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AUSTRALIA IN 1866:
OR,
FACTS AND FEATURES, SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS
OF
AUSTRALIA AND AUSTRALIAN LIFE.
WITH NOTICES OF NEW ZEALAND.
BY
A CLERGYMAN.
THIRTEEN YEARS RESIDENT IN THE INTERIOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
CONTAINING MAPS OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES AND NEW ZEALAND.
SECOND EDITION.
Let thine eyes look right on,
And let thine eyelids look straight before thee.
Ponder the path of thy feet,
And let all thy ways be established.--Proverbs.
LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, & DYER
1868.
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[PREFACE]
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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
IT would perhaps have been more agreeable to the author to have omitted the concluding chapter, but so long as the grievances recorded therein remain in potent operation, he feels that he could not be justified conscientiously in ignoring a state of political affairs far from creditable to one of the Australian colonies. Besides, a work of this nature, which professes to be impartial, would not be complete without a sketch of political matters. In the strictures which the writer has passed on the Land-Law of New South Wales, it must not be supposed that he is at all singular in expressing opinions which, in his case are based upon very rare and very wide experiences. The following is a confession lately made in the Legislative Assembly of that colony, by Mr Henry Parkes, formerly mechanic and Editor, now Colonial Secretary, and who received, along with Mr Dalley, the handsome sum of £5000 from the Public Treasury, to go to England to proclaim the merits of the Land Law--"Complaints have been made of the present Land Laws from all quarters, and by all classes." Events have verified the predictions of all those who had competent knowledge and experience of the country, that it would be ruinous to the people to scatter themselves here, there, and everywhere over the country, and endeavour to gain an uncertain livelihood off their small portions of land; whilst a large number have entirely
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deserted their homesteads, which by a new enactment are again open to free selection. The Government make a profit of five shillings per acre by the ruin of these unfortunate persons, whilst it is an accomplice to their ruin to the extent of fifteen shillings in the pound credit, which it holds out as a tempting bait to ignorant settlers. Judged by its consequences--religiously, morally, and socially--this policy on the part of Government is altogether one of the most fatal nature, and is very far from what might have been anticipated towards those who had assisted in raising the strongest advocates of the Land Law to the proud position of Ministers of the Crown. One does not require to go far to find out causes for bushranging. "The colony is retrograding instead of progressing," says the Sydney Morning Herald. The Government of the present day need never attempt to govern the country, simply by the multiplication of police officers; a course which only provokes opposition, and serves only to increase the evils which it is intended to remove. The best and surest safeguard will certainly be found in beneficent legislation, in laws that will command the confidence and the respect of the people.
When the first edition was issued, the author's facts with regard to democracy were somewhat severely handled in several quarters. The fact is worthy of mention, however, that these statements have never been denied by any competent authority, simply because they are undeniable. The author has good reasons for stating that the chapter is very acceptable to respectable and right-thinking men in the Colony.
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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
A CLERGYMAN may freely dispense with strait-lacedness when he finds conscientiously that he can he of greater service by being liberal-minded; and any apprehensions which the author might entertain of trespassing upon the so-called 'dignity of the profession,' would not be likely to meet with much favour from the reader. The writer's mind has been wholly unbiassed. He has been actuated solely from a regard to the sacred interests of truth. His opinions may be open to question, but he desires that the facts which have been recorded may be regarded as true. The multitude and variety of those facts is easily explained, from the circumstance of the writer having been long engaged as an itinerant clergyman, during which time he never dreamed of shutting his eyes and ears to what he saw and heard. The dark side of the picture may be too frequently presented, but, if good examples are useful for imitation, evil ones ought to be no less useful for deterring. Returning to his native land at a time when the country is in a fever of excitement on the question of political reform, the author deems it a solemn duty to state what some of the results of the most liberal possible extension of the franchise have been in New South Wales. During the reign of enlightenment, there are none who have been so largely benefited as the
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working-classes of Great Britain. In so far as the diffusion of knowledge and of much else are concerned, the humblest labourer may claim equality with the highest peer in the land; whilst the lower classes have no lack of representatives in Parliament. Shake the vessel, and you inevitably shake the contents; disturb the foundation, and you disturb all that rests upon it. When great errors have been committed, and public injuries are sustained, there is everything to be gained by a statement of the truth--the plain, unvarnished, outspoken truth. The author pleads this as an apology for his mode of treatment of the subject 'Democracy,' in the concluding chapter.
Whatever the defects of the work may be, it will be found that it presents little, if indeed anything, of the nature of a 'compilation' padded at the expense of preceding writers--the author's wide and varied fields for personal observation having rendered him in a great measure independent of other authorities. The two or three extracts which appear have been given simply because they convey certain information more effectively than the writer could have hoped to give it.
[CONTENTS]
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
Chinese Expedients for Communicating Information to Chinese Settlers--Reasons for Emigrants Refraining from Letter Writing--Precarious Condition of New Settlers--Cautious Gold-Diggers--Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand--Mistakes of Emigrants in not ascertaining the Districts suitable for them--A Local Governor's Advice--Cotton Growing--Manners and Customs--Peculiarities and Uncertainties of Colonial Legislation.......1
CHAPTER II.
THE BUSH.
First Sight of Australia--Physical Outlines and Configuration--Eastern and Western Falls of the Water--Climate--Queensland--Vegetation in Australia and New Zealand--Birds-Fish-Wild Animals-Reptiles--Insects--Bees--Fruits, Indigenous and European--English Vegetables--Atmospheric Peculiarities and Phenomena-- Diversity of Country and Climate--Occupation of the Land--Geological Wonders--Alligators--New Discoveries........13
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CHAPTER III.
PIONEERING.
Early Settlement--Variety of Country--Cheap Land and Money-Making--Aboriginal Guides--Singular Experiences of a Pioneer--Stories about Blacks--Shooting a Tribe--Poisoning a Tribe--Savage Blacks--A Bush Fight--Origin of Squatting--Curious Experiences of New Settlers--How Land may be Acquired Cheaply--Aborigines of Australia--Accounts of New Zealand--Aborigines of New Zealand--Pacts Relating to them...........48
CHAPTER IV.
SQUATTING.
Rapid Appropriation of Territory--How Fortunes are Made and Land Acquired--A Hundred Miles of Land Acquired by One Pioneer--Queensland Squatting--Squattage Right--Runs and Blocks--Laws affecting Grazing--Value of Stations--Gold Discovery--Unstocked Runs--Destructive Effects of the Scottish Thistle--Sheep Scab--Stamping Out Disease--Farm Servants--House Accommodation--Cattle and Sheep Stations--Schoolmasters and Physicians--Founding of Townships--Camp Followers--Squattage Homes--Land and Land Legislation--Absenteeism and Resident Squatters--Details of Squatting.........103
CHAPTER V.
GOLD-DIGGING.
Distribution of Gold--Prospecting--A Rush--Life at the Diggings--Modes of Searching--Different Kinds of Gold--A Persistent Digger--Quartz Rocks--Diamonds and Precious Stones--An English Gold-Mining Company Exploding unnecessarily--Gold Escort--Lucky Diggers--Old Convict Diggers--Wandering and Unsettled Life at the Diggings--American Notions--American Traders--A Cargo of Coffins--Chinese Diggers and Chinese Swindlers--Introduction and Permanence of Gold-Digging--Unsatisfactory Mode of Life of Diggers..............143
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CHAPTER VI.
SHEPHERDING.
The Shepherd's Mode of Life--Easy Way of Earning a Livelihood--Hutkeepers and Families--Resources for those Unaccustomed to Manual Labour--Wages--Rations--A Commercial Traveller and an Expatriated Irish Landlord--Shepherding a Stepping-Stone to a Better Position--A Lucky Irishman--Newly-Arrived Emigrants--Scottish Highlanders in Trouble--Encamping out..........173
CHAPTER VII.
LOST IN THE BUSH.
Bush Directions to Travellers--Bush of Australia and Bush of New Zealand--Died of Starvation--Riding in a Circle--Lost Travellers--A Traveller Gone Mad--Bush Prescription for Preventing Loss of Travellers--Short Cuts and Hairbreadth Escapes--Marked Tree Line--Death of a Traveller--Lost Children--Blacks Tracking a Lost Child--A Mother and her Lost Child--Aboriginal Guides...........185
CHAPTER VIII.
DROUGHTS AND FLOODS.
Coast and Dividing Ranges--A Drought and its Terrible Effects--Singular Origin of a Fire--Hot Winds--Agriculture in the Interior--Travelling on the Road--Sandy and Swelling Blight--Bullock Drivers--Carriers--Stockholders--Burning Grass Experience--Dams--Overstocking--Losses during the Disastrous Drought of 1865-66--Vegetables--Fall of Rain--Seasons of Droughts and Floods, and consequent Losses--Agriculture..............198
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CHAPTER IX.
CONVICTISM.
Caution in the Use of the Word Convict--An Incorrigible--Murder of a Settler--Singular Story of a Scottish Convict--Regretting not being Executed--A Bonnymuir Rebel and a Scottish Clergyman--Specials--Old Crawlers--An Edinburgh Burglar Mutilated by Natives--Tasmania--Convicts and Emigrants--A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing--A Ninevite--Pointers or Professional Swindlers--Wealthy Bushrangers and the New South Wales Government.........213
CHAPTER X.
STATE AID TO RELIGION.
State Aid and Voluntaryism Applicable to Two Different States of Society--Advantages of Voluntaryism in the Colonies--Coexisting State Aid and Voluntaryism an Anomaly at the Antipodes--Government Interference and Disagreement amongst the People--A Clerical Rara Avis, Prophet, Priest, and King--Spheres of the Clergyman's Duty-Missions................230
CHAPTER XI.
DEMOCRACY AND ITS RESULTS.
A Murderer Cutting a Man's Head off--Arbitration versus Law--An Irish Savage and Catholic Skull Cracker--Thieves who could Murder too--A Privileged Cattle Stealer--Liberalism and its Results--Members of Parliament promoted to Inspectorships of Police--Heavy Taxation--Public Money Squandered--A Shopkeeping Chancellor of Exchequer and his Budget--The Stuff of
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which Members of Parliament are made--Thirty Shillings a Week for Thrashing Wheat and Three Pounds for Making Laws--Radicalism and Ruin--Antecedents of a Prime Minister--A Queen's Counsel opposed for Parliament by an Itinerant Lecturer on Phrenology--Singular Land Legislation--Responsible Government and Debt--Two Men Cooks Elevated to the Judicial Bench--Extracts from Lectures Delivered in Sydney by the Author on the New South Wales Land Act..................244
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