Australasia, old and new

Dedication

TO

MY WIFE

WHO HAS RENDERED MUCH VALUABLE ASSISTANCE IN ITS PRODUCTION THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

Preface

IN presenting this volume to the public, it is only necessary to explain briefly some of the reasons which have called it forth. In the first place, no time could be more opportune than the present for the publication of a book of this kind. The first day of the century witnessed the birth of the Australian Commonwealth, and by the time my book appears the first Parliament of Federated Australia will have been opened in the presence of the Heir to the British Throne and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall. That event will be the second one of great importance which marks the new era in Australian history ; and, as my book brings the reader up to that point from earliest times, it will, I trust, prove a welcome and timely addition to the stock of literature which has already been devoted to that distant part of the world.

Having spent a very large portion of my life in Australasia, and possessing that intimate knowledge of its people and affairs which long residence and travel under Austral skies give me, my undertaking a literary task of this kind will not, I hope, be considered presumptuous, more especially when I tell my readers that during the whole period of my prolonged absence from

PREFACE viii

Great Britain I have been actively engaged in journalism, and that from the very nature of my profession I have had exceptional opportunities of studying public men and events at the Antipodes. I mention this fact to show that I should at all events be qualified for my task — how far I have succeeded it will be for my. readers to decide.

It has been my especial care to endeavour to present them with a clear narrative of Australasian affairs, in order that they may become familiar with a part of the world which is destined to attract greater attention than has yet been paid to it by the people of other countries, now that the Australian Continent and the adjacent Colony of Tasmania have attained the status of a nation. I wish I could also add that New Zealand was included in that great Commonwealth.

One thing which prompted me to write this book was the ignorance — I may be pardoned for saying the illimitable ignorance — which prevails in Great Britain with regard to most matters colonial. It may be that hitherto the people of these islands have felt no interest in the Australasian Colonies, and therefore have not taken the trouble to master any details connected with them, not even as to their geographical position, size, distance from each other, population, and so on ; and there are many persons to be met with in my own experience who are quite in a fog as to whether Australia is part of New Zealand or the latter a portion of the former. It is a common occurrence to be asked about persons and places in Australia and New Zealand as if no greater distance separated them than St. Paufs from Westminster Abbey, and the Post-office authorities could supply countless examples of the prevailing want of knowledge on the part of some people who

PREFACE

IX address their letters Australia, New Zealand,” or viceversa. I trust my book will have the effect of arousing a greater interest in the Australasian Colonies, and that its perusal will help to dispel the hazy notions about them which appear to exist in the minds of a great number of the general public on this side of the globe.

Unfortunately, too much of the literature which has been published about Australasia has been of an ephemeral sort. A considerable portion of it, too, has been written either by interested politicians or by those coming under the designation of “globe-trotters.” I belong to neither class. I have never been in politics, and have no political interests to advance or party to subserve or placate in what I write. Neither have I been a mere bird of passage, visiting Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand for a few weeks, picking up scraps of information from unreliable and interested sources, and then returning to England or America and writing a book which can only excite the ridicule of those who have a personal knowledge of the subjects it pretends to deal with. It is like a man who has never been to Japan spending a couple of months in the British Museum, and then issuing a work on that country, only for Sir Edwin Arnold and Pierre Loti to laugh at.

My readers will perceive that, with regard to the future of the Australian Commonwealth, I hold views that are certain to be unpopular amongst those who indulge in dreams of Imperial Federation or a confederacy of all the English-speaking nations of the earth. Neither of these ideals, in my humble judgment, will ever come to anything ; and just as certain as I feel upon that point, so also am I convinced that long before

X

PREFACE this century draws to an end Australia will be an independent nation, politically and in all other respects. The grounds upon which I base this opinion will be ascertained by the reader in due course.

I desire to acknowledge the courtesy of the Editors and Proprietors of The Bookman^ The Leisure HouVy and Sunday at Hoine in allowing me to transfer to this volume articles which I contributed to those periodicals upon subjects which are dealt with in Chapters XVII., XXIV., and XXIX.

J. GRATTAN GREY.

London, Apnly 1901.

Chapter II

Discovery of Australia — Cook’s Wonderful Voyages — What the American War of Independence had to

DO WITH THE COLONISATION OF AUSTRALIA— OfF TO

Botany Bay ....... 10

CHAPTER HI.

Cook’s Impressions of the Native Race — Earlier Navigators—What Cook Thought of Australia as a Land FOR British Settlement . , . . .17 xi xii

Chapter IV. Page

The Pioneers of Australian Settlement and the Native

Chapter V

Just in Time— The First Ship— Docile Natives— Van Diemen’s Land— John Mitchel, William Smith O’Brien,

John Martin, Terence Bellew MacManus, and other Political Offenders . . . . . .36

CHAPTER VI. Extension of Settlement — Buckley, the “ Wild White

CHAPTER VH.

What Happened under the Transportation System . 57

CHAPTER VHI.

Further Remarks upon Transportation— Gibbet Hill —

Discontinuance of Transportation . . -64

CHAPTER IX.

xiii

CHAPTER X.

PAGE

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

Natural Features of the Australian Continent and

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

Representative and Responsible Government and Democracy . . . . . . .147

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

Education in the Australian Colonies and Tasmania

. 172

XIV

CHAPTER XVII.

PAGE

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Literature of Australasia— Poetry and Prose . 197

CHAPTER XIX.

Part II. New Zealand

CHAPTER XX.

Size of New Zealand — Discovery — First Acquaintance

WITH THE Natives — Physical Features . . . 227

CHAPTER XXI.

In Old New Zealand Days — The Earliest Missionaries —

The “Boyd” Massacre — Systematic Settlement — The Treaty of Waitangi. .... 233

CHAPTER XXII.

Maori Wars — The Land Qup:stion at the Bottom of Them — Broken Promises — The South Island Natives Claim Three Millions Sterling .... 246

XV

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Maoris — Their Character and Disposition — Cannibalism AND Tribal Wars . . . . .

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHAPTER XXV.

Representative and Responsible Government

CHAPTER XXVI.

The “ Sugar and Flour ” Policy — Native Schools — Sir George Grey and the Natives — Maori Representation IN Parliament ......

CHAPTER XXVH.

Sir George Grey and His Island— Sir Robert Stout, Mr. Ballance — Sir Julius Vogel . . . .

CHAPTER XXVHI.

Mr. Ballance as Premier— His Liberal Policy— Creation OF A Labour Department — Land for the People — State Assistance to Settlers ....

PAGE

XVI

CHAPTER XXIX.

PAGE

CHAPTER XXX.

New Zealand Parliaments Past and Present— “ Spoils to

THE Victors” — A Reign of Terror . . . 329

CHAPTER XXXI.

More Remarks upon Parliamentary Decadence in New

Zealand .

Old-Age Pensions .

CHAPTER XXXII.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration — Cost of

Government — Payment of Members . . . 364

CHAPTER XXXV.

The Loss of Samoa— Natives Satisfied with German

Annexation ....... 37^

Appendices— Statistical Information

PART I

AUSTRALIA AND VAN DIEMEN’S LAND (TASMANIA)

Z

Chapter I

IT is not, in the strict sense of the term, a history of the Australian Continent, and of the two large and important colonies adjacent to it, that the author intends to present to the public on this occasion. To give anything like a detailed account of the rise and progress of those distant lands would require one, in addition to any large store of information he may himself possess on the subject, to devote months of research amongst whole files of almost forgotten literature on the shelves of the British Museum, and the result would be rather to confuse than to help a writer in the satisfactory accomplishment of an object alike comprehensive and ambitious.

The purpose which the author has in view is not so much to give a consecutive narrative of events which have been already placed on record, as to present his readers with a true insight into the condition of things as they now exist in what is destined to become the Greater Britain of the South. A continuous residence of nearly forty years in Australasia should enable him to perform such a task as this with satisfaction to the public and to himself.

At the same time, it will be necessary to devote a considerable amount of space and attention to the main

AUvSTRALASIA OLD AND NEW features connected with the early days of colonisation, in order that the reader may acquire a fair grasp of the whole subject without being wearied by superfluous details of no actual interest or importance to any one.

Following out this plan in strict accordance with its simplicity of conception, the author will not trouble his readers with any dull recital of geographical situations which can be obtained by a moment's reference to any of the authenticated maps now everywhere accessible to those who desire to inform themselves upon that branch of the subject ; but in order to show the vastness of Great Britain's possessions in that portion of the Southern Pacific, an epitome of the area comprised within each colony of the Australasian group will be found both interesting and instructive. The Australian Commonwealth, which the new century has brought into political existence, embraces the whole of the Great Island Continent and Tasmania. Before the Imperial Act of last year created it a nation, Australia was divided into five separate colonies, the areas of which are as follow : —

New South Wales (the original colony of them all) contains 323,437 square miles, or 206,999,680 acres.

Queensland, 678,600 square miles, or 434,304,000 acres.

South Australia, 914,730 square miles, or 585,427,200 acres.

Victoria, 88,198 square miles, or 56,446,720 acres.

Western Australia, 978,298 square miles, or 626,1 1 1,323 acres.

The island of Tasmania (also included in the Commonwealth), 26,215 square miles, or 16,778,000 acres.

New Zealand (which at present stands out of the Commonwealth) has a total area of 103,658 square miles, or 66,340,910 acres.

It will thus be seen that the Australian Continent contains 2,983,253 square miles, and Tasmania 26,215 square miles, and that these figures added together give a total square mileage of 3,009,468. But the enormous dimensions of the Australian Continent (leaving Tasmania out of the calculation, because it is an island nearly 200 miles away from it) can be more readily grasped when it is stated that if the areas of Austria- Hungary, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Portugal, Spain, Italy (including Sardinia and Sicily), Switzerland, Greece, Roumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Eastern Roumelia and Turkey in Europe, were grouped together, they would contain little more than half of the territory which now comes under the administration of the Australian Commonwealth.

The total area in square miles of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, is 121,305, only about one-seventh more than the colony of New Zealand ; and when a comparison is made between the United Kingdom and the Australian Continent, some idea can be formed of the countless millions of people who will some day be found to live under Austral skies. What, therefore, can be more obvious to the most ordinary mind than that in the natural evolution of events Australia is destined to become one of the greatest and most progressive nations of the earth? It has already made a good beginning under the beneficent influences of self-government, and who can say that the time will not come when she will find herself of a growth sufficiently robust to take care of herself and shape her own destiny ? Federation is but the stepping-stone towards the ultimate realisation of that ideal, and it is just as well to recognise what must inevitably happen in the future when this new nation in southern seas attains a maturer stage of development and feels that she can walk alone. When that epoch in her career is reached, it is idle to suppose that any obstacles will be interposed against the accomplishment of her legitimate aspirations. But the work of nation-building has just begun ; many decades must pass before Australia is in a position of self-reliance ; her present population, scarcely numbering five million souls, must increase to twenty or thirty millions of people ; and enormous sums of money must be expended in perfecting a scheme of internal and external defence.

But all these things will assuredly come to pass in the fulness of time ; her geographical position and conditions differing so greatly from those of the northern hemisphere will be special arguments to support her claims for complete control of her own affairs, external as well as internal, and no statesman will be found to resist those claims whenever they are advanced, as they certainly will be, years perhaps before the present century draws to a close. In saying this I am well aware that my prophecy will be challenged by those who indulge in dreams about Imperial federation and a confederacy of all the English-speaking nations of the earth ; but a close examination of the whole subject will convince even the most sceptical, that the tendency of peoples lies in the direction of national independence. To govern themselves in their own way, according to their own conceptions of what is best suited for the requirements of the countries they live in, is the idea which is fast taking possession of people’s minds all the world over ; and it is a well-known fact that in the Australia of to-day there are thousands of men and women who are strongly impressed with the belief that events will so shape themselves in that part of the world as to result in complete independence eventually. Indeed, what Sir Wilfred Laurier so recently said about Canada may be applied to Australia : the present arrangements work very well and suit existing circumstances, but it would be going too far to say that they will last for ever. Sir Wilfred has only shown more candour than any of the statesmen of Australia on the subject, but the feeling is there nevertheless ; it is simply more diplomatic not to give expression to it until perhaps a more fitting opportunity. Besides, it might appear somewhat ungrateful to intimate, at the very birth-time of the Commonwealth, that something more will be demanded later on ; but the strong stand made by Mr. Barton and Mr. Deakin against Mr. Chamberlain during the passage of the Federation Bill, and the way in which these gentlemen were backed up by the consensus of Australian public opinion, are straws which indicate clearly enough the trend of popular feeling and sentiment on a question which Sir Wilfred Laurier has touched upon so significantly so far as it relates to the Canadian Dominion. When the Australian Commonwealth has grown a little older, and its accumulating strength has given it greater confidence, probably its statesmen will be no less candid and courageous than the Premier of Canada, and will state with equal definiteness what their ultimate aims are as the natural and irresistible sequence of Federation.

In considering the future destiny of Australasia, it would be a mistake to suppose that because of the enthusiasm which has been manifested there during the past sixteen months, it may therefore be assumed that the federating States will for all time be content with what they have already secured in the way of self-government. There is a proneness on the part of too many people to attribute to that enthusiasm an importance and significance which do not really belong to it, for the reason that it has been more in the nature of a sentimental expression of feeling which sudden and extraordinary developments aroused in that part of the world. It therefore possesses no real or durable significance as to the future course of action in Australia with reference to its own affairs. No one acquainted with Australia, or with the strong and swelling current of popular opinion which exists there on the subject, can shut his eyes to what the ultimate result of that opinion will be, and there is nothing to be gained by any attempted concealment of what Australia desires to achieve as the crowning point of her national aspirations and hopes. At the same time, it is premature to talk of “ cutting the painter.” Australia is not in a position to cut it even if she wished to do so, in her present circumstances. It suits her to maintain the connection, and there will be no thought of cutting the painter until she is fully prepared to take care of herself ; but the time will assuredly come when she will be in that position.

Whether the period be long or short depends altogether upon two essential features in her progress and sense of self-reliance : population and defence. In neither one respect nor in the other is she prepared to stand alone at this moment, and before she can do that she will require a vastly larger population and such means of internal and external defence as will enable her to meet any possible contingency that may arise from an international point of view. At present she is without a fleet of her own ; the few boats she has would be of little avail in protecting her from attack by a fleet of the most modest dimensions sent out there specially for that purpose by any foreign nation, and her extensive coast lines could be assailed with impunity, except at Port Phillip, Port Jackson, and a few other places where defence works have been carried out. Therefore Australia has much to do before she can dispense with the protection of Great Britain, and it would be madness to dream of doing that under existing circumstances. The danger of doing it is too evident for Australia to ignore her dependence upon the Mother Land. That she recognises the necessity of maintaining the connection is clear from the anxiety she displays with regard to the encroachment of foreign powers in the Pacific. On one hand, she regards with apprehension the possibility of France getting possession of the New Hebrides ; and on the other she sees Germany permanently installed in New Guinea and Samoa. Left to herself just now, these two powers would be a constant source of uneasiness to Australia, and that danger would be intensified if she had not the protection and assistance of Great Britain to rely on. Complete national independence will not be sought for, therefore, until Australia feels absolutely sure of her position from being able to defend herself against foreign attack, and when that stage of her development is reached the leave-taking between Great Britain and Australia will be one of mutual friendliness and best wishes on the part of the old nation and the new.

Chapter II

DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA — COOK’S WONDERFUL VOYAGES — WHAT THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDE- PENDENCE HAD TO DO WITH THE COLONISATION OF AUSTRALIA — OFF TO BOTANY BAY

Long before the advent of Captain Cook, Tasman and other great navigators had penetrated so far into southern latitudes as to reveal to the world the existence of Terra Australis and the islands now known as Tasmania and New Zealand. To the former the name of New Holland was subsequently given, and from the time of Tasman’s visit until the year 1854, Van Diemen’s Land was the title under which Tasmania was popularly known, and claimed its rather unenviable notoriety under the convict system which prevailed there during a considerable portion of the nineteenth century. The sea which separates New Zealand from the Australian Continent, in width a little over 1,200 miles, still bears the name of the celebrated Dutch navigator, and there are places in New Zealand where the original nomenclature has never been departed from. Thus we find Tasman’s Head and Cape Maria Van Diemen still applied to prominent headlands on its coasts. These particulars are mentioned for the purpose of showing that Cook was not the discoverer of these distant parts of the earth, although it must be admitted

DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA

II that nothing was done to bring them into prominence until the publication of “ Cook’s Voyages ” aroused a degree of interest about them which ultimately resulted • in their acquisition for purposes of British settlement and expansion. Cook was undoubtedly the most wonderful and heroic navigator of the age in which he lived. Any one now sailing along the coasts of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand cannot but be struck with the marvellous courage and intrepidity which must have marked the progress of this great man in southern seas. The dangers to which he was constantly exposed were indeed prodigious. Buffeted about in a sailing craft, which can be designated little more than a cockle-shell alongside the monster productions of marine architecture of our own time, without a chart of even the roughest outline to guide him from one point to another, it is incomprehensible how he averted destruction upon the wild and barren coasts round which he was the first to sail ; and viewed from this distance of time, it is astounding to note the absolute correctness of his original survey. All the headlands and coastal indentations, as well as depths, distances, magnetic bearings and currents, have been set forth in his Voyages ” with a detailed accuracy which has withstood the test of subsequent research, and the stupendous nature of his task, and the manner of its successful accomplishment, must for all time impress the world with his exceptional genius and indomitable perseverance and courage.

Cook was in every sense a true benefactor of mankind. He opened up a new world to relieve the congested conditions of the old one, just as the discoveries of Christopher Columbus and other navigators in earlier times provided the vast territories of America as outlets for the over-populated nations of Europe. When one thinks of the results that have flown from the colonisation of America and Canada, and the millions of people who are now settled in these countries, one naturally wonders what the consequences would have been if these lands had not been available — if they had remained in the primitive condition in which they presented themselves to the early pioneers of Virginia, or the later adventurous colonisers of the New England States, whose descendants constitute a large proportion of the seventy-six millions of souls who are included in the population of the United States. Even taking those who are of Anglo-Saxon origin, what room would there have been for them within the circumscribed limits of the British Isles ? In the words of the American satirist, they would have been too numerous to maintain even a foothold upon the soil and would have squeezed each other into the surrounding waters through overcrowding. What the United States and Canada have done in the past to relieve that pressure, the Australian colonies have been doing in a lesser degree since 1788. In the latter case distance has always stood in the way of a more rapid development, and even the attractions of their goldfields have not been instrumental in augmenting their population in the ratio that might have been expected. But the establishment of the Commonwealth is the dawn of a new era of progression, and when it becomes more generally known that Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand offer inducements for settlement superior to those in any part of the world, a tide of emigration will set in which will increase the number of their inhabitants to tens of millions before the second century of their settlement draws to a close.

It is not generally understood that the War of Independence in America, and the loss of the British colonies there, had much to do with the colonisation of Australia. It was, in point of fact, a direct factor in the origination and execution of the plan of Australian settlement. The settlement of Virginia had an exactly similar com-

DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA mencement, under the auspices of Lord Delaware. For a considerable period after taking possession of Virginia, it was the custom of Great Britain to send great numbers of her criminal classes across the Atlantic, and the practice existed for a century and a half before the War of Independence broke out. Most of these convicts, men and women, were sold to the Virginian planters, some of them for a term of years, others for life. The average price per head was £20, and for a long time England derived a considerable amount of revenue from this source, sometimes as much as ;6’40,ooo a year. Many of these convicts, after completion of their servitude or liberation upon ticket-of-leave, rose to positions of wealth and influence in Virginia, and their descendants are now to be found amongst some of the first families,'^ as they are ironically termed, in that highly aristocratic State of the Great Republic.

When the War of Independence deprived England of her colonies in America, the despatch of convicts to Virginia came to an end, of course, and the Government had to cast its eyes elsewhere for a dumping ground to which its criminal classes might be consigned, under the belief that the transportation system could not be dispensed with. Such an idea was exploded little more than half a century later, when the free people of Australia determined that they would tolerate no more convict ships coming to their shores ; but transportation was the prevailing idea after the close of the American war, and Australia was decided upon when the American ports were closed against further consignments of law-breakers from Great Britain. The accounts furnished by Captain Cook about the Australian climate, the natural resources of that part of the world, and the apparent docility of its aboriginal inhabitants, were perused with increasing interest, and it was considered by the authorities that no better place than Australia could be selected for the continuance of the transportation system. The graphic descriptions of Botany Bay given by Cook, and the favourable account of his reception by the natives in that locality, induced the Government to try the experiment in that quarter. “ Botany Bay became ever afterwards associated with convict life at the Antipodes, and the words bore such a significance in those days and for many years afterwards, that to hear of a person being sent to Botany Bay meant nothing less than lifelong suffering and expatriation. As a matter of fact, however, Botany Bay never became a convict establishment. It is true that Captain Arthur Phillip, the first Australian Governor, was entrusted with the task of founding a settlement there ; but upon arrival he found the place undesirable for the purpose, and after an examination of the Bay to the northward, he took formal possession of the country by hoisting the British colours on a flagstaff erected on the site now occupied by Dawes' Battery. This was Port Jackson, the lovely harbour upon whose shores Sydney now stands ; and here it was that the first British settlement in Australia was founded.

In 1787, the fleet which was to accompany Governor Phillip assembled at the Isle of Wight. It consisted of eleven sailing vessels of various tonnage. The precise number of persons who embarked on this pioneer fleet was 1,044, made up as follows : 10 civil officers, 212 military (including officers), 28 women and 17 children (the wives and families of the military), 81 other free persons ; or a total of 348 persons who were free men, women and children, and 696 convicts. Of the total number 1,030 were safely landed in the colony. The women numbered altogether 220, 28 of whom were wives of the military, and the remaining 192 were women who had been sentenced to transportation for various offences. The prisoners, male and female, were

DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA

IS mostly young persons from the agricultural districts of England, nine-tenths of them being natives of the south-western and midland counties, and the chronicler of the time relates that very few of them had been convicted of serious crimes.

It was on the 13th of May, 1787, that the fleet sailed from England, and on the i8th of January, 1788, the Supply^ with Governor Phillip on board, was the first to drop anchor in Botany Bay. The other vessels arrived on the 19th and 20th ; and on the 26th of the month the whole fleet was riding at anchor in that portion of Port Jackson known as Sydney Cove. Neither at Botany Bay nor at Port Jackson did Governor Phillip encounter any opposition from the natives. Perfectly devoid of clothing, these wild inhabitants of Australia came down to the beach in considerable numbers, and gazed with wonderment and curiosity upon the new-comers, that being in all probability the first occasion on which they had seen a race so dissimilar to themselves since Cook and his seamen made acquaintance with some natives many years previously, and it is quite likely there was not one amongst them old enough to remember the event. The nomadic habits of the Australian black render it quite probable that the natives first seen by Governor Phillip belonged to a different tribe and were far away in the interior at the time Captain Cook landed on that historic spot in Botany Bay. Those met with by Governor Phillip evinced no spirit of hostility. On the contrary, they laid down their spears and other weapons as he approached them, and gleefully accepted presents of beads, pieces of red baize and other articles which were tendered as tokens of his desire to establish friendly intercourse between the two races.