"Ye glittering towns, with wealth and splendour crown'd,
Ye fields, where summer spreads profusion round,
Ye lakes, whose vessels catch the busy gale,
Ye bending swains, that dress the flow'ry vale."
GOLDSMITH.
When Tom Rainsfield arrived in Brisbane he found it entirely absorbed in
politics, and the public attention so engaged in the all-important
question of separation that even the deplorable state in which the
country then was in was for the time forgotten. Business for the nonce was
entirely relinquished, and the good citizens were in a perfect ferment
of exultation, consequent on the receipt of joyous news. As a few
remarks respecting the topography of the place, and the nature of the
people's agitation, may not be here amiss we will endeavour to describe
and trace their progress through their various phases to the date of our
narrative.
The town of Brisbane is pleasantly situated on a picturesque and
meandering river of the same name, about twenty miles from the point
where it disembogues into Moreton Bay. Passing its first establishment
it was not until the year 1840 that it was resorted to for the purposes
of trade. In that year drays first crossed "the range" by Cunningham's
Gap; and the squatters, who were then pushing on in the settlement of
the interior, discovered that this place could be made a convenient port
for the shipment of their produce to Sydney. The place, however, being
only a convict settlement free settlers were prohibited from approaching
it; and it was only by a special application to the government that on
the following year the land on the south bank of the river was surveyed
and laid out for a township, and a residence for the purposes of trade
permitted. The following year the convicts were wholly withdrawn from
the district, and the land that had been blighted by their occupancy was
thrown open to the public. From this period then, viz., 1842, is to be
dated the settlement of Moreton Bay, when the whole free population of
the district might have been numbered by dozens, and when the first
regular communication with Sydney was established.
The town of Brisbane at that time, and even for years afterwards,
consisted only of a few wooden huts; and, with the exception of the
government buildings which had been erected during the penal era for the
housing and confinement of the convicts stationed there, not a decent or
substantial edifice existed. A few acres of ground had been cleared by
the prisoners for cultivation immediately round the settlement, and at
two places situated on the river below the town, respectively two and
seven miles distant; but otherwise the wilderness remained in its
primeval condition.
The town on the northern bank of the river, which was much better
situated (both in a commercial and residentiary point of view) than that
on the southern, rapidly attracted the attention of speculators and
settlers. It was situated in a spacious pocket, caused by a bend in the
river, and flanked by gently undulating ridges. It was judiciously laid
out; with wide rectangular streets, commodious reserves for public
purposes, and was possessed of almost unbounded water frontage, which
could afford accommodation for a large commercial intercourse. One of
the boons left to the public upon the withdrawal of the convicts and
military, besides the court-house, hospital, and barracks, was a
botanical garden. It had been constructed for the especial pleasure and
accommodation of the officers and other officials of the settlement, and
became after their departure a very acceptable legacy to the people.
The young settlement prospered amazingly as it became more peopled by
the streams of immigration from the southern parts of the colony. The
squatters who had advanced with their flocks and herds from the occupied
districts in the southern interior speedily formed stations in actual
contiguity to the township; which was daily increasing its trade, as its
intercourse with the interior became more settled and developed. The
architectural appearance of the town for years showed no improvement;
and the comfort of the inhabitants was little thought of in its
commercial prosperity. Large sums were annually gathered into the
government coffers from the sale of the lands in the township, but
nothing was ever done by the ruling powers to improve its condition; and
it was allowed to remain in that state in which it had left the hands of
the surveyors. The lines of the streets were certainly marked, but no
levels were fixed; and the idea of drainage never entered the minds of
the people's rulers. In fact, though the government, as we have said,
continued from year to year to derive large revenues from the sale of
these town lands, they never deemed it necessary to expend a fraction in
even the formation of the streets; and hence, after twelve years from
its occupation by a free population, it was, like all other bush towns
in the country, in a wretched and deplorable condition. After rains the
so-called streets became perfectly impassable, even to foot passengers;
and the principal thoroughfare was frequently the course of a swollen
torrent, that had in successive years worn for itself a bed,
interspersed with deep holes, which rendered it absolutely dangerous to
venture amongst its snares after dark. The extorting policy of the
government had always been to sacrifice the interests of the distant
settlers for a centralized aggrandizement; or, in other words, the
revenues derived from this or any other country district were applied,
not solely to the defraying of the expense of legislative machinery,
but to the improvement and embellishment of Sydney, and other works that
had no local importance to the out-lying districts. This was one of the
main grievances that induced the settlers in later years to petition for
separation from the parent colony. But we are anticipating.
The advance of the district after its settlement continued with rapid
strides; and the labour requirements of the settlers kept continually in
advance of the supply. So that much inconvenience was felt by the
employers at the paucity of industrial bone and muscle procurable in the
district. For years the squatters were compelled to draw their supply of
labour from the Sydney market, an exceedingly expensive and by no means
satisfactory expedient, until the year 1848, when the influx of direct
immigration commenced. From this date ships at repeated intervals have
discharged their living freight on the shores of Moreton Bay, where they
have speedily met engagements at high rates of wages, and become
absorbed in the increasing population.
The first labourers introduced into the district were by private
intervention, and though extraneous to our tale, we may be pardoned for
mentioning it here. The prime mover of this scheme was the Rev. Dr.
Lang, who was at the time a member of the Colonial legislature, and than
whom no greater benefactor to the colonies, and no sterner advocate for
the rights and privileges of the colonists existed or exists. He was
foremost in all works of reform and public utility. He seemed to be
gifted with a prescience of the colonist's requirements, and was
indefatigable in his exertions for their advancement and amelioration.
He is the antipodean agitator, and the acknowledged benefactor of his
fellow colonists in their land of adoption. Many of the privileges of
the Australian constitution owe their existence to Dr. Lang's
indomitable perseverance and skill, and many of the most sapient
enactments bear the impress of his mental perspicuity. He is the father
of Australia, and his name will long remain to the people "as familiar
as household words."
Perceiving the great want of labour in the new settlement he was the
first who took any active part in the procuration of the desideratum. In
pursuit of this object in the year 1846 or 1847 he introduced a bill
into the legislature of New South Wales, having for its object the
introduction of an industrial class of immigrants into Moreton Bay. His
proposed plan was to induce the government to offer a small grant of
land to every immigrant arriving in the colony at his own expense,
equivalent to the amount of money actually paid for the passage. But the
project met with some opposition from the ministry of the day, and not
until after considerable perseverance did he receive assurances of their
assent. Being suddenly called to England on private affairs Dr. Lang
left his pet scheme in the hands of a colleague to procure for it the
formal sanction of the country; and he commenced to act upon the
assurance given him in the colonies by organizing a system of emigration
during his stay in England. This was in the years 1847 and 1848, when,
after continually drawing the attention of the middle classes of Great
Britain to the eligibility of Moreton Bay as a place for emigration, and
holding out the inducement of remission of the passage-money emigrants
would pay in an equivalent grant of land in the colonies, he succeeded
in the latter year in despatching three ships freighted with intending
settlers. Their arrival in the colony, though of considerable benefit to
the community there established, was fraught with many inconveniences
and privations to themselves. The Colonial government ignored their
title to grants of land; and the newly arrived immigrants found
themselves, upon landing in the country, disappointed in their
expectations, many of them destitute, and all in a place hardly
reclaimed from the wilderness of the bush, where no preparation had
been made for their reception. They were, therefore, disgusted with what
they considered the fraud that had been practised upon them, and were
loud in their declamation of those who had enticed them from their
comfortable homes to be subjected to the misery and discomforts they had
then to endure. Under these circumstances piteous were the
communications made to friends in the "fatherland," and dreadful the
detail of their distress in the far distant land of promise.
Their case, however, attracted some little notice from the local
authorities, and a piece of land adjoining the town was allotted them,
on which to erect dwellings. On this they settled, calling it Fortitude
Valley, from the name of one of the vessels that had conveyed them
thither; and when they got over their mortification, and gave their
minds to industry, they speedily transformed the almost impenetrable
bush into a scene of life and animation. The first privations of
settlement very soon succumbed to comfort and independence, and "the
valley" shortly became a populous suburb of the town of Brisbane, and,
at the period of our story, closely approximated to, if not equalled it,
in population. The settlers themselves, introduced under so unfavourable
auspices, were not long in immensely improving their condition, and many
of them, in the course of a few years, rose to positions of comfort,
eminence, and opulence; and if they ever reverted to the period of their
immigration, must have done so with feelings of thankfulness and
satisfaction.
From this period the influx of population continued, and the condition
in which the district flourished may be gathered from the following
tables:--
The entire district--
In 1846, contained 2,257 souls
1851, " 10,296 "
1856, " 22,232 "
And was estimated,
In 1861, to contain 30,000 souls.
The town of Brisbane, of which we wish
more particularly to allude,
In 1846, contained about 500 souls
1851, the population was 2,500 "
1856, 4,400 "
And in 1861 was calculated
to contain 8,000 "
Brisbane presents now a far different aspect to what it did some few
years back. As we have said, it is pleasantly and, both in a sanitary
and commercial point of view, admirably situated. From an obscure
settlement in the bush it has become a thriving town, with some good
streets, substantial stone and brick houses, stores, warehouses, and
wharves, and with shops that would not disgrace many a fashionable
thoroughfare in the British metropolis. It is possessed of spacious and
commodious government buildings, a gaol, mechanics' school of arts, an
hospital, several banking establishments, and fully a dozen churches
and other places of worship. The surrounding country, that was only a
few years before a wild waste, has mostly been cleared and put under
cultivation; and the banks of the river far above, and considerably
below the town, are studded with farms and gentlemen's seats, some
elegantly and tastefully constructed with a view both to comfort and the
exigencies of the climate. The town is further possessed of two steam
saw-mills; one daily, and another bi-weekly newspaper; weekly steam and
continual sailing communication with Sydney, and a dawning direct trade
with England. Five steamers ply on the river, and a daily coach runs by
land to Ipswich, and an export trade is done to the extent of
considerably over half a million sterling annually. The climate is
salubrious--the heat ranging, in the shade, between the means of 80 deg. in
summer, and 50 deg. in winter; and the soil of the neighbourhood has been
proved to be productive of a greater variety of plants than any other
country in the world. Coupled with wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, peas,
and a variety of other English edibles, its products comprise many of a
tropical nature, the practicability of the growth of which has been
fully demonstrated. Bananas, pine-apples, pumpkins, melons, figs,
grapes, peaches, maize, and sweet potatoes, are common articles of
culture; while indigo, arrow-root, sugar-cane, and cotton, flourish as
in their native climes.
Of the latter product we would fain say a few words _en passant_, as its
production of late has been a question that has been much agitated in
Great Britain, and received some attention in the colonies. We believe
the experiment of its growth was first tried upon the joint suggestion
of an influential settler of New South Wales, Mr. T. S. Mort of Sydney,
and the Rev. Dr. Lang. The former gentleman procured a supply of the
best sea-island American seed, and also an instrument called "a gin" for
cleaning the seed from the cotton, and placed them at the disposal of
the settlers of Moreton Bay. The seeds were planted, germinated, and
yielded cotton of the first description; but difficulties arose which
cultivators were unable to surmount. The first was the impracticable
nature of the instrument they were possessed of for cleaning. It was
found to be useless, and all similar apparatuses that were subsequently
introduced, and constructed on ideas suggested to the minds of local
mechanical geniuses, equally failed to perform the requisite work with
cleanliness and precision. Though this was in itself almost
insurmountable, the greatest drawback to the culture of the cotton was
the rainy weather, which usually set in just as the cotton was ripening;
destroying the crop, and inflicting serious loss on the cultivator. It
was, however, discovered that in the Moreton Bay climate the plant
became a perennial; and that, after the first year's growth, the pods
ripened considerably earlier and avoided the wet weather; while the
staple of the cotton improved with the age of the plant. Satisfactory
as was this discovery, the first failure militated against its general
cultivation; for most of the farmers in the district, being dependent
for their subsistence on their yearly crops, could not afford to
experimentalize, notwithstanding that they were certain of an ultimately
remunerative crop. A subsequent attempt to cultivate the cotton was
tried with no better success. Though the staple was produced none of the
cleaning machines to be had were efficacious; and no means being
procurable to extract the seed from the cotton, it was sent to England
in its raw state to be separated there. The cotton was cleaned by
hand-labour in some of the penitentiaries of the "old country;" and when
submitted to judges of the article, was pronounced to be the finest
specimen ever introduced into the country. But these repeated failures
damped the cotton-growing ardour of the people; and, being able
otherwise more profitably to employ their labour and capital, they
permitted its culture to be abandoned.
That cotton will eventually become a large export from this district we
have no hesitation in affirming, and we believe that the time is not far
distant when capitalists in England, interested in the cotton trade,
will take up the matter and embark in it. It is an undertaking which we
are confident, from the reasons we have expressed, would be found
remunerative even with the application of free European labour, and be
of considerable benefit to the manufacturers and consumers of the
staple. It has been frequently argued in the colony where it was grown
that the expense of labour would eat up the whole proceeds of the
cotton. But this we are disposed to dispute for many cogent reasons. In
the first place, notwithstanding the many assertions to the contrary,
Europeans can work at all times in the open air, even under the
scorching rays of a mid-summer sun; while the value of the cotton
produced, by the peculiar adaptation of the soil, has been found to be
of a superior character to even the finest American or Egyptian
productions; and, from the fact of the necessity of annual planting
being avoided, the expense of production after the first year is reduced
by more than one half. These facts at once disarm of its force the
statement that cotton cultivators in Queensland could not compete with
slave-grown produce without the aid of cheap coolie or lascar labour.
The postulation that without Asiatic skill and economy the cotton
cultivation is a chimera, has been assumed by a few interested parties
in the colonies, and reverberated by them from mouth to mouth among
their own party, without a solitary echo from the mass of the people. It
has been advanced in ignorance, and persevered in in dogmatical
obstinacy, to the entire subversion of reason and the results of
experience. The theory has arisen in a desire of personal aggrandizement
by its advocates, who have never dreamt of the consequences that would
accrue from an influx of heathenism and depravity, or the detraction
from the honour of the colony, and the degradation of our labouring
fellow-countrymen and colonists. It is happily only a party cry, and
that only of so meagre a nature, that it is almost an inaudible squeak.
But though insignificant as it is in the country where it originated, by
its propagation and circulation in the press, its virus has been made to
travel through the entire arterial system of the commonwealth; which is
thus made to believe in the moral gangrene of this distant member of the
empire. But to return.
Before we allowed ourselves to be led into the foregoing digression we
spoke of the land and water communication to the town of Ipswich; which
reminds us of the existence of that important town; and of which we also
crave permission, while on our topographical subject, to say a few
words.
Ipswich, or as it was originally called, Limestone, from the quantity of
that mineral which pervaded the neighbourhood, is situated on the
Bremer river, which falls into the Brisbane. It is distant from the town
of Brisbane about twenty-five miles by land, and sixty by water, and is
stationed at the highest navigable point on either stream. It was
formerly used by the government as a station for the sheep and cattle of
the settlement during the penal times; and, upon the withdrawal of the
prisoners, it was, like its sister settlement, declared a township,
surveyed, and thrown open to the public. The first land in it was sold
in Brisbane in the year 1843; but for three years afterwards the town
made little progress. With the exception of a brick cottage that had
been erected for the overseer in charge of the military and prisoners
stationed there while it was a government establishment, and which,
after the break up, was converted into a public-house to afford
accommodation and allay the thirst of wayfarers to and fro between
Brisbane and the interior, few buildings, even of the most makeshift
description, were erected. The place had as then attracted little or no
attention; for the traffic passed it on its way without any further
stoppage than what a bush public-house is expected to effect among the
bullock-drivers and draymen, while the drays came right down to Brisbane
without any interruption to their loads.
During the time of its attachment to the penal settlement at Brisbane
the communication between the two places had been maintained by the
means of boats and punts, in which the supplies of the station were
brought up, and live stock for consumption, and lime requisite for the
works at the township, returned. No doubt, acting on this knowledge, the
idea occurred to an enterprising settler of the district that the
traffic could be diverted from the road to the river, and would be
advantageous in the saving of time and trouble consequent on the
primitive style of land carriage in vogue. He therefore started a small
steamer in the year last mentioned, viz., 1846, to ply between the two
places; and though not successful in his project, so far as his own
pocket was concerned, the soundness of his conjectures was patent in the
benefits that resulted. The advancement of Ipswich may be dated from
that period, since which its progress has been extraordinarily rapid,
and even bids fair to maintain the race with the sister town with some
degree of success.
Though Ipswich is admirably situated for the purposes of trade with the
interior, it is by no means so eligible a site for a town, nor so well
planned out as Brisbane. Its streets are narrow, and have been lined by
the surveyors without any regard to levels or the "lay" of the country.
It is situated in a hollow, so that the drainage falls into the centre
of the town, while the surrounding hills preclude the possibility of
approach of any of those breezes which are so deliciously refreshing
during sultry summer weather. The buildings, on the whole, are
creditable, and even fine for so young a place, though by no means
equal to those of Brisbane; and its peculiar characteristics are,
bullock-drays, dirty streets, and public-houses. It is, however, a busy,
thriving town; and if in the selection of its site a little more
judicious forethought had been exercised, and more consideration for
comfort, health, and amenity displayed in its surveying, it might have
been made, with its beautiful surrounding scenery, as pretty a spot as
could have been desired. But in this, as in every other case in the
colonies since their foundation, the only thing that has been exhibited
is the cupidity of the government, whose only desire has ever been to
realise as much as possible from the sales of land, with as little
outlay as practicable. Hence the inhabitants are doomed to live in a
place that, upon the minutest visitation of rain, becomes a perfect
"slough of despond;" and from its concave situation, when under a
vertical sun, is at least ten degrees warmer than any other place in the
district.
This, then, is the point to which all the traffic now converges in its
passage to Brisbane, and diverges in its transit to the interior--the
highway between the two points being the river, while the road is merely
used for the lighter traffic of a few equestrians and light vehicles.
Such is the alteration, and we may of course add improvement, in the
appearance of the country by the influence of civilisation consequent on
the settlement of the district; and so rapidly has it taken place that
if any of the old official residents, who only knew it in its infancy of
freedom, were again to visit it, we have no hesitation in saying they
would not credit their senses. We are aware that in all new colonies,
where capital, industry, and perseverance are brought to bear upon the
barren wastes, the speedy transition to a smiling scene of plenty is the
inevitable result. But in most there is an air of freshness about
everything, which proclaims it a new place; while in those towns of
Moreton Bay the case is very different. They seem almost to have sprung
into maturity at once; and, especially in Brisbane, there is a
something about it so thoroughly English, that were it not for the
luxuriant growth of exotics, the heavy timber on the adjacent hills, and
the tropical appearance in the architecture of some of the suburban
dwellings which instantly strike the eye, a stranger could hardly bring
himself to believe this was the last formed of Britain's colonies; while
we can affirm it is already far from the meanest.
Before taking leave of this local subject we beg permission here to
introduce a little episode that is characteristic of the relationship
that existed between the two towns, or rather the settlement and the
station, before the advent that proclaimed the country open to free
settlers. Towards the latter end of the penal, or military,
administration, the district was visited by a fearful flood that swept
over the face of the country and rendered all travelling, either by land
or water, perfectly impracticable. The intercourse, therefore, between
Brisbane and Limestone was entirely severed, and for weeks no
communication could be attempted. At the station, during this stoppage,
the supplies began to run short (it never having been deemed necessary
to anticipate such an emergency), and the residents were soon suffering
serious privations from the want of their necessary rations. No boats or
horses were at the station at the time, so that they were unable to
intimate to the authorities below the state in which they were situated.
The officials at Limestone waited from day to day in the vain hope of
seeing the waters recede, and the means of communication re-established,
but they were disappointed. The flood continued at its height, and
starvation was almost staring them in the face. In this emergency the
officer in charge of the prisoners offered a free pardon to any who
would accomplish the voyage to the settlement, and report there the
distress the people at Limestone were suffering.
The passage was undertaken by two of the men, who knew that success was
freedom, and that failure's concomitant was death. One took the track
through the bush and perished, possibly by being washed away while
attempting the crossing of some swollen creek, but the other was more
successful, and succeeded in reaching the township in safety, where he
communicated the intelligence of the destitution at Limestone, and had
the gratification of relieving his former companions, and securing his
freedom. Supplies were immediately forwarded to the famished station on
pack-horses, which, only after surmounting considerable difficulties and
dangers, succeeded in reaching their destination. This passage was one
of the boldest and most extraordinary feats on colonial record, and,
considering the manner in which it was effected, freedom was certainly
not too great a reward. It was accomplished by the man tracing the
course of the river, travelling by land where such was practicable, and
taking to the river and swimming where it was not. When it is remembered
that all the low and flat parts of the country were under water, and
that it was computed half the distance of the journey, or nearly thirty
miles, was traversed in the swollen stream, with a flying current and
eddying pools, and amidst trees and other _debris_, swarming with
reptiles and insects brought down from the mountains and clustered on
the floating masses, some conception may be formed of what the intrepid
courier had gone through. But to return again to our narrative.
The period of which we write is the summer of 1857, when the cry of
"separation" resounded through the country. Some time previous to this
the colonists had received intimation of the intention of her Majesty's
government to erect Moreton Bay into a separate state amongst the group
of Australian colonies. But at this period, as we have already stated,
fresh despatches had been received, in which the boundaries and a sketch
of its constitution were defined, and the inhabitants were deep in the
contemplation of these topics. We fear that this disquisition on
history and politics may be considered an interpolation foreign to the
nature of our work, and uninteresting to the majority of our readers;
but we must excuse ourselves for an encroachment upon the prerogative of
the historian, on the ground that we wish the indulgent public to have a
correct idea of the historical, as well as the physical and social,
nature of Queensland. We would, therefore, throw ourselves again on the
leniency of our readers, while we trace, as succinctly as possible, the
origin and growth of the separation movement.
For some years previous to the year 1851 the colonists of Port Philip
had agitated the question of separation from the colony of New South
Wales, and in that year their efforts were crowned with success, their
district being, by imperial decree, erected into a separate colony under
the name of Victoria. The instigator and prime mover in this matter had
been the Rev. Dr. Lang; and at the commencement of the same year he
organized an agitation for a similar dismemberment of the Moreton Bay or
northern districts.
The inhabitants of those districts, groaning under the habitual neglect
of a distantly removed and selfish government, were not slow to respond
to the call of the agitator. The first meeting to consider the subject,
which was held in January 1851, resulted in the despatch of petitions to
the throne, praying for an immediate separation from New South Wales,
and an establishment as an independent state. They enumerated among the
general grievances, the remoteness of the district from the seat of
government, the inadequate representation in the legislature, the
confirmed neglect and inattention of their rulers to their requirements,
the total absorption of their revenues for the improvement of the
capital, and the impossibility to procure the outlay of any money on
absolutely necessary works; in fact the total subversion of the rights
of the inhabitants, and the general inconvenience experienced by a
connexion with New South Wales.
Much as the consummation was desiderated by all parties in the district
the people were divided into two bodies in the views which they took of
the subject; and each party drew up its own petition, and forwarded it
to England. One faction, and by far the most numerous and intelligent,
demanded a "free" separation, with the untrammelled administration of
their own affairs; while the other, principally composed of the
squatters in the interior, were contented with petitioning for
separation, with a reversion to the old penal system. Their object being
to have convicts sent to the new colony, and to procure their labour by
the old iniquitous "assigning" system.
The struggle continued apace between the contending factions on the one
hand, and with the governments of Great Britain and New South Wales on
the other. The pro-convict party, who had established a weekly
newspaper to advocate their cause, gradually diminished, until
eventually their zeal expired, and they succumbed to popular feeling,
leaving the body of free separationists united and energetic. Petition
after petition continued to be poured at the feet of Her most gracious
Majesty, who at last condescended to listen to the prayer of her loyal
though distant subjects. In the year 1855, by an act passed in the
Imperial Parliament, entitled, "The Constitution Act of New South
Wales," right was reserved to her Majesty to separate from that colony
any portion of its northern territory she, by her ministers, might deem
expedient. It was then made manifest to the colonists that some hope
existed of the desired event taking place, and their importunities
consequently increased. In July 1856, the then Secretary of State for
the Colonies (Mr. Labouchere) intimated, in a despatch to the Governor
of New South Wales, that her Majesty's ministers considered that the
time had arrived when the dismemberment should be effected, and
suggested that the 30th parallel of south latitude should be fixed upon
as the boundary of the two colonies. About this parallel a natural line
of demarcation exists in the form of a mountain range, and at no other
part of the coast could so eligible a division be made.
The magnates in Sydney perceiving that, notwithstanding all their
strenuous opposition, separation was determined upon considered it
useless to further attempt its prevention; but they were, nevertheless,
sanguine of their ability to mar the fair prospects of the new colony.
The thought of losing the revenue of so large a district rankled in
their bosoms, and the idea of procuring an alteration in the boundary
line, by a removal farther away from them, suggested itself to their
minds. Confident in their success and the time for an execution of their
machinations, that would be afforded them by the usual circumlocutions
of government, they forthwith entered upon their work.
One of the districts embraced in the proposed new colony was the
Clarence river, which was only second in importance to that of Moreton
Bay itself, and which comprised a coast-line of upwards of 120 miles,
and a country that extended nearly double that distance inland. This,
then, they set to work to retain; and, though the inhabitants themselves
of the debateable ground were strongly averse to a continued connexion
with the parent colony, and desired annexation to the new one, a
petition was presented to the legislature, purporting to be from the
residents of that district, and praying for the maintenance of their
existing relationship with New South Wales. The opprobrium attached to
the concoction of this petition is due to the then member of the
legislature for the New England district; for through his chicanery the
signatures were obtained and the people deceived. It was represented to
them as for a local assize court, and their signatures obtained on blank
sheets of paper, which were afterwards attached to the genuine
anti-separation petition and laid before the government of the colony,
by whom it was forwarded to the British secretary.
This fraud was shortly afterwards detected by the parties cajoled, who
exposed the deception practised upon them, and eventually petitioned the
crown with a similar view. But, too late: the first had reached the home
government as a genuine document, and the result may be imagined; for,
combining such a strong demonstration of public feeling as the petition
appeared to do with the biassed representations of the Sydney
government, the crown had no other alternative but to alter the boundary
originally intended Mr. Labouchere (dated just one year after his former
despatch) then informed the Governor of New South Wales that her
Majesty's ministers had determined to separate the northern colony at
the 28th (instead of the 30th) parallel of south latitude. There the
matter rested until the year 1860, when the proclamation calling into
existence the colony of Queensland was read in the capital city of
Brisbane by the first governor, Sir George Ferguson Bowen.
We would not have pursued this theme had it not been to explain the
ferment in which Tom Rainsfield found the good people of Brisbane when
he visited their town, as we have said, in the summer of 1857; and,
amidst the agitation of the public mind which absorbed all thought and
attention, we will leave him for the present to pursue his business.