CHAPTER XLIX. A MIXED FREIGHT.
SYNOPSIS: -Brickmakers and Sawyers.—Benefit Societies.—The Port Phillip Club,—First Public Appearance of Messrs. Greeves, Hull, and Cole.—A Yeomanry Corps. — The Squatter Franchise.—The First " Protection" Meeting. — The Squatters' Grand Rally.—Australian Grain. — The Waste Lands.—Dr. Ludwig Leichardt.—Death of Daniel O'Connell. — Catarrh in Sheep. — The Sanitary Condition of Melbourne.—Proposed Annual Fair.— Proposed Female Friendly Society.—Relief of Irish Home Distress.—Irish and Scotch Home Relief.
ROM the earliest period the open meeting was regarded by the Port Phillipians as the most effective and legitimate m o d e in which to make the public sentiment known either in redress of grievance or a demand for justice. T h e first recorded gathering or " Folk-Mote" was held in 1836. Meetings to establish races, and to build a church took place in 1838, and in February, 1839, a commercial demonstration was m a d e to have Melbourne declared a free warehousing port. These several movements are treated with more detail in other chapters, and are only n o w re-introduced to prepare a way for grouping some of those public assemblages from time to time witnessed in Old Melbourne,
BRICKMAKERS AND SAWYERS.
The first hand-made bricks used in the province were manufactured upon the swampy land between the Yarra, and what was subsequently named Emerald Hill and the Government House reserve. T h e brick-field was in part close to and took in some of the historical 30 acre paddock which "Johnny" Fawkner annexed in 1835, and enclosed and planted for a wheat crop. Brick-making, though like bread-making, one of our earliest and local enterprises, was heavily handicapped by the absentee Government with exactions in the shape of fees and charges. In 1838 an Act of Council was passed which impeded the operations of not only brick-makers but sawyers, the two most useful handicrafts in an infant colony. It was enacted among other provisions that no person could legally follow either calling without taking out an annual ,£10 license, and this operated in such a prohibitory manner as to interfere materially with the progress of house-building, not only in Melbourne, but at Williamstown and Geelong. In fact, it led to the departure of several persons, w h o could not be easily spared, to Adelaide. T o protest against such shallow-minded injustice, a public meeting was held on 17th January, 1839, at Sharp's Ship Lnn, Little Flinders Street. Several resolutions were adopted, the principal being one denouncing the Act of Council, and authorizing the presentation of a petition to the Governor praying for the cancellation or suspension of the pernicious imposition.
UNION BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.
An Institution with this designation was inaugurated at a meeting held in the Lamb Lnn, Collins Street, on the 14th February, 1839, M r . T. H . Price was appointed Secretary, and it was resolved to hold periodical meetings at the Builders' Arms Hotel, in Little Collins Street. Before the year expired the following rather meagre prospectus was issued :—
