Colony of Victoria

“ CHAPTER XIII. VICTORIA. Sunday, June 12th.—The Government House of the colony of Victoria is an enormous building, surrounded by an extensive park, situated on the top of a small hill, which commands a fine view over Melbourne and its suburbs. There is a complete suite of private apartments in the house, besides rooms for many guests, and splendid reception, banqueting, and ball rooms.
Monday, June 13th.—My cold is still bad; and although Tom is also far from well, he went to the town-hall this morning to receive a deputation from the Victorian Branch of the Imperial Federation League. ”

“ Constitutions were granted to the Australian colonies in harmony with their British origin. These concessions of the mother country were hailed with delight in the colonies. The general prosperity of Australia secured peace. Crime, however, prevailed to a great extent in New South Wales, Victoria, and Van Dieman’a Land: in the first and last named, from the presence of convicts, or those who had been such. Many of this class had made their escape to the colony of Victoria, where they committed depredations and violence, and brought some disrepute upon the settlement. ”

“ It is true that there was no English penal settlement within the present bounds of the colony of Victoria, but in former times that colony was a portion of the penal colony of New South Wales, while the founders of Melbourne came from another penal colony, namely, Van Diemen's Land. Many of the early settlers were emancipated convicts from either one or the other of these penal settlements. ”

“ The discovery of abundant gold-fields in the adjacent colony of Victoria has undoubtedly materially contributed to this enormous expansion, and has perceptibly increased the immigration, but the development of the capabilities of the land itself has not been less steadily increasing, wherever the population have pursued the surer and more solid occupation of agriculture and cattle-rearing. ”

“ To a young colony like Victoria, the large export produce is in an especial sense the great lever of progress and civilization, because it enables us for our own use and benefit to procure at once, and in their highest modern perfection, all those productions of older countries, that we are unable to create for ourselves, and which are now giving a marvellous furtherance to our progress. ”

“ If, therefore, it should seem good to your Majesty to remit, for further consideration, any of the proposed Australian Constitutions, we humbly but most earnestly entreat that the Bill for establishing a new Constitution in the colony of Victoria may, without delay, be passed into law. ”

“ Victoria is, therefore, justly considered as a colony possessing the purest extraction of the Anglo-Saxon race. And, although it has happened that during the wild mania of emigration, after the discovery of the Gold Fields, thousands of every nation and class flocked to its shores, still, the foundation being so English in character, and the squatters holding possession of such immense tracts of country, we may reasonably hope that they and their principles will still predominate. ”

“ People look, perhaps, at the present population of Victoria, which is rather under a million; and then, observing that it is about the same as that of Liverpool and Manchester together, they infer that it is of no greater importance. There could not be a greater mistake. It is a commonplace to say that their importance is in the future, yet even commonplaces sometimes need repeating. There is no reason why, within the memory of men now living, this colony should not be as populous as England is now. ”

“ I have not yet seen South Australia or New Zealand, but, from what already reaches my ears, I have no reason to expect that my account of either colony is to differ materially, if at all, from that of the others. The ready facility to incur debt on behalf of colonial progress is due, as it seems to me, rather to consciousness of strength than to indifference about financial obligation. Each colony will "pay" with equal certainty and promptitude, although a New South Wales or a Victoria may do so with less strain than their sisters. ”

“ An English colony, such as Victoria, is a virtually independent country, attached to England mainly by ties of loyalty or of well-understood interests, but placed at such a distance from the mother country that England could without inconvenience, and would without hesitation, concede to it full national independence when once it was clear that Victoria desired to be a nation. Victoria, in short, is a land which might at any moment be independent, but which desires to retain or strengthen the connection with England. ”

“ And now that the crisis of danger has passed, and the colony has the management of its own affairs, there is every reason to look forward to a brilliant future for Victoria. By the latest accounts gold is being procured in greater quantities than ever, and by the aid of machinery a great deal of what had been hitherto unprofitable digging is being worked to great advantage; the improvements and number of public works that are going forward have caused a renewed demand for labor; commerce is carried on in a more healthy manner, and things on the whole appear to be as prosperous as ever. ”

“ The original settlers took possession, as squatters, of as much land as they found necessary for the pasturage of their flocks and herds. This was, indeed, the most natural arrangement at the commencement of the colony, nor had the government power to order it otherwise. Those who wanted to buy land paid five shillings an acre. Things went on very well in this way; the squatters first occupying the land and then buying it for themselves, or else giving place to others and moving back upon unoccupied tracts. ”

“ Two years later Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales, visited the new colony of Port Phillip, and planned out more definitely the towns of Melbourne, Geelong, and Williamstown. A resident magistrate was appointed, and in 1851 the colony was declared to have a separate and independent existence under the name of Victoria, the certainty that one can have nothing without paying for it being p. ”

“ All Victoria breathes the atmosphere of a past and greater grandeur, and the citizens feelingly revert to the time when British Columbia was a separate colony by itself, and Victoria the seat of the miniature court of the Governor-General and commander-in-chief of its forces. There is no real joy in the celebration of “Dominion Day,” which reminds them of how British Columbia and the two provinces of Canada were made one under the specious promise of a connecting railway. ”

“ The plain answer to this suggestion is that in a British self-governing colony, no law is enforceable which is opposed to colonial sentiment and which the colonial Ministry refuse to put into execution. One well-ascertained fact is enough to dispose of a hundred platitudes about Imperial supremacy and the loyal obedience of our colonies. Victoria is as loyal to the Crown as any colony which England possesses, yet the submission to law of the Victorian Government and people is not by any means unlimited. Ten years ago three British subjects arrived at Melbourne and were about to land. ”

“ But on January 3rd, 1888, Her Majesty’s Government refused to join the Colony of431 Victoria in granting £5000, enclosing a characteristic report from the Board of Trade to the effect that there were no trade returns from the Antarctic regions. Then Oscar Dickson, the munificent Swedish promoter of polar voyages, offered to give the £5000 to the Victoria Government which our Government had refused, but then the Colony drew back. During this time we were warmly supported by Baron Müller of the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne, by Captain Pascoe, R.N., and by other geographers in that colony. ”

“ A short sketch of the rise and progress of this colony will, perhaps, justify me in the conclusion to which I came, that most of these evils are to be attributed to the difficulty of procuring land; the labourer, in receipt of large wages, being thus deprived of the inducement to save his earnings and invest them in a settled home. ”

“ He held it to be equally a law of nature and an ordinance of God that full-grown communities, such as these Australian Colonies had become, should be self-governed, free, and independent. He loved his native country and deeply honoured the Queen, but his first duty was to the country in which he lived. Though he regretted as a Sydney man that I had not taken up my abode in the older colony, as an Australian he could not but rejoice that I had determined to settle in Victoria, for it was there the public battle would be fought and the victory won. ”

“ It is of course perfectly true that Parliament having once given representative institutions to a colony, does not dream of habitually overriding or thwarting Colonial legislation. But it were a gross error to suppose that Colonial recognition of British sovereignty is a mere form. It is in the main cheerfully acquiesced in by the people of Victoria, because they gain considerable prestige and no small material advantage from forming part of the Empire. They have no traditional hostility with the mother country ”

“ Consequent on the progress of the colony in wealth, has also arisen talent and education, and within its confines are men of much skill and learned lore. The House of Assembly will be found to contain men of this stamp, and as a greater degree of moderation is found to exist, so will the arts and sciences advance with the wealth of the colony. A new era has dawned on Victoria—the new Constitution has been proclaimed—the want of which was much felt ”

“ On the last anniversary we shall ever keep of our venerable Queen's birthday, on May 24th, the Orange River Colony was formally annexed (p. 085) to the British Empire, and Victoria was proclaimed its gracious sovereign. That empire has grown into the vastest responsibility ever laid on the shoulders of any one people, and constitutes a stupendously urgent call to the pursuit and practice of righteousness on the part of the whole Anglo-Saxon race. It is a superb stewardship entrusted to us of God ”

“ They have shown themselves, on the whole, one of the most inoffensive races of the motley group who seek our golden land; and a colony of them, that have been for some time established at the diggings, are remarkable for the quietness of their demeanour, and the propriety of their behaviour.” The growth of the colony is, however, best shown by comparing the aggregate number of the population now, with what it was at the period when gold was first discovered. In the commencement of 1851, it was ascertained that the province of Victoria, which contains the most productive mines, was 77,360. ”

“ The important position which the Australian colonies had obtained in consequence of the discovery of gold, and the influx of population consequent thereon, was the occasion of the Imperial Government determining in the latter end of 1852 that each colony should be invited to frame such a Constitution for its government as its representatives might deem best suited to its own peculiar circumstances. The Constitution framed in Victoria, and afterwards approved by the British Parliament, was avowedly based upon that of the United Kingdom. ”

“ The prospects of the interior of the colony are also bright, as recent accounts bear out all our former remarks thereon, and prove that the principle of advancement is equally active amongst the settlers and late purchasers of the rich lands to be found in every district, which are daily becoming attainable, and made eligible for settling on, by being properly and particularly described, surveyed, and put up for sale by an active and energetic system in the surveying department. ”

“ The merchants and other business classes of Victoria are rejoicing in the advent of so large a body of the people in the colony, and are strongly in favour of making this port a stopping point between San Francisco and the gold mines, converting the latter, as it were, into a feeder and dependency of this colony. ”

“ The extreme difficulty of ascertaining even approximately the number of natives that are in the colony at the present time should teach caution in dealing with the estimates made when there was no machinery for collecting statistics. The Board for the Protection of the Aborigines has had the assistance, during the past sixteen years, of the Honorary Local Guardians in all parts of Victoria, and also the benefit of the labors of its salaried officers, and yet, even now, no more than a mere estimate of the numbers can be given. ”

“ This was not less to the colony's honour than to that of Fawkner. He died on 4th September, 1869. Not the least impressive feature of the funeral, perhaps the most, was the remarkable prayer offered up at the grave by the Reverend Dr. Cairns. Victoria's most eloquent preacher, in giving the true setting to the life and character of the man, thanked God, in the name of the colony, for such a life, the influence and example of which could not but be for good to all who were to follow. He has fought bravely for the R.I.P. of the tomb. He rests from his labours, and his works do follow him. ”

“ If large and enthusiastic meetings, the hearty support of an influential and exceptionally able press, and the cordial approval of the clearest thinkers form a sufficient index to popular opinion, then one is justified in saying that the idea of national unity appeals strongly to the sentiment and to the reasoned conviction of the people of the next great colony, Victoria. The dominating energy of Victoria has extended its interests to every corner of the Australian continent. Its business connection with the mother-land is more important and intimate than that of any other colony. ”