The Three Colonies of Australia/Part 1/Chapter 21
CHAPTER XXI.
GOVERNOR GREY.
1841 to 1844.
WHEN Colonel Gawler retired, land became unsaleable, emigrants ceased to arrive, and of those who were in the colony a large per centage re-emigrated to colonies where there were more cattle and fewer town lots. The population of Adelaide diminished in twelve months to the extent of four thousand souls. The price of everything fell fifty per cent.; whole streets of Messrs. Gouger's and Stephens's cottages stood empty; the South Australian merchants who had paid their English creditors in the Insolvent Court, ceased to be trusted with speculative shipments; the police horses were turned to graze upon the beautiful gardens constructed by Colonel Gawler on the banks of the Torrens; Government House, late the scene of vice-royal entertainments, was closed; the little world of Adelaide recovered its senses and lost some of its conceit; and the sober and industrious were able to survey and take stock of the true position of the colony.
The raw materials of colonisation had been provided, a road had been constructed from the port, others toward the interior had bee marked out and made practicable. Land suitable for cultivation had been discovered, surveyed, and handed over to land purchasers, who had now no temptation to stay in town, if they meant to remain in the colony; labourers were willing to take reasonable wages, or ready to set to work for themselves with hearty good will; and, what was most satisfactory of all, live stock by importation, by overland, and by natural increase, afforded an ample supply of meat at reasonable prices, with a certain and increasing quantity of wool and tallow for exportation. Impoverished gentry were now happy to fall back, from imported fresh salmon, or ducks and green peas in tin cases, at fifty per cent, above the Piccadilly tariff, upon native poultry, at almost nominal prices. During the land mania geese imported from Van Diemen's land sold at 12s. 6d. each, fowls, 5s. a head, and everything else in proportion. In 1842 country people used to drive a cart filled with live poultry, fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, in fair condition, covered over with a sheet, and sell the whole lot at from fourteen to sixteen shillings.
Under the bountiful, genial climate of South Australia actual want was unknown, and industry produced immediate results.
Governor Grey's task was easy. The famine or speculative prices of labour and provisions had fallen to reasonable rates, the emigration of paupers had ceased, and with the immigration the cost of maintaining the infirm, the sick, and the lazy. The unhired were set to work at such bare wages as induced them to seek private employers as soon as possible; the surveys were carried on steadily without pressure, and without exorbitant expenses for stores and hire of drays; and the police expenses were partly superseded by the arrival of a company of soldiers granted to Governor Grey, although indignantly refused to Sir Charles Napier. With these reductions of expenditure, and power to draw upon the home government for a limited sum, Governor Grey was still unable, in homely phrase, to make both ends meet; but the colony survived and vegetated in a sort of obscurity, which contrasted painfully with the brilliancy of its early, brief, blooming, hothouse career.
In the mean tune the model colonists were not idle in England. On the 7th July, 1840, the colonisation commissioners for South Australia brought under the notice of the Colonial Secretary (Lord J. Russell) the embarrassed state of the finances of the colony; and in August they reported that the revenue of the colony did not much exceed £20,000 per annum, and the current expenditure had risen to £140,000. Under these circumstances the Secretary of State, by letter dated 5th November, 1840, undertook to guarantee a loan of £120,000 to be raised by the commissioners; but negotiations to raise this loan failed.
In the same year the original commissioners were dismissed.
In February, 1841, a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to consider the South Australian acts, and the actual condition of the colony of South Australia. The inquiry lasted until the 10th June. A long array of witnesses were called on behalf of the Colonial Office and the South Australian interest. Personal and documentary evidence proved in the clearest manner that the Colonial Office had given every reasonable assistance to the commissioners, and were in no manner responsible for the blunders of the commissioners or the commissioners' agents. The South Australian interest, including non-resident purchasers of vast tracts of land, and Mr. Gibbon Wakefield and his disciples, were examined at great length, but not a single representative or settler from any of the colonies whose interests were likely to be affected by the decisions of the committee was called.
The case for South Australia was "got up and worked," in railway phrase, by Mr. Wakefield and Colonel Torrens, and all the colonial evidence was made to fit their peculiar views.
The committee made two reports. In the first, on the 9th March, 1840, they state, "that at the present moment the sales by the colonisation commissioners of land in the colony are suspended; emigration has ceased since the month of August; the bills drawn by the governor have been protested, the estimated amount of such bills already due and in progress is £97,000, the amount due to parties in England for services performed is £56,000; the debt from the revenue to the emigration fund is £56,000; making a total deficiency of about £210,000."
In the second report they enter into the history of the colony in detail, in the course of which they say:—"With regard to Colonel Gawler, it is impossible to doubt that when he entered on the duties of his office they were in a state of the greatest confusion, and that the difficulties he had to contend with were most embarrassing; that shortly after his arrival in the colony he represented these circumstances, and gave the commissioners reason to expect a considerable excess of expenditure above what had been provided; that among those witnesses who have most decidedly pronounced his expenditure excessive, none have been able to point out any specific items which could have been reduced without great public inconvenience, while the chief item of expenditure, incurred on account of the government house and public offices, was one that the late board had authorised." ******** "The commissioners had originally set apart a sum of £10,000 annually, over and above the revenue, out of which they intended that all the ordinary expenditure should be defrayed. It is now calculated that after spending the whole local revenue, and providing otherwise for the charge of surveys, which has hitherto been defrayed by drafts upon the commissioners, and without making any allowance for public works, there will still remain to be provided for an annual deficit of about £40,000."
But the committee, as experience has since proved, were more correct in their statement of facts than fortunate and sagacious in proposing a remedy. Having unsuspectingly received all Mr. Gibbon Wakefield's assumptions and assertions as incontrovertible economical truths, they proceeded to recommend by resolutions, amongst other things, that all land be sold by auction at a minimum upset price, except special surveys of 20,000 acres; that "the minimum price of land in South Australia may safely be raised above the present amount of 1 an acre; and that in fixing such amount it is desirable to keep in view the principle of maintaining such an amount as may tend to remedy the evils arising out of a too great facility of obtaining landed property, and a consequently disproportionate supply of labour and exorbitant rate of wages."
At that time the committee were firmly convinced that they could regulate the rate of wages by the price of land; and Lord Howick, since Colonial Secretary as Earl Grey, then a pupil of Mr. Wakefield, moved as an amendment to the above-quoted resolution, "That one minimum price for land in all the Australian colonies ought to be established, and that this price ought not to be lower than 2 per acre, and that it ought to be progressively increased until it is found that the great scarcity of labour now complained of in these colonies no longer exists."
The fallacy of these assumptions has now been rendered as patent as another favourite assumption of the same period—that the price of corn in England regulated the rate of wages.
Ten years' experience have proved that the highest rate of wages may exist in the face of a price of land so high as to exclude all but a very small number of purchasers; and in that ten years the home government, in the face of a ruinous rate of wages, have been unable, although willing, to raise the price of land in Australia. The sale of land has ceased, except in the immediate neighbourhood of towns, in choice situations, and where mines were supposed to exist.
But in 1841 colonial opinions were treated with contempt. As in 1847 grave commercial men like Mr. Morrison, deceived by imaginary dividends, believed that government could buy up and work all the railways of Great Britain at a profit, so Lord Stanley and Lord Grey, dazzled by the land purchases of mad speculators in New South Wales, Port Phillip, and South Australia, fancied that the government had an inexhaustible treasure for emigration and patronage in the waste lands of every colony in the British dominions, from the Sugar Loaf Hills of New Zealand to the wild wintry moors of the Falkland Islands.
Two acts brought in and carried by Lord Stanley, the Colonial Secretary, in the session of 1842, embodied the recommendations of the committee, and arranged for the future government of South Australia. By one a minimum price of £1 an acre, with sale by auction, except in the case of special surveys of 20,000 acres, was imposed on all the Australian colonies, including Van Diemen's Land. It is this act against which the colonists, who were never consulted, have not ceased to protest. By the other act South Australia was transferred from the management of commissioners to the Colonial Office, and its debts were arranged in the following manner:—The whole debt amounted to £405,433; of this, £155,000, which had been granted by Parliament in 1841 for passing exigencies, was made a free gift; £45,936, of which £17,646 had been incurred by Governor Grey in maintaining unemployed emigrants, was to be paid by the Treasury; and the remainder was converted into debentures, partly guaranteed by the government and partly charged on the colonial revenues.
It may be convenient to state here that renewed sales of land, after the discovery of copper mines, paid off the greater part of these debts, with interest, between 1845 and 1849, with the exception of the £155,000. About £50,000 still remains due.
On the passing of this act South Australia sank into obscurity, and in spite of the vigorous efforts of the South Australian Company, which found itself in possession of large tracts of land that could neither be sold nor let to rent-paying tenants, ceased to attract the attention of emigrants.
Great bankers and capitalists who had been induced to purchase lots of land wrote them out in their books as value nil. So late as 1850 there were parties in the city of London who had forgotten that they held some thousand acres in South Australia until reminded by an application to purchase from returned colonists. In very rare cases has the investment in rural land at £1 an acre turned out profitable.
Dover, the quietest and least enterprising of towns, contributed by public subscription in 1837-8 one emigrant to South Australia. The fortunate man no sooner arrived, with nothing to lose, than, carried away by enthusiasm and the persuasions of the Colonial Secretary, Gouger, he became the purchaser of a thousand acres of land, and boldly drew upon two of the gentlemen who had charitably sent him out, advising them of the favour he had done them, and promising to remit in due course the title-deeds. The good Doverians, on the arrival of the tremendous bill, held a consultation, learned the total ruin that would fall on the drawer if it were returned protested, wishing, too, not to have the one Dover emigrant disgraced, and perhaps a little dazzled by the brilliant reports of fortunes daily realised in Australian land, made a round robin of £100 apiece, met the bill, in due course received the grant, and from that time forward never heard a word of the emigrant or the land.
The following figures will show the results of this self-supporting, sufficient-price colony:—
| £ | s. | d. | ||||
| In 1840, | Government Expenditure, | £169,966; | Revenue, | £30,199 | 11 | 1 |
| 1841, | do. | 104,471 | do. | 26,720 | 15 | 11 |
| 1842, | do. | 54,444 | do. | 22,074 | 4 | 6 |
| 1843, | do. | 29,842 | do. | 24,142 | 1 | 2 |
| South Australian Act, 4 and 5 Wm. IV., cap. 95, Royal Assent | 1834 |
| Commissioners Gazetted | 5th May, 1835 |
| Colonel Light and Surveying Staff | March, 1836 |
| Governor Hindmarsh and first party of Emigrants sailed | 30th July, 1836 |
| Governor Gawler | 1838 |
| Area of Adelaide, 4½ miles N.E. to S.W., 4 miles N.W. to S.E., 700 acres, 432 acres. Population 8,000 | 1839 |
| Port opened | 17th May, 1840 |
| Governor Gawler recalled | 1841 |
| Acres. | £ | s. | d. | Emigrants | |||
| 1835 | Land sold | 58,995 | at | 35,417 | 5 | 0 | |
| 1836 | {{{1}}}„ | 1,680 | {{{1}}}„ | 1,378 | 0 | 0 | 941 |
| 1837 | {{{1}}}„ | 3,120 | {{{1}}}„ | 3,140 | 0 | 0 | 1,279 |
| 1838 | {{{1}}}„ | 37,960 | {{{1}}}„ | 37,960 | 0 | 0 | 1,938 |
| 1839 | {{{1}}}„ | 48,336 | {{{1}}}„ | 48,336 | 0 | 0 | 5,797 |
| 1840 | {{{1}}}„ | 7,040 | {{{1}}}„ | 7,040 | 0 | 0 | 5,025 |
| 1841 | {{{1}}}„ | 160 | {{{1}}}„ | 160 | 0 | 0 | |
| 157,291 | 133,431 | 5 | 0 | 15,030 | |||
Shipping 1839—1900; Ships tonnage, 40,000. | |||||||
| Year. | No. of Proprietors. | Acres. |
| 1840 | — | 2,503 |
| 1841 | — | 6,722 |
| 1842 | 873 | 19,790 |
| 1843 | 1,300 | 28,690 |
| In 1844 | the sheep in South Australia were about | 409,000 |
| {{{1}}}„ | Cattle | 30,000 |
| {{{1}}}„ | Horses | 2,000 |
| In 1840, | writs from South Australian sheriff's office | 154 |
| 1844, | only | 10 |
| 1842, | fiats of insolvency | 37 |
| 1844, | 10 |
Thus it appears that, between 1837 and 1840, 15,000 inhabitants, who were importing provisions at the rate of £200,000 per annum, only cultivated 2,000 acres; but in three years after they had abandoned land-gambling, and lost all credit in the English market, they had 28,000 acres in cultivation, of which 23,000 were in wheat, and the number of landed proprietors had nearly doubled. But the result of this industry proved that, although much misery would have been saved the colony had agriculture occupied the colonists instead of land-gambling, still that agriculture could not be carried on with a profit with hired labour in the colony, for in 1843-4 wheat fell to 3s. 6d. and even 2s. 6d. a bushel, with wages at least 3s. a day; while Van Diemen's Land, with better soil and climate for wheat growing, and cheaper labour, could not afford to grow wheat for less than 4s. or 5s. a bushel. In fact, the South Australians found themselves in possession of 200,000 bushels of wheat which was absolutely unsaleable, although of admirable quality; and in June, 1845, after exporting 200,000 bushels, chiefly sold at a loss, a surplus of 156,000 bushels remained.
Of wool there were only 5,000 bales to export in 1843. Port Phillip, colonised with sheep and shepherds at the time that model colonists were forwarded to Port Adelaide in thousands, exported 9,000 bales in 1841; and in 1843 enjoyed exports to the amount of £307,000, without a shilling of debt, against South Australian exports of £46,000, and £400,000 debt.
In 1843 the results of the monstrous system on which South Australia was colonised began to disappear. The ruined capitalists were forgotten, so too were the debts due to the home government and home creditors. Those who had been able to weather the storm of insolvency and keep a few sheep had retired towards the interior: there dispersed, they were able to live cheaply, to carry on their business with little hired labour, and to look forward with confidence to annual income from the clip of wool, and annual increase of wealth by the natural increase of their flocks.
Thus, in 1843, South Australia, formed with so much preparation, the subject of so much printing, colonised by a superior class, forced forward by an enormous expenditure of public and private capital, instead of presenting a picture of a contented population, divided into capitalists and labourers engaged in scientific agriculture, owed all its exports to dispersion after the manner of neighbouring colonies, whose "barbarous manners" had been so much contemned, and presented a picture of cottier farmers, vegetating in obscurity, content to live with few comforts, without rent or taxes. Some squatted on land the property of absentees, many more as tenants not paying any rent, whom the landlords were glad to retain in order to keep their land in condition. The tenants of the South Australian Company were in this state.
Looking back at the condition of South Australia after it had ceased to attract the importation of capital, there can be no doubt that if it had been as far from the old ports of the colonies as Swan River, and out of reach of the expeditions of overlanders, it would have sunk even to a lower ebb than Western Australia.
When land-jobbing had been exhausted, and all the schemes hatched in England for employing capital had been tried and found wanting, an accident revealed to the colonists the existence of a treasure which even the sanguine and poetical promoters of the colony had never suspected or suggested. They had placed coals, marble, slate, and precious stones among the probable exports; but copper and lead had not entered into their calculations.
In 1841 a little lead ore was discovered and sent to England. In 1843 Mr. Button, the brother of a gentleman of some means, but who had himself been compelled by the general depression to accept the situation of sheep overseer, accidentally discovered, and, in partnership with Captain Bagot, became the purchaser of, the eighty-acre section which included the Kapunda mine. Other mines were subsequently discovered, to which, wherever of any importance, a description will be given in the chapter devoted to the present resources of the colony; but the great event, the turning-point of the fortunes of South Australia, was the discovery of the Burra Burra mine, which has alone furnished for the last five years more than four-fifths of South Australian exports.
The discovery of the Kapunda set all the colony hunting for mineral outcrops; the residue of the land-jobbers took up the geologist's hammer; but by a singular fortune, the investigations of Mr. Mengs, a practised geologist, were fruitless, while a mine of wealth was turned up by the wheel of a bullock-dray.
In 1845 the existence of a remarkable and promising outcrop on the Burra hills became well known in the colony: rumours on the subject had been afloat in 1840. In order to secure the whole district without the unlimited competition, application was made to the governor for a special survey of 20,000 acres. At the same time a party of speculators arrived from Sydney, intent on securing the great prize if possible. The survey was ordered; a day and hour was fixed for the payment of the £20,000; the governor decided not to accept bills of the local bank, or anything but cash. Cash in 1845 was a very scarce commodity in Adelaide, although corn was plentiful, and pride as rampant, and with as little reason, as in any decayed watering-place in England. The retailers, and all not within a certain indescribable line, were dubbed the snobs; the officials and self-elected aristocracy the nobs.
To raise the £20,000, a union between the nobs and snobs became indispensable; but even that was not enough, for there was scarcely so much gold in the possession of all the colonists, and the Sydney speculators were waiting ready to bear off the prize. On the last day for payment a hunt for gold was commenced by half a dozen men of good credit. Cash-boxes in hand, they traversed the streets and suburbs of Adelaide, offering with ample security a handsome premium for sovereigns. On that day many secret hoards were dug out; husbands learned that prudent wives had unknown stores, and old women were even tempted to draw their £1 and £2 from the recesses of old stockings. Almost at the last minute the money was collected, counted, and paid, and the richest copper-mine in the world rewarded the long suffering of the South Australians, and awakened all their old gambling spirit. The purchase effected, the class spirit which forms so absurd an element in the English character, broke out, and a division of the 20,000 acres was decided on. The toss-up of a coin gave the "snobs" the first choice; they took 10,000 acres, to which they gave a native name, the Burra Burra. The nobs named their 10,000 acres the Princess Royal. The outcroppings on the hills of the Princess Royal were magnificent; nevertheless in 1850 their £50 scrip was not saleable at £12. The history of this mine is the history of the commercial progress of South Australia. Farms, land sales; emigration, wharves, warehouses, projected railways, imports, rents, wages, have all rested on the yield of the Burra Burra.
The government was vested in the governor and commander-in-chief, assisted by an executive and legislative council, composed of the governor, the colonial secretary, the advocate-general, the surveyor-general, and the assistant commissioner, to whom were subsequently added four nominees from among the non-official colonists.
Of the progress of South Australia since the discovery of mines and the dissolution of the South Australian Commission, the following figures will afford some idea:—
The exports of the year ending April, 1850, amounted to £453,668 12s. Of this sum £11,212 was in wheat, £20,279 in flour, £63,729 in copper in ingots, £211,361 in copper ore, £8,188 in tallow, and £113,259 in wool.
The imports for the same period were 887,423, part of the excess arising from imports of railway and mining machinery, and other productive investments. In the same year 64,728| acres were in cultivation—wheat, 41,807 acres; potatoes, 1,780; gardens, 1,370; vineyards, 282; hay, 13,000.
The population was 63,900, of which 7,000 were Germans.
Live Stock:—Cattle, 100,000; sheep, 1,200,000; horses, 6,000.[1]
- ↑ We give the statistics of 1850, because since that period the colony has been disturbed by temporary emigration to the gold mines of New South Wales and Victoria.