The First Tariff
In operation in Port Phillip provided:— 1. Upon all spirits, the produce and manufacture of the United Kingdom, or Her Majesty's plantations and possessions in the West Indies and in North America, imported directly from the United Kingdom—nine shillings per gallon. 2. Upon all other spirits imported—twelve shillings per gallon. 3. Wine—five per cent, ad valorem. 4. Tea and sugar—five per cent, ad valorem. 5. Flour, meal, wheat, rice, and other grain and pulse—free until the 31st December, 1840, after which five per cent, will be charged. 6. Tobacco and snuff, manufactured—two shillings per lb.; unmanufactured—one shilling and sixpence per lb. 7. Goods, &c., not being the produce and manufacture of the United Kingdom—ten per cent, ad valorem.
In addition, there was a long list of wharfage rates leviable upon everything, and sliding from three shillings on a threshing machine to three farthings for a foot of spar.
The two earliest Bonded Stores of which there is any record were:— Messrs. Arthur Kemmis and Co., Market Square, and Captain Roach, Little Flinders Street.
The Melbourne Auction Company
Was established in April, 1840, with a capital of £60,000, but though ushered into the world with every kind of flourish which the typographical clarion was capable of sounding, it soon shared the fate of several other old joint-stock undertakings which, starting with a Directory of ostentatious names, and less capital than expectations, very soon came to grief. The Directory of this large "knocking down" firm were William Langhorne, Frederick Manton, Farquhar McCrae, Jonathan Binns Were, Alexander Thomson, Thomas Wills, Charles Howard, Daniel Stodhart Campbell, Alexander M'Killop, William Ryrie, James Graham, Arthur Kemmis, Horatio Nelson Carrington, George Brunswick Smythe, William Highett, William Hampdenn Dutton, Godfrey Howitt, and William Morris Harper, Esquires.
The chief executive staff was thus formed:— Managing Director: John Carey, Esq.; Auctioneer: George Sinclair Brodie, Esq.; Accountant: Archibald M'Lachlan, Esq.; Bankers: The Bank of Australasia; Solicitors: Messrs. Montgomery and M'Crae.
The professed object of this co-partnery was to afford sufficient security and increased facilities to parties having property to dispose of. It was declared to have a fair prospect of success, but required an Act of Council to enable its Managing Director to sue and be sued. On attempting to promote a Private Bill in the Legislature of New South Wales, the Governor (Sir G. Gipps) refused his sanction (the granting of which was an indispensable preliminary) in consequence of the failure of an auction company in Sydney. There was no alternative, therefore, but a dissolution. Of all the names above given, the only survivor in 1888 is Mr. James Graham.
Defunct Quarantine Stations.--Point Ormond.
The first yellow-flagged ship arriving in Port Phillip was the "Glen Huntley," from Greenock, with immigrants, on the 17th April, 1840. Typhus fever had shown itself on the voyage, and out of 157 passengers there were no less than fifty on the sick list. Great was the consternation amongst the townspeople on the appearance of so unexpected and unwelcome an importation as a probable pestilence, and no time was lost in arranging for the establishment of a Quarantine Station. The then umbrageous, picturesque territory, now thoroughly civilized and known as St. Kilda, was designated by the Aborigines "Euro-Yroke" from a species of sandstone abounding there, by which they shaped and sharpened their stone tomahawks. Its first European appellation was the "Green Knoll" (the eminence, then much higher, now recognized as the Esplanade), until Superintendent Latrobe named the country St. Kilda in compliment to a dashing little schooner, once a visitor in the Bay. St. Kilda was considered a smart walk from town, and adventurous pedestrians made Sunday trips there in the fine weather. About a mile further, looking out in perpetual watch over Hobson's Bay, was a
