Our First Half-Century Part 5

CHAPTER II.

INITIATION OF RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT.

Arrival of Sir George Bowen in Brisbane.--The First Responsible Ministry.--Injunctions to Governor by Secretary of State in regard to choice of Ministers.--Ex-members of New South Wales Legislature take Umbrage.--The Governor on the Characteristics of Various Cla.s.ses of Colonists.--The Governor a Dictator.--The Microscopic Treasury Balance.--Gladstone as Site of Capital.--Mr. Herbert as a Parliamentary Leader.

When on 10th December, 1859, Governor Bowen, accompanied by Mr. Robert George Wyndham Herbert, his private secretary, had landed amidst great popular rejoicings at Brisbane, read the Queen's proclamation of the new colony, and been sworn in as Governor by Mr. Justice Lutwyche (the Resident Supreme Court Judge for Moreton Bay), he was compelled to choose Ministers and then govern the colony for nearly six months before they could be const.i.tutionally approved by the representatives of the people in Parliament a.s.sembled. Sir George Bowen was faced by the dearth of seasoned public men, and by the dread of enlisting the services of strong partizans whose opinions and personal qualities were alike unknown to him. But as a const.i.tutional Governor he could do no executive act until he had secured responsible advisers, and therefore the immediate appointment of Ministers was imperative. Hence on the day of the official landing a "Gazette" notice contained the proclamation of the Queen's Letters Patent, and notification of the appointment of Mr. Herbert as Colonial Secretary with Mr. Ratcliffe Pring as Attorney-General. Thus with the Governor and his two Ministers an Executive Council was at once formed; and five days later Mr. (afterwards Sir) Robert Ramsay Mackenzie was gazetted Colonial Treasurer.[a]

These appointments gave umbrage to certain colonists, particularly to those who, having represented Moreton Bay const.i.tuencies in the New South Wales a.s.sembly, were deemed in many respects most eligible as advisers of the Queen's representative. Mr. Herbert had come out from England with Sir George Bowen as private secretary at the moderate salary of 250 a year. He was a scholarly young man of 28 years, and among other advantages had enjoyed the privilege of holding for a time the post of private secretary to Mr. Gladstone. Indeed, both the Governor and his secretary, although the former had been selected by Sir E. B. Lytton, Colonial Secretary in the superseded Derby Administration, may be cla.s.sed among the Gladstone school of politicians. Sir George Bowen probably recollected the injunction of Sir E. B. Lytton against partizanship, and the danger of identifying himself with the "squatters." For not only were they, speaking generally, partizans of a p.r.o.nounced type, but the reservation of tenant rights made by the Order in Council of 6th June was calculated to taint them with a strong personal, or at least cla.s.s, bias in land legislation and administration.

In his official despatches to the Colonial Secretary Sir George Bowen did not mention at length these initial difficulties; but to Sir E.

B. Lytton he wrote more fully. "I have often thought," he said, under date 6th March, 1860, "that the Queensland gentlemen-squatters bear a similar relation to the other Australians that the Virginian planters of 100 years back bore to the other Americans. But there is a perfectly different cla.s.s of people in the towns. Brisbane, my present capital, must resemble what Boston and the other Puritan towns of New England were at the close of the last century. In a population of 7,000[b] we have 14 churches, 13 public-houses, 12 policemen. The leading inhabitants of Brisbane are a hard-headed set of English and Scotch merchants and mechanics; very orderly, industrious, and prosperous; proud of the mother country; loyal to the person of the Queen; and convinced that the true federation for these colonies is the maintenance of the integrity of the Empire, and that the true rallying-point for Australians is the Throne."

To the Under Secretary for the Colonies (Mr. Chichester Fortescue) Sir George Bowen wrote on 6th June, 1860:--"At the first start of all other colonies the Governor has been a.s.sisted by a nominated Council of experienced officials; he has been supported by an armed force; and he has been authorised to draw, at least at the beginning, on the Imperial Treasury for the expenses of the public service. But I was an autocrat; the sole source of authority here, without a single soldier, and without a single shilling. There was no organised force of any kind on my arrival, though I have now, by dint of exertion and influence, got up a respectable police on the Irish model, and a very creditable corps of volunteers. And as to money wherewith to carry on the Government, I started with just 7d. in the Treasury. A thief--supposing, I fancy, that I should have been furnished with some funds for the outfit, so to speak, of the new State--broke into the Treasury a few nights after my arrival, and carried off the 7d.

mentioned. However, I borrowed money from the banks until our revenue came in, and our estimates already show (after paying back the sums borrowed) a considerable balance in excess of the proposed expenditure for the year."

Sir George Bowen's initial difficulties were not chiefly financial, however; neither was the lack of material force to give effect to the law a serious embarra.s.sment. He was empowered practically to select the seat of government by determining where the Parliament should first a.s.semble. Among the opponents of separation had been certain squatters who sought to place the capital of the new colony in some more geographically central place than Brisbane. Of these Mr. William Henry Walsh, of Degilbo, Wide Bay, one of the most able and virile of the Moreton Bay ex-members of the New South Wales Parliament, was very prominent. Offended by the Governor's selection of Mr. Herbert for the Premiership, Mr. Walsh refused a seat in either House of the new Parliament, and sought to create an agitation in the more northerly ports of Maryborough and Rockhampton, each containing about 500 inhabitants, in favour of Gladstone as the capital--a place which Sydney political influence had always indicated as the future seat of government when a new northern colony came to be established. But each of the towns mentioned had ambitions of its own, and regarded Gladstone as a rival. The movement therefore failed; but the colony for years lost the benefit of Mr. Walsh's services at a time when every capable man was needed to a.s.sist in organising the government and directing the Parliament of political novices who took their seats a few months later. Mr. Arthur Macalister, solicitor, another ex-member of the New South Wales Parliament and an excellent debater, was perhaps equally disappointed, but he was at least more diplomatic.

As member for Ipswich he took his seat on the Opposition benches, and after two years' service in the a.s.sembly was invited by Mr. Herbert to join the Government. This invitation he accepted, and four years later he became the party leader. The sequel proved that the Governor had made no mistake in selecting Mr. Herbert for his Premier. He proved a first-rate parliamentary leader, and succeeded in giving the new colony the inestimable advantage of over six years of stable government at the outset of its career, in marked contrast to the kaleidoscopic Administrations which so greatly hindered political progress in more than one of the southern colonies.

[Footnote a: For personnel of first Ministry and Parliament, see Appendix B, post.]

[Footnote b: The census of 1861 showed that then the population was only a little over 6,000.]

CHAPTER III.

DIFFICULTIES OF EARLY ADMINISTRATIONS.

Meeting of First Parliament.--Amendment on Address in Reply defeated by Speaker's Casting Vote.--Adoption of Address in Reply.--Compromise between Parties Indispensable.--Successful Inauguration of Responsible Government.--The Governor's Egotism.--Mr. Herbert's Retirement.--Mr. Macalister Succeeds.--Financial and Political Crisis.--Proposed Inconvertible Paper Money.--Governor Undeservedly Blamed.

On the 7th of May, 1860, the 26 members of the first Legislative a.s.sembly--among them the three Ministers of the Crown--having been returned, Parliament was summoned to meet at Brisbane on the 22nd of that month, just a few days before the maximum limit of delay specified by the Queen's Order in Council. On 1st May Sir William Denison had appointed 11 members for a five years' term to the Legislative Council, and three weeks later Sir George Bowen, conceiving the number insufficient, appointed four members additional for a life term, raising the total number to 15. Thus the first Parliament of Queensland was at length fully const.i.tuted, and all preliminaries had been completed for entering upon the work of the first session.[a]

On the 22nd of May the session opened, and after members had been sworn in Sir Charles Nicholson, for some years Speaker in the Sydney Parliament, was elected President of the Council, and Mr. Gilbert Eliott--formerly an officer of the Royal Artillery--the member for Wide Bay, Speaker of the a.s.sembly. Both Houses then adjourned for a week.

The Governor's Speech, which was of great length, having been delivered, the Address in Reply was moved in both Houses. In the Council the leadership had been entrusted to Captain Maurice Charles O'Connell, Minister without portfolio, who had long been in the Port Curtis district as a trusted official of the New South Wales Government, and in early life had served with great distinction as a British soldier in Spain. In the Council no difficulty arose in adopting the Address. But in the a.s.sembly an amendment moved for the adjournment of the debate at an early stage was only defeated by the Speaker's casting-vote, one member being absent. It thus appeared that the a.s.sembly was almost equally divided. This was a dangerous position to be faced by a new Premier without a day's previous experience in Parliament, and with the two most formidable debaters in the House, Mr. Macalister and Mr. (afterwards Sir) Charles Lilley, in active opposition. Mr. Herbert made a diplomatic speech, however, and the Address pa.s.sed without much further contention. The division list showed that, despite the efforts of the Governor and his Premier to avoid identification with the squatters, the votes of the latter were essential to the existence of the Ministry, since the members of the Opposition consisted almost exclusively of town representatives. The following day (30th May) the Government nominee for the Chairmanship of Committees, Mr. C. W. Blakeney, was defeated by 15 votes to 7, and Mr. Macalister, who was nominated by the Opposition, was thereupon elected on the voices. The division of parties evidently made compromise indispensable to the pa.s.sing of much-needed legislation.

But much had been gained by the Government. All its members had been elected by the const.i.tuencies, and the a.s.sembly had practically acknowledged that it was ent.i.tled to a fair trial. Seeing that for nearly six months Ministers had held their portfolios without parliamentary sanction, and had naturally made many executive mistakes during that time, it may be held that the first session of the first Parliament had been inaugurated successfully from the Ministerial standpoint. In his official despatches, as well as in private letters to friends in England, Sir George Bowen revealed himself as a genial though apparently unconscious egotist. His a.s.sumption of what must strike the discriminating reader as a dominating influence in the political and executive affairs of the colony was scarcely consistent with his position as a ruler representing the Queen, and competent to act only on const.i.tutional advice. An impartial survey of Mr.

Herbert's six years of office as Premier leads to the conclusion that chiefly to his judicious counsel and incomparable tact in the management of men the Governor owed the exemplary success attained in the organisation and government of the colony.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW FROM RIVER TERRACE, BRISBANE]

The Governor's complete if rather florid reports to the Colonial Office, however, justly evoked cordial responses from the Secretary of State. Sir George Bowen was a most capable man, but sometimes betrayed want of both reticence and dignity. He was enthusiastic as well as optimistic, and his retention in Queensland for the unusually long period of eight years is an unanswerable certificate of his official merit. Yet it is undoubted that when bad times overtook the colony in 1866 both the Governor and his Premier appeared to have outlived their popularity, though their combined action at that time for restoring the public credit was perhaps the most eminent service that either of them had ever rendered. Mr. Herbert had formed no ties in Australia; he had exercised supreme influence in the local Legislature; but now that there were several members with both natural capacity and parliamentary experience aspiring to the Premiership, believing that he had better prospects of preferment in the Imperial service, he determined to return to England. His subsequent long career at the Colonial Office justified his antic.i.p.ations, and it may be safely said of his departure from Queensland that the colony's loss was the Empire's gain.

The ex-Premier did not leave the colony abruptly, however, on handing over, on the 1st of February, 1866, all ministerial responsibilities to Mr. Arthur Macalister, his senior colleague in the Cabinet. He occupied his seat for nearly six months, in fact, and conducted himself with native dignity and becoming self-effacement as an unofficial member of the a.s.sembly. Unhappily he was not to leave Australia without having a wholly unexpected shadow suddenly cast over his long administration of affairs. In mid-July the news reached the colony of the catastrophic failure of the Agra and Masterman's Bank, which had undertaken to finance the Queensland railway loan then being rapidly spent. The financial crisis of 1866 played havoc in London; it was of crushing effect in Queensland, for the Treasurer could not meet his obligations, and the railway workmen threatened a riot in consequence of non-payment of their hard-earned wages. In this emergency, Parliament being in session, the Treasurer, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Joshua Peter Bell desired to adopt the recent American expedient of issuing an inconvertible paper currency. The Cabinet approved, but on the Governor being consulted before the introduction of the bill he emphatically declined to promise the Royal a.s.sent to the measure, if pa.s.sed. This he did for the all-sufficient reason that his Imperial instructions compelled him to reserve the a.s.sent to all measures affecting the currency. Ministers immediately resigned, and the Governor became the victim of irrational public obloquy for a time.[b]

Mr. Herbert consented to lead a stop-gap Administration, and under his guidance a bill was at once pa.s.sed empowering the Government to raise 300,000 by the issue of Treasury bills bearing not more than 10 per cent. interest per annum. They were forthwith disposed of at a premium, and the credit of the Government was restored. The temporary Government then resigned, and Mr. Macalister resumed office. Thus Queensland was saved from the double peril of paralysed credit and a debased paper currency.

[Footnote a: The names of the first Ministers, and of members of both Houses of the first Parliament, will be found in Appendix B. It may be of interest to mention that of all these representative men one, Mr. A. W. Compigne, who resigned his seat in the Council in 1864, alone survived till the Jubilee Year; and that he died at his residence, Brisbane, on Sunday, 4th July, 1909, in the 92nd year of his age.]

[Footnote b: Sir George Bowen, writing to the Right Honourable Robert Lowe, afterwards Lord Sherbrooke, said:--"Several leading members of Parliament were ill-treated in the streets; and threats were even uttered of burning down Government House, and of treating me 'as Lord Elgin was treated at Montreal in 1849.'"]

CHAPTER IV.

THE FIRST SESSION OF PARLIAMENT.

Work of the First Session.--Four Land Acts Pa.s.sed.--Summary of Land "Code."--Pastoral Leases.--Upset Price of Land 1 per acre.--Agricultural Reserves.--Land Orders to Immigrants.

--Cotton Bonus.--Lands for Mining Purposes.--Renewal of Existing Leases.--Governor's Laudation of "Code."--Praises Parliament.--Abolition of State Aid to Religion.--Primary and Secondary Education.--Wool Liens.--First Estimates and Appropriation Act.

The first session closed on the 18th of September, having extended over nearly four months. On the 28th of August, Sir Charles Nicholson having determined to retire and go to England, Captain O'Connell was appointed President of the Legislative Council by the Governor's Commission. Mr. John James Galloway at the same time accepted the appointment of Minister without portfolio, and held the leadership of the Council for the remainder of the session. Without other change in the personnel of the Cabinet the session was brought to a close with the position of the Government considerably improved. They had not carried all the measures promised in the Opening Speech, but the new Acts pa.s.sed numbered sixteen, some of them important, and all necessary. Seeing that both Houses were new to their work, the result went to prove that the confidence of the Imperial Government in the self-governing competence of the colonists had not been misplaced.

Even the "Moreton Bay Courier," then hostile to the Government, admitted that much good work had been done, the chief exception taken being to the Act authorising the granting of a five years' additional term for existing pastoral leases. The Act reserved power of resumption during the currency of the lease, but the Opposition contended that the power would never be exercised.

No less than four Land Bills were pa.s.sed during the session, and the Governor, writing to the Secretary of State, said, referring to them, that these Acts might be called "The Land Code of Queensland." The first of the "Code," which was ent.i.tled the Unoccupied Crown Lands Occupation Act, repealed the New South Wales pastoral leasing law of 1858, and the Orders in Council then in force in Queensland in so far as they were repugnant to the new Act. Any person was to be permitted to apply for an occupation license for one year for a run of 100 square miles, and if there were more than one applicant for the same run preference was to be given to any person who had occupied it for two months previously. Within nine months after the granting of the license application might be made by the occupier for a 14 years'

lease conditionally on the run having been stocked to one-fourth its a.s.sumed carrying capacity of 100 sheep or 20 head of cattle per square mile. An absolute power of resumption at any time during the lease on 12 months' notice was given. The second was the Tenders for Crown Lands Act, authorising the issue of 14 years' leases to lessees of runs already liable for rent; also authorising the acceptance of tenders (which had been held over awaiting legislation) for runs occupied since 1st January, 1860, and the granting to the tenderers of 14 years' leases.

The third measure of the "Code" was the Alienation of Crown Lands Act, which fixed the minimum upset price at auction or otherwise at 1 per acre; and which provided for the setting apart, within six months from the bill becoming law, of not less than 100,000 acres on the sh.o.r.es or navigable waters of Moreton Bay, Wide Bay, Port Curtis, and Keppel Bay, and also within five miles of all towns with upwards of 500 inhabitants, as agricultural reserves of not less than 10,000 acres each, which should not be for sale by auction, but surveyed and opened to selection as farms of not less than 40 nor more than 320 acres at the fixed price of 1 per acre; the purchase money to be paid in advance, and the Crown grant issued at the end of six months if the selector had occupied the land and commenced to improve it during that term. If a selector failed so to occupy and improve, the purchase-money was to be returned to him, less 10 per cent., and the land again opened for selection. A selector was also ent.i.tled to lease three times the area of his farm--but so that the whole should not exceed 320 acres--in one lot or conterminous lots within the same reserve, for a term of five years, at sixpence per acre rent, with right of purchase, if fenced in, at 1 per acre at any time during the currency of the lease. A further provision of importance in the same Act was the granting of a land order for 18 on arrival to each immigrant from Europe who paid his own pa.s.sage, and a further land order for 12 at the end of two years' residence in the colony. It was also provided that two children between the ages of four and fourteen should be reckoned as one statute adult. Further provision was made by which a bonus in land was to be paid during the next three years of 10 per bale of good cleaned Sea Island cotton, and for the two years next following 5 per bale. And finally any person or company was empowered to purchase land not exceeding 640 acres in one block for mining purposes, other than for coal or gold, at the upset price of 20s. per acre.

The fourth measure of the "Code" was the Occupied Crown Lands Leasing Act, which enabled the lessee of any Crown land held under previously existing regulations, or under the Tenders for Crown Lands Act of the current session, to get a five years' renewal at the end of his term.

The principle of compensation was recognised in these leasing Acts, but no provision was made for the continuance of the pre-emptive right of purchase, conferred by the old Orders in Council.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BARRON FALLS, CAIRNS RAILWAY, NORTH QUEENSLAND]

Sir George Bowen wrote to the Secretary of State in terms of exalted laudation of these four Acts. "I regard them," he said, "as a practical and satisfactory settlement of this much-vexed question, which is still embittering the social life and r.e.t.a.r.ding the material advance of the neighbouring and elder colonies." To a friend in England he wrote,--"The legislation of our first Parliament has settled the long quarrel between the pastoral and agricultural interests which has raged in all new countries ever since the days of Abel, the 'keeper of sheep,' and Cain, the 'tiller of the ground!'" To the Secretary of State he added,--"This Parliament may fairly boast of having pa.s.sed, with due caution and foresight, a greater number of really useful measures, and of having achieved a greater amount of really practical legislation, than any other Parliament in any of the Australian colonies since the introduction of parliamentary government." Sir George quotes a Sydney journal,[a] which before separation was antagonistic to that movement, as saying,--"The Government of Queensland has been either very fortunate or very judicious. The last to enter the race, Queensland has shot ahead, and taken the first place. While in Melbourne the popular rage has been worked up by its guardians into riot, and while in Sydney the tactics of the popular party have succeeded in placing the land question in a position of chronic blockade, in Queensland it has been settled on a moderate and reasonable basis, and without so much as a single ministerial crisis."

In the prorogation speech Sir George Bowen reviewed at length the work of the session. From that and other sources it may be stated that the limitation of the number of salaried officials capable of being elected to the Legislative a.s.sembly had been fixed so as not to exceed five; the collection of parliamentary electors' names had been discontinued, and facilities provided for self-registration; State aid to religion had been abolished, the rights of existing inc.u.mbents being preserved; the existing system of primary education had been abolished, and provision made for the appointment by the Governor in Council of a "Board of General Education," a body corporate authorised to expend such sums as Parliament might vote for primary education.

The Board was empowered to a.s.sist any primary school that submitted to its supervision and inspection, and conformed to its rules and by-laws; but it was forbidden to contribute to the repair or building of any school unless the fee-simple thereof had been previously vested in the Board. And nothing in the Act could be held to authorise any inspection of or interference with the special religious instruction which might be given in such school during the hours set apart for such instruction. Not more than 5 per cent. of the Board's funds might be applied to granting exhibitions at any grammar school to primary scholars who had pa.s.sed the compet.i.tive examination prescribed by the Board.

The Board was also authorised to devote a portion of its funds to a.s.sist in the establishment of normal or training schools, or to industrial schools. The Grammar Schools Act of 1860, which with a few amendments is still in force, was pa.s.sed. An Act for taking the census of the colony on 1st April, 1861, became law. An Act for the appointment of Commissioners to adjust accounts with New South Wales was another measure of the session. It may be remarked, however, that an adjustment was never reached, but the amount in dispute became so comparatively small when mutual credits had been allowed that the question was permitted to lapse. Another measure of some practical importance was the Liens on Wool Act, which extended also to mortgages on sheep, cattle, and horses; and the Scab in Sheep Act, the main provisions of which are still in force. The gold export duty was abolished by an Act which merely validated the then official practice of omitting to collect the duty imposed by a New South Wales Act pa.s.sed seven years previously.

It must be admitted that this record of work done by a new Parliament, in a colony that had no existence as a self-governing ent.i.ty twelve months before, deserved much of the approbation expressed of its proceedings by the Governor. Indeed, the "Courier" of the day, in commenting upon the work of the session, gave honourable members of both Houses hearty credit for the a.s.siduity with which they had attended to public duty, even to the neglect in many cases of their own personal and business affairs. There was then no payment of members in any form. And there were other matters than legislation which deserve notice. The Estimates had been pa.s.sed, totalling 220,808 for the service of the year; and the Governor had congratulated the a.s.sembly upon having appropriated one-fourth of the total estimated revenue to roads, bridges, and other public works, besides ample sums to hospitals, libraries, botanic gardens, and schools of arts. No less than 31,261 was voted for police, of which 13,516 was absorbed for the native troopers then necessary for the protection of the adventurous pioneers who were conducting what may be termed exploratory settlement in the remote interior.

[Footnote a: "Sydney Morning Herald," September, 1860.]

CHAPTER V.

QUEENSLAND IN 1860.

Rush of Population.--High Prices for Stock for occupying New Country.--Spa.r.s.e Population.--Rockhampton most Northerly Port of Entry.--Navigation inside Barrier Reef unknown.--Tropical Queensland Unexplored.--Ignorance of Climate, Resources, and Conditions.--Primary Industries in 1860.--Primitive Means of Communication.--Public Revenue, Bank Deposits, and Inst.i.tutions.