HL Deb 20 December 1830 vol 1 cc1345-9
Lord Teynham

rose, to call the attention of the House to the subject of the Swan River Settlement, and to put a question to the noble Secretary for the Colonies, relative to the condition of that Settlement. An extract of a letter on the condition of the settlement had appeared in The Morning Chronicle, which, both on account of the high character of the Paper, and the importance of the subject, was well worthy of attention. He would read to their Lordships the notice in The Morning Chronicle, which was in these terms: " Distress in the Swan River Settlement.—The following is an extract from a letter just received from one of the most extensive of the settlers in Van Diemen's Land:—' The Swan River settlement is with us, just now, a constant subject of discourse. Messrs. Bryan made a good speculation in the William there. Flour sold for 60l. per ton, potatoes for 15l., and salt provisions for 8d. per pound; the whole of which was taken off their hands by the Governor. The live stock was unsaleable, till the Governor (Stirling) gave them a grant of 350,000 acres to put' it" on. The objection Mr. Bryan made to a second venture of provision was sufficiently descriptive of the state of the colony, He could not afford to supply a starving population from charity, and it was already out of their power to pay for their food. Their furniture, agricultural implements, all their preparations for comfort, are exposed to the weather, themselves are sheltered in huts formed of blankets. The country, for 100 miles round, is an arid sand or bare rock, no grass, no timber. Dr. Westbrook, who came from that place to this six months ago, told me he saw the grave for the first person who died there dug. It was nine feet deep, and the sand from the bottom was, when thrown up, fit for an hour-glass. The live stock dies in general a few days after landing, supposed to be poisoned by some herb or shrub, to avoid which certain loss, most sheep taken there to be-sold, or to breed from, are killed in the ships, and retailed as fresh provisions. The bush does not help them, as here; for there are no kangaroos, nor even opossums. The place must be abandoned; and I suppose the number of people will oblige the Government to remove them to a more promising part of the coast. It is, in fact, a second Poyais. What notice will be taken of Captain Stirling's misrepresentations remains to be seen, He might be supposed to have but a slight knowledge of the quality of the land; but the very roadsted is altogether unsafe for shipping though described by him as a fine harbour. Six vessels were ashore when the Britannia was there; three of them were complete wrecks. I have seen several stout anchors broken on the coral rocks before Freemantle. Mr. Bryan reports that there are not less than 200 females there, many of them used to more than the common, comforts of life, and yet they must starve, if not relieved by the Government, as their own resources are exhausted.' This was certainly a matter of deep and awful importance. Many people had embarked the whole of their property in this speculation, and great responsibility had been incurred, and great blame appeared to rest somewhere. Of course he did not mean to say, that any blame attached to the present Ministers, but if this representation was at all correct, blame must attach to some of their predecessors; and at all events, it was highly desirable that some satisfactory explanation should be given on the subject. Much had been said on the theory of emigration, which many persons had encouraged, from a notion that this country was over-peopled. But from what he knew of some parishes in the county of Kent, they did not contain more than the usual numbers, nor a greater number than might have been employed to advantage, if the farmers had the means of employing them. But the farmers had not the means of employing them at present, and that was one great cause of the distress. If he were to judge from these instances of the state of the whole country, he should be led to conclude, that there was no extraordinary superabundance of population. The expense of these emigrations was enormous, and perhaps it would be much better to colonize at home. A noble Lord, who had presented a petition on the subject, had stated, that he had observed, in a day's ride to town, 12,000 acres of waste land, and all this might probably be taken in with advantage, and afford employment to a great body of the peasantry. There were fifteen millions of acres of waste land in the whole country, and the taking them in might be formed into a source of employment which would make every peasant in the country happy. But no Administration had taken this matter in hand, and the people of this country were left to purchase articles from foreigners which might be very well produced at home. He hoped, however, that some plan of domestic colonization would be at last adopted; but in the mean time, he wished to know from the noble Lord at the head of the Colonial Department, whether it was the intention of his Majesty's Government to abandon the settlement on the Swan River, and whether the reports and representations as to the wretched condition of the colony were correct?

Lord Goderich

observed, in reply, that the Government had every reason to believe that the imputations on those who had established the settlement on the Swan River were not. founded in justice. It was not his intention at present to enter upon a discussion of the comparative merits of the systems of foreign and domestic colonization, nor did he mean to pronounce which was the better plan—to promote emigration, or to employ the peasantry in cultivating these fifteen millions of acres of waste land. But with regard to the particular question put to him by the noble Lord, he had to answer, that, as far as he was informed, it was not at present the intention of his Majesty's Government to abandon the Swan River Settlement. If the Government could rely on the last authentic accounts which they had received from the settlement, there was every prospect of its being- a very useful establishment, and one which was likely to realize all the expectations that had been formed of it. Every one who knew anything about colonization, knew, that at the outset it was attended with great difficulties, and it was expected that those who attempted the enterprise should be endowed with those moral qualities of energy, perseverance, and patience, which such an undertaking required. But some people, no doubt, would embark in such enterprises upon erroneous views and speculations, without duly estimating the preliminary hardships and privations which must be endured in such situations, and these persons would, no doubt, be disappointed. The last communication which the Government had received was a letter or despatch from Governor Stirling to Sir George Murray, dated the 20th of January last, and that communication gave no account of the distress of the colony, but, on the contrary, was on the whole very favourable. That document was now at the Office, ready to be laid on their Lordships' Table, if called for, and it gave very full information on the subject, and the individual from whom it proceeded was well known to be a man of cultivated mind, and of talents which fully qualified him to form an accurate judgment on such a matter. There was no objection whatever to the production of that document; and, if the noble Lord should follow up his question with the Motion which, as he had intimated to him, it was his intention to make, he would move, by way of Amendment, that a call for this document should be substituted in its place. This was the last authentic document which had arrived, and contained all the information which the Government at present had. The noble Lord must be aware, that it would be very imprudent in Government to act on loose and vague reports.

Lord Teynham

expressed surprise, that Government should not have been able to procure information of so late a date as that which had been obtained by private individuals. Some of these had received information of so late a date as the 4th of May last, and it was singular that the Government alone should be uninformed. Some of these accounts stated, that there were no lands fit for cultivation beyond certain mountains mentioned; and that the people were suffering very considerably. He hoped that the Government would give directions to afford some relief to those who were suffering from the effects of a speculation undertaken without consideration, and concluded by moving for an account of the number of ships cleared out for the Swan River Settlement, during a certain period, and for an account of the lands in cultivation there.

Lord Goderich

observed, that the information to which the noble Lord had alluded, as having been obtained by private individuals, was not direct from the Swan River; but from other quarters,; which probably came from the Swan River, if it came at all, at a much earlier period than the information received by the Government. As to the first part of the noble Lord's Motion, there could be no objection to it, and he would only add to it, that the communication from Governor Stirling to Sir George Murray, dated the 20th of January last, be laid on the Table.

Motion agreed to.