SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

HC Deb 04 February 1841 vol 56 cc324-9

Lord John Russell,

in rising to move for the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the acts relating to South Australia, said he felt some difficulty as to how far it would be proper to make any statement to the House, because, though he had formed his own opinion upon those acts, he wished that the committee should investigate the whole matter, without being previously bound in any manner by any statement. What it was necessary he should state was, that they could not longer allow the colony to remain in its present state, and that it was necessary either that he should bring a measure before the House, or that a committee should be appointed to investigate the subject. As the colony of South Australia was founded by Act of Parliament, and as it was founded in consequence of discussions in that House, he thought it far better, instead of bringing forward a measure on the responsibility of Government, to appoint a committee that should have power to examine the whole subject. The colony of South Australia was founded in a peculiar manner, and upon a peculiar principle; it was founded upon the principle which he confessed he considered not a little objectionable—the principle of dividing the authority between the Crown on the one hand, and, on the other hand, of certain commissioners, having some connection with the Crown, yet so remote as to induce persons holding office in the colony, and the inhabitants themselves, to consider themselves not under the Crown, but under the board of commissioners. The first governor of the colony, who was a most respectable man, and whom he had since had pleasure in recommending to her Majesty as the governor of another colony, was unable to control the different persons. In his very first despatch after his arrival he said, that the colony was in a state of disorganisation, that no one holding office thought himself bound to keep his office in order, or to pay any obedience to any one; and with regard to the finances at the beginning of 1839, it was impossible to obtain an account of the three first quarters. In the year 1839 matters proceeded under the government of Colonel Gawler, with more apparent prosperity, but by means which must ultimately tend to produce great distress. The expenditure was not based upon the amount of revenue actually accruing in the colony, or to be derived from any vote of Parliament, but upon certain speculations as to the future amount to be derived from the sale of lands. In the last quarter of 1839 the expense was 34,000l., and the average expenditure was 140,000l. a year: whilst the real and bonâ fide revenue of the colony, derived from the duties and the taxes, amounted to about 20,000l. Therefore, with a revenue of 20,000l., the governor of South Australia was expending 140,000l. There were no doubt considerable sales of land, but although money might be borrowed from the land-fund to meet the ordinary expenses of the colony, yet it was necessary that such sums should be repaid within a certain time, and that a portion should be devoted to the purpose of emigration in the course of the year. The commissioners who had been appointed for the management of the colony were a numerous body, but only one, Colonel Torrens, received any salary. As soon as he bad been appointed to his present office, he changed this system, and appointed the same persons as superintended the colonial land and emigration fund to take charge of the colony. After they had proceeded for some time, it was necessary that some sums for improvement should be paid out, but it was found that the colony was getting into a state of bankruptcy, and that the commissioners were without the means of paying a large bill which had been drawn by the governor, and had become due. The commissioners represented the matter to the Colonial office, and also the obligations they were under, as well for the bills drawn as for sums due for taking up ships for emigration. His right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to whom the subject was mentioned, immediately saw that the inhabitants of the colony might be driven to the utmost distress by the sudden stoppage of the credit of the colony, and in conjunction with him, his right hon. Friend stated publicly that he would propose to Parliament a vote to reimburse the commissioners, if they could raise a fund to pay these liabilities. The parties, however, to whom application for money was made, seeing the state of the colony, declined to advance any money, especially as they had considerable doubt as to the mode in which the subject would be dealt with by Parliament, for he had stated last year that it was his intention to bring the matter before Parliament. His own impression certainly was, that it would be necessary to alter all the acts relating to the colony. He would not now say what general provisions ought to be made, but some must be determined on, and he was certain that the committee would say that the present system was so inconvenient, that it so far fettered property on the one hand, and encouraged expense on the other, that it ought to be changed. He would therefore simply move for the appointment of a committee to consider the Acts relating to South Australia.

Viscount Mahon

did not intend to oppose the motion, but wished to call the attention of the noble Lord the Secretary for the Colonies to the fact, that South Australia was not the only colony in that quarter of the globe which stood in need of investigation. There was great dissatisfaction existing in the other Australian colonies, and as an instance of it he would just refer to a meeting that was held in Van Diemen's Land on the 29th of April, 1840, and attended by all the principal settlers in the colony, at which a resolution to the following effect was unanimously agreed to:— That, apprehending the most disastrous consequences, and the total stagnation of agriculture and commerce (it being impossible that the earth can be tilled to yield even sufficient for our own consumption, and still less for that of the inhabitants of New South Wales, and the surrounding colonies, whose dependence upon us last year proved their sole relief from famine), his Excellency be called upon to suspend the orders from home for the abolition of assignment. A petition was accordingly prepared and presented to Sir John Franklin, in which the system of convict labour was spoken of as not free from abuses but as conspicuous for "good uses;" as "not only in proportion as a punishment, but as a means whereby the prisoner is habituated to honest conduct, and taught to look forward with some degree of hope and confidence to the expiration of that period when his labour becomes his own, instead of being removed altogether, as it is proposed, from the habitations of man, and prepared for freedom by being wholly debarred from society." Shortly afterwards Sir John Franklin gave an answer, in which he regretted that he was debarred by positive instructions from home from even a tem- porary continuation of the assignment system of the colony; but he took that opportunity to protest against the conclusion's relative to the moral effects of that system on the character of the colonists as stated in the report of the Transportation Committee, and in other publications. I wish," he said, "to record my conviction, that families may emigrate to this colony with as little danger of moral contamination as they would be exposed to in any of her Majesty's dominions. He had been lately in communication with a most respectable gentleman, a clergyman, who had resided for a considerable period in Van Diemen's Land, and who had recently returned, and who was strongly impressed with the belief that it might be practicable to repress the evils and abuses of convict labour without abolishing the system itself, and that it might be made most conducive, not only to the advantage of the colony, but to what should be their main object—the benefit and reformation of the criminal. On the 22nd of last month that gentleman wrote to him, saying, I can, if necessary, produce several influential and highly respectable individuals of the colony now in this country, to give testimony in favour of the advantages of assignment. He (Lord Mahon) believed the recent measures of the noble Lord (Lord J. Russell) had been founded on very incorrect information, and greatly out-went the necessity of the case. They would probably be the cause of ruin to the colony. He thought that colony had been dealt with by the noble Lord from most praiseworthy motives, but in a hasty and erroneous manner, and that the noble Lord him elf was not satisfied with his own decisions on the subject. For, in the Minute on the subject of transportation which was drawn up by the noble Lord, and was dated January 2, 1839, it was expressly stated, that the noble Lord had adopted the change of system, "with much diffidence and hesitation." All he (Lord Mahon) asked for was further inquiry—an opportunity of examining those witnesses from Van Diemen's Land, who were now in this country and anxious to state the facts they had observed. It was, indeed, a subject of greater doubt and difficulty than some persons in that House would imagine.

Lord Stanley

must say, that the cases were very rare indeed in which persons holding the situation of the noble Lord were warranted in leaving the duties of their office, and delegating them over to a committee of the House of Commons, who were wholly unable to determine all the circumstances of colonial management. He did not say, that circumstances had not arisen, and that they might not again arise, which would justify such a course. He did not say, that in the present instance the peculiar foundation of the colony, and the former interference of Parliament, might not be a good ground for the proposal of the noble Lord. But he concluded that the committee was not merely to collect evidence and facts, because all the evidence and all the facts were already in the possession of the noble Lord, and he could lay them before the committee. The committee, he presumed, were to express an opinion upon the present state of the colony, and upon the course that ought to be pursued; and he earnestly hoped that it was not the noble Lord's intention to fling down the subject loose before the committee, to lay the documents before them, and leave them to find their road to a conclusion; but he hoped that the noble Lord, or some one deputed by him, would state to the committee that opinion which the noble Lord had not thought it prudent to give to the House, and that he would be prepared to recommend a plan, subject to any revision or modification that the committee might suggest.

Lord John Russell

agreed with the noble Lord with respect to the general principle, that it would not be for the public advantage that the affairs of a colony should be delivered over to the decision of a Select Committee of that House; but he begged to state at the same time that he did think that this colony formed a case by itself, from the fact that it was established, not by the Crown, but by an Act of Parliament, on the opinions and projects of individual Members of Parliament, and also of other persons not Members of Parliament. The Government, indeed, supported the measure, but the bill having received the sanction of Parliament, he conceived that a committee might be rightly appointed to see what had been the operation of the bill, and what had been the result of the clauses that were then settled. It was his intention that his hon. Friend the Under Secretary for the Colonies should state to the committee the branches of the subject to which the committee should attend, and the general views taken by the Government; and he thought, then, that, in bringing in a bill the House would be prepared to follow the general subject. With regard to the observations of his noble Friend the Member for Hertford, which he had addressed to the House on the subject of transportation, they did not relate to the matter then before them, but to another subject, the assignment of convicts. He did not think that Van Diemen's Land was an improper place for transportation, or that the use of convict labour was objectionable; but the system of assignment, as he had seen it described by General Bourke, and as he had seen it described by the witnesses; who were examined before the Committee on Transportation, appeared to him as nearly as possible a system of slavery, and liable to most of the abuses of slavery.

Mr. Hume

was satisfied with what the noble Lord had stated with respect to South Australia. It only proved that the government of the colonies in Downing-street must necessarily fail. Parties were tempted to go out to the colonies; they took out with them much property, that gave them a stake, and yet it was in a few colonies only that they were enabled to exercise their property; and he believed that the noble Lord would find, that the best means of promoting the prosperity of the colonies would be, by enabling them to govern themselves.

Motion agreed to.

Committee to be nominated hereafter.