An Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales, etc

Front matter

AN HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF NEW SOUTH WALES, FROM THE FOUNDING OP THE COLONY IN 1783 TO THE PRESENT DAY. 3Y JOHN DUNMOEE LANG, D.D., A.M. SENIOR MINISTER OF THE SCOT8 CHURCH, SYDNEY, AND RECENTLY" ONE OF THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CITY OF SYDNEY IN THE PARLIAMENT OF NEW SOUTH WALES ; HOSORABY MEMBER OF THE AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY', AND OF THE LITERARY INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OL1NDA, IN THE BRAZILS. " Quorum pars magna sui." — Virgil. IN TWO VOLUME S. VOL. I. FOURTH EDITION. TEE HISTORY OF THE LAST TWENTY-PITE YEARS ENTIRELY NEW iiciiuoa : SAMPSON LOW, MAESTON, LOW, & SEAELE, CROWN BUILDINGS, 18S, FLEET STREET. 1875. [All ri Jits reserved.^ LONDON : GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, st. john's square.

Preface

. The three former editions of this work were published in the years 1834, 1837, and 1852, respectively; but, from the wonderful development of the Colony of New South Wales during the last twenty or twenty-five years, and the manifold and important changes that have taken place in that period in its general condition and prospects, only a small portion, comparatively, of the original work has been embodied in the present edition ; while the history of the Colony which it gives for the last quarter of a century is entirely new. Almost the whole of the following work was written at sea, on the author's repeated voyages from Sydney to London ; the materials having been previously collected for the purpose on these occasions in the Colony. For having, unfortunately, had to spend a large portion of his life at sea, the author has found it expedient and necessary, independently altogether of other and higher objects, to carve out beforehand sufficient literary labour for each successive voyage, to redeem that portion of his life from the mere blank which it might otherwise pre sent, as well as to escape the listlessness and languor into which any person without an absorbing employment is, in such circumstances, likely to fall.

A work written in circumstances such as these must necessarily have many imperfections. Repetitions of the same facts and circumstances, and sometimes even of the same ideas, are not only apt to occur, but to be a

PREFACE.

. IV a-fterwards overlooked till it is too late to make the necessary corrections : dull expletives also are apt to intrude themselves, especially if the wind happens to be foul, or the weather unfavourable ; and the balancing of periods is scarcely to be thought of. Having firmly resolved, on the completion of his academical curriculum of eight years at the University of Glasgow, for the ministry of the Church of Scotland, that he would not wait for any dead man's shoes in his native land, but would go forth beyond seas to some transmarine field of labour, in which no minister of the Church he belonged to had ever laboured before, the author went forth accordingly, as a minister of religion, to Australia, of his own choice and at his own charges, upwards of fifty years since ; and having formed a strong attachment to his adopted country from the first, he was early identified with efforts of various kinds for its welfare and advancement.

In process of time, as the colony was gradually expanding, and the powers of evil under the superlatively bad government to which it was long subjected were more and more strongly developed, he became involved in a whole series of struggles for its intellectual, social, moral, and political advancement, of which the reader will find sufficient indications in the following volumes. In the meantime, as the rest of the family of which the author was a member had followed his example in going forth •to Australia shortly thereafter, and had acquired much valuable property in the country, which in the order of nature had all fallen to the author, he was enabled to maintain these struggles for a long series of years and thereby not only to secure many important and permanent benefits for his fellow-colonists, but perhaps

PREFACE.

. V also to leave footprints on the sands of time in Australia, that, in all likelihood, will never be effaced.1 As it is now evident that during the last eighty years and upwards Great Britain has been, perhaps unconsciously and undesignedly, laying the foundations of one of the mightiest empires of the future in Australia, the history of the origin and progress of the British settlements in that country will henceforth necessarily be an object of interest and importance not only to the colonists of Australia, but to the whole civilized world. Of these settlements, however, the only one that can ever pretend to have a history of the slightest interest or importance to the European reader, is New South Wales ; of which, indeed, all the others — Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland — including even Western Australia or Swan River on the one hand, and New Zealand on the other, have merely been the progressive expansions.

To pretend, therefore, to compare the wonderful progress of some of these settlements with the comparatively slow progress of New South Wales in the infancy of that settlement, as has frequently been done by ill-informed and prejudiced writers, both in the mother country and in the Colonies, is pre-eminently absurd. For example, when the Colonies of South Aus- 1 At a public meeting in Sydney, in the year 1870, the Hon. Sir Terence Aubrey Murray, President of the Legislative Council, or Upper House of Parliament, in the chair, the Hon. S. D. Gordon, a member of that House, stated to the meeting that, " if Dr. Lang had retained the property which he had disposed of from time to time for the furtherance of objects which he conceived of value and im portance to the country, it would then have been worth not less than a hundred thousand pounds."

The author would certainly not have made such a statement himself; but as it was made publicly, where the facts it referred to were all well known, he has no hesitation in saying that it was perfectly correct. VI PREFACE, tralia and Victoria were originally settled in the year 1836, herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, and droves of horses were driven overland on speculation from New South Wales, to be sold at a comparatively moderate price to the new colonists ; while whole cargoes of flour and other provisions were poured in upon them from Sydney and Tasmania. There was no mystery, there fore, in colonizing rapidly and successfully in circumstances so peculiarly favourable. But when the first British settlement was formed on the east coast of Australia, every ounce of food for civilized man in the country had to be carried out either from England, from India, or from the Cape of Good Hope ; stock of every kind had to be conveyed for immense distances over unknown and stormy seas to the very ends of the earth ; and in the seasons of famine and disease that unfortunately supervened, the whole of that stock which it had cost so much to import into the country had actually to be slaughtered to sustain human life.

A comparison of the rates of progress in such circumstances. is therefore absurd in the highest degree. It is desirable, for many and obvious reasons, that all intelligent emigrants should make themselves generally acquainted with the past history of their adopted country ; as they cannot otherwise be enabled to ascer tain either its real condition and wants, or their own duties in regard to it. The author has given what he believes to be a fair and impartial statement of the facts and circumstances of that history, as well as of the conclusions which it warrants; and although he may thereby have given much offence in certain quarters, he is conscious he has told nothing but the truth. London, 3rd November, 1874. CONTENTS OF THE FIEST VOLUME.

Chapter I

Chronological Sketch of the progressive Discovery of the Coasts of Australia, previous to the year 1788 . . . Page 1 Australia, discovered by the Dutch and Spaniards, almost simultaneously, in the year 1605 — Eecent claim on the part of France to a prior discovery of the country — Progressive discovery of the North, West, and South Coasts, including Van Dieman's Land, now Tasmania, by the Dutch — Dirk Hartog, Jan de Edel, Nuyts, Carpenter, Tasman — Dampier — Discovery of the East Coast by Captain Cook.

Chapter II

Establishment of a British Colony at Port Jackson, under the Government of Captain Arthur Phillip, R.N. ... 10 Particular object of the British Government in the establishment of a Colony in New South Wales — Departure of the first fleet from Portsmouth — Governor Phillip's previous history — Arrival at Botany Bay — Discovery of Port Jackson, and settlement formed in Sydney Cove — .Arrival of the French Discovery Ships, under M. De la Perouse, in Botany Bay — Original state of the land round the Cove, and progress of the Settlement at Sydney and Parramatta— A subordinate Colony formed in Norfolk Island, under Lieutenant King : description of that Island — Governor Phillip's efforts to reform the Convicts and to conciliate the Aborigines — Encouragement given to settlers— First free emigrant settler, Philip Schoeffer— The Hawkesbury River discovered — Loss of the CONTENTS.

VIII " Guardian " transport and distress of the Colony— The " Sirius" frigate despatched for provisions to the Cape of Good Hope—De tachment sent to Norfolk Island— Loss of the " Sirius " at Norfolk Island, and great distress of the Settlement— Providential relief experienced during this period — Famine at head-quarters — Hu mane conduct of the Governor at this period — Arrival of the second fleet — Great mortality on the passage out and after land ing — Sufferings of the transports of the first fleet on their voyage home — Escape of William Bryant from the Colony, and arrival at Batavia — Resignation and departure of Governor Phillip— His character— King George's Sound and D'Entrecasteaux Channel discovered— Statistics of the Colony at the Governor's departure.

Chapter III

State and Progress of the Colony during the Administration of Governor Hunter • Page 47 The New South Wales Corps : its character and influence in the Colony — Captain Hunter assumes the government — His general character and procedure — Bickerings with the New South Wales Corps — Arrival of the Scotch patriots of 1793— Sketch of the history of Mr. Muir — Discovery of the strayed cattle in the Cow pastures — Progress of the Settlement — Spanish Discovery ships — Statistics of the Colony at Governor Hunter's departure in 1800 — Maritime discovery during Captain Hunter's government —Mr. Bass and Mr. Flinders — Twofold Bay, Bass' Straits, and Western Port discovered, and Tasmania circumnavigated — Melancholy fate of Mr. Bass — Unsuccessful expedition of Mr. Flinders along the coast to the northward — Discovery of Hunter's River — Subsequent History of Captain Hunter.

Chapter IV

State of the Colony during the Administration of Captain King, R.N 67 Governor King's previous history — Character of his government — Rum-selling practices of the New South Wales Corps and low state of public morals— Orders for the abandonment of Norfolk Island — A Settlement formed in Tasmania under Colonel Collins — Insurrection of the convicts at Castle Hill — Formation of the Settlement of free emigrants at Portland Head — Progress and CONTENTS. IX statistics of the Settlement during Captain King's government Visit and remarks of the French Expedition of discovery — King's Island, Cape Otway, and Cape Schank discovered by Captain Grant, R.N. — Port Phillip discovered and surveyed by Lieutenant Murray, R.N. — Anecdote of Governor King — Statistical notices — Inundations of the Hawkesbury — Discoveries of Captain Flinders on the South Coast, Spencer's Gulf, St. Vincent's Gulf, Port Lin coln, Kangaroo Island, and Cape Jervis — Discoveries of Captain Flinders on the East and North Coasts and in the Gulf of Carpen taria—Captain Flinders shipwrecked on Cato's Bank, when pro ceeding to England — Subsequently seized and imprisoned for six years in the Isle of France, in violation of his passport, by the French Governor.

Chapter V

State of the Colony during the Administration of Governor Bligh, with an account of the Origin and Result of the Colonial Rebellion in 1808 Page 92 Previous history and services of Governor Bligh — Strenuous efforts of the Governor to suppress the barter of spirits — His humane endeavours to protect and encourage the small settlers — Highly popular among that class of the colonists — Incidents that issued in a rupture between John Macarthur, Esq., and the Government — Violent and unjustifiable measures employed to bring Mr. Macarthur to justice — Mr. Macarthur placed on his trial for alleged misdemeanours before a Criminal Court — Mr. Macarthur objects to the Judge Advocate — Objection sustained by the Court, but disallowed by the Governor — Great altercation — Insurrection of the New South Wales Corps— The Government of the Colony usurped by Major Johnston, and the Governor seized, deposed, and placed under arrest— Character of this transaction and of the various parties engaged in it — Proceedings of the Insurrectionary Government — Trial of Colonel Johnston for mutiny — Charges against the Governor triumphantly refuted — Colonel Johnston cashiered.

Chapter VI

Account of the State and Progress of the Colony during the Government of Major-General Macquarie .... 132 Governor Macquarie enters upon his office in highly favourable circumstances — Vigorous and energetic character of his government X CONTENTS. — Judicious measures for the relief and encouragement of the small settlers — Great achievements in road-making and other public works— Questionable character of Governor Macquarie's proceedings in these respects —The Rum Hospital — Unsuccessful issue of his efforts to transform the emancipated convicts into farmers — Discouraged the free emigrant, and brought forward the emancipist class— Case of .Andrew Thomson— Mistaken policy of the Governor, and demoralizing tendency and effects of that policy — Repugnance of the military to such associations — Case of Judge Bent— Procedure of Judge Field in a similar case— Rapid progress of the Colony during Governor Macquarie's administration — The Governor's failing : a rabid desire for colonial immortality — Some times speculated upon, and at others ridiculed, by the Colonists — Captain King's maritime discoveries and surveys during Governor Macquarie's administration— Geographical discovery during Gover nor Macquarie's government — The Blue Mountains crossed, and the Plains of Bathurst discovered— The Lachlan and Macquarie Rivers explored — The Hastings River and the Manning discovered by Mr. Oxley — The Argyle country, including Lake Bathurst and Lake George, discovered, as also the Murrumbidgee River — Com parative statistics of the Colony at the commencement and the close of Governor Macquarie's administration.

Chapter VII

Account of the State and Progress of the Colony under the Government of Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane, K.C.B. Page 168 Previous history and general character of Sir Thomas Brisbane — Characteristics of his government — Era of free emigration — First free emigrants— Settlement of the country progressing rapidly — Indulgences granted to free settlers at this period— Great savingaccruing to the Government from the dispersion of the convicts among the free settlers — Unpopularity of the Governor, and his recall — Sir Thomas Brisbane and the Emancipists — Discovery of Brisbane Downs, or Maneiro Plains — Messrs. Hovell and Hume's overland Expedition to Port Phillip, and discovery of the Hume, Ovens, and Goulburn Rivers — Cudgegong River and Pandora's Pass discovered by Mr. Cunningham — The Brisbane River discovered and traced up by Mr. Oxley — Penal Settlement formed at Moreton Bay — Population in 1825. CONTENTS. XI

Chapter VIII

Account of the State and Progress of the Colony during the Government of Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Darling, K-CB Page 187 General Darling assumes the government— His general character and procedure — The Land Board — Road-making— Severity of discipline — The era of excitement — The Australian Agricultural Company — The sheep and cattle mania — The era of depression — Fall in the price of stock — Loss and ruin to the settlers — A case in point — Snakes in the bush — The era of drought — Speculation as to the periods in which such droughts occur — Not universal — The era of libels — The case of Sudds and Thompson — Death of Sudds — Examination of Thompson — Governor's report on the case — Comments of the press — Procedure of the Government towards Mr. Hall— The Reign of Terror — The threatened impeachment — Governor embarks for England — Parliamentary Committee on his administration — The Scotch mechanics of 1831 — Discovery of the Darling River by Captain Sturt — Discovery of the Gwydir and Dumaresq Rivers, and of the Darling Downs, and Moreton Bay, by Mr. Cunningham — Captain Sturt sails down the Murrumbidgee, and discovers the Murray River and Lake .Alexandrina — Population at the close of General Darling's government.

Chapter IX

State and Progress of the Colony under the Government of Major- General Sir Richard Bourke, K.C.B. .... 241 Sir Richard Bourke Governor — His general character and procedure — The Magistrates' Act — Assignment system — The jury law — Opposition to the Governor — Demonstration in favour of General Darling — Unscrupulous conduct of the press — The Chairmanship of the Quarter Sessions— Mr. Roger Therry and Mr. Riddell — Mi'. Riddell dismissed from the Executive Council, but reinstated by Lord Glenelg — The Governor resigns his office, and embarks for England — Bronze statue to Sir Richard Bourke — Change of the land system in 1831, and proceeds of land sales for six years — Female Emigration Board in London — No steps taken by the Government worthy of the emergency — Attempt of the Home Government to appropriate land revenue for police purposes — Procedure of the Home Government in the matter of emigration to New South Wales — Emigration of Scotch Highlanders — Unfortu- CONTENTS.

XII nate result of an .attempt to introduce a colony of German vine dressers—The German mission to the Aborigines at Moreton Bay — Government patronage of the convict press — Result of effort to deliver the colony from that reproach — Efforts to put down concu binage — Population in 1837 — Unsuccessful result of Major Mitchell's expedition to the northward — Major Mitchell traces down the Dar ling for 300 miles— Major Mitchell traces down the Darling for other 300 miles to the Murray River, and discovers Australia Felix — Previous discoveries and settlements in Port Phillip from Tas mania — Population of Port Phillip or Victoria.

Chapter X

State and Progress of the Colony during the Government of Sir George Gipps Page 283 Sir George Gipps — His general character — Impolitic and suicidal procedure of the Government in the disposal of land and town allotments — The Governor's antipathy to public squares like that of Cyrus — Enormous speculation in the purchase of land and stock, followed by a corresponding depression— Speculations as to the cause of the depression — Life and manners in Sydney — The Burton purge — Crash in the banks, and awkward revelations of unprincipled procedure on the part of the management — Boiling-down discovered by Mr. O'Brien — Sir George Gipps' Squatting Regulations — Outcry against them — The Squatting Act of 1846 — Unsuccessful attempt to obtain a modification of the Act to promote the Settlement of an Agricultural Population — The Orders in Council — Probable results of such procedure — Character of the Bounty Emigration of this period — The Question of questions — Colonization of New Zealand as a dependency of New South Wales — Land speculation in New Zealand — Mr. Wentworth's principality — Establishment of a partially representative Legislature — The author elected a member for Port Phillip — Circumstances of that election— Bill to limit the Governor's salary — The Civil List, or the Three Schedules — Reductions of expenditure by the Council — The duties on Spirits and the Bribery Cases — Arbitrary conduct of the Governor in setting aside votes of Council — Mr. Wentworth's measures : the Lien on Wool Act— Solvent Debtors' Bill — Usury Bill — Measures proposed by the author — Public prayers at the opening of the Council — Extension of the election franchise and equalization of the representation — Uniform postage at a two penny rate — Separation of Port Phillip— Geological survey of the CONTENTS.

XIII Colony— The Lottery Bill — Discovery of the Victoria and Albert Rivers on the Northern Coast by Captains Wickham and Stokes — Discovery of the Clarence River by cedar-cutters from Sydney — Discovery of New South Caledonia, or Gipps' Land, by M'Millan, and subsequently by Count Strzelecki — Dr. Leichhardt's Overland Expedition to Port Essington, and numerous discoveries along the route — Dr. Leichhardt's subsequent Expedition overland to West ern Australia, and supposed murder on the route— Lines to his memory — Sir Thomas Mitchell's discoveries in the North Western interior — The Maranoa, Claude, Salvator, Belyando, and Victoria Rivers — Population in 1846 — Testimonial to Sir George Gipps.

Chapter XI

View of the State and Progress of the Colony under the Government of Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, K.G.H. . Page 350 Prudent Policy of the Aborigines — Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy Governor — General character and procedure — Moral influence of Government House— Feelings of the Colonists on the subject, as exhibited by the virtuous portion of the press — Probable result of such appointments — Attempts to transform the Colony once more into a penal settlement — Determined resistance of the colonists- Great public meetings, and petition to the Legislature against transportation— The Anti-transportation League — Appointment of a delegate by Port Phillip — Exasperation of the Colonists at the result of the delegate's interview with Earl Grey — Great public meeting in Sydney, and threatening to cut the painter — Romish character of the immigration under Sir George Gipps — Author's visit to England in 1846, to endeavour to give an impulse to Protestant emigration — The cotton plant at Moreton Bay, and the high character of its produce in England — Attempt to form a colony in that settlement for its growth — Narrative of this attempt— Three Bhips despatched with emigrants to Moreton Bay, and results of that emigration— Irish Female Orphan Immigration — Letter to Earl Grey before leaving England in November, 1849 — Charges against the author forwarded to the Local Government, and published under the protection of the Council — The author elected one of the two members for Sydney — Proceedings in the Legislative Council on the subject of the charges transmitted from home — In the name of the prophet, Figs — Condemnatory vote by a small portior of the Council — Condemnation of the procedure of the Council at a public meeting by the citizens of Sydney— New Electoral Act— CONTENTS.

Efforts of the author to obtain an equitable distribution of the representation unsuccessful — Character of the Electoral Act — Election of representatives for Sydney under the New Constitu tion, in September, 1851, and the author placed at the head of the poll by a large majority — Expedition of Discovery to the North ward —Its disastrous progress and fatal termination — Address to Sir Charles Fitzroy on leaving — The author's proposed Amend ment on that Address unsuccessful — Sir Charles Fitzroy leaving the Colony.

Chapter XII

State and Progress of the Colony under the Government of Sir William Thomas Denison, K.C.B Page 396 Personal character and antecedents of Sir William Denison — Assumes the right of appointing a ministry without the previous concurrence of Parliament — Instances of his arbitrary character — Lecturing on the Primitive Church, Dr. Binney present — Changing the northern boundary of the Colony — Very different practices of Americans in such cases — Results of this procedure — Literary character of Sir William Denison.

Chapter XIII

Responsible Government, and the State and Progress of the Colony under Sir John Young, Earl Belmore, and Sir Henry Robinson 409 Lord Stanley's Constitution Act — Changes resulting from the enactment of Responsible Government — Sir John Young's political character and talents— Opinions on the subject of his procedure, both favourable and otherwise — Leaves the Colony to become Governor- General of Canada — Earl Belmore succeeds, and traverses the Colony in all directions — Receives sympathizing addresses for tho Duke of Edinburgh — One presented by the Chinese merchants and residents in Sydney — Resigns his office at the close ',of the fourth year of his administration, and returns to England — Sir Hercules Robinson, the present Governor, too recently in office to warrant any description as yet of his political character and [procedure — His hobby a passion for horse-racing, which ho indulges occasionally. CONTENTS. XV