A Source Book of Australian History Part 16

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 ma.s.s of a population already formed, and were absorbed and a.s.similated 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 a.s.semblage 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 pa.s.sed, 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 princ.i.p.al superintendent of convicts, to cla.s.sify the newly-arrived convicts, the greater portion of whom are distributed amongst the settlers as a.s.signed 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 a.s.sert that, in the families of well-conducted and respectable settlers, the condition of a.s.signed 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 a.s.signed. 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 a.s.signed, 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 a.s.signed 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 a.s.signment. 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 a.s.signed. 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 a.s.signed 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, pa.s.sed 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 a.s.signed service, and about 7,000 had probably been prisoners of the Crown. These, together with their a.s.sociates amongst the free population, were persons of violent and uncontrollable pa.s.sions, 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 cla.s.s 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 quant.i.ty 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 subst.i.tuted 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 circ.u.mstances, 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 Const.i.tution 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 antic.i.p.ate 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 dest.i.tute; 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 pa.s.sed 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 ill.u.s.tration 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.