Statistical, Historical and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales and its Dependent Settlements in Van Diemen's Land by William Charles Wentworth

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STATISTICAL, HISTORICAL, AND POLITICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COLONY
OF NEW SOUTH WALES, AND ITS DEPENDENT SETTLEMENTS IN VAN DIEMEN'S
LAND: WITH A PARTICULAR ENUMERATION OF THE ADVANTAGES WHICH THESE
COLONIES OFFER FOR EMIGRATION, AND THEIR SUPERIORITY IN MANY RESPECTS
OVER THOSE POSSESSED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

* * *

BY WILLIAM CHARLES WENTWORTH, ESQ.

A NATIVE OF THE COLONY

* * *

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER

* *

1819

* * * * *

CONTENTS

PART I. STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE SETTLEMENTS IN NEW HOLLAND.

PART II. OPERATION OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT IN THE COLONY
FOR THE LAST FIFTEEN YEARS.

PART III. VARIOUS ALTERATIONS SUGGESTED IN THE PRESENT POLICY OF THIS COLONY.

PART IV. VARIOUS CHANGES PROPOSED IN THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT.

APPENDIX.

* * * * *

FOREWORD

There can be little doubt that when my great-grandfather began
to write this book, his thoughts were centred on the objective
which he describes in his own Preface--the diversion to Australia
of some part of the stream of emigration then running from the
British Isles to North America. Perhaps, even more urgently, he
may have wanted to forestall any British tendency to withdraw
from the colony and abandon New South Wales altogether.

But as he wrote, he found that he had to make some explanation
for the defects which he saw in the current life of the colony,
and naturally he was led into propounding some way in which these
defects could be overcome. Contemporary reviewers, then, were not
so far wrong when theycommented that the book looked almost like
two books written by separate hands.

The secondary theme became the most important part of the
book, because the remedies he then proposed for his country's
ills became the guidelines for his own policies when he returned
to Australia. Through the influences which he and his friends
exerted over the next thirty years, these policies determined
much of the course of Australian history in those times. Most of
his proposals were eventually accepted, though in some cases much
later than he wanted, and in some cases with modifications which
he himself made or which were forced on him by the pressure of
events.

At the time he wrote this book he was in his middle twenties,
having returned to England to complete his education soon after
participating in the first crossing of the Blue Mountains.
Waterloo had just been won; Europe was settling down and trying
to forget Napoleon. The wounds of the American Revolution were
closing; British merchants and industrialists were preparing to
change the face of the world in accordance with the precepts of
Adam Smith.

In his attempt to divert the migration stream he was no enemy
of America, (indeed he had chosen the name "Vermont" for his own
farm on the Nepean) but he was perhaps the first Australian
really to support Macquarie's drive for Australian expansion and
Australian independence from London administration. He did this
at a time when some influential Englishmen were urging the
abandonment of the whole Botany Bay venture, which, after thirty
years, was still not self-supporting and which seemed doomed to
suffer from recurrent crises.

Apparently Macquarie had dreamed of a great transcontinental
river, which was to flow 2,000 miles westwards from the Dividing
Range, through fertile and well-watered fields, until it reached
the sea somewhere on the north-west coast. The Lachlan had been
found to peter out into swamps, but Oxley believed that the
Macquarie River would have a happier issue, and at the time of
the first Edition of this book (1819) that theory was still
tenable. It was not long, of course, before these hopes were to
perish in the Macquarie Marshes, to be succeeded by prospects of
a mythical Inland Sea, though it was decades before the
enthusiasts realised that they would have to be satisfied with
Lake Eyre.

This first edition accepts as fact the phantom of that
transcontinental stream and expatiates on the blessings which it
would bring, patterning its concept of the Heart of the
Australian Continent upon what was known of the Great Plains of
America, then just being opened up. Any child with an Atlas in
hand can now decry the mistake of having given to this concept
more credence than did Oxley or Macquarie: does not hindsight
make history so simple?

Abandonment of simple optimism on this physical fact must have
been quick and uncomfortable: but abandonment of some other
precepts must have been slow and more painful. At the time of
this first edition, the influence of the Enlightenment was
completing its penetration into politics and economics. Man had
only to be given freedom, and he would enter into a political
Paradise: the forces of the free market had only to be left
untrammelled, and they would create of themselves an economic
Eden!

These are the enthusiasms of the first edition, where Bligh
represents the forces of repression and darkness, while Macquarie
and Macarthur are both to be numbered among the angels. By the
time of the third edition (1824, nearly contemporary with the
author's return to Australia) the winds of change had blown
through the Australian scene. Bigge had presented his Report,
which destroyed so much of Macquarie's work, and the Exclusives,
in the author's view, were leagued with enemies of Australian
identity.

For the next thirty years the politics of New South Wales were
vigorous and variegated. Nobody who was at their centre could
have maintained all his illusions as to the essential goodness of
human nature, if only it could be freed from the unnatural chains
with which society had bound it. Nor could anyone who
participated in the commercial life of those times, who had
lived, for example, through the depression of the forties, have
preserved untarnished the precepts of Ricardo--published only a
few years before 1819, and accepted as gospel in that first
edition.

So some of those 1819 enthusiasms had to be abandoned: but the
objectives were not. Most of them were eventually to be
translated into action and actuality. It was in their
modification, perhaps, that the author was to display most of all
his foresight and acumen. From 1848 onwards he recognised the
true nature of "the spectre which haunted Europe"--and which
still haunts the world. From then onwards he was not to write in
the way which he wrote here.

W. C. Wentworth

24th February, 1978

* * * * *

PREFACE

It may prevent those inquiries that would be naturally made by
the public, respecting the manner in which the author acquired
the information contained in this work, when he states that he
was born in the colony of New South Wales, and that he resided
there for about five years since his arrival at the age of
maturity. This is a period which will, at least, be allowed to
have been sufficient for acquiring a correct knowledge of its
state and government, and for enabling him to observe the
destructive tendency of those measures, of which it has been his
endeavour to demonstrate the injustice and impolicy, and to
procure the speedy repeal. He would not, however, have it
concluded that the present work has been the result of mature and
systematic reflection; it is, on the contrary, a hasty
production, which originated in the casual suggestions of an
acquaintance, and which was never contemplated by him, during his
long residence in the colony. He has consequently been obliged
not only to omit giving a detail of many interesting facts, with
which he might have become acquainted previously to his
departure, but has also been under the necessity of relying in a
great measure on the fidelity of his memory for the accuracy of
many of those circumstances which he has stated: still he is not
without hope, that five years attentive observation will have
enabled him to communicate many particulars, of which, in the
absence of abler works on the same subject, most of the
inhabitants of this country cannot but be ignorant, and many must
wish to be apprized.

His only aim in obtruding this hasty production on the public,
is to promote the welfare and prosperity of the country which
gave him birth; and he has judged that he could in no way so
effectually contribute his mite towards the accomplishment of
this end, as by attempting to divert from the United States of
America to its shores, some part of that vast tide of emigration,
which is at present flowing thither from all parts of Europe. In
furtherance, therefore, of this design, he has described the
superior advantages of climate and soil possessed by this colony;
he has explained the causes why these natural superiorities have
not yet been productive of those beneficial consequences which
might have been expected from them; he has pointed out the
arguments which offer for the abandonment of the present system,
and the substitution of another in its place; and by adducing, in
fine, what he considers to be irrefragable proofs of the
expediency, merely as it regards the parent country, of adopting
the measures which he has proposed, he hopes that he shall
eventually occasion an alteration of polity, by which both the
parties concerned will be equally benefited. He has not, however,
presumed on a contingency which it is thus reasonable to believe
cannot be either doubtful or remote; but has restricted
himself to an enumeration of the inducements to emigration which
exist under actual circumstances; and, by comparing them with the
advantages which those writers, who have given the most
favourable accounts of the United States, have represented them
as possessing, he has proved that this colony, labouring as it is
under all the discouragements of an arbitrary and impolitic
government, has still a great and decided preponderancy in the
balance. How much this preponderancy will be increased, whenever
the changes and modifications which he has ventured to suggest,
shall be in whole, or in part carried into effect, he has left to
all such as are desirous of emigrating, to form their own
estimate; and to decide also how much longer a system so highly
burdensome to the parent country, and so radically defective in
its principles and operation, is likely to be tolerated. To all
those, who are of opinion with him that it cannot be of much
longer duration, the inducements for giving this colony the
preference will become so weighty, as scarcely to admit of the
possibility that they should hesitate for a moment in their
choice between the two countries.

If, in the course of this work, he has spoken in terms of
unqualified reprobation of the baneful system to which the
unhappy place of his nativity has been the victim, he would have
it distinctly understood, that it has been furthest from his
thoughts to connect the censure which he has bestowed on it, with
those who have permitted its continuance. He is too deeply
impressed with a sense of the arduous and momentous nature of the
contest which they have had to conduct, not to allow that it was
justly entitled to their first and chief attention. Our whole
colonial system, in fact, he considers to have been but a mere
under plot in the great drama that was acting. It could not,
therefore, be reasonably expected that the grievances of any one
colony should become the subject of minute and particular
investigation; and still less could it be imagined that the
government should convert their attention to the relief of one,
which has comparatively excited but a small share of public
interest, and has hitherto been considered more in the light of a
prison, than of what he has endeavoured to prove it might be
rendered,--one of the most useful and valuable appendages of the
empire. This apology, however, for the neglect which the colony
has experienced during the war, cannot be pleaded in vindication
of a perseverance in the same impolitic and oppressive course in
time of peace. Nor is it to be wondered at, as upwards of three
years have now elapsed since the consolidation of the
tranquillity of the world, that the colonists should begin to
feel indignant at the continuance of disabilities, for the
abrogation of which the most powerful considerations of justice
and expediency have been urged in vain. To remove such just
grounds for dissatisfaction and complaint, and to allow them, at
length, the enjoyment of those rights and privileges, of which
they ought never to have been debarred, would, at best, be but a
poor compensation for an impeded agriculture and languishing
commerce; but it is the only one that can now be offered; and,
although it cannot repair the wide ravages which so many years of
unmerited and absurd restrictions have occasioned, it may arrest
the progress of desolation, and prevent any further increase to
the numbers who have already sunk beneath the pressure of an
overwhelming system. It is, therefore, to be hoped that the cause
of humanity will no longer be outraged by unnecessary delay, and
that the only atonement, which can be made the colonists for
their past and present sufferings, will no longer be
withheld.

The author is fully aware that, in the course of this work, he
has developed no new principle of political economy, and that he
has only travelled in the broad beaten path in which hundreds
have journeyed before him. For troubling, therefore, the public
with a repetition of principles, of which the truth is so
generally known and acknowledged, the only plea he can urge in
his justification is a hope that the reiteration of them will not
be deemed unnecessary and obtrusive, so long as their application
is incomplete; so long as vice and misery prevail in any part of
the world, from the want of their adoption and enforcement.

* * * * *

PART I

NEW SOUTH WALES.

STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE SETTLEMENTS IN NEW HOLLAND.

The colony of New South Wales is situated on the eastern coast
of New Holland. This island, which was first discovered by the
Dutch in 1616, lies between the 9 degrees and 39 degrees of south
latitude, and the 108 degrees and 153 degrees of east longitude;
and from its immense size, seems rather to merit the appellation
of continent, which many geographers have bestowed on it. Since
that period it has been visited and examined by a galaxy of
celebrated navigators, among whom Cook and Flinders rank the most
conspicuous. Still the survey of this large portion of the world
cannot, by any means, be deemed complete; since not one of all
the navigators who have laid down the various parts of its
coasts, has discovered the mouth of any considerable river; and
it is hardly within the scope of possible belief, that a country
of such vast extent does not possess at least one river, which
may deserve to be ranked in the class of "rivers of the first
magnitude."

If a judgment were formed of this island from the general
aspect of the country bordering the sea, it would be pronounced
one of the most barren spots on the face of the globe.
Experience, however, has proved that such an opinion would be
exactly the reverse of truth; since, as far as the interior has
been explored, its general fertility amply compensates for the
extreme sterility of the coast.

The greater part of this country is covered with timber of a
gigantic growth, but of an entirely different description from
the timber of Europe. It is, however, very durable, and well
adapted to all the purposes of human industry.

The only metal yet discovered is iron. It abounds in every
part of the country, and is in some places purer than in any
other part of the world. Coals are found in many places of the
best quality. There is also abundance of slate, limestone and
granite, though not in the immediate vicinity of Port Jackson.
Sand-stone, quartz, and freestone are found every where.

The rivers and seas teem with excellent fish; but the eel and
smelt, the mullet, whiting, mackarel, sole, skate, and John Dory
are, I believe, the only sorts known in this country.

The animals are, the kangaroo, native dog, (which is a smaller
species of the wolf,) the wombat, bandicoot, kangaroo rat,
opossum, flying squirrel, flying fox, etc. etc. There are none of
those animals or birds which go by the name of "game" in this
country, except the heron. The hare, pheasant and partridge are
quite unknown; but there are wild ducks, widgeon, teal, quail,
pigeons, plovers, snipes, etc. etc., with emus, black swans,
cockatoos, parrots, parroquets, and an infinite variety of
smaller birds, which are not found in any other country. In fact,
both its animal and vegetable kingdoms are in a great measure
peculiar to itself.

There are many poisonous reptiles in this country, but few
accidents happen either to the aborigines, or the colonists from
their bite. Of these the centipede, tarantula, scorpion,
slow-worm, and the snake, are the most to be dreaded;
particularly the latter, since there are, I believe, at least
thirty varieties of them, of which all but one are venomous in
the highest degree.

The aborigines of this country occupy the lowest place in the
gradatory scale of the human species. They have neither houses
nor clothing; they are entirely unacquainted with the arts of
agriculture; and even the arms which the several tribes have, to
protect themselves from the aggressions of their neighbours, and
the hunting and fishing implements with which they administer to
their support, are of the rudest contrivance and workmanship.

Thirty years intercourse with Europeans has not effected the
slightest change in their habits; and even those who have most
intermixed with the colonists, have never been prevailed upon to
practise one of the arts of civilized life. Disdaining all
restraint, their happiness is still centered in their original
pursuits; and they seem to consider the superior enjoyments to be
derived from civilization, (for they are very far from being
insensible to them) but a poor compensation for the sacrifice of
any portion of their natural liberty. The colour of these people
is a dark chocolate; their features bear a strong resemblance to
the African negro; they have the same flat nose, large nostrils,
wide mouth and thick lips; but their hair is not woolly, except
in Van Dieman's Land, where they have this further characteristic
of the negro.

These people bear no resemblance to any of the inhabitants of
the surrounding islands, except to those of New Guinea, which is
only separated from New Holland by a narrow strait. One of these
islands, therefore, has evidently been peopled by the other; but
from whence the original stock was derived is one of those
geographical problems, which in all probability will never be
satisfactorily solved.

Rude and barbarous as are the aborigines of this country, they
have still some confused notions of a Supreme Being and of a
future state. It would, however, be foreign to the purposes to
which I have limited myself, to enter into a detail of their
customs and manners; nor would it, indeed, be the means of
increasing the fund of public knowledge: since, whoever may be
anxious to be informed on these topics, will find a faithful and
minute account of them in the work of Mr. Collins.

Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, is situated in 33
degrees 55' of south latitude, and 151 degrees 25' of east
longitude. It is about seven miles distant from the heads of Port
Jackson, and stands principally on two hilly necks of land and
the intervening valley, which together form Sydney Cove. The
western side of the town extends to the water's edge, and
occupies with the exception of the small space reserved around
Dawe's Battery, the whole of the neck of land which separates
Sydney Cove from Lane Cove, and extends a considerable distance
back into the country besides.

This part of the town, it may therefore be perceived, forms a
little peninsula; and what is of still greater importance the
water is in general of sufficient depth in both these coves, to
allow the approach of vessels of the largest burden to the very
sides of the rocks.

On the eastern neck of land, the extension of the town has
been stopped by the Government House, and the adjoining domain,
which occupies the whole of Bennilong's Point, a circumstance the
more to be regretted, as the water all along this point is of
still greater depth than on the western side of the Cove, and
consequently affords still greater facilities for the erection of
warehouses and the various important purposes of commerce.

The appearance of the town is rude and irregular. Until the
administration of Governor Macquarie, little or no attention had
been paid to the laying out of the streets, and each proprietor
was left to build on his lease, where and how his caprice
inclined him. He, however, has at length succeeded in
establishing a perfect regularity in most of the streets, and has
reduced to a degree of uniformity, that would have been deemed
absolutely impracticable, even the most confused portion of that
chaos of building, which is still known by the name of "the
rocks;" and which, from the ruggedness of its surface, the
difficulty of access to it, and the total absence of order in its
houses, was for many years more like the abode of a horde of
savages than the residence of a civilized community. The town
upon the whole may be now pronounced to be tolerably regular;
and, as in all future additions that may be made to it, the
proprietors of leases will not be allowed to deviate from the
lines marked out by the surveyor general, the new part will of
course be free from the faults and inconveniences of the old.

This town covers a considerable extent of ground, and would at
first sight induce the belief of a much greater population than
it actually contains. This is attributable to two circumstances,
the largeness of the leases, which in most instances possess
sufficient space for a garden, and the smallness of the houses
erected in them, which in general do not exceed one story. From
these two causes it happens, that this town does not contain
above seven thousand souls, whereas one that covered the same
extent of ground in this country would possess a population of at
least twenty thousand. But although the houses are for the most
part small, and of mean appearance, there are many public
buildings, as well as houses of individuals, which would not
disgrace the best parts of this great metropolis. Of the former
class, the public stores, the general hospital, and the barracks,
are perhaps the most conspicuous; of the latter the houses of
Messrs. Lord, Riley, Howe, Underwood and Nichols.

The value of land in this town is in many places half as great
as in the best situations in London, and is daily increasing.
Rents are in consequence exorbitantly high. It is very far from a
commodious house that can be had for a hundred a year,
unfurnished.

Here is a very good market, although it is of very recent
date. It was established by Governor Macquarie, in the year 1813,
and is very well supplied with grain, vegetables, poultry,
butter, eggs and fruit. It is, however, only held three times a
week; viz. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It is a large
oblong enclosure, and there are stores erected in it by the
Governor, for the reception of all such provisions as remain
unsold at the close of the market, which lasts from six o'clock
in the morning in summer, and seven o'clock in winter, until
three o'clock in the evening. The vender pays in return a small
duty to the clerk of the market, who accounts quarterly for the
amount to the treasurer of the police fund. The annual amount of
these duties is about L130.*

[* Vide Market Duties in the Appendix.]

Here also is a Bank, called "The Bank of New South Wales,"
which was established in the year 1817, and promises to be of
great and permanent benefit to the colony in general. Its capital
is L20,000, divided into two hundred shares. It has a
regular charter of incorporation, and is under the controul of a
president* and six directors, who are annually chosen by the
proprietors. The paper of this bank is now the principal
circulating medium of this colony. They discount bills of a short
date, and also advance money on mortgage securities. They are
allowed to receive in return an interest of 10 per cent. per
annum.

[* See Appendix.]

This town also contains two very good public schools, for the
education of children of both sexes. One is a day school for
boys, and is of course only intended to impart gratuitous
instruction:--the other is designed both for the education and
support of poor and helpless female orphans. This institution was
founded by Governor King, as long back as the year 1800, and
contains about sixty children, who are taught reading, writing,
arithmetic, sewing, and the various arts of domestic economy.
When their education is complete, they are either married to free
persons of good character, or are assigned as servants to such
respectable families as may apply for them. At the time of the
establishment of this school there was a large tract of land
(15,000 acres,) attached to it; and a considerable stock of
horses, cattle, and sheep, were also transferred to it from the
government herds. The profits of these stock go towards defraying
the expences of this school, and a certain portion, fifty or a
hundred acres of this land, with a proportionate number of them,
are given in dower with each female who marries with the consent
of the committee intrusted with the management of this
institution.

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