The History of Tasmania (Vol. 1&2). John West

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СКАЧАТЬ work of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, professed to detect the errors in British colonisation, and to prescribe a new and more effective plan.[178] It consisted in selling land at "a sufficient price" to combine labor and capital, to collect all the elements of civilisation, to prevent the dispersion of population, the premature possession of land by the workman, and speculation by jobbers. Thus a colony, on this model, was compared to a tree transplanted, the fibres of its roots undivided, and its branches unbroken.

For several years previous to this decisive change, the desire had been widely expressed to relieve the parent country by the emigration of paupers. Sir William Horton devoted great attention to the subject. He visited various districts most oppressed by population, and pointed out the methods available to an extensive removal. The Canada Company, which transacted much business with him while under secretary of state, had purchased and re-sold crown lands; and many laborers, who were transferred at their own expense to that country, rapidly improved their condition. A committee of the Commons sat upon the subject, and a bill was introduced by Mr. Horton himself, to authorise the parishes to mortgage their poor rates. It was once intended by the government to levy a tax on convict laborers, and to increase its amount on artizans, and thus raise a fund for emigration: this project, Arthur successfully resisted, and large permanent resources were discovered in the sale of lands. The parishes were not willing to incur the outlay, and it was opposed by many who were persuaded that the poverty of the laborer resulted from oppression.[179] The intolerable degradation of the poor led to outrages and crimes. Large numbers were transported for agrarian offences, and many others had no refuge, but to obtain deliverance from starvation by less concerted violations of the law.

Agricultural laborers were driven from town to town; offered by auction at two-pence a day; harnessed to gravel carts; mocked by being sent with a barley straw fifteen miles a day; imprisoned in pits, and kept standing morning after morning in a public pound. Such were the scenes which induced Horton to lecture through the country on redundant population and emigration; and to call the attention of the parliament to the march of poverty, pauperism, tyranny, and crime.[180]

      The proposition of Sir William Horton led to various projects of private parties, in furtherance of colonisation. Grants of land were given to capitalists in proportion to the laborers they conveyed; whom they were permitted to engage as indented servants. The scheme chiefly important to Van Diemen's Land, was the settlement of Swan River. Four gentlemen proposed to government, to convey 10,000 persons, for a grant equivalent. The minister thought the project too vast. Three of the four declined: Mr. Thomas Peel, a relative of Sir Robert Peel, still persevered. Many persons entrusted their capital to agents, who presented it, and obtained a title to possessions they never intended to cultivate.

      By the regulations published at Downing-street (December 5th, 1828), the settlers were allowed 40 acres for every £3 of invested capital; 200 acres for every laborer conveyed. No convicts, or any other description of prisoners, were to be sent; but land granted, was to be forfeited, unless improved within twenty-one years. Thus, those who conveyed laborers, were met by competitors who had incurred no such expenses; and the conditions imposed neutralised each other. The settler who carried out labour, found his servant desert him to occupy land acquired by the capitalist who carried out money. Of three hundred persons embarked by Mr. Peel, in a few months not one remained to light his fire; but the recreant workmen were soon reduced to want. Many, under their broken indentures, claimed relief of Mr. Peel, whose flocks had been scattered, and his property destroyed by their desertion. He was glad to hide from their violence, while they were embarking for the neighbouring colonies. Respectable families were compelled to perform the most menial offices, and young women of education were reduced to rags. Contributions of clothing were collected and forwarded by the ladies of Cornwall. Many were brought to Van Diemen's Land, as to a city of refuge: the population, from 4,000, decreased to 1,500, and the ruined landholders petitioned the government for a share of convict labour—a boon which the elder colonies deprecated, and the minister refused (1835).

      Swan River seemed to promise a desirable market, and the merchants dispatched vessels with provisions and cattle: Mr. Gellibrand speculated largely. On the whole, the returns were not equal to the outlay; and although sometimes great profits were realised, Van Diemen's Land was injured by the trade.

      Scarcely were the settlers of Western Australia landed, when another colony, Spencer's Gulf, was projected. The authors of this scheme imputed serious detects to the plan of its immediate predecessor. The low price and extensive holdings, the want of combinable laborers, and the imperfect organisation of its social fabric, seemed to account for its disasters. A body of persons, concurring in the Wakefield system of colonisation, and comprehending many members of the House of Commons, formed themselves into an association, and applied to the government for the necessary powers. After considerable discussion, the minister declined their proposal, and the realisation of their hopes was deferred several years. The more active partisans of the scheme kept it before the public. An act passed the legislature on the 15th of August, 1834, empowering the crown to erect South Australia into a British province. Commissioners were appointed for the sale of land, and for the conveyance of emigrants. It was determined that the price should be sufficient to prevent laborers from buying land, and furnish the cost of their emigration. The company were authorised to borrow £50,000. If, at the expiration of ten years, the population should not reach 20,000, the control of the land was to revert to the crown. With a population of 50,000, they were to obtain the rights of political freedom, and no convict ship was to anchor on their shores. The upset price was at first £1, and, for a time, 12s. per acre. The intended colony was viewed with distrust by the elder settlements for the theoretical character of the plan, and its entire opposition to the then prevailing notions of penal labour. The advocates of the enterprise lost no occasion to denounce the social condition of Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales; where, however, the scheme was pronounced insane, and destined to certain disorder and ultimate overthrow. The appearance of new speculators in the Australian colonies compensated them for these reproaches. In publishing their plans, the company had always referred to supplies within their vicinity, as an immediate and certain reserve. The Tasmanian merchants met them on the shore of the royal province. Sheep were sent over as the basis of their flocks; timber for their huts; and the various produce of rural wealth, originally brought at great cost from Europe. A long succession of adventurers raised the value of produce throughout the colonies; and individuals realised large profits in the trade; but when the arrivals from England ceased, the new colony was involved in whatever misfortunes its peculiar plan was supposed to avert. Many hundreds, driven out by poverty, settled in the penal colonies, and the property of Adelaide became unsaleable: the frail dwellings were deserted, and the land lay utterly waste. Of the Adelaide traders, scarcely a house escaped insolvency, and the loss was total. Those who remained turned their land to account: their flocks increased, and the discovery of the mines happily realised more than their early hopes. The lands sold by the company were freed from the mineral reservation.

      An old gentleman, named Mengè, formerly an attendant on a distinguished German geologist, was the discoverer of its mineral riches. He was employed by Mr. George F. Angus to select his special surveys. His occasional choice of rocks and barren soil excited ridicule and astonishment; but he was accustomed to say, "the wealth is below, not upon the ground." He lived in the cleft of a rock at the junction of the Gawler and Para, near a plot of forty acres, almost surrounded with water, where he cultivated melons of every variety. He spoke many languages, and had travelled through Germany, Switzerland, and Iceland. A mineral collection he made, is in the University Museum, Edinburgh. His excursions in South Australia were intrepid, and extended far: he carried a wallet and a hammer, and subsisted during his wandering on gum. His conversation was visionary; and his predictions, at the time, but little regarded.

      The coast of New Holland, opposite to Van Diemen's Land, was almost neglected since the removal of the colony in 1803. Various reports were brought by whalers of its suitableness for sheep farming. СКАЧАТЬ