bill Sykes came, and why; but they forget how they got the roads and
buildings.
In 1851 the rushes for gold commenced in Victoria and in New South
Wales, and before long there came upon Western Australia the conviction
that gold was the one thing necessary for its salvation. If gold could
only be found, Western Australia would hold up its head with the best
of them. Exploring parties were made, and gullies were ransacked,--I
will not say altogether in vain, for I have seen small grains of gold
which were undoubtedly washed out of Western Australian earth;--but
no gold was found to repay the searchers. In 1862 a reward of £5,000
was offered for the discovery of a gold-field that would pay, within
a radius of fifty miles of Perth; but no lucky man has claimed the
reward. In the same year an offer was made to the colony by Mr.
Hargreaves,--one of those who claim to have first discovered gold in
Australia, and who possessed the credit of having found it, not by
accident, but by search made in consequence of geological comparison
instituted by himself between California and Australia. The great
Mr. Hargreaves proposed to come to Western Australia and search for
a gold-field, on condition that £500 and his expenses were paid to
him. The colony at once accepted the proposition. If gold could only
be found, what would be £500 and Mr. Hargreaves’s expenses? Towards
the end of the year Mr. Hargreaves came, and started to the north,
for the Murchison River. If anywhere, gold might be there. Such seems
to have been Mr. Hargreaves’s opinion. But in the January following
Mr. Hargreaves returned to Perth unsuccessful. The colony, no doubt,
paid the stipulated price,--and wept again as it has wept so often. It
has since sent, in the same way, for other expensive aids from beyond
its own limits, for machinery and skilled science; the machinery and
skilled science have come, and the poor colony has paid the bill;--but
there have been no results.
From that day to this the craving for gold has continued,--and is still
strong as ever. It is the opinion of many that nothing but gold can
turn the scale, can bring joy out of despondency, can fill the land
with towns, and crowd the streets with men. And there is much truth in
the belief. It is not the gold that does it,--the absolute value of the
metal which is extracted,--but the vitality to trade, the consumption
of things, the life and the stir occasioned by those who, with the
reckless energy of gamblers, hurry hither and thither after the very
sound of gold. The men come, and must live,--and must work for their
livelihood, if not in getting gold, then on some other work-field.
The one thing wanted is population. Gold, if really found in paying
quantities, would be a panacea for all evils in the colony; but, if
that be impossible, even tidings of gold, tidings loud enough to gain
credit, might turn the scale.
It may easily be conceived that such hopes as these,--hopes which
might be gratified any day by an accident, but which could not assure
themselves of success by steady industry,--would lead to a state
of feeling which I may best describe as the Micawber condition. If
only gold would turn up! Gold might turn up any day! But as gold
did not turn up,--then would not Providence be so good as to allow
something else to turn up? This feeling, than which none can be more
pernicious, is likely to befall every population which seeks after
hidden and uncertain gains. The gain may come any day,--may come in
any quantity,--may turn squalid poverty into wealth in an hour. The
splendid transformation has been made over and over again, and may be
repeated. Why should it not be repeated here, with me, on my behalf?
And, if so, how vain, feeble, and contemptible would be a paltry
struggle after daily wages? No doubt there was much of the Micawber
spirit in the colony, and many waited, thinking that gold would turn
up,--or if not gold, pearls, or coal, or copper, or gas made out of
blackboys. For there have been promises made by the cruel earth of all
these brilliant things.
By the earth or by the water;--for perhaps the promise of pearls
has been, of all these promises, the one best performed. In 1861 I
find the mention of mother-of-pearl found on the northern coast, at
Nickol Bay,--far away beyond the limits of the colony which had been
explored, but which was geographically a portion of the seacoast of
Western Australia. Now there is a settlement at Nickol Bay. At present
horses and sheep are reared there; but Nickol Bay is best known for its
pearl fishery. This has gradually increased. In 1862 pearl-shell was
exported to the value of £250. In 1863, none. In 1864, £5. In 1865,
none. In 1866, £7. In 1867, £556. In 1868, £5,554. In 1869, £6,490.
For 1870 I have not the amount. In 1871 it arose to £12,895. This
enterprise can hardly be regarded as having been carried on by colonial
industry, as strangers have come to the coast, and pearl-divers are men
of migratory habits, who know little of homes, and are not subject to
much patriotic enthusiasm; but they attach themselves for a time to the
coast that is nearest to them, and spend upon it some portion of their
gains. The fishery on the northern coast of Western Australia, not for
pearls, but for pearl-shell, will probably become a prosperous trade.
The staple of the colony has no doubt been wool,--and it appears to
have been the original idea of the wealthier settlers to carry out in
Western Australia the system of squatting which had already become
successful on the eastern side of the continent. The value of wool
exported is more than half that of all the exports of the colony.
In 1871 it amounted to £111,061,--which was shorn from the backs of
671,000 sheep. But these figures cannot be taken as indicating any
great success. I could name five stations in Queensland on which more
sheep are kept than run through all the pastures of Western Australia.
It is common in Western Australia to hear of squatters with 2,000,
3,000, or 4,000 sheep. In the eastern colonies I found it unusual
to find less than 10,000 on a single run. I heard of one leviathan
squatter in Western Australia, who owned 25,000 sheep. In Queensland,
New South Wales, or Victoria, 30,000 is by no means a large number of
sheep for a single run,--as the reader of the previous pages will know
very well by this time, if he have read attentively. There are various
reasons for this comparative smallness of things. The colony has
never been popular. It began poorly, and has been since succoured by
convicts. It is remote from the other pastoral districts of Australia,
and divided from them by a large impassable desert. And there are large
districts infested by a poisonous shrub, which is injurious to horses
and deadly to cattle if eaten green, but which is absolutely fatal
to sheep. The traveller comes on these districts here and there, and
some one picks for him a sprig of the plant,--with a caution that, if
he eats much of it, it will probably disagree with him. I withstood
all temptation in that direction, and ate none. From land wanted for
agricultural purposes, the poisonous shrub is easily eradicated; but
the cost of doing this over the wide districts required for pastoral
purposes would be too great. The baneful localities are known, and the
number of sheep poisoned are few; but the fact that so much land should
be unserviceable is of course adverse to squatting.
The timber trade has thriven in Western Australia, and at the present
moment is so much in request that complaints are made that the
available labour of the colony is all taken into the bush, to the great
detriment of the farmer. Hitherto the chief exportation has been of
sandal-wood, which in 1871 amounted to £26,926. In 1869 it had risen
to £32,998. This goes almost entirely to the east,--to Singapore and
China,--and is, I am told, chiefly used there for incense. But the
trade in jarrah-wood, which hitherto has been small, will probably
soon take the lead. Tramroads are being laid down in two places, with
the view of taking it out from the forests to the seacoast. The wood
is very hard, and impervious to the white ants and to water. It is a
question whether any wood has come into man’s use which is at the same
time so durable and so easily worked. It may be that, after all, the
hopes of the West Australian Micawbers will be realised in jarrah-wood.
The first object of the first settlers was of course to grow wheat. In
any country that will produce a sufficiency of wheat men may live and
thrive. Western Australia will produce wheat, and contains many patches
of country which, from the nature of the soil, seem to be specially fit
for cereal crops. The heat on the western coast is not continuous,
nor so intense as it is at the same latitudes in New South Wales and
Queensland; but, nevertheless, failure in the wheat-crops has been one
of the chief sources of misfortune and failure in the colony. One reads
constantly of rust and moth, and of the insufficiency of the grain
produced, and even of the difficulty of procuring seed. The farming has
been thoroughly bad, and very bad it is still.
From the commencement of the settlement up to the present day Western
Australia has been a crown colony, or, in other words, has been
subject to rule from home instead of ruling itself. A governor has
been appointed to it, whose duty it has been to initiate such changes
in the laws as have appeared necessary to him, and as have met with
the approval of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. He has had
a Legislative Council, which was nominated by himself, and therefore
subject to him; and, of course, an Executive Council, consisting of
paid officers who have done the departmental work for him. Under this
scheme of government the colonists themselves had nothing to do with
the manner in which they were ruled. The governor was irresponsible
to them, but responsible to the government at home. It may be that
such a form of rule may be good for an infant community. For an adult
colony it cannot be good. How far it has already been altered under
the sanction of the present governor, Mr. Weld, I will endeavour to
explain in another chapter, and will also speak of the further changes
which are in prospect. The absolute power attaching to the governor
of a crown colony is already, happily, a thing of the past in Western
Australia.
I will also postpone to another chapter such account as I may be able
to give of alienation from the Crown of lands of the colony. The manner
in which this should be done, and the manner in which it has been
and shall be done, have been of all questions the most important to
the Australian colonies generally. As a new law on this subject was
proclaimed in March, 1872, when I was in the colony, and as the changes
made are of vital importance, I will endeavour to explain the present
condition of the matter when speaking of the colony as it now is.
And thus Western Australia has struggled on since 1829, having
undergone many difficulties; not much heard of in the world; never
doomed like Sierra Leone or Guiana; never absolutely ruined as have
been some of the West Indian Islands;--but never cropping up in the
world, an offspring to be proud of, as are Victoria and Canada.
CHAPTER II.
ROTTNEST AND FREEMANTLE.
Rottnest is an island some twelve miles distance from Freemantle,
and Freemantle is the seaport town nearest to Perth,--very deficient
in its qualifications in that respect, as I shall explain hereafter.
The two places are now spoken of together as containing two convict
establishments,--that at Rottnest for black men or aboriginals, and
that at Freemantle for European and colonial white prisoners. I will
speak of Rottnest first, because it was established for its present
purposes before convicts were sent out from England to Western
Australia.
The island is about four miles long and two miles broad, and was
originally almost covered with bush. The soil is sand throughout. Here
and there through one end of the island there are five or six small
salt lakes. Here black convicts were confined and made to work very
soon after the colony was first established. In the course of a few
years they were taken to the mainland, in order that they might be
employed on the roads. But they ran away, and could not by any amount
of chaining and repression which was compatible with work be kept from
escaping. Then the establishment at Rottnest was reopened, and has
since been maintained as a penal settlement for black convicts, who
have been regularly tried and condemned in accordance with British law.
When I visited Rottnest there were sixty-five of these aboriginals in
the island,--not a large number, perhaps hardly sufficient to justify
any special mention; but the special mention is made because it seemed
to me that the black men whom I saw in the prison were very much
nearer to a state of civilization, and were upon the whole in a better
condition, and indeed happier, than any whom I encountered in other
conditions. Of course they desired their liberty, though by no means
with that pining desire which creates brooding melancholy; but they
were clothed and fed and housed, and constrained to work,--though by no
means to work heavily,--and had assumed the look and bearing of human
beings. They were not subject, either by night or day, to solitary
confinement,--except in cases of outrage and insubordination, and such
cases did not often occur. They had a regular dietary,--twelve ounces
of meat a day properly cooked, with rice and bread and tea. By their
labour wheat was produced from the sand, and barley, and hay. The wheat
was thrashed and ground, and of course baked on the island. The only
white labour employed was that of six European convicts borrowed from
the opposite establishment at Freemantle, to do portions of the work
for which black men could not be trained to sufficient skill. These
prisoners also made salt from the salt lakes, which is sold on the
mainland, and which may be made in such quantity as to pay the expense
of the whole establishment. For superintending the salt-works a white
man is employed at a salary,--who was himself a convict not long since.
I was informed that the produce of the island obtained by the work
of the prisoners defrayed the whole expenses of the establishment,
except the salaries of the officers. There is a governor, with five
warders, and a doctor. There is no chaplain, nor is any attempt made
to Christianize these savages. I believe that any such attempt, and
that the presence of any chaplain, would be misplaced and useless. I
know that for saying this I shall have against me the opinion of many
good men,--of the very men whose good opinion I should be most proud
to win,--but I do not believe in the result of the Christian teaching
which these men are able to receive. Nor does it strike me with any
special horror that sixty-five savages should be left without this
teaching, when I know it to have been the will of God that hundreds of
thousands such as they should die without it in their own countries.
But here, at Rottnest, the aboriginal convicts do work, and work
cheerfully. On Sundays they are allowed to roam at will through the
island, and they bring home wallabys, and birds, and fishes. At night
they are locked up in cells, never less than three together, and are
allowed blankets for bedding. It was the nearest approach that I saw
to black adult civilisation,--though made through crimes and violence.
And here I must again express an opinion, that the crime and the
violence of these men have altogether a different effect on the mind
of the bystander than have the same deeds when done by white men. As
we condemn them for much in that they are savages, so must we acquit
them of much for the same reason. Our crimes are often their virtues;
but we make them subject to our laws,--of which they know little or
nothing,--and hang them or lock them up for deeds for which they are
not criminal in their own consciences, and for the non-performance
of which they would be condemned by their own laws. I was astonished
to find how large a proportion of these black prisoners had been
convicted of murder;--and that the two who were awaiting their trial
were both accused of that crime. But these murders were chiefly tribal
retributions. A man in some tribe is murdered, or perhaps simply dies.
It is then considered necessary that the next tribe should lose a
man,--so that things might be made equal; and some strong young fellow
is told off to execute the decision of the elders. Should he refuse
to do so, he is knocked about and wounded and ill treated among his
own people. But if he perform the deed entrusted to him, he is tracked
down by a black policeman, is tried for murder, and has a life-sentence
passed against him. When examined as to these occurrences they almost
invariably tell the truth;--never endeavouring to screen themselves
by any denial of the murder done, or by the absence of sufficient
evidence; but appealing to the necessity that was laid upon them. Such
an account one of those in prison, who was to be tried, gave to me in
the governor’s presence,--which was much as follows, though at the time
demanding interpretation, which I hope the reader will not need:--“Him
come,”--him being some old chief in the tribe;--“him say, ‘Go kill
Cracko;’”--Cracko being the destined victim;--“me no like; him say,
‘must;’ me no like very much; him hab spear;”--then there was a sign
made of the cruel chief wounding his disobedient subject;--“then me go
kill Cracko.”--“With a tomahawk?” suggests the governor. The prisoner
nods assent, and evidently thinks that the whole thing has been made
clear and satisfactory. In very many cases the murderer is acquitted,
as the judge very properly refuses to take the prisoner’s story as a
plea of guilty, and demands that the crime shall be proved by evidence.
If the evidence be forthcoming the young murderer is sent to Rottnest
with a life-sentence, and,--as I think,--enters on a much more blessed
phase of existence than he has ever known before.
In the evening it was suggested that the prisoners should “have a
corroboree” for the amusement of the guests, and orders were given
accordingly. At that time I had never seen a corroboree,--and was
much interested, because it was said that a special tribe from which
sixteen or eighteen of these men came were very great in corroborees.
A corroboree is a tribal dance in which the men congregate out in
the bush, in the front of a fire, and go through various antics with
smeared faces and bodies, with spears and sticks, howling, and moving
their bodies about in time;--while the gins, and children, and old
people sit round in a circle. I am told that some corroborees are very
interesting. I probably never saw a good one,--as I did not find them
to be amusing. This corroboree in the Rottnest prison was the best I
saw,--but even in that there was not much to delight. When the order
was given, I could not but think of other captives who were desired
to sing and make merry in their captivity. Here, however, there was
no unwillingness,--and when I proposed that five shillings’ worth of
tobacco should be divided among the performers, I was assured that the
evening would be remembered as a very great occasion in the prison.
I did not find the establishment for white convicts at Freemantle at
all as interesting as that at Port Arthur in Tasmania. Port Arthur is
in itself very picturesque and beautiful. Freemantle has certainly
no natural beauties to recommend it. It is a hot, white, ugly town,
with a very large prison, a lunatic asylum, and a hospital for ancient
worn-out convicts. No doubt the excitement which one expects to feel
in such a place is supposed to be aroused rather by the nature of its
inmates and by their treatment, than by any outside accessories;--but
the outside accessories of Port Arthur no doubt had a strong effect.
And at Port Arthur I met with men who interested me, and with whom I
have endeavoured to interest others. At Freemantle there was hardly
a man whom it can be worth the reader’s while to have introduced to
him. Perhaps that stipulation of which I have spoken, that none but
respectable convicts should be sent to Western Australia, may have
produced the undesirable effect of which I speak. I can call to mind
no special individual except a gentleman whom I remembered to have
been tried in England for having got the mate of one of his ships to
scuttle the ship out at sea. I saw him walking about with a very placid
demeanour, and perhaps his friends may be glad to hear that he was
conducting himself in a most exemplary manner. I do not doubt but that
he will be editor of a newspaper before long. It was interesting, too,
to see tobacco served out to all the European convicts who had not been
re-convicted since their arrival. Such men are called probationers, and
seem to have considerable privileges,--as though there were much virtue
in coming out to the colony and working there gratis, with all expenses
paid by the government at home. The poor black fellows only get tobacco
on such a very rare holiday occasion as that I have described; but the
white men from England, who had scuttled ships and the like, get their
weekly supply regularly,--as gentlemen should. I own that I grudged it
them.
At Port Arthur I saw men in solitary cells, who had been there long,
who would be there long,--who had spent almost their lives either in
solitude or under the lash. At Freemantle there were only two or three
in the cells, and they only for a day or two each. I rather complained
of this to the officer who was showing me the place, giving him to
understand that I had expected something more exciting. He had, he
said, one man locked up for making himself generally objectionable,
whom I could see if I liked; but he warned me, that if I did see him,
I might find it very difficult to check his eloquence. The cell was
opened, and the man came out and made his speech;--or so much of it
as we would consent to hear. At last the warder explained to him that
his indulgence could not be prolonged, and he was gently put back,
and locked up again. I was assured that he would have gone on for
hours;--but there was nothing interesting in his speech, whereas the
eloquent prison lawyer at Port Arthur delighted me by the malignity and
audacity of the charges which he brought against everybody.
The large prison at Freemantle is fitted to hold 850 prisoners. I
do not know that so many have ever been confined there. The men,
as they have arrived, seem to have been told off into gangs, and
the majority of them have been employed at distances from the
head-quarters,--chiefly on the construction of roads. When I was in
the colony there were still such gangs, some on one road, and some on
another; but the system of so employing the men was being brought to
a close, because their cost was greater when thus spread about the
country than when maintained at one centre establishment. This was
declared to be the case, and the allegation was made that the reduction
was forced upon the colony by home parsimony. The allegation was
made, but did not reach me from official lips,--and I do not believe
that they who have the management of the convicts, the governor and
comptroller, have ever received orders to put the men to comparatively
useless works, in order that the money spent upon them from Great
Britain might be lessened. I do not doubt but that general, and perhaps
stringent, instructions have been given as to economy. In what branch
of the public service have not such instructions been given during the
last four or five years? But the zeal which has complied with these
instructions by withdrawing the men from the distant and more useful
works has probably been colonial, and is, I think, to be lamented.
As the colony has had the convicts, it should at any rate get from
them all that it can get;--and even though the small extra expense of
keeping the men in distant gangs should be borne by the colony itself,
the money would be well expended. The matter will probably seem to be
insignificant. It is perhaps necessary that a man should visit such a
colony as Western Australia before he can realise the need of roads.
The distance from Albany to Perth is 258 miles. Perth is the capital
of the colony, and Albany is the port from and to which is made the
only communication by steamboat with the outside world which the colony
possesses. About a third of this road has been properly made. The
remaining two-thirds consist of a cleared track through the bushes,
with bridges here and there, and occasional attempts at road-making. It
would be much better that the road should be finished. In the colony
there are many excellent roads running out of Perth, without which the
colony would be altogether uninhabitable;--and they were all made by
convict labour. I mention the two facts in order that I may be excused
for dilating upon the subject.
The prison, which, as I have said, can hold 850 inmates, now contains
359 men. Of these 240 are imperial convicts,--convicts who have been
sent out from England, and who are now serving under British sentences,
or sentences inflicted in the colony within twelve months of the date
of their freedom. For all these the expense is paid from home. And
there are 119 colonial convicts,--convicts with whom the colony is
charged, as being representatives of colonial crime. But even of these
about four-fifths came to Western Australia originally as convicts
from home. I cannot tell the extent of the charge upon the imperial
revenue,--as I did in regard to the establishment in Tasmania,--because
at Freemantle the affair is managed on a different basis. At Port
Arthur the colony supplies everything, and receives so much a head for
the men. At Freemantle the home government does the work for itself
in detail, sending out stores from England, and making purchases for
itself.
I suggested to the superintendent of the prison that the enormous
building through which we were walking would soon become useless.
He scouted the idea, and declared, apparently with pride, that the
colony would always supply a sufficiency of convicts to keep it going.
I suggested that 850 men under sentence would be a great many,--that
even half that number would be a very great number,--in a population
of 25,000 souls; and the more so, as the enormous distances in the
colony made it necessary that other prisons and penitentiaries should
be maintained. But he was still hopeful. The population would increase,
and with the population crime. It was not likely that a people whose
connection with prisons had been so long and so thorough should fail
Freemantle at a pinch. I could not agree with him. I do believe that
the prison at Freemantle will become all but useless,--as will also
that at Port Arthur.
As to the treatment of the men at this establishment, there can be no
doubt that it should be held to be free from any charge of harshness.
The question is, whether the men be not too well treated. The food is
sufficient, and very good. The work is always lighter than that done by
free labourers. The utensils and bedding are good. Everything is clean.
The punishments are light and infrequent. Flogging still does take
place, but very rarely. The men, if they behave well, are allowed more
hours of amusement than fall to the lot of freemen;--and have as many
means of amusement as most free labourers. It was only half-past five
in the evening when I saw the men marshalled at the end of their day’s
work to receive their tobacco. Why a man who had come from England
with a life-sentence against him should receive tobacco, whereas a
colonial prisoner sent in for six months should have none, I could not
understand.
In the old days, when Norfolk Island was the doubly penal establishment
attached to our first penal settlement at Port Jackson, when the
managers of these prisons had not yet learned the way to extract
work from unwilling convicts without flogging them, penal servitude
was no doubt a horrid punishment. Chains and the scourge, darkness
and bread and water, were then common. That wretch whom I saw at
Tasmania,--who told me that for forty years he had never known one
day’s freedom,--had been made what he was by the old system. I do not
remember that he had ever been a thief, but he had always been a rebel.
The manner of the thing is altogether altered now, till one finds one’s
self driven to ask whether punishment so light can be deterrent. As
regards our connection with the colonies, the question is not one of
much importance, as we shall never send another convict to Australia.
I cannot finish this chapter without giving the copy of a certificate
which was handed to me by a policeman at Albany, just as I was about to
leave the colony:--
“I hereby certify that the bearer, A. Trollope, about to
proceed to Adelaide per A. S. N. Co.’s steamer, is not and
never has been a prisoner of the Crown in Western Australia.
“(Signed) ------
“Resident Magistrate.”
It is perhaps something of a disgrace to Western Australia that the
other colonies will not receive a stranger from her shores without a
certificate that the visitor has not been a “lag.” Such a resolution
on their part must remind the poor Western Australians grievously of
their disgrace. So many have been convicts, that the certificate is
demanded from all! But I think that they should not charge a shilling
for it, and thus raise a revenue out of their own ill fame. It was not
my fault that South Australia demanded the certificate. Considering all
the circumstances, I think that they should give the passport, and say
nothing about it.
CHAPTER III.
PRESENT CONDITION.