The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 2/Chapter 47
CHAPTER XLVII.
LITERARY AND EDUCATIONAL.
SYNOPSIS:— Lieutenant-Governor Collins. —His Printing Press and "Jail Journal." —Early Publications and Publishers. —The Port Phillip Magazine. —The Illustrated Australian Magazine. —Mr. Thomas Ham's Map. —The First Debating Society. —The Melbourne Literary Association. —The First Legislative Council. —The First Almanacs and Directories. —Port Phillip College. —The First School. —Early Schools and Regulations. —The Port Phillip Academical Institution. —Private Schools and Schoolmasters. —The Denominational System. —The National System.
WHEN Lieut-Governor David Collins, the Commandant of the Convict Expedition, arrived at Sorrento in 1803, he brought with him from London a small hand-press, which he fixed under a gum-tree on the beach; and in this "office" were printed and issued from time to time, series of "general and garrison orders" for the enforcement of good government and discipline amongst the few free settlers and convicts, and the small military force. With little or no literary pretensions, this veritable "jail journal" is curious as being our first printed periodical, and as a specimen of what it was I append, verbatim et literatim, the first two manifestoes thus promulgated:—
Sullivan Bay [Port Phillip], 16th Oct., 1803.
General Orders.
Parole—Sullivan. C. Sign—Woodriff.
"The Commissary is directed to issue, until further orders, the following ration weekly:— To civil, military, and free settlers—beef, 7lbs.; or pork, 4lbs.; biscuit, 7lbs.; flour, 1lb.; sugar, 6ozs. To women, two-thirds; children above five years, half; and children under five years, quarter of the above ration.
"A copper will be immediately erected for the convenience of cooking, and persons appointed to dress the provisions, which are to be ready every day at 12 o'clock.
"Half a pint of spirits is allowed to the military daily.
Garrison Orders.
"A guard, consisting of 1 sergt., 1 corp., and 12 privates will mount daily in front of the marine encampment. Officers for the duty this day, 1st Lt. Johnson; to-morrow, 2nd Lt. Lord.
"The centinels at the different posts will be at all times vigilant and careful to preserve peace and good order. After the beating of the tattoo, they are not to allow any (the night watch which will be appointed excepted) to pass without the countersign. All prisoners taken during the night are to be sent to the quarter-guard. The centinels at the landing-place will not suffer any spirituous liquors to be landed at or near their post, without a written permit signed
by the Lieut.-Governor, and they are not to prevent any military or civil officer, or free settler, from going into a boat or on board of ships at anchor in the harbour; but other persons, if employed by an officer, are to produce a pass, signed by the officer, which is to be given to the centinel, and by him to be delivered to the sergt. of the guard. The greatest attention to be paid to this order. The morning parade will beat at nine o'clock, the evening at sunset. Tattoo will be beat at nine o'clock. The orderly drum every day at one."
The Collins hand-press executed its last "job" in Port Phillip on the 26th January, 1804. Typography then went to sleep, and slumbered uninterruptedly for four-and-thirty years, when it was awakened by the publication of Fawkner's printed Melbourne Advertiser on the 9th April, 1838. The first essay at forming a library was also the handiwork of Fawkner, who, though the reverse of a litterateur, may be fairly regarded as unquestionably our first man of letters, in manuscript and print, for he was never so much himself as when dabbling in some form or other with newspaper editing or writing, alike regardless of the proprieties of good temper, good manners, good style, and good taste. This bibliothecal collection was an appendage to Fawkner's Hotel, and circulated in other places than the bar-parlour, for the books were lent out to solvent subscribers at 55. per quarter. The exterior distribution must have been even more limited than the then existent circle of readers; as the library consisted of an Encyclopædia, two or three volumes of English Reviews, half-a-dozen works of history and poetry; whilst the "reading room" possessed the additional attractions of the Sydney and Van Diemen's Land newspapers, with a stray number of a London journal. The influx of population by degrees added to the stock of books amongst the community, and in 1839 a Mr. James Hill announced for sale, on the 22nd January, "An extensive library, comprising English, French, Latin, Italian, and Greek books."
The establishment of the Melbourne Mechanics' Institute in the course of the same year stimulated a desire for literary enjoyment; and a very superior course of lectures, by which it was inaugurated, sowed seed which afterwards produced a crop of incalculable benefit to society, though more of an indirect than a direct nature.
In 1840 a partnership—William Kerr and Joseph Thompson—established a newspaper agency at the Patriot office; and Mr. Matthew Holmes opened a by no means extensive book shop, both in West Collins Street. A somewhat amusing literary advertisement appears in the Melbourne journals in July, 1840, viz., that there is on sale at the Herald office "The last edition (1839) of the London Encyclopædia, consisting of twenty-two volumes in boards; also an excellent stomach pump, of Maw's (London) manufacture." Probably it was considered that the one would form a desirable accompaniment to the other.
A Reading Society, started by private subscription, ran for several years. It was quite a select affair, and candidates for membership had to undergo the ordeal of the ballot. During 1850 it circulated 3800 book and 390 magazine numbers. Its supplies were procured chiefly from England.
Early Publications.
The first local author to write up the province was George Arden, of the Gazette, and in 1840 there appeared from his pen a very creditable pamphlet upon the capabilities of Port Phillip. The great fault of Arden was his proneness to plunge into excesses, either eulogistic or depreciatory. He was master of an accomplished, though inflated style, and would have been a writer of great and taking power had his mind been better ballasted, and his verbiage denuded of florid excrescences which were simply encumbrances. His Port-Phillipian brochure is characterized by marked traces of scholarship, though its merits are overlaid by exaggeration. Arden's production was a very readable one, and did much good in its day. Several short treatises on Port Phillip were issued in England by persons who made flying trips to the Antipodes, just looked about them, returned, and "wrote a book." A Mr. George H. Haydon, a sojourner of some time, published in London in 1846 an interesting work under the title of Five Years Experience in Australia Felix. In 1848 Mr. William Westgarth gave to the world his Australia Felix; or A Historical and Descriptive Account of Port Phillip. The author was well qualified by ability and long residence here to handle such a subject, and it was with no surprise that the Press acknowledged it to be a work of undoubted merit and fulness of information. M'Combie's History of Port Phillip is well known, and has been very generally accepted as a text-book by subsequent writers. It was an unexpected treat coming from such a man, and displayed a thorough familiarity with the story it tells, though portions of it are written with too much bias, and the accuracy of the facts narrated is in several instances more than questionable.
The Rev. Dr. Lang published a work designated Phillipsland, and he was in certain respects very competent to do so; but much of anything he wrote was spoiled by personal acidity. The first Manual of Horticulture was issued in 1845 by Daniel Bunce, C.M.H.S., author of Hortus Tasmaniensis, Guide to the Linnean System of Botany, Manual of Practical Gardening, &c. This work sold at 2s. 6d. per copy, and ran through more than one edition, for it was cheap and useful.
The First Magazine.
In 1843 a pretentious monthly periodical was adventured as The Port Phillip Magazine, at 35. per number, or 7s. 6d. per quarter. It was under the joint editorship of Mr. G. A. Gilbert, a recently-arrived drawing-master, and Dr. W. B. Wilmot, the Coroner. Gilbert was an accomplished gentlemanly man, who knew a good deal about many matters, and rendered himself much of an acquisition to the Mechanics' Institute, of which he was for years Honorary Secretary. He was a very plausible and pleasant speaker, and at pen and pencil equally an adept. The magazine professed to be a scientific, literary, agricultural and commercial journal of about fifty pages, and No. 1 was illustrated with three rather poorly-executed lithographic sketches, viz.—(a) Williamstown; (b) Shortland's Bluff (Queenscliff) Lighthouse; and (c) the Landing-place at Sandridge—water, sand, and two hotels. The articles were on Land Drainage, Physical Geography, Agriculture and Immigration. Then followed some Statistics, and a Metrical Story on two Aborigines executed in Melbourne in 1842. For the time the ambitious attempt was as good as could be expected. Generally speaking, its whole style was defective; it found little favour with the public, and it ended in an abortion.
In 1847 an attempt was made to establish the Australasian, a monthly reprint of articles from the English Reviews, at 5s. per number, but its second appearance was its last.
A nearly similar project was revived in 1850 under the same name, at 2s. 6d. per number. The publisher was John Pullar, Melbourne, and there was to be not only a reproduction of selections from the leading periodicals of the United Kingdom, but also original contributions, chiefly on subjects of colonial interest. No. 1 failed to hit the public taste for two very good reasons—viz., because the articles reprinted were rather stale, and the original papers were the reverse of interesting. No. 2 perished in embryo.
The Illustrated Australian Magazine,
Printed by Samuel Goode, Swanston Street, for Thomas, Jabez, and Theophilus Ham, of Collins Street, sole proprietors, was commenced under the motto "Non progredi est regredi," in July, 1850, and the promoters promised "that for one year the work shall be continued at all risks; nor shall any expense be spared, or any expedient untried, in order to render it worthy of a permanent and increasing popularity." The object of the undertaking professed "to further the development of the great natural resources of our Southern clime; to stimulate and direct colonial enterprise; to give efficiency to industry, and increased productiveness to human labour; to foster native talent; and thus to promote both the interest and the happiness of all classes of society;" and it was carried out with a laudable public spirit. The Magazine was a half crown monthly issue of some eighty medium-sized pages stitched in a wrapper with a picturesque cover. To take No. 1 as a sample, it contained a well compounded prescription of reading, its illustrations numbering five—viz., the Mechanics' Institute, the Alpaca and a North-western Passage Expedition in search of Franklin, with descriptive articles referring to each. There were also a well-written Editorial Address, a Paper on Nineveh, two short Tales of Fiction, a Metrical Enigma, a Monthly Retrospect of Events, and some Statistical Reports supplied by Mr. William Westgarth. It was, on the whole, a favourable specimen, and well deserved public patronage. Subsequent issues showed an improvement, and the pictorial enrichments were more Australian in design. The promise to keep the venture going for twelve months was more than fulfilled, for it was continued to the fifteenth number, when it exploded (October, 1851) through the action of the strange and unlooked-for gases generated in the community by the preliminary rumblings of the gold revolution. "Ham's Magazine," as it was familiarly called, went to pieces the same as many another early enterprise, and in October, 1851, its epitaph was good humouredly chanted in something like the wail of the dying swan:—"Not only have our whole staff of engravers, lithographers, and letter-press printers left us, but they have even taken their wives with them to rock the cradles! Our office is deserted! We doubt much whether we shall be able to procure men to deliver the Magazine to our subscribers. In short, there is no alternative left us but to follow the examples of all trades and professions, linen-drapers, tailors, grocers, cheesemongers, lawyers, clergymen, doctors, and Government officers, and be off to the 'diggins.'"
The First Map.
In 1841 Mr. J. P. Fawkner, the proprietor of the Port Phillip Patriot, presented his subscribers with a map of the Town of Melbourne, the first of the kind issued. It was neither engraved nor lithographed, but was set up with brass rule and type from a Government tracing, and even by a printer of the present day would be acknowledged a smart piece of workmanship. From information recently received I am disposed to believe that it was the handiwork of Mr. James Harrison, one of the early typos, so well known for a series of years in connection with the Geelong Advertiser, and subsequently as a man fertile in ice-preserving experiments.
Ham's Map.
On the 23rd February, 1847, Mr. Thomas Ham, an engraver, doing business in a shop in Collins Street, opposite the present Bank of Victoria, issued "A Map of Australia Felix," which favourably compares as an artistic production with some of the best maps of the present day. It was engraved on a copper plate 2 feet 6 inches by I foot 9 inches, to the scale of 19 miles to the inch, printed on the best Imperial drawing paper, and neatly coloured. It was sold at 12s. 6d. to subscribers and 16s. to non-subscribers, and was a really valuable acquisition to the public. The copyright was registered in London, and the map was dedicated (by permission) to Sir Charles Fitzroy, the Governor of New South Wales. It was a comprehensive chart, for it embraced the whole extent of country included in what it was believed would form the boundaries of the colony on the separation of Port Phillip. It showed the positions of more than a thousand squatting stations, numerically noted, and explained by a key or catalogue. All the harbours, rivers, lakes, creeks, ranges, and other topographical information were accurately delineated, the whole being carefully compiled and revised from official charts and other authentic documents. There are but very few copies of this valuable map extant.
The First Debating Society.
A few of the most intelligent and active minds in Melbourne held a conference at the commencement of 1841, and the outcome was the foundation of what was designated "The Melbourne Debating Society," with a Managerial Board consisting of—President: the Hon. James Erskine Murray; Vice-Presidents: Rev. James Forbes, and Surgeon A. F. Greeves; Chairman: Mr. J. G. Foxton; Committee Messrs. James Boyle, G. A. Gilbert, R. V. Innes, D. W. O'Nial, and J. J. Peers; Treasurers Messrs. Thomas B. Darling, and E. C. Dunn. This Society attracted to its ranks most of the talent of the town. Weekly meetings were held at the Scots' Schoolroom on the Eastern hill of Collins Street, and considerable debating power was rapidly developed. It was not a mere ordinary school-boy exhibition of vapid declamation and puerile rhodomontade, but an intellectual gathering, where questions of interest to the community were good-humouredly, intelligently, and patiently discussed. The proceedings were reported at length in the newspapers, and were regarded with almost the interest that now attaches to Parliamentary deliverances. There never was an institution in Melbourne that did such good in its time as this old and first "talking shop." Of its original members the only survivors in 1888 are, I believe, Mr. J. G. Foxton, and Mr. J. M. Smith, the well-known Solicitor; and that his tongue is also still alive and stirring is evidenced by the proceedings which frequently enliven the heavy atmosphere of the Benevolent Asylum during the meetings of the Committee of Management. Mr. Smith is a member of that body, and, judging by his reported utterances, his oratory seems the reverse of old wine, for it was much better flavoured and possessed infinitely more body when exercised in the Primitive Debating Society, than in its present developments.
In April, 1851, a Melbourne Literary Association was formed, and its inauguration meeting held on the 28th, when the President (Mr. W. S. Gibbons), delivered a lengthy and interesting address. It was virtually a Discussion or Debating Society, and the first question ventilated by it was the repeatedly well-threshed theme of Temperance.
The close of the same year witnessed the opening of the first Legislative Council, an articulating machine which, in some form or other, will never more shut up in the colony so long as grass grows and water runs.
Almanacs.
This medium of a Day and Meteorologic Guide is of early introduction; for the first sheet-almanac was issued by the proprietors of the Port Phillip Gazette on the 1st January, 1839. It was a small, poorly-bordered production, containing little more than a monthly calendar, with a few items of general information. In 1842, a Geelong Almanac was prepared by Mr. James Harrison, and published by Harrison and Scamble, at the Advertiser office, Yarra Street, North Corio, Geelong, Sheet-almanacs were occasionally presented by way of a Christmas Box, or New Year's Offering, by the Gazette, Patriot, and the Herald newspapers to their subscribers. The Herald, being superior in "plant" to its contemporaries, produced the more picturesque article. Its Separation sheet-almanac brought out several successive years, was extremely creditable, and exhibited considerable typographical taste. This periodical at length became interwoven with the names of William Clarke and John Ferres (two well-known Herald overseers), who, in their time held first rank in their craft, or "profession," as some typos. fondly and grandly call it.
Directories.
The first effort of this kind was made so far back as the end of 1840, and though bearing little comparison with the corpulent and well-filled publications of the "eighties," was, considering the times and circumstances, extremely creditable to the industry and enterprise of its projector. It was intituled Kerr's Melbourne Almanac and Port Phillip Directory for 1841—a compendium of useful and accurate information connected with Port Phillip. Its compiler was the well-known old journalist, Mr. William Kerr, and it was published by Kerr and Holmes, at their book and stationery warehouse, Collins Street, Melbourne. It was no light task to undertake such a work at such a day in consequence of (to quote the language of the preface) "the difficulties which have everywhere to be encountered in getting up for the first time a work of this nature," and the "almost insuperable obstacles which the perpetual changes incident to a new settlement, and the complete absence of any certain means of obtaining information." The compiler, however, settled down to 'his work with a will, and the result of his labours was the issue for 12s. 6d. per copy, of 264 pages, royal octavo, bound in cloth-boards. It was printed on good paper, in pica and long primer type, with the matter arranged in convenient form. The table of contents indicated a diversity of topics—Eclipses and Wharfage Rates; Vaccination and the position of the Crocodile Rock; the Gardeners' Calendar; Abstracts of the Acts of the Legislature most commonly in force; the several codes of Government Regulations in existence; the Public Departments, Companies and Institutions are summarized, and other addenda convenient to persons engaged in business. Twenty-three pages of the Directory contain names, places of business, and private residences. The Melbourne houses were not numbered for years after; and it is a matter of surprise how such a collocation could be obtained from extremely scanty and imperfect materials. The Almanac Advertiser at the end contains twenty-four pages of trade notices, on different coloured papers, a strong evidence in itself of the rapidly increasing trade and commerce of the young community. The issue of this book should remain for all time a memento of the energy and public spirit of the man who devised and accomplished it.
The same publication was continued in 1842, and though exteriorly inferior, being half cloth bound, was a vast improvement in every other respect. It contained three hundred and sixty-six pages, was printed in clearer type of thick-leaded long primer and brevier, royal octavo, and placing it by the side of a Directory of to-day, barring the cover, shows as good composition as could now be turned out of the Melbourne Printing Offices. The compiler thus concludes his preface:—"On the success which is vouchsafed to the present publication, must, of course, depend its continuance in future years; but the compiler fondly trusts that his work will be found of sufficient utility to warrant him in the expectation of having many opportunities in store of renewing his acquaintance annually with the public of Australia Felix." But the hope so indulged in was not to be fulfilled, and more is the pity. The then limited circulation for such a valuable publication was insufficient to sustain it, and for this, and perhaps other reasons which Mr. Kerr could not control, there was no third appearance.
Through an insane newspaper rivalry an attempt was made to cut out of public favour this laudable and public-spirited experiment of Mr. Kerr. The three newspapers then in existence were in a chronic state of internecine feud, and the consequence was that anything projected by one office was sure to be vehemently opposed by the others. Mr. Kerr was editor of the Patriot, and his Directory was for that reason alone so much gall and wormwood. It was therefore resolved to try and burst it up, and the manner of doing so was the issue of an opposition publication of a cheaper though much inferior kind. This was accordingly done by rolling out of the Gazette office a small pamphlet, designated The Immigrants' Almanac for 1842, containing every kind of local information, compiled for the use of the labouring classes by John Stephen, assistant editor of the P. P. Gazette." It comprised 67 pages of judiciously-collected and well-printed matter, was sold for 5s. per copy, and would, under ordinary circumstances, have claimed extensive support. But it was floated for the unworthy purpose of indulging private spleen, and pandering to personal malignity. It therefore deservedly failed, and from no point of view could any cool-headed thinker entertain for it a hope of other result.
In 1847 there was issued The Port Phillip Patriot Almanac and Directory, price sixpence to subscribers to the Patriot, and 1s. 6d. to non-subscribers. It was a small-sized. paper-covered book, royal 18mo. of one hundred and ninety pages, brevier and minion, and eighteen of advertisements. It was a marvel for the money; but as contrasted with the Kerr publication of 1842, was in every way a "cheap and nasty" affair.
A kind friend has favoured me with the following memo. in reference to two publications omitted in my notice of the Early Magazine Literature of Port Phillip:—
1. Australian Protestant Remembrancer, edited by the Rev. W. Trollope, M.A.:—First number, 1st January, 1850. It was printed by Mr. John Ferres, Herald Office, and stopped at the end of six months.
2. The Melbourne Presbyterian Magazine, edited by the Rev. A. M. Ramsay:—First number appeared in October, 1850, and it lived just twelve months. Mr. John Ferres, Herald office, was also its printer.
It is almost needless to state that the Mr. Ferres in question is the well known Victorian Government Printer, of whom something more will be heard in a future chapter.[1]
Copyright Association.
Amongst the early transitory organizations was one to protect the rights of resident authors, publishers and artists. It was initiated at a meeting held in the Shakespeare Hotel, corner of Collins and Market Streets, on the 23rd February, 1847, when there attended:—The Mayor (H. Moor), Messrs. George Arden, J. J. Mouritz, G. A. Gilbert, Charles Laing, Wm. Hull, George Cavenagh, John Pullar, Joseph Pittman, and Thomas Ham. The Mayor was in the chair, and resolutions were passed, (a) Affirming the necessity for an Act of the Legislature for the protection of Copyright and Patents; (b) The Appointment of a Committee to prepare a Petition on the subject for presentation to the Legislative Council of New South Wales; and (c) That a Society be formed for the purpose of giving a permanent character to the objects and proceedings in view. This project never got beyond its chrysalis state.
A Port Phillip College.
Anno Domini 1840 might be well termed the year of projects in Melbourne, social, commercial, intellectual, or even spiritual, for there was a handful of colonists then in Melbourne, so self-sufficient, ambitious, and hopeful that they really believed they had only to wish for anything, even an impossibility, and by some miraculous agency it would be effected. To-day, a bubble of some kind or other would be blown, only to burst the day or week after, and this had hardly evaporated when something more preposterous, and many years in advance of the age, would be floated, only to share a similar fate. The most remarkable instance of this aërial architecture was the proposition to found a proprietary college in Melbourne, so as "To place the means of education in the higher walks of literature within the reach of the youth of the Province," though its entire population did not number more than 8000 persons. A few wise heads accordingly came together, and out of them was elaborated a Provisional Committee, which set to work, prepared a most comprehensive scheme, and submitted it to a public meeting "of those interested in the subject," which was held on the 12th August, 1840, in what was known as the Auction Company's Rooms, at the south-west corner of Collins and William Streets. From the programme presented it would be necessary to make provision in the proposed institution for communicating instruction in the following branches of secular education:—
- English Grammar, Elocution, and the Elements of English Composition.
- Writing, Arithmetic, Book-keeping, Geography, and History.
- Mathematics, and the Elementary branches of Natural Philosophy and Natural History.
- The Ancient Classics and such modern languages as may be thought necessary.
On the subject of Religious Instruction the plan adopted at a Seminary called the Martiniere, in Calcutta, was suggested as a model. There a scheme had been sanctioned by the Protestant and Roman Catholic Bishops, and the senior minister of the Church of Scotland, and was in effect that instruction in the fundamental truths of Christianity be communicated daily and publicly by the head master to all the pupils, it being left to the pastors of different denominations to teach the youth of their respective flocks all matters which relate to discipline, church government, the sacraments, and other subjects on which differences, more or less important, existed.
The following were the fundamental truths which it was recommended public religious instruction should embrace:—
- The Being of a God: His Unity and Perfections.
- The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament: A revelation inspired by the Holy Ghost.
- The Mystery of the Adorable Trinity.
- The Deity, Incarnation, Atonement, and Intercession of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
- The Fall and Corruption of Man His Accountableness and Guilt.
- Salvation through Grace by the Meritorious Sacrifice and Redemption of Christ.
- The Personality and Deity of the Holy Spirit; and His operations and Grace in the Sanctification of Man.
- The indispensable obligation of Repentance towards God, Faith in Christ, and continued prayer for the Grace of the Holy Spirit.
- The moral duties which every Christian is bound to perform towards God, His neighbour, and himself, as they are summed up in the Ten Commandments, and enlarged upon in other parts of the Holy Scriptures, all based on the doctrines above specified and enforced as their proper fruits. Funds for the undertaking were to be raised in transferable £50 shares, each holder to be
privileged to nominate one pupil for each share held, at one-half the rates to be charged to non-proprietors. The property of the Institution was to be vested in five Trustees elected by the proprietors or shareholders. The management was to be entrusted to a President, two Vice-Presidents, and ten Directors, all elected annually by the proprietors, and empowered (subject to the review and control of the general body of shareholders) to nominate Masters and all other Officers necessary for conducting the ordinary business of the establishment. Donors of £200 or more were to be Honorary Life Directors, and strong hopes were entertained that the Government would grant a site for the building.
The Report was adopted, and the Provisional Committee were authorized to retain office until £2000 had been raised. This pro tem. body consisted of Messrs. W. H. Yaldwyn, James Simpson, J. D. L. Campbell, G. B. Smyth, E. J. Brewster, Sylvester, J. Brown, George Porter, and Arthur Kemmis, supplemented by the pastors of the various denominations of Christians.
An application was forwarded to head-quarters soliciting the so-much-desired land gift, and Governor Sir George Gipps commissioned Superintendent Latrobe to select a suitable locale. There was so much unoccupied area around the small township that the choosing entailed but little trouble, and a reserve of five acres (off the South-East corner of the Carlton Gardens, then an open stretch of bush country) was selected. His Excellency's answer was expected by every overland mail, but the arrangement was unceremoniously broken in upon by the Rev. P. B. Geoghegan, the Roman Catholic Pastor, who offered an emphatic opposition to the preferential endowment of any particular Religious Denomination. The movement, though ostensibly for the benefit of all the Christian Sects, was in reality an Episcopalian overture, and others beside the Roman Catholics regarded it as the first step towards the establishment of a Church of England ascendancy. The grant was never completed, the Collegiate prospectus fluttered for a season before the public eye, and the proprietary vanished.
The First School.
It is a singular fact that what might be termed the first "Seminary" of the colony was an institution for the instruction of Aboriginal children. It was established by order of Governor Sir Richard Bourke, in 1836, on a portion of the reserve now known as the Botanic Gardens. Its first teacher was Mr. George Langhorn, an Episcopalian Missionary, who, for a time, had Mr. John Thomas Smith (subsequently the well-known Melbourne Mayor) as an assistant. The number of little black pupils in attendance during the first year varied from 5 to 28; in 1837, 28 to 17 in 1838, 17 to 3; and in 1839 (when it was discontinued), 3 to 2. In 1841, a second school was formed at an Aboriginal Station, at Narre-Narre-Warren, near Dandenong, the scholars ranging for the first year from 11 to 23; in 1842, 23 to 15; and in 1843, 15 to nil, which caused its break up. The third school of the kind was founded in December, 1845, principally through the instrumentality of the Rev. John Ham, at the junction of Merri Creek and Varra. It began with 1 attendant, and during a portion of 1846 had 32, which number dwindled to 7 during the following year; and in 1850 there remained only 2 children, deserted by their mother, but subsequently cared for by the Government, and in 1853 they were under training at the Moonee Ponds National School.
The Primitive Sectarian Schools.
One of the first acts of the religious community after its formation, and when temporary provision had been made for Divine worship, was the initiation of a school, no matter how small; for next to the care of their souls sprang up an anxiety for the education of a rising generation, more or less on the increase. To maintain religious and scholastic establishments in the early times solely by private benefactions was out of the question, and the Government, with praiseworthy liberality, provided a pecuniary endowment in a small way. Grants of land were accordingly given as sites for churches, parsonages, and schoolhouses, and also assistance in funds, proportionate to the amounts raised by individual contributions for such purposes. Some particulars upon this point are stated in the chapter devoted to the religious establishments, and appended is a précis of
The Early School Regulations.
Prior to 1841, a meagre and imperfect code existed, but on the 24th September a revised edition was issued from the Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, to take effect from and after 1st January, 1842.
With respect to new schools, or those established since 1836, in towns or places with a population of 2000 or upwards, the Government grant to any school was not to exceed one penny for each day's actual attendance of every child, none to be reckoned whose parents or friends were in a station of life such as to render it unnecessary to extend to them the assistance of Government. In localities where the population was under 2000, the State aid to a school may be 1¼d. per diem per child, or further extended to 1½d. per diem should there be no other school of any denomination receiving Government aid within five miles. In no case would Government aid exceed the sum to be raised for the support of the school from private sources, nor ever be more than 25 per quarter, unless the number of children attending the school, or the poverty of their parents was such to make a special exception in their favour necessary. It was further declared that the sums granted by the Legislature could never be exceeded, nor the savings (if any) on one year be carried over to aid the expenditure of the next. The same rule applied to the cost of repairs to school buildings. The Government likewise expressed its intention of discontinuing, as soon as possible, the payment of fixed salaries to masters and mistresses; and consequently no salaries would be guaranteed to any such appointed after 1st January, 1842; neither would rent be paid by Government for any buildings hired as school-houses after the same date, unless previously used as such, it being considered that the providing of suitable teachers and buildings should rest with Trustees, or Committee of Management, rather than with the Government. It was further proposed as soon as possible to discontinue the extremely objectionable practice of paying one halfpenny per diem for children whose parents or friends pay nothing. "The purpose sought to be effected was gradually to bring all schools which receive aid from the Government, under one system, so far at least as the receipt of that aid is concerned."
All schools were required to furnish quarterly returns to the Auditors-General in Sydney. In addition to other information they were to include an alphabetical list of the children, with their ages, as well as the names, places of abode, and trade or calling of the parents or nearest friends. These lists would then be transferred, in Sydney to an Inspector of Schools, and in country places, to the police magistrates; and should there be none such, then to the Clerk of the Bench, or some other person authorized to act as an Inspector of Schools within his district.
The duties of School Inspectors were to acquire an acquaintance with the condition of life of all the parents, or friends of school-attending children, marking on the list supplied to him, his opinion whether or not such persons require the assistance of the Government in the education of the children. They were to visit the schools at uncertain times, never less than twice a month, when the children were to be mustered, and the numbers present compared with those entered on the daily attendance registers to be kept by the teachers. With the tuition, the Inspectors were to have no concern; nor could they exercise any control over the teachers, the object of their appointment being to watch over the financial and not the educational business of the schools. Nevertheless, it would be their duty to report to the Government "any irregularity or misconduct which may fall under their observation; and generally on the way in which each school may appear to them to be managed."
The primary schools were, as a rule, imperfect to a degree, from the impossibility of obtaining the services of teachers, even moderately competent; but a large allowance must be made for existent difficulties insuperable in their way, and only to be removed by the great magician—Time. Decidedly the best (and the earliest) of the old schools, was one founded in connection with the Scots' Church, and the first schoolhouse erected was a historical brick building, close to the first Kirk, in 1839. The Wesleyans were carly and assiduous in the same way, and so were the Episcopalians, the Roman Catholics, and the Independents. The first Scots' School teachers were Robert Campbell and John M'Lure. The first Roman Catholic ditto, Peter Bodecin, and the following advertisement in the Port Phillip Gazette, dated 27th April, 1839, probably indicates the first regular Church of England preceptor. "Mr. W. M. Abbot purposes opening a school for children for both sexes, in the Episcopalian Church, on the 29th. Hours of attendance, from 9 to 12, and 2 to 4; terms ranging from 20s. to 10s. per quarter, to be paid in advance."
In 1840, a Mr. James Clarke was a teacher at St. James', and Mr. John Lynch at St. Francis'. The Port Phillip Expenditure for 1841, as voted by the Legislature of New South Wales, includes an item of £750 "In aid of the establishment, and in support of schools, on condition of sums to an equal amount being raised by private contributions." The condition of the State-aided schools of the Province on the 1st January, 1842, is thus indicated in Kerr's Port Phillip Directory for that year:—
School Establishment.
Inspector of Schools—Frederick Berkley St. John, Esq., P.M.
Scots' School.
Masters—Messrs. Robert Campbell and John M'Lure. Teacher of Sacred Music—Mr. William Tydeman.
The Scots' School is conducted mainly on the Glasgow training system, under the direction of five Managers, appointed annually in January, as follow:—(1). The Minister of the Scots' Church for the time being. (2). Two elected by the Trustees of the church property. (3). Two elected by such persons as may have contributed either one pound to the erection of the schoolhouse, or two pounds during the preceding twelve months, to the support of the school or schoolmaster.
The following are the Managers:—Rev. James Forbes, ex officio; Rev. James Clow, and George Sinclair Brodie, Esq., elected by the Trustees; James Oliphant Denny, Esq., and David Elliot Wilkie, Esq., elected by the contributors.
Congregational School.
Master—Mr. James Smith. Managers—The Minister and Trustees of the Independent Chapel.
The Congregational School is conducted as far as practicable, upon the system of the British and Foreign School, Borough Road, London.
St. James' School.
Master—Mr. William Anthony Brown.
Roman Catholic School.
Schoolmaster—Mr. John Lynch. Schoolmistress—Mrs. Mary Lynch.
N. B.—Besides the above, there are several very excellent educational establishments in Melbourne, but these are the only ones attached to any particular religious denominations, or receiving State support.
On 30th September, 1843, Educational Returns were furnished to the Police Magistrate showing the results from the schools established in the County of Bourke, to be:— Episcopalian: Teachers, 16; pupils, 210. Presbyterian: Teachers, 3; pupils, 88. Roman Catholic: Teachers, 5; pupils, 151. Independent: Teachers, 2; pupils, 83. Weslyan: Teachers, 2; pupils, 34.
There were likewise three establishments at which 161 Protestant and Roman Catholic children indiscriminately, were instructed-giving a total of 727 attendants from three to twelve years old.
The First Infant School
Was opened in 1844, in a house in Bourke Street, eastward of the present Bull and Mouth Hotel; but the room soon becoming inadequate, a small building was erected in the rear of Mr. Rules' timber yard, further up the street, off the north-east junction of Bourke and Swanston Streets. It was 60 ft. by 22 ft., with a play-ground attached, and hither the "infants" were transferred. It was continued for some time, and its maintenance supplied by subscriptions, and the profits of tea-meetings.
The Port Phillip Academical Institution
Was ushered into existence in 1844, sponsored by an imposing list of Patrons, Managers, and Masters. Its programme promised a "Classical, Scientific, Literary, and Mercantile Education;" and the head mastership was conferred on Mr. (afterwards the Rev.) William Brickwood. The school was conducted in the Napier Rooms (hereafter indicated); and its inauguration was effected on the 4th August at a public gathering held in the Mechanics' Institute. Brickwood was an accomplished, painstaking teacher. The Academy progressed, and the "Court of Proprietors" held occasional conventions to raise money for the erection of a suitable building; but the ways and means were never realized. The Academy was next removed to a spacious villa, belonging to Dr. Wilmot, the first coroner, in the portion of Little Flinders Street, recently occupied by the warehouses of M'Arthur and Co. Brickwood subsequently retired and withdrew to Brighton.
In 1846, the Academy entered upon its third year, and was captained by a Mr. Hay, who issued a wide promissory note in the form of a printed announcement, in which he wished it to be understood by parents and guardians, "that boarders in addition to their studies in the public school, will have private lessons and religious instructions at home, and that they will be conveyed to and from the public class-room in town, in a vehicle for that purpose." His terms were forty guineas per annum (inclusive of the Academical fee of ten guineas paid in advance). It did not turn out the prolific plot of meadow land anticipated by Hay, and the scheme was dissolved on the 1st August.
Private Scholastic Establishments.
Self-supporting schools date their introduction from the latter portion of 1838, and the first notification of the kind I have seen is an advertisement in the Port Phillip Gazette, intimating "That the vacation would terminate at Mrs. Cooke's school on 1st January, 1839. Cards of terms at her residence, Roxburgh Cottage, Flinders Street."
At that chronological crisis, when the years 1838 and 1839 are supposed to have come in contact, just to touch hands and part for ever, a private school was kept in Little Flinders Street by a worthy known as William Penny. He occupied a one-roomed wattle-and-daub hut, close to the Shamrock Inn, situated directly rearward of the present Union Bank. He was a Londoner by birth, and when in the Mother-country, being given to rudimentary chemical experiments, he so far improved himself, as to succeed in the manufacturing of divers halfpence, pennies, and sixpennies, which, for a short time, turned out a profitable speculation, but his little game was soon spoiled, and he got himself speedily bundled out of England to Van Diemen's Land. Through some mishap over the water, he lost an optic, and he appeared in Melbourne a monocular, bustling little fellow, fairly educated, not a bad teacher for the times, but rather given to the worship of Bacchus, and libations of throat-scorching rum. In school hours he was careful of the few urchins committed to his tutoring; but out of school he was in a constant state of liquidation at the nearest grog-shop. Corporal punishment he abhorred possibly through dearly-acquired experience. He was never known to cane a young delinquent, and his softness was appreciated accordingly. There was a publican in town named Halfpenny, frequently patronised by Penny, and it was a jocular saying of the latter, that, so long as the two abideth therein, Melbourne could not run out of coppers, for she would always possess, at least, a "Penny and a half-penny." This flash of humour he considered to be a most brilliant effort of genius, and it was never for an hour off his tongue. The old boy did not live long, for 1840 saw him peacefully stowed away in the then thinly-tenanted cemetery.
In everything except tippling, the antithesis of Penny was a a birch-winder named Jack MackCormack, who cultivated young ideas in a cabin in Little Bourke Street, rear of the reserve intended for a Post-office. By no means so good a teacher as Penny, this fellow, if sparing the rod means hating the child, was the most affectionate temporary protector that could be found, for he punished more than he taught, and his "leathering" was so kept up, that he got to be commonly hailed as Whack," in lieu of "Mack" Cormack. He was a big, burly, uncouth Irishman, much given to "tall talk" and "long drinks." He was a Wexfordian, and when in his cups would treat his hearers to highly-spiced, but slightly inaccurate versions of the great '98 rebel battle of Vinegar Hill, where he in his hobbledehoyhood fought in a detachment of the peasantry under the command of his father. Some years after, criminal complications at the Dublin Police Court introduced the ex-warrior to a judge and jury, and a verdict of his countrymen doomed him to the colony of New South Wales for the residue of his natural life. He found his way in the course of time to Port Phillip. A fair English scholar, barring his severity, he was above the average of common teachers in grounding urchins in grammar, arithmetic, and what he himself styled "jaw-my-three" (geometry.) The great drawback in his existence was being deprived of the bog-distilled Irish potheen, which he declared to be nectar, the supposed beverage of the Olympian deities, and as there was no whisky then on tap in Melbourne he went in for absorbing a pint of two-ales at a time, because in his opinion, in a climate like this there was nothing either in eating or drinking to "bate" a big mouthful. "Whack" or Mack went on with his post meridianal swiping, until one night the "long-drinks" got too strong for him, and whilst returning from a late carousal he tumbled into a gully at the intersection of Lonsdale and Elizabeth Streets; was found there next morning smothered, to the intense delight of the very limited circle of unwashed clientèle whose parents patronised him.
In Little Collins Street there ruled in more senses than one, a gaunt, bony-visaged Caledonian, William Nicholson, but familiarly termed "Bumble," through a tubercular affection which distended one of his feet into the semblance of a battered football, impeding his locomotion rather considerably. He often gave his juvenile disciples an unasked for half-holiday, whilst himself adjourned to a favourite tipplery, from which he would emerge extensively dazed in the evening, and his zig-zag progress through the streets would be greeted by a cordon of boys dancing around him like so many excited "bumble" bees. Apart from his frequent jollifications, and a fixed surliness of phiz, Nicholson was a well-meaning and well-regarded man, and a moderately fair instructor in the three R's.
Michael Cummins also adopted the scholastic avocation in Little Collins Street. Born in a nook of the Kerry Mountains in South Ireland, and partially educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood, he was much more at home in the ancient classics than in modern English, better versed in the heathen mythology of Homer and Virgil, than the realities of Euclid and Voster, more expert in dactyls and spondees than mounting the preliminary geometric problem, vulgarly though inelegantly designated the pons asinorum. He was a young man of mild and unassuming manners, gentlemanly deportment, and correct habits of life, was much of a devotee and exceptionally regular in attending to his religious duties, when he invariably used the Celtic and not the Anglo-Saxon tongue, and, unusual in an educated person, prayed with beads instead of a prayer-book. He would, in all probability, have done well in after life, but consumption consigned him to a premature grave.
In 1840, Mr. Thomas Stevenson published his opening of a day and evening school, and others followed. Amongst them was Mr. T. H. Braim, of St. John's College, Cambridge, and head-master of the Proprietary School, New Town, Van Diemen's Land. The terms were six guineas per quarter payable in advance. His wife backed him up by tendering her services "to the ladies of Melbourne," by intimating her readiness to receive into her family "eight young ladies as boarders, whose improvements in all the branches of useful and ornamental education will form her anxious care. Her private residence will be situated within an easy distance of the town. Terms, including instruction in French, music, drawing, &c., eighty guineas per annum, payable quarterly in advance."
The result of this joint speculation of the Braims does not appear to have corresponded with their expectations. Braim floated his notion in a small brick building erected as the first Wesleyan Chapel, at the north-west corner of Swanston and Little Flinders Streets; but the boys requisite to make it remunerate did not respond, and the Braims soon disappeared, T. H. having accepted the head-mastership of Sydney College. Sydney College must have reciprocated in some measure, for at the same time its late classical master, Mr. David Boyd, started a school in Lonsdale Street West, where "the system of education comprised all the necessary and ornamental branches of a polite education."
The Thomas Stevenson previously referred to did so well that he was emboldened to take his wife into partnership, and go in for a Ladies' Boarding School. Mr. W. H. Yaldwyn, a merchant, occupied a commodious brick cottage in Eastern Russell Street, which was vacated on his departure for Europe. The Stevensons became tenants, and here Mrs. S. catered for the corporal and intellectual necessities of the few fair young blossoms entrusted to her care. As a guarantee of the matron's qualifications was cited "her long experience in teaching, having been more than seven years assistant in Mrs. Nicholl's school, at Chester." The Stevensons continued in business for several years, and "Tom" ultimately was transformed into an account collector, a position in which he acquired an eminence.
Towards the end of 1839, a Mr. John Macgregor, a surveyor, emigrated with his family to Port Phillip, with the intention of following his profession. Circumstances interposed to thwart this intention, and "Mac" early in the following year betook himself to school-keeping in premises in West Bourke Street, in the vicinity of the spot which in after time obtained a colonial celebrity as Kirk's Bazaar. He soon shifted his quarters to Little Collins Street, eastward of the present Police Court, and was joined in partnership by the Campbell already noted as connected with the Scots' School, from which he retired. The firm of Campbell and Macgregor turned out several good boys, some of whom made a mark in after colonial life. The most noticeable of this group was "Young John," son of the old Macgregor, for a length of time a Melbourne solicitor, who in the course of a brief but energetic political career, sat as a member of the Legislative Assembly, held office as a Minister of the Crown, and died in March, 1884. "Old John" was called to his fathers years agone, but Robert Campbell, as the colony prospered, and Melbourne suburbs were fashionably populated, flew away to the clear air and bracing breezes of St. Kilda, where he conducted with much ability a high-class school. I have frequently heard him kindly spoken of by quondam pupils, who testify to the conscientious earnestness and unquestionable efficiency which stamped his preceptorial career.
In April, 1840, Mrs. Baylie, whose husband kept a medical establishment in Collins Street, announced herself as ready to "devote attention to the education of a select number of young ladies, in French, English, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history. Terms: £3 35. per quarter, with French as an extra £1 11s. 6d." Mrs. Dixon opened a few yards off at the same rates with the addition of music as a specialty at three guineas quarterly.
A Miss Blackmore about Christmas issued a highly spiced advertisement, in which she "proposes opening a Seminary for young ladies in the town of Melbourne, in all the branches of genteel education." She would have accommodation for six boarders, and a limited number of day scholars. Every attention would be paid to the comfort, as well as the religious and moral improvement of her pupils. The school was to open on the 5th January, 1841, in Russell Street, adjoining the residence of Mr. Ocock, Solicitor. As a sample of the manner in which preceptresses of the first rank of the period charged, I append Miss Blackmore's "Bill of Costs" for a quarter:—
| English, Grammar, History, Geography, Writing, Arithmetic, &c. | £4 | 4 | 0 | Dancing | £1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Music | 2 | 2 | 0 | Use of the Globes | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| French | 2 | 2 | 0 | Board, including washing | 10 | 10 | 0 | |
| Each boarder to bring a silver teaspoon and fork and six towels. Entrance—Five guineas | ||||||||
Towards the end of the year 1841, Mr. William Brickwood, of the University of Oxford, was prepared to receive a select number of young gentlemen boarders at St. Ninian's, Brighton, for £50 per annum if aged under 12, and £60 for older; but books and washing were to be accounted "extras."
The half-acre allotment whereon the Argus office now flourishes was purchased by the late Mr. Thomas Napier for £129 4s., and on a portion of it he had erected a tolerably capacious building for the time, which was known as Napier's Rooms. Amongst other purposes to which the tenement was turned was that of a school, and a private institution of this sort was opened there in 1842 by Mr. J. H. Craig, who died at Warrnambool in 1884. Craig was a man of considerable ability, but his penmanship was his specialty. A Mr. W. Lingham was Craig's assistant, and the thing not paying in such an out-of-the-way locality, Craig, the following year, removed to more central premises at the Western side of Queen Street, between Little Bourke and Lonsdale Streets. In 1844 he joined Brickwood's Educational Establishment (before noticed), at the Napier Rooms, as writing master, and also officiated clerically for Mr. David Lennox, the Superintendent of Bridges, under whose surveillance Prince's Bridge was erected. Craig was affectionately remembered by his pupils in after years, and at his death more than one publicly testified to his goodness and worth.
Drawing as an educational accomplishment put in an appearance in 1840, and in January '41 a Mr. G. H. Haydon, teacher of drawing, through advertisement, "begs to inform the inhabitants of Melbourne and its vicinity that he has removed his residence to Lonsdale Street, where he continues to give instruction in the art of drawing. He flatters himself that the manner in which his drawings are executed will secure him the patronage of a discerning public."
A scholastic acquisition was found in 1844, when Mr. and Mrs. Clarke opened at Yarra House (now Port Phillip Club Hotel) an establishment for young ladies, where the treatment was to be "parental and liberal, the management firm and kind, and the moral and physical training sedulously regarded." Singing was to form an essential part of the programme, and the Hullah system was to be introduced.
In the fall of the same year a Mr. J. R. M'Laughlin conducted what he denominated "The Melbourne Analytic Seminary for General Education," in a tenement off the south-east corner of Swanston and Little Collins Streets. A dancing class was attached, under the instruction of Mr. Joseph Harper, a pronounced Professor of Terpsichoreanism, and in February, 1845, the "Seminary" had so far progressed that an elocution master was advertised for. Mr. M'Laughlin himself was an elocutionist of no mean account. None of your "elegant extracts" or "literary gems" for him; for he could supply his own prose and verse, and some of the lucubrations so turned out were certainly above mediocrity. Occasionally his versification was very readable, and effusions from his muse are to be found in some of the Melbourne newspapers. Two of his declaiming "show" pupils, well primed and got up for state occasions, were Master P. A. C. O'Farrell and his brother initialled as D. Q. C. They were both well-educated, well-behaved youths, of much promise, who started well in life, but misapplied opportunities such as few other of the earlier young colonists had. M'Laughlin himself would have done remarkably well but for the rock upon which others of his contemporaries had foundered. He, like them, was too fond of the tavern, and through it he came to grief. More the pity, for he was endowed with rare mental gifts, a good heart, and free hand-much too free-in ministering to propensities which he had neither the inclination nor the courage to resist.
One of the best remembered of the "old masters" was Mr. G. W. Groves, who succeeded Mr. Craig in the Northern Queen Street School. He had been a sea captain, and his Geographical Essays were extremely interesting from the experience brought to bear upon the elucidation, seasoned with personal recollections of various countries mentally revisited. Groves was also useful as a nautical instructor, and took much interest in scientific matters. During a portion of his colonial career he was connected with the Survey Department, and it was a widely prevalent impression that Superintendent Latrobe had promised that Groves should be the first official head of the Victorian Observatory, a promise which, if given, was never fulfilled. For several years he published weather tables, which were looked forward to with no small interest and confidence; and to give him his due he was more fortunate than more modern meteorological Solons in prognosticating the good and bad temper of the atmosphere. Saxby, a once well-known weather seer, essayed the prophetic in England, and his speculations made a profound impression upon Groves, who thenceforth devoted much attention to the newly promulgated theory. Saxby foretold stormy and rainy weather during certain months in the year 1859, which came to pass. He ascribed these results to the action of the moon on the earth. Groves noticed this, and when the following year wheeled round, and the moon was in a similar position as in the previous year, the same results did not follow. He then searched for other influences, and found that when certain of the planets and the moon were in conjunction with the earth the same effects always followed, and on this he based his calculations for a weather table, which was exceedingly correct, for on the average eight out of ten predictions fell out as advised. It was his opinion that in the future the state of the weather would be as well known before as after. He died about the year 1878, and his memory is held in esteem by many of his old pupils who are now widely scattered.
Groves had for a time as assistant an ex-Commissioned Officer of the 29th Regiment, a warm-hearted, able man. He was a Mr. Champion, who, after selling out of the service, arrived in Sydney, and fancied that by buying sheep and driving them overland to Port Phillip, he should make a fortune. He bought and drove the sheep, but instead of filling a big purse, he burned his fingers. Regularly stumped, he was one day strolling over Batman's Hill. Captain Buckley, formerly a comrade in arms, recognized him, and learning the straits to which his old chum was reduced, promised to do his best to billet Champion in some way. Buckley was Chief Clerk in the Public Works Office, and did all in his power, though nothing turned up save the ushership at the Groves Academy.
In 1846 a prospectus was issued for the erection of a "Port Phillip School," the teachers to be of the Protestant religion, and the education a high class one. It was to be a proprietary concern, the funds to be raised by the issue of seventy shares for £1887 10s., but it did not take.
A Wesleyan Grammar School was mooted in August, 1847, for which purpose a Provisional Committee was nominated. It was to be founded upon one hundred £5 shares, not transferable unless with consent of the management, and no person to hold more than five shares. But it shared the fate of many another good intention.
The arrival of the Episcopalian and Roman Catholic Bishops (Drs. Perry and Goold) in 1848 supplied a stimulus to the sectarian schools of their respective denominations. The systems and the teachers were improved, and the Church of England Diocesan Grammar School was one of the consequences.
In 1848-9, there was a tolerably efficient establishment in South Swanson Street, under the mastership of Mr. Edward Butterfield. The teacher was an able though not over personally popular individual, and the speculation not proving as payable as anticipated, he abandoned the business, and afterwards left the colony. Well for him perhaps that he did so, for in the course of years he attained a position he never even dreamed of in Port Phillip, for having passed on to the territory now known as Queensland, he filled the distinguished post of Minister of Education there.[2] This Butterfield family must have had something of the true ring in its organization, for after the transformation of Port Phillip into an independent colony, a brother of the teacher came to the surface in what might be termed the middle age of Victorian journalism. He was Mr. Joseph Butterfield, and after seeing some colonial service in New Zealand, arrived in Melbourne, where he started in the business of dairy farming (curious analogy in name and calling). His field of operation was a portion of that flourishing country over the Yarra, now overlooked by the Doncaster Tower. It was then known as "Elgar's Special Survey" from a Mr. Henry Elgar, who in 1840, by virtue of the Crown Lands Act, then in operation, selected 5120 acres of the District of broad Boroondara, as it was called, for just as many sovereigns. The region unpeopled and unutilized was in all respects a wilderness, though a fertile and blooming one. Butterfield and butter-raising did not assimilate so profitably as expected, and he betook himself to newspaper work, but did not restrict his abilities to one department of literature. He is best remembered in Victoria through having, in 1854, satisfied a pressing want in the compilation of a Melbourne Commercial Directory, a work which, considering the time when it was prepared and the numerous difficulties to be surmounted, evidences an amount of care and industry indubitably demonstrating that the undertaking was the reverse of a sinecure. Though Melbourne Directories had been previously issued, Butterfield's was the first that contained a well-executed map and classification of the streets of the city, which certainly could not have well been done by his predecessors, for the Corporation had not sanctioned a numbering of the houses. Butterfield's book was repeated in 1855, in a larger and much improved form, is now very scarce, and a perusal in 1888 is a really interesting treat. The third Butterfield brother is the architect who prepared the plans for the Episcopalian Cathedral, now in course of erection in Melbourne, and I am reliably informed that as a designer of ecclesiastical edifices, professionally, he may be ranked next to Pugin.
On the 23rd January, 1849, appears an advertisement of the opening, on the 24th, of "Mr. Palmer's Classical and Commercial Academy, Great Bourke Street." It represents the principal as having been trained in one of the most approved normal schools in Europe, and therefore he could "confidently recommend the system pursued by him, as eminently conducive to forward pupils in every branch of a polite and liberal education. The course of instruction would be guided by the future profession or occupation of his scholars, as parents or guardians may direct. Every care was to be taken of their moral culture, and to instil religious principles." Such promises did not get a chance of effecting much performance.
In March, 1849, the Rev. W. Trollope, M.A., opened a high class school in Little Brunswick (now Fitzroy) Street, Fitzroy. He was a brilliant writer and of rare scholarship, yet his success in Victoria was so restricted that he availed himself of an early opportunity to transfer his regards to Tasmania.
The extent of public patronage accorded to the class of schools referred to, may be estimated from the fact that in 1849 the private scholars numbered 1324, i.e., 722 boys and 602 girls. On 1st January, 1851, the number had increased to 1586, or 722 males and 864 females.
The following tabular return shows the extent to which the Private School system prevailed for the three years indicated:—
| Scholars. | ||||
| Year. | Schools. | Males. | Females. | Total. |
| 1850 | 99 | 1285 | 1367 | 2652 |
| 1851 | 49 | 807 | 884 | 1691 |
| 1852 | 17 | 219 | 253 | 472 |
The Denominational Ssystem.
During the year 1847 the extent of pecuniary Government aid received by the principal Denominations towards school maintenance was returned as:— Church of England, £405 16s. 10d.; Roman Catholic, £168 15s. 8d.; Presbyterian, £51 18s. 6d.; Wesleyans, £259 15s. 4d.; Independents, £115 10s. 1d. Total, £1001 16s. 5d.
The following year it was resolved to extend what was known as the Denominational system to the province. Hitherto State aid had been given to schools connected with recognized churches, either by payments in proportion to the amount of local contributions, or of so much per head for each scholar educated. The new system in force in other parts of New South Wales, provided salaries for teachers at discretion, and exercised a superior supervision, though, practically, it was nothing more than an extension and improvement of the old state of things. In 1848 the Government appointed a Board, consisting of Messrs. R. W. Pohlman (chairman), David Ogilvie, Edward Curr, Robert Smith, and Sidney Stephen, "for the temporal regulation and inspection of the respective Denominational schools in Port Phillip, supported either wholly or in part from public funds," and to this body Mr. J. M. Seward acted as first Secretary. The new scheme commenced on the 1st January, 1849, when the attendance at the Public Schools in Melbourne was returned as 539 boys and 494 girls—1033. It worked with much advantage, and how the educational basis was gradually extended, may be gathered from the following extract, transcribed from a Melbourne newspaper of the period:—
"The following distribution of the grant voted for the establishment and maintenance of Denominational Schools, for the year 1850, appears from returns published by order of the Legislative Council:— Church of England Schools, £846; Presbyterian ditto, £339; Wesleyan ditto, £90; Roman Catholic ditto, £514; Other Denominations, £61. Total, £1850.
"Of the Church of England Schools 11 are in Melbourne and Collingwood, and 13 in other parts of the district. The largest sum voted to any one school is £50, and the least £30. £86 is allowed as a reserve fund for books and school apparatus. The Presbyterian Schools are 2 in Melbourne and 5 in other places. £60 is the highest and £30 the lowest allowance to any of them; and £34 for books and apparatus. Wesleyan Schools 3 in number, in Collingwood, Geelong, and Brighton, each at £30, and at the suggestion of the Rev. Mr. Sweetman, in consequence of the decreased amount of the grant for 1850, no reserve was retained for books. Of the Roman Catholic Schools 5 are in Melbourne, 1 in Collingwood, and 7 in other parts; the highest allowance is £60 and the lowest £30, with £49 as a reserve for books and apparatus. There are only two Independent Schools, both in Melbourne, one at £31 and the other at £30; no reserve allowed in consequence of the decreased amount of grant. The population upon which this distribution has been made is calculated upon the census of 1846. It is proposed to grant £2400 towards the support of Denominational Schools for 1851. The number of applications for 1851 are, Church of England Schools, 26, Presbyterian, 7; Roman Catholic, 19; Wesleyan, 7; Independent, 4; Free Presbyterian, Buninyong, 1."
In January, 1850, Mr. H. C. E. Childers (afterwards Chancellor of the Exchequer in England), recently arrived, was appointed Inspector of Denominational Schools, which he retained until September, 1851, when he succeeded Dr. Patterson as Immigration Agent in October, and Mr. Colin Campbell was appointed Denominational Inspector. This he subsequently vacated, was the first Chief Clerk in the office of the Chief Secretary, and was in 1884 officiating as an Episcopalian Minister in Ballarat.
The annexed return shows the progression of the system for three years:—
| Year. | Schools. | Scholars. | Government Aid. |
| 1849 | 27 | 2596 | £1380 |
| 1850 | 54 | 3870 | £2316 |
| 1851 | 74 | 4999 | £3436 |
The National System
Was commenced in New South Wales in 1848, when a Board was appointed, and Mr. G. W. Rusden was despatched as an agent to Port Phillip, in October, 1849. The object of the Board was stated to be principally to confer education where none had hitherto existed. Thirteen local committees were formed, and the first National School founded in the province was in August, 1850, at Pascoe Vale, near Melbourne, where a sum of £200 was raised by voluntary subscription, to which the Government added an equal amount. In 1851 Messrs. J. F. Palmer (Chairman), C. H. Ebden, Wm. Westgarth, H. C. E. Childers, and T. H. Power, were appointed a Board of Management, and subsequently Mr. Childers was for some time Secretary. In 1850 the number of schools was 7, with 151 male and 134 female scholars, whilst in 1851 the schools were diminished by one, and the pupils to 138 boys and 123 girls.
The census returns of 2nd March, 1851, give the population of Port Phillip as 77,345 souls, i.e., males, 46,202; females, 31,143; and their educational condition is thus set forth:—
| UNDER 21 YEARS. | ABOVE 21 YEARS. | |||||
| Males. | Females. | Males. | Females. | |||
| Cannot read | 8915 | 8434 | Cannot read | 3140 | 1668 | |
| Read only | 3183 | 3396 | Read only | 2777 | 2201 | |
| Read and write | 5529 | 5340 | Read and write | 22,658 | 10,104 | |
- ↑ Mr. Ferres retired from the Government service on the 31st July, 1887.—Ed.
- ↑ I have received a communication from a resident at St. Kilda, containing the following reference to my remarks upon the Butterfield family:— "'Garryowen will be interested to know that Mr. Edward Butterfield, the Swanston Street dominie of thirty-six years ago, did not become Minister of Education in Queensland. After editing an Ipswich paper for a few years, he became Secretary to the old Board of Education in that colony, and held the post until the Department of Public Instruction was formed. Mr. C. J. Graham, at present brewing in New South Wales, then became Under-Secretary, and Mr. Butterfield was transferred to the office of First Clerk. This post he held till he died. Mr. Joseph Butterfield is editor of the Queenslander. These remarks are not of much general consequence, but 'Garryowen' is working so hard to have his particulars exact, that he may like to see them." The information relative to the Butterfield brothers was supplied to me by a personal friend of theirs, now resident in Melbourne, [The Author.]