C H A P T E R XXXVI. HOW PORT PHILLIP WAS PEOPLED.
SYNOPSIS
—Immigration and Emigration. — " The Bounty System."—" The Bounty System " Described.—First Immigration Board.—First Immigration Association.—Census, March, 184c —Orphan Immigration. —Indignation Meetings.— Memorial to ihe Queen. — German Immigration.—Enumeration Tables, 1836 to 1831. — Condition of Population.
HE newly occupied settlement yvas started by those yvho made their yvay to the district from Sydney and V a n Diemen's Land by sea, and the adventurous rovers and drovers yvho attempted the wild and unknoyvn overland journey from what soon came to be known as the Middle District of N e w South Wales. Fayvkner's primitive population of a half-dozen m e n and one yvoman, the historical seven, yvho comprised thefirstwhite people of Melbourne, yvere not left long in a state of solation, and ere six months had elapsed, they yvere not without a sprinkling of companions. During 1836 the progress in the yvay of colonisation was insignificant, though, considering the circumstances, even more than could be expected. Yet, though there yvas no legally constituted civil authority until the arrival of Captain Lonsdale, as Police Magistrate, in November, and not an inch of land had been legally alienated, there were at the close of the year, 50 acres in cultivation, and 75 horses, 155 horned cattle, and 41,332 sheep, revelling in the finest pasturage in the world. T h efirstpopulation return, taken in May, showed the total number of persons in the whole country (there yvas then no town) to be 177 souls, i.e., 142 males and 35 females, yvhich number increased before the next Neyv Year's Day to 186 males and 38 females, the six months having added only three ladies. Immigration, as applied to the increase of population in the early days, m a y be said to have commenced in 1837,forduring that year 740 individuals yvere so added. T h e Port Phillipian contribution to the territorial revenue, by means of land sales, commenced in August of that year, and the golden eggs, thenceforth laid in clutches, yvere so eagerly looked after, that apprehensions yvere at times entertained that the goose yvould be killed. But all the eggs were rolled off to Sydney, though the produce of many of them, transfused into yvhat were known as " Bounty Immigrants," yvas returned in human bone and sinew to the district. OF THE BOUNTY SYSTEM
It may be interesting to give a feyv details. The Land Fund supplied the means, and yvas administered by Commissioners in London, acting in concert with the authorities in Sydney. T h efirstregulations yvere issued on the 25th September, 1837, but as they were restricted, and offered what proved to be inadequate remuneration, they were revised subsequently, and what was termed " the bounties," increased. By a notification formulated from the Colonial Secretary's office, Sydney, and dated 3rd March, 1840, certain Immigration Regulations then in existence were revised, and it was determined to grant pecuniary aid under certain conditions to persons bringing into N e w South Wales from the United Kingdom, agricultural labourers, shepherds, carpenters, smiths, wheelwrights, bricklayers, masons, female domestics, and farm servants. T h e sum of £58 would be paid as a bounty for any married m a n of the foregoing descriptions, and his wife, neither of whose ages, on embarkation, to exceed forty years; £5 for each child between the ages of one and seven years ; ^ 1 0 for each between seven andfifteen; and £1$ for each above fifteen years. £19 would be allowed for every unmarried female domestic or farm servant, not belowfifteen,nor above thirty years, coming out under the protection of a married couple, as forming part of the family, and destined to remain with it until othenvise provided for; and a like amount for every unmarried male
