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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 by William Charles Wentworth

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




Besides these two public schools in the town of Sydney, which
together contained, by the last accounts received from the
colony, two hundred and twenty-four children, there are
establishments for the gratuitous diffusion of education in every
populous district throughout the colony. The masters of these
schools are allowed stipulated salaries from the Orphan Fund.
Formerly particular duties, those on coals and timber, which
still go by the name of "The Orphan Dues," were allotted for the
support of these schools; but they were found to be insufficient,
and afterwards one-fourth, and more recently one-eighth, of the
whole revenue of the colony was appropriated to this purpose.
This latter portion of the colonial revenue may be estimated at
about L2500, which it must be admitted could not be devoted
to the promotion of any object of equal public utility.

Independent of these laudable institutions thus supported at
the expence of the government, there are two private ones
intended for the dissemination of religious knowledge, which are
wholly maintained by voluntary contribution. One is termed "The
Auxiliary Bible Society of New South Wales," and its object is to
cooperate with the British and Foreign Bible Society, and to
distribute the holy Scriptures either at prime cost, or gratis,
to needy and deserving applicants.

The other is called "The New South Wales Sunday School
Institution," and was established with a view to teach well
disposed persons of all ages how to read the sacred volume. These
societies were instituted in the year 1817, and are under the
direction of a general committee, aided by a secretary and
treasurer.

There are in this town and other parts of the colony, several
good private seminaries for the board and education of the
children of opulent parents. The best is in the district of
Castlereagh, which is about forty miles distant, and is kept by
the clergyman of that district, the Rev. Henry Fulton, a
gentleman peculiarly qualified both from his character and
acquirements for conducting so responsible and important an
undertaking. The boys in this seminary receive a regular
classical education, and the terms are as reasonable as those of
similar establishments in this country.

The harbour of Port Jackson is perhaps exceeded by none in the
world except the Derwent in point of size and safety; and in this
latter particular, I rather think it has the advantage. It is
navigable for vessels of any burden for about seven miles above
the town, i.e. about fifteen from the entrance. It possesses the
best anchorage the whole way, and is perfectly sheltered from
every wind that can blow. It is said, and I believe with truth,
to have a hundred coves, and is capable of containing all the
shipping in the world. There can be no doubt, therefore, that in
the course of a few years, the town of Sydney, from the
excellence of its situation alone, must become a place of
considerable importance.

The views from the heights of the town are bold, varied and
beautiful. The strange irregular appearance of the town itself,
the numerous coves and islets both above and below it, the
towering forests and projecting rocks, combined with the infinite
diversity of hill and dale on each side of the harbour, form
altogether a coup d'oeil, of which it may be safely asserted that
few towns can boast a parallel.

The neighbouring scenery is still more diversified and
romantic, particularly the different prospects which open upon
you from the hills on the south head road, immediately contiguous
to the town. Looking towards the coast you behold at one glance
the greater part of the numerous bays and islands which lie
between the town and the heads, with the succession of barren,
but bold and commanding hills, that bound the harbour, and are
abruptly terminated by the water. Further north, the eye ranges
over the long chain of lofty rugged cliffs that stretch away in
the direction of the coal river, and distinctly mark the bearing
of the coast, until they are lost in the dimness of vision.
Wheeling round to the south you behold at the distance of seven
or eight miles, that spacious though less eligible harbour,
called "Botany Bay," from the prodigious variety of new plants
which Sir Joseph Banks found in its vicinity, when it was first
discovered and surveyed by Captain Cook. To the southward again
of this magnificent sheet of water, where it will be recollected
it was the original intention, though afterwards judiciously
abandoned, to found the capital of this colony, you behold the
high bluff range of hills that stretch away towards the five
islands, and likewise indicate the trending of the coast in that
direction.

If you afterwards suddenly face about to the westward, you see
before you one vast forest, uninterrupted except by the
cultivated openings which have been made by the axe on the
summits of some of the loftiest hills, and which tend
considerably to diminish those melancholy sensations its gloomy
monotony would otherwise inspire. The innumerable undulations in
this vast expanse of forest, forcibly remind you of the ocean
when convulsed by tempests; save that the billows of the one
slumber in a fixed and leaden stillness, and want that motion
which constitutes the diversity, beauty, and sublimity of the
other. Continuing the view, you arrive at that majestic and
commanding chain of mountains called "the Blue Mountains," whose
stately and o'ertopping grandeur forms a most imposing boundary
to the prospective.

If you proceed on the south head road, until you arrive at the
eminence called "Belle Vue," the scenery is still more
picturesque and grand; since, in addition to the striking objects
already described, you behold, as it were at your feet, although
still more than a mile distant from you, the vast and foaming
Pacific. In boisterous weather the surges that break in mountains
on the shore beneath you, form a sublime contrast to the still,
placid waters of the harbour, which in this spot is only
separated from the sea by a low sandy neck of land not more than
half a mile in breadth; yet is so completely sheltered, that no
tempests can ruffle its tranquil surface.

The town of Parramatta is situated at the head of Port Jackson
Harbour, at the distance of about eighteen miles by water, and
fifteen by land, from Sydney. The river for the last seven or
eight miles, is only navigable for boats of twelve or fifteen
tons burden. This town is built along a small fresh water stream,
which falls into the river. It consists principally of one street
about a mile in length. It is surrounded on the south side by a
chain of moderately high hills; and as you approach it by the
Sydney road, it breaks suddenly on the view when you have reached
the summit of them, and produces a very pleasing effect. The
adjacent country has been a good deal cleared; and the gay
mimosas, which have sprung up in the openings, form a very
agreeable contrast to the dismal gloom of the forest that
surrounds and o'ertops them.

The town itself is far behind Sydney in respect of its
buildings; but it nevertheless contains many of a good and
substantial construction. These, with the church, the government
house, the new Orphan House, and some gentlemen's seats, which
are situated on the surrounding eminences, give it, upon the
whole, a very respectable appearance. There are two very good
inns, where a traveller may meet with all the comfort and
accommodation that are to be found in similar establishments in
the country towns of this kingdom. The charges too are by no
means unreasonable.

The population is principally composed of inferior traders,
publicans, artificers, and labourers, and may be estimated,
inclusive of a company which is always stationed there, on a
rough calculation, at about twelve hundred souls.

There are two fairs held half yearly, one in March and the
other in September; they were instituted about five years since
by the present governor, and already begin to be very numerously
and respectably attended. They are chiefly intended for the sale
of stock, for which there are stalls, pens, and every other
convenience, erected at the expence of the government; for the
use of these pens, etc. and to keep them in repair, a moderate
scale of duties* is paid by the vender.

This town has for many years past made but a very
inconsiderable progress compared with Sydney. The value of land
has consequently not kept pace in the two places, and is at least
L200 per cent. less in the one than in the other. As the
former, however, is in a central situation between the rapidly
increasing settlements on the banks of the Hawkesbury and Nepean
rivers, and the latter the great mart for colonial produce,
landed property there and in the neighbourhood, will, without
doubt, experience a gradual rise.

The public institutions are an Hospital, a Female Orphan
House, into which it is intended to remove the orphans from
Sydney, and a factory, in which such of the female convicts as
misconduct themselves, and those also who upon their arrival in
the colony are not immediately assigned as servants to families,
are employed in manufacturing coarse cloth. There are upon an
average about one hundred and sixty women employed in this
institution, which is placed under the direction of a
superintendant, who receives wool from the settlers, and gives
them a certain portion of the manufactured article in exchange:
what is reserved is only a fair equivalent for the expence of
making it, and is used in clothing the gaol gang, the reconvicted
culprits who are sent to the coal river, and I believe the
inmates of the factory itself.

There is also another public institution in this town, well
worthy the notice of the philanthropist. It is a school for the
education and civilization of the aborigines of the country. It
was founded by the present governor three years since, and by the
last accounts from the colony, it contained eighteen native
children, who had been voluntarily placed there by their parents,
and were making equal progress in their studies with European
children of the same age. The following extract from the Sydney
Gazette, of January 4, 1817, may enable the reader to form some
opinion of the beneficial consequences that are likely to result
from this institution, and how far they may realize the
benevolent intentions which actuated its philanthropic
founder.

"On Saturday last, the 28th ult. the town of Parramatta
exhibited a novel and very interesting spectacle, by the
assembling of the native tribes there, pursuant to the governor's
gracious invitation. At ten in the morning the market place was
thrown open, and some gentlemen who were appointed on the
occasion, took the management of the ceremonials. The natives
having seated themselves on the ground in a large circle, the
chiefs were placed on chairs a little advanced in front, and to
the right of their respective tribes. In the centre of the circle
thus formed, were placed large tables groaning under the weight
of roast beef, potatoes, bread, etc. and a large cask of grog
lent its exhilarating aid to promote the general festivity and
good humour which so conspicuously shone through the sable
visages of this delighted congress. The governor, attended by all
the members* of the native institution, and by several of the
magistrates and gentlemen in the neighbourhood, proceeded at half
past ten to the meeting, and having entered the circle, passed
round the whole of them, inquiring after, and making himself
acquainted with the several tribes, their respective leaders and
residences. His Excellency then assembled the chiefs by
themselves, and confirmed them in the ranks of chieftains, to
which their own tribes had exalted them, and conferred upon them
badges of distinction; whereon were engraved their names as
chiefs, and those of their tribes. He afterwards conferred badges
of merit on some individuals, in acknowledgment of their steady
and loyal conduct in the assistance they rendered the military
party, when lately sent out in pursuit of the refractory natives
to the west and south of the Nepean river. By the time this
ceremony was over, Mrs. Macquarie arrived, and the children
belonging to, and under the care of the native institution,
fifteen in number, preceded by their teacher, entered the circle,
and walked round it; the children appearing very clean, well
clothed and happy. The chiefs were then again called together to
observe the examination of the children as to their progress in
learning and the civilized habits of life. Several of the little
ones read; and it was grateful to the bosom of sensibility to
trace the degrees of pleasure which the chiefs manifested on this
occasion. Some clapped the children on the head; and one in
particular turning round towards the governor with extraordinary
emotion, exclaimed, Governor, that will make a good
settler,--that's my Pickaninny! (meaning his child). And some of
the females were observed to shed tears of sympathetic affection,
at seeing the infant and helpless off-spring of their deceased
friends, so happily sheltered and protected by British
benevolence. The examinations being finished, the children
returned to the institution, under the guidance of their
venerable tutor; whose assiduity and attention to them, merit
every commendation".

[* Appendix]

"The feasting then commenced, and the governor retired amidst
the long and reiterated acclamations and shouts of his sable and
grateful congress. The number of the visitants, (exclusive of the
fifteen children) amounted to one hundred and seventy-nine, viz.
one hundred and five men, fifty-three women, and twenty-one
children. It is worthy of observation that three of the latter
mentioned number of children, (and the son of the memorable
Bemni-long, was one of them) were placed in the native
institution, immediately after the breaking up of the congress,
on Saturday last, making the number of children now in that
establishment, altogether eighteen; and we may reasonably trust
that in a few years this benevolent institution will amply reward
the hopes and expectations of its liberal patrons and supporters,
and answer the grand object intended, by providing a seminary for
the helpless off-spring of the natives of this country, and
opening the path to their future civilization and
improvement."

WINDSOR.

The town of Windsor, (or as it was formerly called, the Green
Hills), is thirty-five miles distant from Sydney, and is situated
near the confluence of the South Creek with the river Hawkesbury.
It stands on a hill, whose elevation is about one hundred feet
above the level of the river, at low water. The buildings here
are much of the same cast as at Parramatta, being in general
weather boarded without, and lathed and plastered within.

The public buildings are a church, government house, hospital,
barracks, court-house, store-house, and gaol, none of which are
worthy of notice. The inn lately established by Mr. Fitzgerald,
is by far the best building in the town, and may be pronounced
upon the whole, the most splendid establishment of the kind in
the colony.

The bulk of the population is composed of settlers, who have
farms in the neighbourhood, and of their servants. There are
besides a few inferior traders, publicans and artificers. The
town contains in the whole about six hundred souls.

The Hawkesbury here is of considerable size, and navigable for
vessels of one hundred tons burden, for about four miles above
the town. A little higher up, it is joined by, or rather is
called the Nepean river, and has several shallows; but with the
help of two or three ferries, it might still be rendered
navigable for boats of twelve or fifteen tons burden, for about
twenty miles further. This substitution of water for land
carriage, would be of great advantage to the numerous settlers
who inhabit its highly fertile banks, and would also considerably
promote the extension of agriculture throughout the adjacent
districts.

Following the sinuosities of the river the distance of Windsor
from the sea is about one hundred and forty miles; whereas in a
straight line it is not more than thirty-five. The rise of the
tide is about four feet, and the water is fresh for forty miles
below the town.

Land is about ten per cent. higher than at Parramatta, and is
advancing rapidly in price. This circumstance is chiefly
attributable to the small quantity of land that is to be had
perfectly free from the reach of the inundations, to which the
Hawkesbury is so frequently subject. These inundations often rise
seventy or eighty feet above low water mark; and in the instance
of what is still emphatically termed "the great flood," attained
an elevation of ninety-three feet. The chaos of confusion and
distress that presents itself on these occasions, cannot be
easily conceived by any one who has not been a witness of its
horrors. An immense expanse of water, of which the eye cannot in
many directions discover the limits, every where interspersed
with growing timber, and crowded with poultry, pigs, horses,
cattle, stacks and houses, having frequently men, women, and
children, clinging to them for protection, and shrieking out in
an agony of despair for assistance:--such are the principal
objects by which these scenes of death and devastation are
characterized.

These inundations are not periodical, but they most generally
happen in the month of March. Within the last two years there
have been no fewer than four of them, one of which was nearly as
high as the great flood. In the six years precedings there had
not been one. Since the establishment of the colony they have
happened upon an average, about once in three years.

The principal cause of them is the contiguity of this river to
the Blue Mountains. The Grose and Warraganbia rivers, from which
two sources it derives its principal supply, issue direct from
these mountains; and the Nepean river, the other principal branch
of it, runs along the base of them for fifty or sixty miles; and
receives in its progress, from the innumerable mountain torrents
connected with it, the whole of the rain which these mountains
collect in that great extent. That this is the principal cause of
these calamitous inundations has been fully proved; for shortly
after the plantation of this colony, the Hawkesbury overflowed
its banks, (which are in general about thirty feet in height), in
the midst of harvest, when not a single drop of rain had fallen
on the Port Jackson side of the mountains. Another great cause of
the inundations, which take place in this and the other rivers in
the colony, is the small fall that is in them, and the consequent
slowness of their currents. The current in the Hawkesbury, even
when the tide is in full ebb, does not exceed two miles an hour.
The water, therefore, which during the rains, rushes in torrents
from the mountains cannot escape with sufficient rapidity; and
from its immense accumulation, soon overtops the banks of the
river, and covers the whole of the low country.

LIVERPOOL.

The town of Liverpool is situated on the banks of Geoge's
river, at the distance of eighteen miles from Sydney. It was
founded by Governor Macquarie, and is now of about six years
standing. Its population may amount to about two hundred souls,
and is composed of a small detachment of military, of
cultivators, and a few artificers, traders, publicans, and
labourers.

The public buildings are a church (not yet I believe
completed) a school house and stores for the reception and issue
of provisions to such of the settlers in the adjacent districts
as are victualled at the expense of the government. These
buildings, however, as might naturally be expected from the very
recent establishment of this town, are but little superior in
their appearance to the rude dwellings of its inhabitants.

The river is about half the size of the Hawkesbury, and is
navigable for boats of twenty tons burden as high up as the town.
It empties itself into Botany Bay, which is about fourteen miles
to the southward of the heads of Port Jackson. It is subject to
the same sort of inundations as the Hawkesbury; but they are not
in general of so violent and destructive a nature. The tide rises
about the same height as in that river, and the current is, I
believe, nearly of the same velocity.

The position of this town is all that can be urged in support
of the probability of its future progress; the land in its
vicinity being in general of a very indifferent quality. It is in
a central situation, between Sydney and the fertile districts of
Bringelly, Arids, Appin, Bunpury Curran, Cabramatta, and the
Seven Islands, to which last place the tide of colonization is at
present principally directing itself. There can be no doubt,
therefore, that the town of Liverpool will, in a few years,
become a place of considerable size and importance. Land there is
as yet of very trifling value; and a lease may be obtained by any
free person from the government, on the simple condition of
erecting a house on it.

Society is upon a much better footing throughout the colony,
in general than might naturally be imagined, considering the
ingredients of which it is composed. In Sydney the civil and
military officers with their families form a circle at once
select and extended, without including the numerous highly
respectable families of merchants and settlers who reside there.
Unfortunately, however, this town is not free from those
divisions which are so prevalent in all small communities.
Scandal appears to be the favourite amusement to which idlers
resort to kill time and prevent ennui; and consequently, the same
families are eternally changing from friendship to hostility, and
from hostility back again to friendship.

In the other towns these dissensions are not so common,
because the circle of society is more circumscribed; and in the
districts where there are no towns at all, they are still more
rare; because in such situations people have too much need of one
another's intercourse and assistance to propagate reports
injurious to their neighbour's character, unless on grave
occasions, and where their assertions are founded on truth.

Generally speaking, the state of society in these settlements
is much the same, as among an equal population in the country
parts of this kingdom. Of the number of respectable persons that
they contain, some estimate may be formed if we refer to the
parties which are given on particular days at the Government
House. It appears from the Sydney Gazette of the 24th January,
1818, that one hundred and sixty ladies and gentlemen were
present at a ball and supper which was given there on the 18th of
that month, in celebration of her late majesty's birth-day.

There are at present no public amusements in this colony. Many
years since, there was a theatre, and more latterly, annual
races; but it was found that the society was not sufficiently
mature for such establishments. Dinner and supper parties are
very frequent in Sydney; and it generally happens that a few
subscription balls take place in the course of the year. Upon the
whole it may be safely asserted, that the natural disposition of
the people to sociality has not only been in no wise impaired by
their change of scene, but that all classes of the colonists are
more hospitable than persons of similar means in this
country.

There are four courts in this colony, established by charter,
viz. the Court of Admiralty, the Court of Criminal Judicature,
the Governor's Court, the Supreme Court, and the High Court of
Appeals.

The Court of Vice Admiralty consists of the Judge Advocate,
and takes cognizance of captures, salvages, and such other
matters of dispute as arise on the high seas; but it has no
criminal jurisdiction.

The Court of Criminal Judicature, consists of the Judge
Advocate and six officers of His Majesty's sea and land forces,
or of either, appointed by the governor. This court takes
cognizance of all treasons, felonies, misdemeanors, and in fact
of all criminal offences whatsoever; and afterwards adjudges
death or such other punishment as the law of England may have
affixed to the respective crimes of which the prisoners may be
found guilty.

The Governor's Court consists of the Judge Advocate and two
inhabitants of the colony, appointed by precept from the
governor, and takes cognizance of all pleas where the amount sued
for does not exceed L50 sterling, (except such pleas as may
arise between party and party at Van Dieman's Land) and from its
decisions there is no appeal.

The Supreme Court is composed of the judge of this court and
two magistrates, appointed by precept from the governor; and its
jurisdiction extends to all pleas where the matter in dispute
exceeds L50 sterling. From its judgments, however, appeals
lie to the High Court of Appeals.

This latter court is presided by the governor himself,
assisted by the Judge Advocate; and its decisions are final in
all cases where the amount sued for does not exceed three
thousand pounds; but where the sum at issue exceeds this amount,
an appeal lies in the last instance to the king in council.

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