CHAPTER IV THE ORGANISATION OF PORT PHILLIP On the 9th September 1836, Governor Bourke, having received from an official sent for the purpose a report upon the state of affairs, proclaimed the new territory of Port Phillip open for settlement, and appointed Captain William Lonsdale, of the 4th or King's Own Regiment, to be police magistrate of the district. From the official report 2 we learn that in June 1836 the settlement consisted of 177 persons, some living in the "town" of Bearbrass (the Melbourne of 1836), which comprised thirteen buildings ("three weather-boarded, two slab, and eight turf huts"), and others scattered round in various stations," some as many as 30 miles from the main settlement. The extent of territory claimed by the settlement was about 100 square miles, but no one had been known to penetrate more than 70 miles into the interior. The movable possessions of the settlers consisted of about 26,000 sheep, 57 horses, and 100 head of horned cattle. Sixty acres of land had been under cultivation in the previous season, and the wheat grown upon them was said to be of excellent quality; but the great object of the settlers was pasture, not agriculture. Eleven small vessels, of a total register of 1500 tons, were employed in the trade between Van Diemen's Land and Port Phillip, principally to bring stock from the former colony. Such was the community which Governor Bourke had to organise. But it is worth noting, both as a contribution to the data of political science, and as a characteristic of the AngloSaxon race, that the earliest attempt at organisation came from 1 In Gov. Gazette (N. S. W.), 14th Sept. 1836 (Parl. Lib.) Also in Sydney Gazette, 13th Sept. 1836. 2 Copy in Bonwick, p. 419. the settlers themselves. On 1st June 1836 a meeting of residents was held, which framed an exceedingly simple scheme of government. One official only was appointed, an arbitrator, to whose decision in all disputed matters, as well as in cases of aggression upon the aborigines, the settlers present bound themselves to conform without appeal. The meeting also determined to petition the Governor of New South Wales for the appointment of a resident magistrate, with assistants chosen from the settlers. These were the only political resolutions of the meeting.1 Captain Lonsdale arrived at Port Phillip on 1st October 1836. He brought with him, apparently, two or three surveyors, a few soldiers, and two constables.2 Three months after his arrival the prison at Port Phillip was proclaimed one of the common gaols of the colony. It is worth while to notice the order in which the institutions of a community develop. We have seen how important a part was played in the early organisation of New South Wales by the administration of justice. In the new community of Port Phillip the first institution is an arbitrator, the second a police magistrate, the third a constable, and the fourth a gaol. 4 The great event of the year 1837 was the visit of Governor Bourke in person in the month of March, which was followed almost immediately by the appointment of two additional police magistrates, and by the proclamation which named the bay at the northern extremity of Port Phillip "Hobson's Bay," after the commander of the ship which conveyed Captain Lonsdale to the settlement, and directed the sites of two towns to be laid out, one on the western shore of Hobson's Bay, to be called William's Town, the other on the right bank of the Yarra, to be known as Melbourne.6 In the month of September of the 1 Account given in Bonwick, p. 416. 2 Mr. Bonwick (p. 424) says one, Howson, but two (Day and Dwyer) were district constable and constable respectively by order of 13th Sept. (Gov. Gazette, N. S. W., 14th Sept. 1836). The number of the surveyors is corroborated by the Sydney Gazette of 17th Sept. 1836. 3 Gov. Gazette (N. S. W.), 28th Dec. 1836. 4 See official account in Gov. Gazette (N. S. W.), 29th March 1837 (Pub. Lib.) 5 Gov. Gazette (N. S. W.), 12th April 1837. One of these was Mr. James Simpson, the arbitrator appointed by the meeting in June 1836. 6 Proclamation of 10th April 1837 in Gov. Gazette (N. S. W.), 12th April 1837 (Parl. Lib.) Melbourne was of course named after the Prime Minister of the day, William's Town (afterwards Williamstown) doubtless after the reigning king, William IV. CHAP. IV 6 THE SUPERINTENDENT 4 29 same year the town of Geelong obtained its police magistrate1 and constables, and on the 26th October 1838 the plan of the township received the Government approval. In July 1840 the town of Portland was opened for settlement, in August it received its police magistrate, and in November its own petty sessions. As each of these towns was founded, land within it was opened to public sale, on terms to be hereafter explained. Here it is sufficient to point out that Victoria, unlike England, is a community whose early government was based upon towns and town institutions. Before five years of its history had passed away, it contained four principal towns, which have since become great centres of commercial life and political activity. It is the Country of the Four Towns, and all its institutions bear the impress of town life. On the 14th August 1838 the Governor issued a proclamation, under the 3 Will. IV. No. 3, naming Melbourne as a place for the holding of Quarter-Sessions, and this proclamation was immediately supplemented by an Act (2 Vic. No. 5) applying to the new court the jury system then in existence in New South Wales, and providing elaborately for the empanelling of juries. But it soon became evident that the community required more extensive powers of government than those vested in a police magistrate, and accordingly, on the 31st July 1839,8 Mr. Charles Joseph Latrobe, an official sent out from England at the request of Governor Bourke, was gazetted "Superintendent of Port Phillip." A few weeks later a second proclamation defined his district as "that portion of the territory of New South Wales which lies to the south of the 36th degree of south latitude, and between the1 41st and 146th degrees of east longitude," and declared that within those limits he should exercise the powers of a Lieutenant-Governor. At the same time an addition was made to the official staff of Port Phillip by the appointment of an under-treasurer, with power to license auctioneers,10 and on the 26th of October a clerk of the peace was appointed." 1 Gov. Gazette (N. S. W.), 6th Sept. 1837 (Parl. Lib.) 3 Ibid. 28th Nov. 1838 (Parl. Lib.) 5 Ibid. 19th Aug. 1840 (Parl. Lib.) 7 Ibid. 22d Aug. 1838 (Parl. Lib.) 9 Ibid. 11th Sept. 1839. 11 Ibid. 6th Nov. 1839. Soon after the arrival of the Superintendent, provision was made for the local administration of civil justice by the Act 3 Vic. No. 6, which established a Court of Requests at Melbourne, the sitting days of which were fixed, by proclamation of the 5th October 1839, as the first Tuesday in each month, but were subsequently changed to the first Mondays of the months of January, April, July, and October, to coincide with the Quarter-Session days fixed for the same dates.3 4 The growing importance of Melbourne was marked by the issue on 23d March 1840 of a proclamation, dividing the town into two districts of north and south, corresponding roughly with the division made by the Yarra river. But Melbourne soon outstripped all such temporary measures, and emancipated herself very largely from the magisterial government of Port Phillip, by the acquisition, in the year 1842,5 of her municipal constitution, thereby laying the first foundations. of recognised self-government in Victoria. The important subject of early municipal government in Melbourne will require special treatment. We may close this chapter with a reference to another great step in commercial development marked by the Order of the Privy Council of 5th March 1840,o declaring Melbourne to be a "Free Port" and "Free Warehousing Port" within the meaning of the Imperial Act 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 59. This statute enabled the King in Council to proclaim certain places "Free Ports," i.e. ports with the exclusive right to the foreign trade (export and import) of a certain district, and "Free Warehousing Ports," i.e. ports where goods might be deposited under bond without payment of duty.7 Curiously enough the imperial statute only empowers the Crown to declare Free Warehousing Ports "in His Majesty's possessions in America," and it is somewhat doubtful if the Act was ever intended to apply to Australia; but the legality of the proclamation of 1840 has, I believe, never been questioned. The port of Melbourne long remained without any special government of its own, but in the year 1876 the Melbourne Harbour Trust, a corporation with considerable powers, was established 1 Gov. Gazette (N. S. W.), 9th Oct. 1839. 2 Ibid. 1st Jan. 1840. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 28th March 1840. By N. S. W. Act, 6 Vic. No. 7. 6 Gov. Gazette (N. S. W.), 19th Aug. 1840. 7 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 59, §§ 23 and 36-40. 8 Ibid. § 36. CHAP. IV THE NAVIGATION LAWS 31 by Victorian statute.1 The imperial statute of 1833 was part of a general scheme, commenced under the Commonwealth, and known generally as the "Navigation Laws," which had for its object the encouragement of British shipping by placing severe restrictions upon the entry of foreign trading vessels into English ports. The statute of 1833 was repealed in 1845,2 but practically re-enacted at once. The main provisions of the system were abandoned in 1850. Meanwhile the 33d section of 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 59, empowered the Governor of any colony, with the advice of his Executive Council, to proclaim a Customs House at any port, and prohibited all importation except at proclaimed ports. 2 1 40 Vic. No. 552, amended by Nos. 749 and 763. |