Charles Griffith

“ Many persons who entertain overwrought ideas of the evils of civilization, and who feel a lurking attachment for the state "when wild in woods the noble savage ran," may feel disappointed at the by no means flattering picture which I have drawn of this mode of life, as presented by the Australian savage. It may appear a paradox, but in my opinion a state of nature (as it is called) is not the state natural to man. Perfection in his physical, far less in his social attributes, is not to be attained without the control of reason, and the exercise of self-denial. ”

“ As if to verify the vulgar adage that "It never rains but it pours," just before the arrival in the colony of the act of parliament, establishing these rural corporations in every county of New South Wales, the governor, with the advice of the old council, had established a municipal corporation in Sydney, and another in Melbourne, so that now we have no want of corporations, each with a salaried staff of warden, or mayor, treasurer, secretary, surveyor, &c. ”

“ It is difficult when you see trees intermixed with the most graceful flowering shrubs, grouped with all the effect which a landscape gardener could desire, and growing from a green sward, entirely free from overgrowing weeds or brushwood, not to fancy that the hand of man had been engaged in combining and arranging these elements of natural beauty. If to this be added a group of cattle resting in the shade, a rustic paling, or a winding road, you have a landscape such as our English artists delight to pourtray. ”

“ But the most economical and simplest mode of saving the expense of the exportation of bark and of hides, as well as of the importation of leather, would be to tan the hides of our own cattle to supply the Colonial market in the first instance, and to export the remainder in the form of leather. A good deal of leather is at present made at Sydney, both kangaroo-skin and ox-hide, and it is remarkable for its softness and pliancy; but still a great deal of English leather is imported, which is a perfect absurdity, while we are exporting bark and hides. ”

“ In legislating for new conditions of society, men should resort to principles, and not be guided entirely by precedent. Qui hœret in literâ, hœret in cortice. The freehold was adopted by our ancestors as the test of qualification, not because there was any greater virtue in a lease for life, than for a term of ninety-nine years, but because, as the name implies, it was the peculiar tenure of the freeman, and the test of his being such, which in those primitive times was considered a sufficient qualification for the exercise of the elective franchise. ”

“ Many of the newly-arrived settlers at that time were forced to buy land at any price. Several had wooden houses, and all of them had hundreds of useless things. Store rent and house rent were dreadfully high, and the expense of living in Melbourne ruinous. To persons so circumstanced land became, in a financial point of view, as much an article of prime necessity as air or water in a natural one; and it is this class of men, driven to the wall between the land-jobber and the government, who excite my sympathy ”

“ Driving bullocks in a hot wind, when there is much dust, and the road stony and difficult, can only be equalled by the same operation in cold, wet weather, when the ground is deep and swampy, when the wheel is constantly up to the nave in the mud, and the water frequently over the bed of the dray. These men generally curse and swear most awfully, to swear like a trooper being but a feeble image to any one who has heard an Australian bullock-driver. ”

“ There is no principle which more honourably distinguishes the common law of England, than the humane caution with which it abstains, in almost all cases, from allowing an individual to take the law into his own hands to the extent of depriving another of life; self-defence, including the defence of a man's house and family, being the only plea, which, in the eye of the law, can justify homicide by a private individual ”

“ So when the tide makes upon the beach, it may seem to make but little progress, appearing at each successive wave to retire as far as it had previously advanced, sometimes even to retreat baffled, leaving behind a bed of ooze and mud; yet still the rising surge rolls on, obedient to the influence of an irresistible, though unseen agency. Thus, too, in the progress of events, though private schemes may fail, and plans of individual aggrandizement be baffled, still the mighty wave of civilization advances ”

“ The chief charm of a settler's life is its independence. There is something too in the reflection, that by his gains no one is injured; his fee is not subtracted from the pittance of indigence, nor his gains derived from the crimes or misfortunes of mankind. By how much his wealth increases, by so much is an addition made to the stores of mankind. ”

“ The mild rays of the moon shining on the dewy grass, the red glare of the fire in parts illuminating the stems and foliage of the trees, but rendering the intervals of shadow deeper and more gloomy from the contrast, the painted figures of the natives, now brought into strong relief, now lost in the gloom of the forest, their uncouth gestures, and the wild and melancholy but not unpleasing cadence of their simple chant, combined to produce an effect which more ambitious displays often fail to realize. ”

“ But how much more noble is the boast of the Englishman, that England is not circumscribed by the walls of her capital, nor even by the four seas that gird her cliffs, but that wherever, under her red-cross flag, her laws are observed, her institutions retained, and her memory cherished, there England does in fact exist. ”

“ You see a thick forest of peculiarly straight trees, reaching to about one hundred and twenty feet in height, and without a branch for about seventy or eighty feet from the ground, with their round, straight stems perfectly black, while the branches at the top, and the underwood at the bottom, are of the most brilliant green, looking as if a forest of gigantic ebony rulers had taken to budding like Aaron's rod. ”

“ But when, without any of the safeguards which made it tolerable in England, this principle comes to be acted on, with regard to the black population in New South Wales, it operates as a complete protection to them in all their aggressions on the settlers. We will suppose that a hut has been robbed by the natives, the hut-keeper and shepherd surprised, and either killed or wounded, and a flock of sheep carried off. The settler arms some of his other servants, and pursues them immediately. They come up with them, and recover such of the sheep as have not been killed. ”

“ One couple of cheerful, contented persons, of cultivated minds, but unsophisticated feelings, are worth whole shiploads of discontented people, who underrate every thing colonial because it is not English, and in whose minds the recollections of the exciting dissipations of a highly artificial state of society destroy all relish for those simple duties which a more natural one imposes, and for those purer enjoyments which nature so bountifully spreads out for such as are capable of appreciating them. ”

“ Still, after making this allowance, there are few places where the exports bear so large a proportion to the population; and it is impossible that a country so circumstanced can be, or at least can long remain poor, particularly when it produces itself the chief necessaries of life. A monetary crisis, and consequent depression, may alter the distribution of property, and even for a time cramp its productive power; but as long as the elements of wealth (the power of production, and the industry to make it available) exist in a country, that country must eventually flourish ”

“ When, however, the aptitude of the country for the growth of wool, an article of sufficient value to bear the cost of transit to a distant market, had induced the colonists to overstep the bounds assigned as the limits of location, and to trust themselves and their flocks to the wilderness, government had to recognize their possession and to sanction their occupation, without, however, recognizing any right of property. Hence arose the present unsatisfactory squatting tenure, under which the property of the land is dissevered from the possession. ”

“ When you think that you ought to be at the place of your destination, you find yourself suddenly, perhaps, on the edge of an impassable gulley or river, and there is nothing to inform you whether you ought to go to the right or left; and as it is impossible in a ride of ten or twelve miles through a forest, to be sure of steering by compass within less than half a mile of your point, you cannot tell whether you are too much to the north, or to the south, or to the east, or the west. ”

“ It is indeed absurd, that a man of education, the owner of perhaps 15,000 or 20,000 sheep, and who is an extensive employer of labour, should not be entitled to vote at the election of a member, far less to sit in the Legislative Council, while, if his bullock-driver leave his service, and sets up as a water-carrier at Melbourne, occupying a house worth £20 a year, he becomes his superior in constitutional privileges. ”

“ The circulating medium, which, like the blood in the animal system, diffused life and activity through every part, has been withdrawn from use and the colony is now in a state of inanition. What renders the matter worse, is the fact that a large portion of the sum paid for land, and thus applied to the purposes of immigration was borrowed."
I admit the general principle that capital and labour should exist in proportion to each other; but they should also exist in proportion to land. ”

“ I should not, without the most extreme reluctance, admit that nothing can be done; that with respect to them alone the doctrines of Christianity must be inoperative, and the advantages of civilization incommunicable. I cannot acquiesce in the theory that they are incapable of improvement, and that their extinction, before the advance of the white settler, is a necessity which it is impossible to control. I recommend them to your protection and favourable consideration, with the greatest earnestness, but at the same time with perfect confidence ”

“ Favoured with such a soil and climate, Port Phillip raises in abundance almost every product of central and southern Europe. The vine, the fig-tree, the peach, the plum, the apple, and the melon, all grow most luxuriantly, while the common vegetables, onions in particular, attain a great size and perfection. The potato, too, which is worth all the poetry of vines and fig-trees put together, flourishes in prosaic simplicity. Wheat and barley do remarkably well, oats not so well. Indian corn thrives. In fact there are few countries more prolific. ”

“ There are sacrifices which he must make in leaving home, and there are things which no new country can supply, were it Paradise itself. He must sacrifice the friendships of his youth and the associations of his childhood, much of the pleasure of society, and the intercourse olished life. The past is, and must be sacrificed, and with it some of the most tender affections that adorn our nature, and tie us to our species ”

“ Notwithstanding this revolting practice, they seem by no means a ferocious people, but on the contrary, gentle and courteous in their manners, very fond of social intercourse, easily amused, and singularly light-hearted: they have a great taste for mimicry, in which art some of them excel. They are (in common, I believe, with most savages) very indolent and averse to labour, and, as a consequence are great procrastinators; there are no words in the English language which they understand better than by-and-bye. ”

“ The first and most obvious result is, that persons of capital are either deterred from emigrating to a country where such a state of things prevails, or should they do so, they are discouraged from embarking in sheep farming, or from residing on their stations in case they purchase them. A man with a family, who is able to afford many of the comforts of life, does not like to go and live in a hut in the bush, nor is he willing to build a good house without having any tenure of the ground on which it stands. ”