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

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СКАЧАТЬ whom Mrs. Fry was the most distinguished, undertook the selection of the females. They were commended for their philanthropy and care in England: in the colonies, they received but little praise. Mr. Marshall, a considerable shipowner, was appointed agent. To fill his vessels, was said to be the main object of his efforts, and that he held a low scale of female morality would not be unacceptable. The statements of the colonial press were often undiscriminating and highly unjust: many valuable women were included in these immigrations; many were girls of tender years, whose chief fault was their ignorance.

      The debarkation of these females occasioned scenes, more subjects of regret than of wonder. Thus, on the arrival of the Strathfieldsay (1834), the fair emigrants, 286, most of good character, were indiscreetly landed at high noon: 2,000 persons awaited them on the beach. Their feelings were outraged with ribaldry and insult: they were astounded at their reception, and many wept. The ladies of the colony protected and advanced them; and some, whose want drove them from their native country, remember the day with gratitude when they first pressed the soil of Tasmania. 1,280 females were brought to the colony in three years, ending 1835; and rather more to New South Wales.

      The emigrant rarely appears to advantage: the occupation of a new sphere, in which his position is uncertain, renders his manners awkward, and his expectations ridiculous. The disorderly conduct of many made their presence a burden, and their civil condition no great advantage to their masters. Yet, since it was necessary to labor or to starve, the greater portion chose the better alternative; and the women of decent habits, found that destiny for which nature designed them.

      The extravagant expectations formed by many emigrants, fostered by reports of individual success, which when substantially true are still exaggerated by fancy, were commonly disappointed. The suspicious coolness of strangers; the high price of provisions; the comfortless dwellings, with their awkward fuel; the absence of conveniences, which are not valued until lost; and the memory of home, produced a depression of spirits, only overcome by reason or youth. But their complaints of after years, are the result of affectation and habit: they pretend to have sacrificed a lot, from which in reality they escaped; and forget that in the midst of those scenes they profess to regret, they often wanted a meal.

      A curious instance occurred at an early time: a settler took a location order and provisions, and went out to commence his labors. He was disheartened by the obstruction of the forest: at his first stroke, the axe was shivered; he threw it down in despair, and returned home in the vessel that brought him out.

      The emigrants were not, on the whole, inferior to other persons of their education and calling; and were often justified in resisting the tyrannical spirit and disposition to oppress, which the habits of colonial life do not extinguish. This emigration, amounting to 7,000 for both colonies, is an epoch to be remembered for its influence on their fate.

      These events revolutionised the social state of the colonies. Free workmen and their families formed an intermediate class, whose interests were hostile to a penal government, and to bond labor in every form. The individual importance of employers consoled them for their political dependence; and the subservience of transportation to their material prosperity, reconciled them to the restrictions it imposed. The free workman found it an obstacle to his advancement: it depressed his wages and debased his position, but gave him nothing. If his industry raised him, he yet retained the sympathies of his early life: he remained distrustful of the rich, jealous of rank, and fond of the equality of human rights. Trial by jury, legislative assemblies, and official responsibility, found earnest advocates, where they had often been mere rallying points of personal discontent.

      All this was foreseen by Arthur: when free laborers were intruded by the crown, the great bond of his system was broken.

DISPOSAL OF CROWN LANDS IN NEW SOUTH WALES AND VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.
Authority.	Date.	Terms.	Superseded.	Remarks.
King's sign manual to governors of New South Wales.	1787 and 1789.	Residence on the grant. Cultivation and improvement. Reservation of naval timber. Quit rent: emancipists. 6d. per 30 acres; free settlers, 2s. per 100 acres, after ten years.	1810.	100 acres only to any person, over the quantity allowed to emancipists.
Governor Macquarie.	January 1, 1810.	Quit-rent, 2s. per 100 acres. Cultivation of a proportion (20th part) in five years. Reservation of naval timber. Right of forming highways. Non-alienation in five years.	November 30, 1821.	Town allotments usually leased at Hobart Town for twenty-one years, quit rent 30s. per acre; 7 only were granted, 1820. Allotments were occupied at Launceston on permission of the commandant.—Bigge's Report.
Governor Brisbane.	July 11, 1822. 1823.	Omits cultivation clause, and saddles every 100 acres with a convict servant. This was cancelled by indorsement on some grants, on condition of cultivation. Grants liable to quit-rent of 15s. per 100 acres.	Colonial Office, November 1824. Notified in Van Diemen's Land, 18th May, 1825.
Colonial Office.	1824. April, 1826.	Convict clause inserted. Purchase money repaid, if claimed within ten years, or for the redemption of quit rent. Quit rent 5 per cent. value. Settlers who could obtain no convicts, allowed abatement of half quit-rent; or a new purchase at half price, who should expend five times value of the grants, given or sold them.	Convict clause withdrawn, in 3rd edit. of notice, 1827.	Town lots granted on specified expenditure within three years, and non-alienation for 18 months.
Governor Arthur.	1828.	Land Board established; capital required, £500 for each square mile granted. Land sold at highest tender; one-half left on mortgage for twelve years, at 5 per cent. Precious metals reserved.	January 20, 1831.
Colonial Office.	January 20, 1831.	Order: all land to be sold by public sale; upset price 5s., conveyed in fee simple at a peppercorn rent. Precious metals reserved, and indigenous produce for public works.	August, 1838.
Colonial Office.	August, 1838. 1842.	12s. per acre. £1 per acre.	1842. 1845.[184]

      FOOTNOTES:

      [177] Report on the Disposal of Crown Land, 1836.

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