In New South Wales they are sold by auction as applied for, and put up at 20s. each, at which price they are generally knocked down; but with a view to prevent any monopolizer buying them up, to the injury of the bona fide settler, every purchaser must sign a bond to the Government in a penalty of L20, that he will build a house on the allotment, of a certain value, within three years, or otherwise the land reverts absolutely to the Crown, and the penalty is enforced too. This is as it should be, and the evil working of the old system ought to have been forseen, but at South Australia the Commissioners and Survey Department disdained to copy anything from such a colony as Sydney and made the old saying good about advice, that those who want it most like it least. Now the late Governor, Captain Hindmarsh, was quite the opposite of this, and was most diligent in seeking out the best way of doing everything, and was not above learning even from those ignorant neighbours, New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. Here is a proof.

(Copy)

"Government House, 25th April, 1838.

"The Council being about to meet this morning to discuss a subject with which Mr. Horton James is particularly well acquainted; the Governor will thank Mr. James, if he would do him the favour to attend the Council this morning about half-past nine o'clock, to give the Council his opinion on the subject.

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

The character of the late Governor, Capt. Hindmarsh, pleased me exceedingly, not only for the frankness of his manner towards strangers, and the easy terms on which he admitted every respectable resident to his table, but by his constant, steady, and unremitting attention to business. Many difficulties of a new and serious nature would sometimes suddenly involve him, during my residence in the colony, especially in reference to the native blacks, who had been committing some violences in the camp. The settlers were very violent and rash, calling loudly for immediate and strong measures of retaliation, and going up in mobs to Government House, thirsting for revenge against the natives. But the Governor on all occasions acted with a praiseworthy and becoming firmness, and would listen to nothing like reprisals on an unarmed and naked population; and while he took the most upright, they turned out to be the wisest and most successful measures he could have adopted for the pacification of the place, which in a day or two became as quiet as ever, and the danger so much talked of was disregarded and forgotten, entirely owing to His Excellency's pacific treatment. Notwithstanding his severe and inflexible adherence to these measures, in accordance to his instructions, and in opposition to the murderous wishes of some of the settlers, Captain Hindmarsh, after the hours of business, surrounded by his amiable and accomplished family, was just the same as ever, zealous, enthusiastic and humane, when speaking of the colony and its black population; and gentle and sincere in his intercourse with his friends; never exhibiting the slightest degree of reserve, parade or affectation, but winning all hearts by his attention to his guests. It is hard to say why such a suitable person was recalled. He seems to have been sacrificed to clamour; but to accuse, and prove, are very different, and in any enquiry that may be hereafter instituted, Captain Hindmarsh will, I am sure, come off without reproach.



FOUNDATION OF VICTORIA

Source.—Batman's Journal, Victorian Pamphlets, Vol. cxxvii, pp. 10-13, 16-22

Convictism in Tasmania caused great dissatisfaction among the free settlers; in 1835 John Batman crossed the Strait in search of fresh pastures. Melbourne stands on the site he selected for "the future village."

May 29th. Daylight had no sooner broke this morning—and never had its cheerful return been so ardently longed for—than we were again greeted by the sight of Port Phillip Heads, at a distance not apparently exceeding eight miles. By 9 a.m. we were between the Heads, with the tide running out, and nearly at low water; a heavy surf and the wind light and baffling. We effected an entrance with difficulty at a part of the bay where the width was about a mile and a quarter. We succeeded, however, in entering one of the finest bays, or basins of water, well sheltered, that we remember to have seen. Within the Bay the water was, compared to our late tossing in the boiling and foaming waters outside, as smooth as a mill-pond, and our little bark floated gently along like a sleeping gull. I shall, however, take this opportunity to remark that it will be desirable to enter its mouth only at the times of the tide running in. We continued our course down the bay, and found the country everywhere of the same richly-grassed character.

May 30th. Robinson Crusoe was never better pleased with the appearance of the first ship which arrived, and rescued him from his desolate island, than I was with the vessel which proved the means of thus opening to view a country capable of supporting a future nation, and which, we trust, will be the means of relieving the Hobart Town country of its over-stocked cattle, and the Mother Country of her surplus and half-starved peasantry. Futurity must develop this prophecy! Further travelling and examination only added to my pre-conceived estimate of this extremely interesting and extensive territory; consisting of plains or downs at least twenty miles long by a width of 10 miles, and the distance may have been greater, but for the interruption of hills more than ordinarily high, which broke the horizon in different directions. One of these vistas, which I have at present in view, cannot form a less area than 100,000 acres. Its general character presents that of cultivated pasture for centuries past; the few trees appear as though they owed their plantation to the hand of man. All the high hills are covered with grass to their summits.

I discovered the fires of the natives or aboriginal inhabitants of this marvellously fertile country, and felt delighted beyond expression that the task of its discovery should have devolved upon myself.

June 2nd. My Sydney natives came on board this morning for the purpose of assisting in packing up, and otherwise making preparations for our contemplated expedition into the interior. As it continued to rain heavily and a heavy bank of fog prevailed, and prevented our seeing any distance, I proposed, rather than lose time to go with the vessel to the river (Saltwater), and from thence take my departure for the bush. We made the river by 3 p.m., and observed that the whole of the coast at the head of the bay was clear of timber, and a constant plain covered with grass.

Near the head of the river, on the point, was a plantation of she-oak. We endeavoured to sail up the river, but found the water not more than a fathom deep.... To-morrow, weather permitting, I intend taking my departure up the river.

June 3rd. Everything being in readiness, we left the vessel about 9 a.m., and proceeded in a boat up the river for about five miles.... In travelling further up we passed over several rich flats, about a mile wide, by two or three miles long, destitute of trees, and covered knee-deep with grass, from which hundreds of tons of good hay might be made. The land was of the best description, equal to anything in the world, nor does it appear subject to being flooded. For twenty-six miles we continued following the course of this river, and found on both sides of it, as far as the eye could stretch, fine open plains, with a few trees of the oak species; one striking object was the absence of fresh water all throughout this distance. Just before sundown as we were preparing to camp on the bank of the river, I caught sight of a damp place, and, on sending one of my men, Gumm, to make a hole with a stick to the depth of two feet, we had in the course of an hour a plentiful supply of good water.... I have named this place Gumm's Well.

June 4th. Recommenced our journey up the river at 8 a.m.; after travelling four or five miles, I turned off to obtain a view of Mounts Collicott, Cottrill, and Solomon.... We continued travelling over the plains, and in eight miles again made the river. Having crossed the river, we travelled over the richest land I had ever seen in my life; marsh mallows with leaves as large as those of the cabbage tribe, and as high as my head. We recrossed at a native ford, and we observed on a wattle tree, which they had been stripping of the bark, scratches or marks of figures, representing blacks in the act of fighting. These figures I copied as near as I was able.

June 6th. We made an early breakfast and resumed our journey in order to reach the camp of the blacks, the smoke of whose fires we had seen yesterday. We travelled over land equal to any that we had seen, a deep black diluvium with grass three or four feet high, and thinly-timbered. After travelling eight miles we struck the trail of the natives which in a short time led us to a branch of the tribe, consisting of one chief, his wife, and three children—fine, plump, chubby, healthy-looking urchins they were. To this distinguished royal chieftain of the prairies I gave one pair of blankets, handkerchiefs, beads, and three pocket-knives; upon the receipt of these presents, he undertook the part of guide. We crossed a fresh water creek with good land on either bank. Our new guide informed us that he would take us to his tribe, at the same time naming many of their chiefs. After travelling about eight miles, we were surprised to hear a number of voices calling after us, and on looking round encountered six men, armed with spears fixed in their wommeras. We stopped; and they at once threw aside their spears, and came up to us in a most friendly manner possible. We all shook hands and I gave them knives, tomahawks, etc., whereupon they took the lead, and brought us back about a mile, to where we found huts, or gunyahs, and a number of women and children. We sat down in the midst of these sooty and sable aboriginal children of Australia; amongst whom we ascertained were eight chiefs belonging to the country near Port Phillip, over which we had travelled, and with which we had so much reason to be pleased. The three principal chiefs were brothers. Two of them were fully six feet high and tolerably good-looking; the third was not so tall but much stouter than the others. The other five chiefs were equally fine men. And a question, to myself, here arises, and the answer as speedily follows, viz., now is the time for entering into and effecting a purchase of their land. A full explanation, that my object in visiting their shores was to purchase their land, they appeared to understand; and the following negotiation or agreement was immediately entered into. I purchased two large blocks or tracts of land, about 600,000 acres, more or less, and, in consideration therefor, I gave them blankets, knives, looking-glasses, tomahawks, beads, scissors, flour, etc. I also further agreed to pay them a tribute or rent yearly. The parchment, or deed was signed this afternoon by the eight chiefs, each of them, at the same time, handing me a portion of the soil; thus giving me full possession of the tracts of land I had purchased.

This most extraordinary sale and purchase took place by the side of a lovely stream of water, from whence my land commenced. A tree was here marked in four different ways, to define the corner boundaries. Good land, to any extent, either for stock or tillage, with good water was here in abundance, ready for sheep, cattle, or the plough. Our negotiation was terminated by my Sydney natives giving our newly-acquired friends a grand corroborree at night, much to their delight. The group consisted, altogether, of forty-five men, women, and children.

Sunday, June 7th. I awoke this morning with the agreeable consciousness of my being able, like Alexander Selkirk, of school-boy memory, to say: "I am monarch of all I survey; my right there is none to dispute." With a view, however, of securing this right more permanently, I busied myself with drawing up triplicates of the deeds of the land I had purchased, and in delivering over to the natives more property. This was done on the banks of the lovely little creek which I have named Batman's Creek, as a memento of the novel and interesting transaction occurring on its banks. After the purchase and payment at the conclusion of the preliminaries, I had made preparation for departing, when two of the principal chiefs approached, and laid their royal mantles at my feet, begging my acceptance of them. Upon my acquiescing, the gifts were placed around my neck and over my shoulders by the noble donors, who seemed much pleased at their share in the transaction, and begged of me to walk a pace or two in their (now my) princely vestments. I asked them to accompany me to the vessel, to which request I received a rather feeling reply, by their pointing, first to their children, and next to their own naked feet, importing that they could not walk so fast as ourselves, but would come down in a few day. In the course of the late transaction, I had no difficulty in discovering their sacred and private mark, so important in all their transactions, and universally respected. I obtained a knowledge of this mark by means of one of my Sydney natives, Bungit, who, going behind a tree, out of sight of the females made the Sydney aboriginal mark. I afterwards took two others of my natives, and the principal chief of Port Phillip to whom I showed the mark on the tree, which he instantly recognized, and pointed, also, to the knocking out of the front tooth. This mark is always made simultaneously with the loss or extraction of the tooth. I requested the chief through the interpretation of my Sydney natives, to give the imprint of his mark. After a few minutes hesitation, he took a tomahawk and did as he was desired, on the bark of a tree. A copy of this mark is attached to the deed, as the signature and seal of their country.

About 10 a.m. I took my departure from these interesting people. The principal chief could not be less than six feet four inches high, and his proportions gigantic; his brother six feet two inches, also a fine man. I recrossed Batman's Creek, and travelled over thinly-timbered country of box, gum, wattle, and she-oak, with grass three of four feet high. Travelling twelve miles down we came, subsequently, upon a thinly-timbered forest of gum, wattle and oak. Here, for the first time, the land became sandy, with a little gravel. The grass was ten inches high, and resembled a field of wheat. We have not seen the slightest appearance of frost. After leaving this forest, we came upon the river I had gone up a few days before. Intending to come down on the opposite side and hail the vessel, I crossed on the banks of the river, a large marsh, one mile and a half broad by three or four long, of the richest diluvium; not a tree was to be seen. Having crossed this marsh we passed through a dense tea-tree scrub, very high, expecting to make the vessel in the course of an hour or two, but, to our great surprise, when we got through, we found ourselves on the banks of a much larger river than the one we had originally gone up.

As it was now near sundown, and at least two days would be required to head the river, I decided upon allowing two of my Sydney natives to swim across it, and go to the vessel, distant about seven miles, to fetch the boat. Bullet and Bungit started on this enterprise, and returned in about three hours from the time of their departure. Their return with the boat was most opportune as we had got on the point of junction of the two rivers, where the tide had set in, and was already up to my ankles. I first despatched the party with the dogs in the boat to the opposite bank, and, on the return of the boat, myself and old Bull, who had cut his foot, went in first-rate style, to the vessel. I hope my travelling on foot will terminate, at least for some time. I had now accomplished a most arduous undertaking, and, in order to secure the fruits of my exertions I intend leaving Gumm, Dodds, Thomson, and three of my Sydney natives—Bungit, Bullet, and old Bull—as overseers and bailiffs of my newly acquired territory, and of the possession of which nothing short of a premature disclosure of my discovery on the part of my companions, can possibly deprive me. These people I intend leaving at Indented Heads, as my head depot, with a supply of necessaries for at least three months. The chiefs of the Port Phillip tribe made me a present of three stone tomahawks, some spears, wommeras, boomerangs, and other weapons of warfare.

June 8th. This morning the winds set in foul for Indented Heads, and, having made several attempts to get out of the river, we gave it up as hopeless. We went in the boat, up the large river coming from the east, and after examination six miles up, I was pleased to find the water quite fresh and very deep. This will be the place for the future village.



TRANSPORTATION

Source.—Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Transportation (Molesworth, 1838), pp. 8-10, 31-33, 43

As Australia was shown to offer greater and greater attractions to free settlers the agitation against transportation increased. In 1838 the British Government appointed a Select Committee to inquire into and report upon the whole system. Their verdict is given below.

To plant a colony, and to form a new society, has ever been an arduous task. In addition to the natural difficulties arising from ignorance of the nature of the soil, and of the climate of a new country, the first settlers have generally had to contend with innumerable obstacles, which only undaunted patience, firmness of mind, and constancy of purpose, could overcome. But, whatever the amount of difficulties attendant on the foundations of colonies, those difficulties were greatly augmented, in New South Wales, by the character of the first settlers. The offenders who were transported in the past century to America, were sent to communities the bulk of whose population were men of thrift and probity; the children of improvidence were dropped in by driblets amongst the mass of a population already formed, and were absorbed and assimilated as they were dropped in. They were scattered and separated from each other; some acquired habits of honest industry, and all, if not reformed by their punishment, were not certain to be demoralized by it. In New South Wales, on the contrary, the community was composed of the very dregs of society; of men, proved by experience to be unfit to be at large in any society, and who were sent from the British gaols, and turned loose to mix with one another in the desert, together with a few task-masters, who were to set them to work in the open wilderness; and with the military, who were to keep them from revolt. The consequences of this strange assemblage were vice, immorality, frightful disease, hunger, dreadful mortality among the settlers; the convicts were decimated by pestilence on the voyage, and again decimated by famine on their arrival; and the most hideous cruelty was practised towards the unfortunate natives. Such is the early history of New South Wales.

After sentence of transportation has been passed, convicts are sent to the hulks or gaols, where they remain till the period of their departure arrives. On board convict vessels the convicts are under the sole control of the surgeon-superintendent, who is furnished with instructions, as to his conduct, from the Admiralty. The precautions which have been taken against disease, and the better discipline now preserved in these ships, have applied an effectual remedy to the physical evils of the long voyage to Australia, and prevented the mortality amongst the prisoners which prevailed to a fearful extent during the earlier periods of transportation. Little diminution, however, has taken place in those moral evils, which seem to be the necessary consequences of the close contact and communication between so many criminals, both during the period of confinement previous to embarkation, and during the weariness of a long voyage.

As soon as a convict vessel reaches its place of destination, a report is made by the surgeon-superintendent to the governor. A day is then appointed for the colonial secretary or for his deputy to go on board to muster the convicts, and to hear their complaints, if they have any to make. The male convicts are subsequently removed to the convict barracks; the females to the penitentiaries. In New South Wales, however, regulations have lately been established, by which, in most cases, female convicts are enabled to proceed at once from the ship to private service. It is the duty of an officer, called the principal superintendent of convicts, to classify the newly-arrived convicts, the greater portion of whom are distributed amongst the settlers as assigned servants; the remainder are either retained in the employment of the government, or some few of them are sent to the penal settlements.

On the whole, your Committee may assert that, in the families of well-conducted and respectable settlers, the condition of assigned convicts is much the same as the condition of similar descriptions of servants in this country; but this is by no means the case in the establishment of all settlers. As the lot of a slave depends upon the character of his master, so the condition of a convict depends upon the temper and disposition of the settler to whom he is assigned. On this account Sir George Arthur, late Governor of Van Diemen's Land, likened the convict to a slave, and described him "as deprived of liberty, exposed to all the caprice of the family to whose service he may happen to be assigned, and subject to the most summary laws; his condition" (said Sir George) "in no respect differs from that of the slave, except that his master cannot apply corporal punishment by his own hands or those of his overseer, and has a property in him for a limited period. Idleness and insolence of expression, or of looks, anything betraying the insurgent spirit, subject him to the chain-gang or the triangle, or hard labour on the roads."

On the other hand, a convict, if ill-treated, may complain of his master; and if he substantiate his charge the master is deprived of his services; but for this purpose the convict must go before a bench, sometimes a hundred miles distant, composed of magistrates, most of whom are owners of convict labour. Legal redress is therefore rarely sought for, and still more rarely obtained by the injured convict.

With regard to the general conduct of assigned agricultural labourers, there was a considerable diversity of opinion. The evidence, however, of Sir G. Arthur, appears to your Committee to be conclusive on this point, with regard to which he wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in the following terms:

"You cannot, my Lord, have an idea of the vexations which accompany the employment of convicts or of the vicissitudes attendant upon their assignment. Their crimes and misconduct involve the settlers in daily trouble, expense, and disappointment. The discipline and control of the convicts in Van Diemen's Land is carried, perhaps, to a higher degree than could have ever been contemplated. Many of the convicts have been greatly reformed when in the service of considerate and judicious masters; but, with all this abatement, there is so much peculation, so much insubordination, insolence, disobedience of lawful orders, and so much drunkenness, that reference to the magisterial authority is constant, and always attended with loss of time and expense to the settlers. There can be no doubt things appear better in the colony than they really are; for, in numberless instances, masters are known to submit to peculation rather than incur the additional expense of prosecuting their servants. Two hundred felons, after having been for a longtime under confinement in the gaols or hulks of England, and subsequently pent up on board a transport, are placed in charge of the masters or their agents to whom they have been assigned. The master has then to take the convict to his home (either to the other extremity of the island, a distance of 140 miles, or nearer, as the case may be), and well would it be if he could get him quietly there, but the contrary is of too frequent occurrence. Either with some money the convict has secreted, or from the bounty of some old acquaintance, the assigned servant, now relieved for the first time for some months from personal restraint, eludes the vigilance of his new master, finds his way into a public-house, and the first notice the settler has of his servant, for whom he has travelled to Hobart Town, for whose clothing he has paid the Government, for whose comfort he has, perhaps, made other little advances, is, that he is lodged in the watch-house with loss of half his clothing, or committed to gaol for felony."

The members of the anti-emancipist party in New South Wales attribute the increase of crime in that colony partly to alleged relaxation of convict discipline under Sir Richard Bourke; partly to the action of the Jury Laws, which permit persons who have been convicts to become jurors; and lastly, to the increasing number of emancipists.

The first-mentioned cause of the increase of crime in New South Wales refers to the Quarter Session Act, passed in 1833; by that Act, the summary jurisdiction of single magistrates over convicts, was somewhat diminished, and a magistrate was prevented from inflicting more than 50 lashes for a single offence, instead of 150 which he might have given before at three separate inflictions. These complaints do not seem to your Committee to have the slightest foundation in fact, and Sir Richard Bourke appears to have acted with wisdom, justice, and humanity in his treatment of the convict population.

With regard to the second alleged cause of the increase of crime, namely, the jury laws, your Committee need hardly repeat, that the well-proven effect of transportation is to demoralize, not to reform an offender; therefore, in a community like New South Wales, wherein so large a proportion of the population are persons who have been convicts, to permit such persons generally to sit upon juries must evidently have an injurious effect. Your Committee, however, must observe, that under a good system of punishment, an offender should, at the expiration of his sentence, be considered to have atoned for his crimes, and he should be permitted to commence a new career without any reference to his past one.

With regard to the last alleged cause of the increase of crime, namely, the increasing number of emancipists; little doubt, your Committee think, can be entertained of the pernicious consequences of annually turning loose a number of unreclaimed offenders on so small a community as that of New South Wales.

One of the supposed advantages of transportation is, that it prevents this country from being burthened with criminal offenders, after the expiration of their sentences. It is now, however, evident that transportation does not tend to diminish the sum total of offences committed in the British Dominions; it may, perhaps, relieve Great Britain and Ireland from a portion of their burthen of crime; though, from the little apprehension which transportation produces, that fact may be reasonably doubted. On the other hand, it only transfers and aggravates the burthen upon portions of the British Dominions, which, like New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land, are least able to bear it.

In 1836, the free population of New South Wales amounted to 49,255, of whom about 17,000 had been convicts. In 1834, the free population of Van Diemen's Land did not exceed 23,315, of whom about 3,000 were expirees.

Of the state of society in the towns of these colonies, a general idea may be formed from a description of Sydney, according to the accounts given of it, by the Chief Police Magistrate and by Mr. Justice Burton. In 1836 Sydney covered an area of about 2,000 acres and contained about 20,000 inhabitants; of this number 3,500 were convicts, most of them in assigned service, and about 7,000 had probably been prisoners of the Crown. These, together with their associates amongst the free population, were persons of violent and uncontrollable passions, which most of them possessed no lawful means of gratifying; incorrigibly bad characters, preferring a life of idleness and debauchery by means of plunder to one of honest industry. Burglaries and robberies were frequently perpetrated by convict servants in the town and its vicinity, sometimes even in the middle of the day. No town offered so many facilities for eluding the vigilance of the police as Sydney did. The unoccupied bush near and within it afforded shelter to the offender and hid him from pursuit. He might steal or hire a boat and in a few minutes place an arm of the sea between himself and his pursuers. The want of continuity in the buildings afforded great facilities for lying in wait for opportunities of committing crime, for instant concealment on the approach of the police, and for obtaining access to the backs of houses and shops; and the drunkenness, idleness, and carelessness of a great proportion of the inhabitants afforded innumerable opportunities and temptations, both by day and night, for those who chose to live by plunder. The greater portion of the shopkeepers and the middling class had been convicts, for the tradesmen connected with the criminal population have an advantage over free emigrants.

Those of the emancipists who were possessed of property had generally acquired it by dishonest means, by keeping grog-shops, gambling-houses, by receiving stolen goods, and by other nefarious practices; they led a life of gross licentiousness; but their wealth and influence were such that one-fourth of the jurors who served in the civil and criminal courts during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, belonged to their number. More immorality prevailed in Sydney than in any other town of the same size in the British Dominions; there, the vice of drunkenness had attained its highest pitch; the quantity of spirits consumed in Sydney was enormous; even throughout the whole of New South Wales the annual average, for every human being in the colony had reached four gallons a head. Such, according to the authorities already quoted, are the towns to which transportation has given birth; and such are the inmates furnished to them by the criminal tribunals of this country.

Your Committee having, in the preceding pages of their Report, discussed the nature and effects of transportation, and what alterations can be made in the existing system, now consider that they have submitted the most unquestionable proofs that the two main characteristics of transportation, as a punishment, are inefficiency in deterring from crimes, and remarkable efficiency, not in reforming, but in still further corrupting those who undergo the punishment; that these qualities of inefficiency for good, and efficiency for evil, are inherent in the system, which, therefore, is not susceptible of any satisfactory improvement; and lastly, that there belongs to the system, extrinsically from its strange character as a punishment, the yet more curious and monstrous evil of calling into existence, and continually extending, societies, or the germs of nations most thoroughly depraved, as respects both the character and degree of their vicious propensities. Your Committee, therefore, are of the opinion that the present system of transportation should be abolished, and will now proceed to offer a few observations as to the description of punishment which, in their opinion, ought to be substituted in the stead of transportation.



INDEPENDENCE OF VICTORIA

Source.—Port Phillip Gazette

In 1844 New South Wales (including the Port Phillip and Moreton Bay districts) was granted representative government, but the distance between Sydney and Melbourne and the disproportion of representatives made it a farce as far as Port Phillip was concerned. Melbourne proceeded to demonstrate to the British Government the necessity for Separation. Victoria was established as a separate colony in 1851.

Jan. 3rd, 1848. The Separation Despatch.—To such writers as cannot comprehend the policy of the Russell administration, it is common to decry everything which they have attempted, as stupid and impracticable; but we, who deem ourselves wiser in our generation, view their conduct in a very different light, and give them credit for no ordinary talent; great energy, and more perseverance in our affairs, than can be, under existing circumstances, ascribed to any Ministry in our day. They took office at a period of great political excitement, and still they have devoted much attention to Colonial interests; and they have extraordinary claims upon our beloved Victoria, having granted us that boon we long demanded in vain from former Ministers.

The Despatch officially announces that Earl Grey is to bring in a Bill for the Separation of this, from the Middle District at last, and that we will form a Colony of our own, under the new name of Victoria. The Constitution of this Colony will to some extent be identified with those of the other Australian Colonies.

At present, Earl Grey has put forth simply the general principles; the details, he says, will form matter for serious consideration and anxious deliberation.

We anticipate some of the Sydney papers will be coming out with a cart-load of nonsense; running down Earl Grey's plan, but we will defend it from their senseless and ignorant declamation.

Monday, July 10th, 1848. Political Gazette. The Elections.

Our readers must be aware that the writs for the election of members to serve in the new Legislative Council of the Colony of New South Wales, have been issued, and that his Worship the Mayor of Melbourne will hold a meeting of the electors of the City of Melbourne, in front of the Supreme Court House, La Trobe St. on Tuesday, 25th day of July, for the nomination of a member to serve in said Council for the Electoral District of Melbourne.

Wednesday, July 19th, 1848. The Elections.

The outrageous attempt to thrust Mr. Adam Bogue upon the District, as one of our members for the Legislative Council, has displayed that we are looked upon as a refuge for the destitute; and that the opinion of Port Phillip in Sydney is, that any beardless boy without name, character, or property may be raised upon our shoulders into an office of great influence, and almost supreme importance.

We have the welfare of the district sincerely at heart, and we advise the electors to return no members from Sydney. Let them nominate Port Phillip men and Port Phillip residents whether they can go to Sydney or not. We entreat the electors not to be made the instrument of destruction to themselves; let them not elect Sydney members to plunder Port Phillip.

Electors, place five Port Phillip men in nomination, and one half of them may go up to Sydney, who would be worth a thousand Sydney Adam Bogues.

Remember that the nomination will take place to-morrow, opposite the Court House at noon. We have no wish to treat the pretensions of any person who comes forward as a candidate for a public office with disrespect; but we cannot regard the attempt of a young man of neither standing nor capital to thrust himself into the Legislative Council on Port Phillip influence, other than a piece of impertinence. We should, however, have passed it unnoticed, had not this very same person insulted every man in this Province so recently, by endeavouring to throw Port Phillip out of the line of steam communication with England—when Port Phillip wanted a friend he gave her a kick, and this should have been the last district for Mr. Bogue to make an offer of his services to.

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

We approved of the principle of returning no members for the Legislative Council (so far as the District was concerned) and we regret that an attempt is about to be made to overthrow these proceedings, by returning a Member for Melbourne in the person of J.F.L. Foster, Esq.

This is a question upon which, we are aware, some difference of opinion exists; but, having commenced the principle, so far as the District is concerned, we ought to carry it out; if we act otherwise it will be thrown in the teeth of the citizens of Melbourne that they disfranchised the District and then returned a Member on their own account to represent their city.

There required, however, to be unanimity to accomplish this, and some of the electors having proposed Mr. Foster as a fit and proper person to represent the City; those who were in favour of carrying out the principle already adopted at the District Meeting, had nothing left but to bring forward an opponent to Mr. Foster, and in the person of the Right Hon. Earl Grey has this opponent been found.

True, did the City wish to send a practical man, we are willing to accede that Earl Grey is not in a position to sit and work for us in the Council, but we wish, by electing a man who cannot act, at any rate for eighteen months, to carry out the principle which the Electors of the District have already agreed to be correct; we deem it then the duty of every honest man in this community to give his vote to Earl Grey, not so much out of respect for His Lordship, as to carry out a principle; a principle to which we consider the honour of Melbourne to be pledged.

Mr. Foster is, no doubt, a very excellent kind of man, but having been withdrawn by his friends, on the morning of the District Election, we must look upon him as shelved for the present. Let us then return Earl Grey as one member, and it may do us more good than we can well conceive at present, as it will give His Lordship a practical illustration of our helplessness, and thus hasten on Separation.

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

The Poll commences at Nine o'clock this morning.

Saturday, July 29th. Domestic Gazette. Election of a Representative for the City of Melbourne.—On Wednesday last, no little commotion was created by the election of a member (nominally) to represent the interests of the Citizens of Melbourne in the Legislative Council, but the thinking portion of the community having arrived at the conclusion that representation in the Legislative Council at Sydney, under existing circumstances, was a farce, had determined, virtually, upon adopting a similar course to that pursued at the nomination of Candidates for the District, and the Right Hon. Earl Grey was consequently proposed as a fit and proper person to represent our interests in the Legislative Council, and this proposition, with two or three exceptions, met with unanimous approval at the meeting. After the first hour's polling, it was clear that Mr. Foster had no chance, and as this became more and more apparent as the day advanced, some hundreds of voters who had intended to support the favourite were deterred from doing so under a conviction that their votes would not be required, and the unfavourable state of the weather counteracted the desire to be present at the scene of action. It was understood that the Mayor would, on the following day, declare on whom the election had fallen, and at noon, many hundred persons and, notwithstanding the still unfavourable state of the weather, assembled outside the supreme Court House, and a few minutes afterwards the excellent Band of the Total Abstinence Society, might be seen wending their way to the spot, headed by Mr. J.P. Fawkner.

The Mayor addressed the Meeting as follows:—"Gentlemen, I have called you together again for the purpose of declaring on whom the late election has fallen, but previously to doing so I will read two protests, one of which has been sent to a deputy returning officer, and the other to myself." His worship then read the protests, which are as follows:—"I, the undersigned burgher of Bourke Ward, do hereby protest against the Returning Officer receiving any votes for the Right Hon. Earl Grey, on the following grounds:—

"First, that Earl Grey as a Peer of the British Parliament cannot hold a seat in a Colonial House of Legislative Representation.

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

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

"Fourth, That he is an absentee, and there is no one present to represent him—to state that he will sit if elected.

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

The Mayor remarked that these protests were very respectably signed, and were deserving of attention, but although they were signed by numerous lawyers he believed he was relieved of all difficulty on the subject by being guided by the 96th clause of the Constitutional Act which rendered it imperative that all complaints of this nature must be addressed in the form of a petition to the Governor and must be addressed by one of the candidates, or one-tenth of the whole of the electors. Several other authorities were then referred to by His Worship, who expressed himself thoroughly satisfied as to the course he ought to pursue, and announced the following as the final state of the Poll in the Respective Wards.

WARDS GREY FOSTER Gipps Ward . . 50 . . 17 La Trobe Ward . . 102 . . 15 Bourke Ward . . 43 . . 32 Lonsdale Ward . . 100 . . 28 295 92

leaving a majority for Earl Grey of 203, who was declared amidst enthusiastic cheering, to be duly elected as a member of the Legislative Council for the Electoral District of the City of Melbourne.



GOLD

Source.—A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53 (Mrs. Charles Clacy), pp. 19-29, 82-85

Gold was discovered in Australia at a time when the people of every nation in Europe were demanding a greater share in their respective governments. Many who immigrated in search of gold took a leading part in making the Australian Governments democratic.

Melbourne, 1852.—The non-arrival of the Mail-steamer left us now no other care save the all-important one of procuring food and shelter. Scouts were accordingly despatched to the best hotels; they returned with long faces—"full." The second-rate, and in fact every respectable inn and boarding or lodging-house were tried, but with no better success. Here and there, a solitary bed could be obtained, but for our digging-party entire, which consisted of my brother, four shipmates, and myself, no accommodation could be procured, and we wished, if possible, to keep together. "It's a case," ejaculated one. At this moment the two last searchers approached, their countenances not quite so woebegone as before. "Well?" exclaimed we all in chorus, as we surrounded them, too impatient to interrogate at greater length. Thank Heavens! they had been successful! The housekeeper of a surgeon, who with his wife had just gone up to Forest Creek, would receive us to board and lodge for thirty shillings a week each: but as the accommodation was of the indifferent order, it was not yet as une affaire arrangee. On farther inquiry, we found the indifferent accommodation consisted in there being but one small sleeping-room for the gentlemen, and myself to share the bed and apartment of the temporary mistress. This was vastly superior to gipsying in the dirty streets, so we lost no time in securing our new berths; and ere very long, with appetites undiminished by these petty anxieties, we did ample justice to the dinner which our really kindly hostess quickly placed before us.

The first night on shore after so long a voyage could scarcely seem otherwise than strange, one missed the eternal rocking at which so many grumble on board ship. Dogs (Melbourne is full of them) kept up an incessant barking; revolvers were cracking in all directions till daybreak, giving one a pleasant idea of the state of society. The next few days were busy ones for all, though rather dismal to me, as I was confined almost entirely indoors, owing to the awful state of the streets; for in the colonies, at this season of the year, one may go out prepared for fine weather, with blue sky above, and dry underfoot, and in less than an hour, should a colonial shower come on, be unable to cross some of the streets without a plank being placed from the middle of the road to the pathway, or the alternative of walking in water up to the knees.

Our party, on returning to the ship the day after our arrival, witnessed the French-leave-taking of all her crew, who, during the absence of the Captain, jumped overboard, and were quickly picked up and landed by the various boats about. This desertion of the ships by the sailors is an every-day occurrence; the diggings themselves, or the large amount they could obtain for the run home from another master, offer too many temptations. Consequently, our passengers had the amusement of hauling up from the hold their different goods and chattels; and so great was the confusion, that fully a week elapsed before they were all got to shore. Meanwhile, we were getting initiated into colonial prices—money did, indeed, take to itself wings and fly away. Fire-arms were at a premium; one instance will suffice—my brother sold a six-barrelled revolver for which he had given sixty shillings at Baker's, in Fleet Street, for sixteen pounds, and the parting with it at that price was looked upon as a great favour. Imagine boots, and they were very second-rate ones, at four pounds a pair. One of our between-deck passengers who had speculated with a small capital of forty pounds in boots and cutlery, told me afterwards that he had disposed of them the same evening he landed at a net profit of ninety pounds—no trifling addition to a poor man's purse. Labour was at a very high price, carpenters, boot and shoe makers, tailors, wheelwrights, joiners, smiths, glaziers, and, in fact, all useful trades, were earning from twenty to thirty shillings a day—the very men working on the roads could get eleven shillings per diem, and many a gentleman in this disarranged state of affairs, was glad to fling old habits aside and turn his hand to whatever came readiest. I knew one in particular, whose brother is at this moment serving as a Colonel in the army in India, a man more fitted for a gay London life than a residence in the Colonies. The diggings were too dirty and uncivilized for his taste, his capital was quickly dwindling away beneath the expenses of the comfortable life he led at one of the best hotels in town, so he turned to what as a boy he had learnt as an amusement, and obtained an addition to his income, of more than four hundred pounds a year as house carpenter. In the morning you might see him trudging off to his work, and before night might meet him at some ball or soiree among the elite of Melbourne.

I shall not attempt an elaborate description of the town of Melbourne, or its neighbouring villages. The town is very well laid out; the streets (which are all straight, running parallel with and across one another) are very wide, but are incomplete, not lighted, and many are unpaved. Owing to the want of lamps, few, except when full moon, dare stir out after dark. Some of the shops are very fair; but the goods all partake too largely of the flash order, for the purpose of suiting the tastes of successful diggers, their wives, and families; it is ludicrous to see them in the shops—men who before the gold-mines were discovered toiled hard for their daily bread taking off half-a-dozen thick gold rings from their fingers, and trying to pull on to their rough, well-hardened hands the best white kids, to be worn at some wedding party, whilst the wife, proud of the novel ornament, descants on the folly of hiding them beneath such useless articles as gloves.

The walking inhabitants are of themselves a study; glance into the streets—all nations, classes, and costumes are represented there. Chinamen, with pigtails and loose trousers; aborigines, with a solitary blanket flung over them; Vandemonian pick-pockets, with cunning eyes and light fingers—all, in fact, from the successful digger in his blue serge shirt, and with green veil still hanging round his wideawake, to the fashionably attired, newly-arrived "gent" from London, who stares round him in amazement and disgust. You may see, and hear too, some thoroughly colonial scenes in the streets. Once, in the middle of the day, when passing up Elizabeth Street, I heard the unmistakable sound of a mob behind, and as it was gaining upon me, I turned into the enclosed ground in front of the Roman Catholic Cathedral to keep out of the way of the crowd. A man had been taken up for horse-stealing, and a rare ruffianly set of both sexes were following the prisoner and the two policemen who had him in charge. "If but six of ye were of my mind," shouted one, "it's this moment you'd release him." The crowd took the hint, and to it they set with right good will, yelling, swearing, and pushing with awful violence. The owner of the stolen horse got up a counter demonstration, and every few yards the procession was delayed by a trial of strength between the two parties. Ultimately, the police conquered; but this is not always the case, and often lives are lost and limbs broken in the struggle, so weak is the force maintained by the colonial government for the preservation of order.

THE DIGGINGS

Of the history of the discovery of gold in Australia I believe few are ignorant. The first supposed discovery took place some sixty years ago at Port Jackson. A convict made known to Governor Phillip the existence of an auriferous region near Sydney, and on the locality being examined particles of real gold-dust were found. Every one was astonished, and several other spots were tried without success. Suspicion was now excited, and the affair underwent a thorough examination, which elicited the following facts: The convict, in the hope of obtaining his pardon as a reward, had filed a guinea and some brass buttons, which, judicially mixed, made a tolerable pile of gold-dust, and this he carefully distributed over a small tract of sandy land. In lieu of the expected freedom, his ingenuity was rewarded with close confinement and other punishments. Thus ended the first idea of a gold-field in these colonies.

Suddenly, in 1851, at the time that the approaching opening of the Crystal Palace was the principal subject of attention in England, the colonies of Australia were in a state of far greater excitement; as the news spread like wildfire, far and wide, that gold was really there. To Edward Hammon Hargreaves be given the honour of this discovery. This gentleman was an old Australian settler, just returned from a trip to California, where he had been struck by the similarity of the geological formation of the mountain ranges in his adopted country to that of the Sacramento district. On his return he immediately searched for the precious metal; Ophir, the Turon, and Bathurst well repaid his labour. Thus commenced the gold-diggings of New South Wales.

The good people of Victoria were rather jealous of the importance given by these events to the other colony. Committees were formed and rewards were offered for the discovery of a gold-field in Victoria. The announcement of the Clunes diggings in July 1851 was the result; they were situated on a tributary of the Lodden. On 8 September those of Ballarat, and on the 10th those of Mount Alexander completely satisfied the most sceptical as to the vast mineral wealth of the colony. Bendigo soon was heard of, and gully after gully successfully attracted the attention of the public by the display of their golden treasures.



EFFECTS OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY

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

The excitement produced throughout the colonies, but especially in Sydney and Melbourne, by the publication of the gold discovery, may be inferred from the following facts: In one week upwards of 2,000 persons were counted on the road to the Bathurst diggings, and only eleven coming down. Hundreds of men, of all classes and conditions, threw up their situations, and leaving their wives and families behind them, started for the diggings. Whole crews ran away from their ships, which were left to rot in our harbours, the men having willingly forfeited all their wages, clothes, etc. Within one week the prices of the following goods rose twenty-five per cent. in Sydney: flour, tea, sugar, rice, tobacco, warm clothing, and boots. Throughout all the towns nothing was saleable but provisions and diggers' tools and clothing. Every man who could handle a pick or spade was off, or preparing to be off, for the gold-fields. The roads were crowded with travellers, carriages, gigs, drays, carts, and wheelbarrows; mixed up in one confused assemblage might be seen magistrates, lawyers, physicians, clerks, tradesmen, and labourers.

The building of houses, bridges, etc., was suspended for want of tradesmen, nearly all of them having gone to the diggings. Many houses might be seen half-finished for want of men to proceed with the work, though the owners or contractors were offering enormously high wages to any that would complete the work. The fields were left unsown, flocks of sheep were deserted by their shepherds. With one stockholder who has twenty thousand sheep, there remained only two men. Masters were seen driving their own drays; and ladies of respectability and ample means were obliged to cook the family dinner. Servants and apprentices were off in a body; and even the very "devils" bolted from the newspaper offices; in short, the yellow fever seized on all classes of society. In twenty-four hours prices of provisions doubled at Bathurst and the neighbouring places. In all our steamers and trading vessels the rate of passage was raised, in consequence of the necessary increase in the wages of seamen. All the trades held their meetings, at which a new tariff of charges was agreed upon; and even the publicans raised at least twenty-five per cent. the prices of their wines, beer, and spirits.

Van Diemen's Land and New Zealand poured upon our shores shiploads of adventurers, attracted by the golden news; and South Australia is now almost drained of its labouring population, one of the consequences of which is that the shares in the famous Burra Burra copper mines there have fallen from L230 to L45, a fall which has entailed ruin on hundreds.

In walking along the streets of Sydney or Melbourne you hear nothing talked about but gold; you see nothing exhibited in shop windows but specimens of gold, or some article of equipment for the gold-digger. In every society gold is the interminable topic of conversation; and throughout the colonies the only newspapers now read are those which contain intelligence from our golden fields.

Soon after the discovery the Government of New South Wales, seeing that it could not prevent the community from digging for gold on Crown lands, quietly made virtue of necessity, and merely sought to legalize and regulate the diggings by the following announcement, published in the "Official Gazette":

THE GOLD MINES

Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, 23rd May, 1851.

Licenses to Dig and Search for Gold.

With reference to the Proclamation issued on the 22nd May instant, declaring the rights of the Crown in respect to Gold found in its natural place of deposit within the territory of New South Wales, His Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, has been pleased to establish the following Provisional Regulations, under which Licenses may be obtained, to search for, and remove the same:

1. From and after the first day of June next, no person will be permitted to dig, search for, or remove gold on or from any land, whether public or private, without first taking out and paying for a License in the form annexed.

2. For the present, and pending further proof of the extent of the Gold-field, the License fee has been fixed at L1 10s. per month, to be paid in advance; but it is to be understood that the rate is subject to future adjustment, as circumstances may render expedient.

3. The Licenses can be obtained on the spot, from the Commissioner who has been appointed by His Excellency the Governor, to carry these regulations into effect, and who is authorized to receive the fee payable thereon.

4. No person will be eligible to obtain a License, or the renewal of a License, unless he shall produce a certificate of discharge from his last service, or prove to the satisfaction of the Commissioner that he is not a person improperly absent from hired service.

5. Rules, adjusting the extent and position of land to be covered by each License and for the prevention of confusion, and the interference of one License with another will be the subject of early regulation.

6. With reference to lands alienated by the Crown, in fee simple, the Commissioner will not be authorized for the present to issue Licenses under the regulations to any persons but the proprietors, or persons authorized by them in writing to apply for the same.

By his Excellency's command,

E. FEAS THOMSON.



VICTORIA IN 1854

Source.—The Golden Colony (G.H. Wathen, 1855), pp. 49-53, 78-81

Even on the spot it is often very difficult to learn when, by whom, and in what manner, a new gold district is first discovered. When the yield of an old working begins to fail, the diggers throw out small "prospecting" parties of twos and threes, to explore promising localities. These "prospectors" may occasionally make important discoveries; but far more frequently they are the result of chance, or of the desultory efforts of shepherds and other servants of the settlers resident in the particular locality. It sometimes happens that a digging party, travelling from one district to another, camp for a night in a valley which they may think looks very promising. Being delayed here, perhaps, by the loss of their horse, or some other accident, they sink a pit or "hole" in a "likely spot." At length some one strikes a rich deposit. If so, it cannot long remain a secret. A few dozens or scores are shortly at work on the adjacent ground; and if these too are successful the news spreads like wild-fire, and within a week all the roads and tracks leading to the spot are covered with diggers and their carts, on the way to the new Dorado—the newest being always by report the best and richest. In a few days the hills around the new working are dotted over with white tents, the forest around them quickly disappears, being felled for firewood. Government, on hearing of the discovery, sends down a Commissioner with a body of horse and foot police. These establish a camp on some central elevated position, and an irregular wide street of tents springs up like magic in the valley below. There are stores, large and small; butchers' shops; doctors' little tents; and innumerable refreshment booths, where, under the guise of selling lemonade and home-made beer, an extensive illicit trade is carried on in vile, adulterated, and often poisonous spirits. The blacksmith is always one of the first on the ground, and presently extemporises a forge out of a few loose stones or turf-sods. Flags are flying from the stores and shops, and give gaiety to the scene. The Union Jack floats proudly above the Government camp on the hill, and military sentinels are on duty before the gold-tent.

As the diggers reach the spot they pitch their tents on the lower slopes of the hills or in the green flats. At night their watch-fires gleam far and wide, and from a neighbouring height the place has the appearance of a large town illuminated. A new goldfield is the favourite resort of horse stealers, thieves, and miscreants of all kinds, who, lost in the crowd and confusion, here find ample opportunities for carrying on their nefarious practices. Their common haunts are the "sly grog-shops" which spring up like weeds on all sides. Here they rendezvous, and concoct those deeds of darkness which have given the colony such an unenviable fame.

Horses are stolen and ridden off to Melbourne, Geelong, or to the nearest goldfield and sold by auction. The roads leading to the new diggings become infested with bushrangers; stories of being "stuck up" (or robbed) are more and more frequent; till at length a cartload of ruffians, heavily handcuffed, is seen moving towards the Government Camp well guarded by mounted troopers. These are the bushrangers who have been hunted down and just captured by the troopers. And now for a time the roads are safe.

No life can be more independent and free than that of the Australian digger; no travelling more agreeable than summer travelling in the Bush; carrying about with you in your cart your tent, your larder, and all your domestic appointments. In choosing a halting place for the night you have the whole country open to you—no walls or hedges to shut you in to a dusty turnpike road. You drink from the clear running creek; the soft green turf is your carpet; your tent your bedroom. Your horse duly hobbled, enjoys the fresh pasturage around. The nearest fallen tree supplies you with fuel for your evening fire.

One of the most fruitful sources of discontent was the method of collecting the gold revenue. When the first discoveries were made at Ballarat, the Melbourne Government, following the example of that at Sydney, issued regulations by which all miners were required to procure a monthly license to dig for gold, and to pay 30s. for the same. But how was this tax to be enforced among a migratory population, living in tents scattered through a forest? The mode adopted was, to send out armed bands of police, who, coming down suddenly on a gully or flat, spread themselves over it demanding of everyone his license. A few mounted troopers formed part of the force to cut off defaulters who might attempt to fly. All who could not produce their license were captured and marched off, probably some miles, to the nearest magistrates, and, after some detention, were either fined L5, or imprisoned for a month. Such a system naturally led to great discontent and irritation. At some of the goldfields a curious plan was hit upon for evading these inquisitorial visits. No sooner was a party of police seen approaching than the diggers raised the cry of "Joe! Joe!" The cry was taken up, and presently the whole length of the gully rang with the shouts "Joe! Joe! Joe!" and of course all defaulters instantly made off for the depths of the forest.

The dissatisfaction was exasperated by the method of collecting the license fee. The collector did not call on the tax payer, but the latter had to seek the collector. The digger was compelled to walk from his own gully to the Commissioner's Camp—distant, perhaps, several miles—and then often wait for hours under a fierce sun while a crowd of others, who had arrived before him, were paying their 30s., or weighing their half ounce of gold. Greater facilities were indeed subsequently offered for the payment of the fee, but the mode of enforcing it continued the same. The diggers complained loudly and unceasingly of these harsh and un-English measures. "First you tax our labour," said they, "and then you collect your tax at the point of the bayonet." The dislike of the system was universal; disputes were frequent, and collisions between the police and diggers sometimes occurred.

Another of the diggers' grievances was the extreme insecurity of life and property on the mines. While the police force were snugly housed at headquarters, in a peaceable and orderly neighbourhood, the populous and remote gullies were the nightly scenes of deeds of robbery and violence. Every evening men were knocked down and brutally treated or "stuck up" and robbed. Every night horses were stolen, tents broken into, and "holes" plundered of gold by the "night fossickers"—miscreants who watched for the richest "holes" during the day, marked them, and plundered them at night. In October 1852 at a place called Moonlight Flat (near Forest Creek), these desperadoes had become so numerous and shameless, and their outrages so frequent, that the miners rose en masse against them. A public meeting was convened; blue-shirted diggers made stirring appeals to their auditory; a deputation was appointed to proceed instantly to Melbourne to remonstrate with the Government, and to implore it to adopt energetic measures for extirpating the "hordes of ruffians" that infested their neighbourhood, and the persons of many of whom were well known there.



THE BUSHRANGERS

Source.—The Golden Colony (G.H. Wathen, 1855), pp. 138, 143-150

The combination of convictism in Tasmania and gold in Victoria and New South Wales produced bushranging on a large scale. Convicts now had a chance of living well if they escaped, and many took advantage of the opportunity.

If the Australian roads in winter may be well likened to those English roads of 200 years ago, out of which the King's Coach had to be dug by the rustics, so may the Australian Bushranger be regarded as the legitimate representative of the traditionary highwayman who levied toll at Highgate, or stopped the post-boy and captured the mailbags in Epping Forest. The real, living bushranger is, however, more of a ruffian and less of a hero than our ideal highwayman; for time, like distance, softens down the harsh and the coarse, and gives dignity to the ignoble.

Never, perhaps, did a country offer so tempting a field to the public robber as Victoria did during the first year or two after the gold discovery. The interior was wild and uninhabited, abounding with lonely forests. Travellers were numerous, and mostly carried money or gold; for none were poor. The roadside public-houses were daily the scenes of drunken revelry. The police were few and untrained; and the mixed and scattered population at the several diggings offered a ready asylum in case of pursuit. Add to all this that, separated from Victoria by a mere strait, was the depot for the most accomplished villains of Great Britain, and it needed no prophet to foresee that the roads of the new gold country would very soon be swarming with thieves and desperadoes.

It is no uncommon occurrence in the Australian Colonies for a large number of shearers or others collected in the hut in the country to be "stuck up," that is, subdued and bound, by two or three determined bushrangers. Fifteen or sixteen strong active men may be thus treated, and have been, frequently. At first, one is ready to conclude either that they must have a private understanding with the robbers or else be the veriest poltroons. I thought so myself till I had an account of one of these affairs from a man who had been one of a large party thus "stuck up" by two very notorious bushrangers, the life and death of whom, would furnish materials for a romance. Their names were Dalton and Kelly, and they will long be famous in the annals of daring and outrage in Van Diemen's Land.

Dalton was a stout, powerful man, and about thirty years of age at the time of the rencontre I am about to describe. His accomplice Kelly, was about twenty-three years old. They were both prisoners of the Crown in Van Diemen's Land. Dalton was transported at an early age, and had for a time been confined in the "Ocean Hell" of Norfolk Island, the gaol of the double-damned convict; but was afterwards taken back to Van Diemen's Land. From the same informant I learned some particulars of their escape. They were confined in a penal establishment on a strait or an arm of the sea, wide enough, it was thought, to preclude the possibility of flight. Dalton, Kelly, and five or six other prisoners, however, weary of a wretched life, determined to risk that life for liberty; and having one day eluded the vigilance of their guards, attempted, though their legs were weighed down with fetters, to swim to the opposite shore. One after another their strength failed them; they sank and disappeared till at length only Kelly and Dalton survived. Kelly's strength was rapidly waning, when Dalton called out to him "Catch hold of me, Kelly! I can swim another hour yet."

When at last they both got safe to land, Dalton exclaimed, "Well, thank God, I shall have one comrade at any rate."

They now quickly freed themselves from their irons, procured arms, and, knowing that they would certainly be hotly pursued they at once started on a marauding expedition, visiting the neighbouring stations in succession, and pillaging each; intending eventually, to make their way across Bass's Straits to Victoria. Dalton was a very formidable fellow; strong, active, and resolute, reckless of human life, and now rendered desperate by despair. He was, too, a first-rate marksman, and could "stick up a glass bottle."

What follows is an account given me by my informant. Kelly came up to the hut, which was full of men. I was standing at the door at the time, but did not know who the man was. When he came close he asked me if I had heard that the bushrangers were out. I answered "Yes, I had." Then he pointed his gun at me, and said "I'm one of them. Go into the hut." I went in, but on turning round I saw one of my mates standing against the hut in a corner, with another man standing over him, covering him with his gun. The other was Dalton, Kelly's mate. After I had gone into the hut, Kelly stood at the open doorway, with his gun pointed at those inside, swearing he would murder the first man who moved an inch. There were about fourteen men in the hut. Then he asked if there were any prisoners among them. One man said that he was. Kelly then ordered him to tie their arms together, one by one.

While doing so, one man complained that he was being tied too tight; but this only drew forth another volley of oaths and threats from Kelly. When all were secured, Kelly went out to assist Dalton who still stood over the man whom he had pinned to the wall of the hut, threatening to shoot him if he stirred. Kelly then tied up his hands while Dalton continued covering him with the gun. He was then marched into the hut to join the others. And now Dalton began walking up and down the hut haranguing his prisoners. "He'd no doubt" he said "that some of them might be good and honest men, and some scoundrels. That for his part, he wouldn't hurt a hair of any good man's head, if he could help it. But he had been forced to take to this sort of life. It wasn't his fault. He had been lagged (transported) when only twelve years of age; had since then over and over again tried to obtain his freedom by good conduct; but they wouldn't give it him, and it was useless to try any more by fair means. And he had now sworn to gain his freedom, or lose his life in the attempt. He didn't want to hurt anyone. What he wanted was money; and money he would have, come what, come might. He'd show them presently whether he was game or not. He'd go into the master's house and bring out, single-handed the man he wanted, no matter how many he might find there. But let them beware. If any man dared to move or tried to escape he swore he'd scatter his brains about the yard, and blow the roof off his head."

Dalton now left the hut, and went to the house of the settler, their master, which was close at hand. All this time the household knew nothing of what had been passing in the hut. He entered, and went straight up to the sitting-room, where several gentlemen and ladies happened to be collected. He opened the door, and deliberately advanced with his gun pointed at those within. But a lady, who chanced to be behind the door, on seeing the levelled gun, slammed the door in the robber's face. This was a timely diversion, and the signal for a general scattering of those present.

The men in the hut were subsequently tried for collusion with the bushrangers; but when asked how they could suffer two men to "stick up" so many, one replied to the magistrate, that, with their permission, he would himself "stick up" the whole Bench.

The free servants were acquitted; those of the party who were prisoners of the Crown were sentenced to imprisonment; but on Government being petitioned by their free mates, who protested the innocence of all, they were liberated.

After this the two bushrangers boldly carried on their depredations, roaming about from station to station, "sticking up" the men, and robbing the masters; while a large party of the police were following on their track. One day they came to a hut full of men, and, opening the door, tried the old plan of intimidation by standing with loaded double-barrelled pieces in the doorway, and threatening with deep oaths to "drop" the first man of them, who moved hand or foot. But it happened that several of the pursuing constables were within the hut. One of them, named Buckmaster, rushed towards Dalton. The robber fired and the constable fell dead. Dalton still stood unmoved in the doorway, with his levelled gun, and calmly said "Ah, how d'ye like that? Now, then, I'm ready for another!" This coolness saved them both and for a time they escaped capture. But such an outrage on one of their officers roused the Government. A large reward was offered for the capture of the two bushrangers, and they were hunted through the island more hotly than ever.

Driven to desperation, they seized upon a whaleboat; by threats pressed four boatmen into their service, and actually compelled them to work the boat across Bass's Straits to the opposite shores of Victoria. Here they safely landed on the solitary coast of Western Port and made their way up to Melbourne. News of the escape of these formidable and blood-stained freebooters had been immediately transmitted to the authorities of Victoria. As they had left Van Diemen's Land in an open whaleboat, there was no doubt but that they would make for the Western Port shores; and the Victoria police, stimulated by the hope of a large reward, were keenly looking out for two persons answering to the published description of the robbers. The boatmen who had conveyed them across the Strait were seen and arrested at Dandenong, between Western Port and the Capital; but no further trace of the bushrangers could be obtained. The Melbourne newspapers furnish us with the conclusion of the tragedy.

The following account of the capture of the chief of these desperadoes, from the Melbourne "Argus" is more like a page from a romance than a passage in real life. It is one more instance of what appears like a special Providence laying its resistless hand on a murderer at the very moment when he seemed to have secured his escape, and dragging him forth to public justice. Within four hours after his capture, Dalton would have been on board a ship bound for England.

"Between eleven and twelve o'clock on Friday night, Dalton entered a coffee-shop in Bourke Street, in company with a man who had engaged to put him on board the Northumberland at daylight the next morning from Sandridge, and for which he was to pay L4. This man, we understand, was quite ignorant of the person he was bargaining with. Dalton asked the proprietors of the shop, if they could change him some Van Diemen's Land Notes for gold, as he was about to embark for England. They could not do it, but a gentleman named Brice, formerly a cadet in the police force, suspecting all was not right, said that he could, as he was a gold-broker, if Dalton would only accompany him to his office. To this Dalton consented, and placed three L20 and one L10 notes of the Launcestoun Bank in his hands. They then left the shop together; the night was extremely dark; the stranger, however, led the way, Dalton and the boatman following close behind. After proceeding some little way, they turned into Little Collins St. and by the back entrance, into the yard of the Police Court. Here it was so dark that the outline of the building could not be distinguished. The guide then showed them the door of his alleged office which was no other then the clerk's room of the Swanston St. watch-house. The man at the door was in plain clothes, and within were several of the detective officers, and two watch-housekeepers at the books, all, however, in private costume. Once in, Mr. Brice stated that he had brought these men to the station on suspicion of having come by the notes wrongfully.

"Dalton at this time must have known where he was, but made no observation beyond affirming that they were his, and making some remarks relative to his being brought there on so paltry an accusation. During this he was smoking a cigar, and behaving himself in a careless nonchalant manner. Meanwhile, the detectives were making use of their eyes, and seeing if the descriptions they possessed corresponded with the figures before them. The watch-house keeper finding that Mr. Brice had no charge to prefer against him, returned Dalton his notes, who was about to leave the office, when Detectives Williams, Murray, and Eason pounced upon him, and fixed him in a corner. Dalton endeavoured to draw a pistol from his belt, but was prevented and overpowered. Finding himself mastered, he said, 'You have got the reward of L500. My name is Dalton!' He then said if he had only seen the bars of the station-house window, as he was entering, he would have sent a ball through his conductor. He further said that he had been in the Police Court that morning, and had recollected going up a flight of steps which he did not see that night, as he had been led in the back way, and had he but seen these steps, his guide would have been a dead man. He was then handcuffed and searched, and two large horse-pistols heavily loaded and capped, besides a small one, were taken from his belt; he was then locked up."

Kelly, the other accomplice, was arrested the next day, and both were sent back to Van Diemen's Land, tried, and executed.



ANTI-TRANSPORTATION MOVEMENT

Source.—Port Phillip Gazette, 21st January 1851

The uselessness of protests against Transportation from the various states, proved the necessity for the whole of Australia to act together in external affairs. Thus the inauguration of the Anti-Transportation League was the first step towards Federation.

BREAKFAST TO THE TASMANIAN DELEGATES

On Monday, the members and promotors of the Launceston Association for securing the cessation of transportation, entertained at Public breakfast the gentlemen delegated to represent the interests of the Colony at the Australian Conference, which is about to be held in Melbourne. A cold collation was prepared at the Cornwall, and about 100 gentlemen sat down, amongst whom were many magistrates and gentlemen representing the most influential and respectable portions of the northern and midland districts. Breakfast being concluded, the Chairman rose, and said, it was a matter of pleasure to him to meet so large and respectable a body of gentlemen, some of whom he had known for a quarter of a century. They had not assembled to petition; it was a truth deplorable and sad that petitions had hitherto been unavailing and they were now met to force from Her Majesty's Government, relief from an evil of which history presented no parallel. (Hear, hear.) Petition after petition had been transmitted home, but the prayers of the Community had been constantly rejected. It now remained to try other means.

The Rev. J. West rose and said he felt some embarrassment in addressing that meeting. He, however, felt grateful for their recognition of his appointment, and should rely on their indulgence during the few moments he might address them. The colonists had been led up to a position from which it was impossible to recede. Van Diemen's Land must obtain a share in the general freedom, or for ever sink. They had petitioned for a cessation of transportation; whilst there was a possibility of the other colonies receiving a portion of the convicts annually sent from Britain, they expected by the more general distribution to experience some relief. But the resistance of the other colonies had removed the faint anticipation, and shut up to us this last hope—to our union with them. When it was proposed to solicit the co-operation of the adjacent colonies, some persons prophesied a failure; it was thought by some, improbable that the colonies would feel any interest in our fate. But the heart of an Englishman is ever susceptible of pity; and when we spoke of our wrongs they listened; and when we exposed the enormous danger, they consulted their own safety, and came forward to our help. Let us look well to our position. We have to change the policy and contend against the power of a mighty Empire. In the effervescence and excitement of public speaking it was not at all surprising that a threat should sometimes be uttered; but many years must elapse before an appeal to physical force would bear even the semblance of reason. We have, then a mighty Empire to contend against—one which can laugh our threatening to scorn. And what are the weapons we must employ? What, but the weapons of truth? We must diffuse right information; we must expose our wrongs—and we must appeal to the justice of the British Nation. Let the evils and injuries under which this fair domain of the Crown now suffers, be laid before the English people, and a cry will be heard from Land's End to the opposite shore, "transportation shall cease because it degrades the British name." (Cheers.) The injuries resulting from transportation to the colony are various. A gentleman, however eminent his station and virtues, going to a distant part of the world must cautiously suppress the fact, that he came from Van Diemen's Land, or even this quarter of the globe. (Hear, hear.) Yes, Sir, our sons, who have quitted this colony in search of a home denied them in the land of their birth, have been compelled to conceal the place from which they came, and to drop into the box, by stealth, those letters which were to relieve parental anxiety, and express their filial affection. And is this to be for ever endured? Shall our own children never know the pleasure and pride of patriotism? Shall we not ask all the colonies of the Australian empire to aid us in our struggle? Shall we not confide in the justice of Australasia?

When it is said that England cannot support 4,000 or 5,000 offenders the question naturally occurs: What has she not done? Did not England for her Continental wars incur a debt of L800,000,000: did she not give L20,000,000 to free her West India slaves; did she not expend L7,000,000 to combat the famine of Ireland? Is not the proposed expenditure for the National Executive of the present year an evidence of her boundless opulence? And yet to save a trifling outlay compared with the injustice now done, the representative of Her Majesty is compelled to carry about under his skirts a parcel of convictism; to deposit these tokens of imperial interest he is driven to have recourse to artifice, trickery and falsehood. (Hear, hear.) As England glories in her past history, and has found means to keep afloat that flag which has never been lowered; so she must find means to carry on a nobler struggle with her own poverty and crime. Hitherto, Van Diemen's Land has not been heard at home; but if by the united voices of the other colonies, a sort of telegraphic communication can be opened with Britain, if a speaking trumpet be formed, we shall be heard. When he (Mr. West) heard that Ministers had departed from their promise that transportation should cease, he was astonished and desponding—he thought that if a promise so solemnly given could be so recklessly broken, hope was delusion. But as in the moral, so it is in the political world. The Divine Being frequently ordains that good shall arise out of apparent evils; that a tedious delay shall make the remedy more perfect. Had we been relieved when Ministers promised; then, transportation to the other colonies would have been continued, and its evils accumulate there. (Hear, hear.) When it was proposed that all the colonies should receive a share of convicts, all things considered, he, (the speaker) for one could not have then objected to Van Diemen's Land being joined in the co-partnery. Had such been the case a century might have elapsed before the reproach of convictism had been removed from this hemisphere. But the refusal of the other colonies occasioned by the injuries inflicted on this, has roused us all into action, and now all declare that not a man, no, not one—in fetters shall be landed in Australia. (Tremendous cheering.)

If an unfortunate offender becomes as a penitent desirous of amending his life, and disposed to conform to the usages, and claims of honest society, he will find no man here spitefully to remind him of his former errors. But if he is brought wearing the badge of disgrace we will not have him. We will say to the British Government "Until you can with safety discharge him into your community, he shall not enter ours." (Loud Cheers.) This is the righteous principle upon which we have taken our stand. Whilst we were disputing among ourselves who should bear the load, we were likely to be sacrificed by our ungenerous divisions. But we have now a new principle; and a principle is a wedge—if sufficient force is applied, every obstacle will be riven into shivers. We now say that no man should be an involuntary gaoler, much less shall the inhabitants of these colonies be the penal slaves and gaolers of the British Empire. (Cheers.) We assert that a community should deal with its own crime, at least so deal with it that in its disposal it shall not injure those who never offended—so at least that the honest and industrious labourer should not be brought into unfavourable comparison and competition with the hardened criminal, so that, at all events our sons shall not be driven from their homes to seek employment in distant lands—to meet there suspicion and contempt. These are the wrongs of which we complain—wrongs which could never have been perpetrated but in oblivion of that first great Law, alike the basis of private and public virtue: "do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." The Rev. gentleman resumed his seat amidst loud and prolonged cheering.

W.P. WESTON, ESQ.—It was with mingled feelings that he rose to address that meeting; but when he ascertained that Mr. West was to accompany him, he lost all fear, and at once accepted the invitation.

It had not been considered necessary to furnish them with written instructions how to act; it was left entirely to their own judgement; they had, as it were, a carte blanche; but he thought it advisable to mention one or two points towards which he and his colleague would direct public attention on the other side of the Straits. The first was, that transportation as hitherto conducted, was altogether and entirely rotten. He anticipated no very great difficulty in establishing that point. The next was, that no country had a right to force its crime upon a distant and unoffending one; it was a moral wrong. He was much struck at a remark which appeared in the Public journals in Melbourne. It seems to have been the custom of some persons to collect all the filth and rubbish from their persons and during the night to force it upon the premises of their neighbours. Now, these persons were designed miscreants, the paragraph commenced "the miscreants have been at work again." But he considered that the Government who would force a mass of moral filth upon a small and helpless colony were miscreants in the very worst sense of the term. (Hear, hear.) However severely the evils of convictism may have been felt in this community, they will be felt at Melbourne in a greater degree. Any evil may be counter-balanced and perhaps removed, if it can only be seen. The convicts come to this land under restraint and are completely at the disposal of the Government, but after completing their education in a chain-gang, and filling up, as it were, the measure of their iniquity they go over there where they are unknown to the police and consequently their crimes escape detection. The very worst characters amongst us proceed to the neighbouring colonies as soon as an opportunity offers. This fact accounts for the insecurity of property at Melbourne. A short time ago he was there and not more than two or three days after his arrival the linen which had been put out for washing, was stolen. Shortly after whilst the family were sitting at tea, information was given that the bedroom window was open and upon proceeding to ascertain the cause it was discovered that a thief had effected an entrance and carried off whatever he could lay his hands upon.

A letter lately received mentions that six gentlemen's horses in one locality had been robbed and that Melbourne was full of thieves. (A laugh.) No opportunity had previously offered of talking to the Melbourne people upon the subject, they were so occupied in endeavours to obtain separation from Sydney that every question was lost sight of; but now the matter was settled he did not apprehend any difficultly in establishing this point also.

We are a loyal people, and have given abundant proof of our loyalty; but it is not an unalterable principle. There is an old Spanish proverb—"The sweetest wine makes the sourest vinegar," and so it will be with us.

But the British Government must, and will yield, for they will find it will be to their interest, as well as their duty to grant the reasonable request of the Australian Colonies. (Cheers.)

Three cheers were then given for the Chairman, and three more for the Queen, and the meeting terminated.



THE LAND QUESTION

The adjustment of the English land laws to Australian requirements was a difficult task. The question was discussed in New South Wales in 1855, but South Australia, under the leadership of Torrens, was the first to effect reform (1859).



LAND QUESTION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Source.—Speeches on the Reform of the Law of Real Property (Torrens, 1858), pp. 5-6, 8-11

Extract from an address to the Electors of the City of Adelaide delivered in the Theatre on 31st January, 1857. (From the South Australian Register of February 2nd, 1857).

The next topic which I have put down to address you upon, is one with respect to which I should have wished to have had time to arrange my thoughts—it is the cheapening of the law of Conveyancing of real property. (Applause.) Next to affording fair facilities for obtaining possession of the waste lands of the Crown, and converting them into cornfields and homesteads of independent yeomanry, it is the duty of the State to afford a cheap and at the same time a secure mode of conveying that property from man to man. (Hear, hear.) I have for years felt that the law of England in that respect, which we brought with us, required amendment. In looking also to the laws of other countries with respect to the transfer, mortgage, or encumbrance of real property, I have come to the conclusion that the law of England is inferior to most of them with regard to cost and security of title. The old Conservative feeling of England adheres with a sort of veneration to laws and usages respecting title which originated under the feudal system, and is loath to abandon them for a system adapted to the requirements of modern civilization. I would illustrate my views by observing that, in ancient times, before the Wars of the Roses, a baron, or even a yeoman, would surround his residence with a moat to be crossed only by a drawbridge, and instead of the convenient door of modern times, he would have a portcullis, which he would raise or let fall to admit a friend, or exclude a foe. A visitor, too, would have instead of gaining immediate access, to sound a horn at an outer gate, and hold parley with a warder upon a lofty tower, before he could gain admission. There could be no doubt that all these ceremonies and parleyings were necessary in those days, but it does not follow that we should carry them out in our times. Were any person now, to surround his residence with a deep and broad ditch, and observe those ceremonies when a visitor called upon him, we would call him insane; yet, that is precisely what we do with regard to the transfer of real estate, observing still the tortuous roundabout methods of conveying, resorted to in those days for the purpose of evading the oppressions of feudalism. Nay, the analogy is so strong, that in our Law Courts, and Deeds we still use the same barbarous Norman French jargon in which the parley was in those ancient days held at the gate of the baronial residence. (Hear, and applause.) It is perhaps presumptuous of a person who has not received a legal education, to address his mind to this question; seeing, however, that the persons who, by ability, and education, are best fit to cope with the subject, are not willing, or, at least have not done so, I have taken the task upon myself. (Hear, hear). With your permission, I will give you an outline of the plan. The purchaser of land from the Crown shall receive a title deed, a land grant, as at present to be executed in duplicate, and one copy filed in the Registrar-General's office. When an original purchaser sells the land to another, he shall transfer it by a simple memorandum, which being brought to the office of the Registrar-General the original land grant must be surrendered, and then the Registrar will issue a new title to the second purchaser direct from the Crown. (Hear, hear.) This will get over the difficulty of tracing title through all manner of intricate transactions between purchasers, and instead of a man having to carry about an immense bale of papers, he would have one simple document, which would, nevertheless, be a title valid and indisputable, because it would be an original land grant. (Great applause.)