Page:ChroniclesofEarlyMelbournevol.2.pdf/406

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
862
THE CHRONICLES OF EARLY MELBOURNE.

conceived an affection for Geelong which never left him until his dying hour, and by 1837 had migrated there, purchased at some of its earliest land sales, and remained one, though very prominent, of the Geelongeese. As an evidence of the unexpected things to which an energetic settler in a new colony will have to put his hand, it may be mentioned that Dr. Thomson was the first to accomplish the perilous undertaking of driving a bullock team between Geelong and Melbourne. His regular whip fearing that he might be eaten by the blacks, who were reported as very carniverous on the Werribee, struck work after the journey had been commenced, and left the master to either return or go on if he liked without him. Dr. Thomson went on, and reached his journey's end without the slightest Aboriginal molestation. In politics Thomson was an ultra-Radical, or rather sided with an extreme Scotch party then existent, and who, though in pretty general accord with public opinion, occasionally urged a redress of grievances in language more uncompromising than prudent. He invariably fought under the banner of Dr. Lang; but no question was ever raised as to the sincerity and disinterestedness of his motives. He was the first Mayor of Geelong, and its representative in the Legislature, and should the chronicles of Corio be ever written, Alexander Thomson ought to hold an honoured place as one of its public benefactors.

J. F. Leslie Foster was the son of an Irish Judge, and nephew of Mr. Speaker Foster, of the Irish House of Commons before the Union. He was an alumnus of Trinity College, Dublin. Arriving in Port Phillip about 1840, he soon appeared in the arena of public men, and took an active part in every political movement of the time. Of considerable ability and largely read, he might have acquired considerable influence, but there was a shiftiness and insincerity about his public conduct, which, added to the absence of personal liking, for he never much courted popularity, somehow or other he never escaped a certain amount of distrust. He was mixed up with every underhand move of the squatters for the procuring of cheap labour, and no public man not thoroughly sound on the Anti-transportation question could ever hope to be taken into general favour. Whilst he sat as a Provincial Representative in the New South Wales Legislature, he performed his duties with creditable assiduity and intelligence, if not with universal satisfaction; and at the Separation era he disappeared from the colonial stage by a visit to England, with a view, as was reported, of working a lucrative Victorian appointment from the Home Government. Whether rumour was correct or not Foster succeeded, for he turned up with the Colonial Secretaryship in his pocket in August, 1853, when he succeeded Captain Lonsdale, the first holder of that office. During the brief interregnum between the departure of ex-Governor Latrobe and the arrival of Governor Sir C. Hotham in 1854, Foster officiated as Administrator of the Government. The Hotham reign was short and troublous in consequence of the disturbed and almost revolutionary state of the goldfields. Both Governor and Secretary were objects of extreme unpopularity, and succumbing to the exceptional circumstances, and in some measure to allay the daily increasing discontent, Foster tendered his resignation, and was succeeded by Mr. W. C. Haines. There is little doubt but Foster was sacrificed. It was realizing the familiar phrase of throwing a tub to a whale, the greater vessel (the Governor) was in danger, and to save it the chief officer was pitched overboard. If Foster had continued in harness until 1856 he would have been entitled to a pension on being ousted by any change under responsible Government. But now that he had cast himself prematurely adrift, he forfeited this prospective retiring allowance, which in process of time passed into Haines' pocket. There can be no doubt that Foster felt assured of receiving adequate compensation, but his subsequent applications to Parliament were rejected. It is difficult for any unbiassed lover of fair play to favour any other conclusion than that Foster received shabby and ungenerous treatment. Under the new constitution he was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly, and in March, 1857, accepted office as Treasurer in the first O'Shanassy administration, which lived only some six weeks. He subsequently quitted public life, and left the colony, and has not since reappeared on the political horizon.

John Dunmore Lang, though connected with New South Wales, made himself so essentially a Port Phillipian politician, and so pre-eminently distinguised himself in the advocacy of Separation, that he is well-entitled to a place in this notice. A Scotchman every inch, and born at