CHAPTER IX.

GOVERNOR BOURKE.

1831 To 1838.

SIR RICHARD BOURKE - RELIGIOUS EQUALITY ESTABLISHED BY CHURCH AND SCHOOL ACT-REGULATIONS FOR ASSIGNMENT OF CONVICTS-STEP TOWARD ABOLISHING TRANSPORTATION SQUATTING REGULATIONS SYSTEMATIZED— SUMMARY OF CHANGES IN LAND SYSTEM FROM 1788 TO 1831-ORIGIN OF WAKEFIELD'S COLONIZATION BUBBLES-FOUNDATION OF NEW COLONIES OF PORT PHILLIP, SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

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AJOR-GENERAL SIR RICHARD BOURKE, K.C.B., became Governor of New South Wales in December, 1831, and retired in November, 1837. He was, without question, the ablest man who has as yet occupied that office; equal in zeal, energy, and plain common sense to Macquarie; superior in the liberality, humanity, and statesmanlike far-sightedness of his views. With wise self-reliance he resisted the blandishments of the official clique who have been the curse of all our colonies, and the opposition of the faction of white slave-drivers, who looked upon the colony as a farm to be administered for their sole benefit. He had courage, too, of a rare quality, for he dared to differ from his chief, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, on a vital point of administration—the land question: his recorded objections to the Wakefield system are remarkable for their prophetic wisdom.

He was, and his memory still is, deservedly popular among the humble, or the wealthy sons of the once humble settlers,—a rare merit, and not a qualification for favour at the Colonial Office.

The six years of his reign were crowded with measures and events of the utmost importance in the history of New South Wales.

1. The discussions of the Legislative Council became public, and the estimates were regularly submitted and discussed.

2. The Church and School Corporation (which had become a gross job) was abolished, and religious equality established by an act of the Legislative Council.

3. An attempt was made to introduce the Irish national school system (which the bigots defeated).

4. Free grants of land were abolished, and sale by auction at a minimum price substituted.

5. The despatch was received from Lord Glenelg, and steps were adopted, which, in 1840, finally abolished transportation to New South Wales.

6. The squatting system was legalized and systematized on a plan which has since produced nearly £60,000 per annum.

7. Rules for regulating the number of convict servants to which each settler should be entitled (without favour), and the number of lashes which should be inflicted on a convict servant by a single magistrate, were framed and promulgated.

8. Port Phillip was settled from Van Diemen's Land and South Australia by colonists from England.

The powers of the council imposed on the Governor of New South Wales in the last year of Sir Thomas Brisbane's administration were, under Sir Ralph Darling, almost nominal: not only were its deliberations secret and its dissent powerless, but Governor Darling systematically and illegally exercised authority in the only matter entrusted to the council-the distribution of the revenues. Towards the close of his administration he introduced a bill indemnifying himself and legalizing his illegal assumptions.

Sir Richard Bourke, on the contrary, earnestly co-operated in raising the character of the council, treated the non-official members with the utmost respect, and endeavoured to give the council, as far as possible, the tone and functions of a representative assembly, a course directly the reverse of his successor, Sir George Gipps. Both were able, but the one was a frank and generous, the other an astute and jealous man.

It is very much to be regretted that Governor Bourke had not been permitted to govern with as little interference from secretaries of state as Governor Macquarie, and to remain long enough to initiate the partly elective council which fell into the unhappy hands of his

successor.

Bourke's Church School Act.

The “Church and School Incorporation,” under which one-seventh of the crown lands was devoted to the support of episcopalian churches and schools, had not worked well, and in 1833 it was dissolved by an order of the king in council. The expenses of management had been very large, the receipts very small, and the results, in the extension of religion and education, insignificant.

In the same year Sir Richard Bourke addressed a despatch, dated 30th September, in which he propounded principles of religious equality

THE CHURCH AND SCHOOL ACT.

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which were afterwards carried into effect by an act of the Legislative Council. This despatch has had a very important influence on the religious and educational institutions of the colony, and displayed principles much in advance of the traditions of the colonial government.

After stating that the followers of the Church of England were most numerous; that one-fifth of the population was Roman Catholic; that the members of the Church of Scotland were less numerous, but among the most respectable, consisting almost entirely of free emigrants; that the annual charge for the Church of England amounted to £11,542 10s. ; for the Church of Scotland to £600; and for Roman Catholic chaplains and chapels to £1,500; while Protestant dissenters of several denominations, who had formed congregations, "received no support from government beyond some small grants of land for sites of chapels;" that the Church of England possessed seven churches of stone or brick in or within forty miles of Sydney, two in more remote districts, and several less permanent buildings in various places; the Church of Scotland one respectable building in Sydney, and three temporary buildings in country districts, the one church having been built by subscription, aided by a loan from government of £520; the Roman Catholics one handsome church, towards which the government had, at various times, granted sums amounting to £1,200; that the chaplains of the Church of England were provided with glebes of forty acres each, and with houses or lodging-money; that the magnitude of the sums annually granted to the Church of England in New South Wales were a subject of general complaint, and had been the origin of a public meeting and petition numerously signed, praying for a reduction,-Governor Bourke proceeded to observe, that "in a new country, to which persons of all religious persuasions are invited to resort, it will be impossible to establish a dominant and endowed church without much hostility, and great improbability of its becoming permanent; if, on the contrary, support were given, as required, to every one of the three grand divisions of Christians indifferently, and the management of the temporalities of their churches left to themselves, the public treasury might in time be relieved of a considerable charge, and, what is of more importance, the people would become more attached to their respective churches, and be more willing to listen to the voice of their respective pastors."

He then proceeded to sketch out the plan afterwards carried out by the act which will presently be quoted, and recommended that New South Wales should be created into a separate diocese, instead of being included in that of Bengal.

From the same despatch it appears that the schools which had been established under the Church and School Corporation consisted of a male orphan school, in which 133 boys were boarded and taught at an annual expense of £1,300, and a female orphan school, in which 174 girls cost £1,500 annually, exclusive of supplies from lands cultivated for the use of the schools.

At Paramatta there was a boarding-school for the wealthier classes, who paid £28 each for boarders, and £10 for day scholars, the head master, a clergyman, receiving £100 a year and the rent of a house.

There were thirty-five primary schools in various parts of the colony, in which 1,248 children were taught, at an expense of £2,756. In all these schools the catechism of the Church of England was part of the instruction.

The Church of Scotland had received a loan of £3,500 toward the erection of the Scotch college founded by Dr. Lang; and £800 had been granted to the Roman Catholic schools.

The governor stated that the disproportionate assistance for education was a subject of very general complaint, and expressed an opinion, "that schools on the Irish system, in which Christians of all creeds are received, where approved extracts from Scripture are read, but no religious instruction is given by the master or mistress, such being imparted one day in the week by ministers of different religions attending at the school to instruct their respective flocks, would be most suitable to the condition of the colony. It would be necessary that the government took the lead in their institution, erecting schoolhouses, appointing wellqualified teachers at liberal salaries." In like manner infant schools should be established in the towns. And he adds, "I may without fear of contradiction assert, that in no part of the world is the general education of the people a more sacred or necessary duty of the government than in New South Wales."

Unfortunately Sir Richard Bourke's successor was so anxious to work out his own abstract theories of legislation, and so busy in battling with the colonists, that he had little time to attend to education.

In 1836 the Legislative Council passed an act, under which, whenever £300 had been raised by private contributions toward the building of a church or chapel, the governor, with the advice of his Executive Council, might issue from the colonial treasury, in aid of the subscribers, any sum not exceeding £1,000.

And for minister of church or chapel with 100 adult attendants, £100 per annum. If 200 adults, £150 per annum. If 500 adults, £200 per annum.

Under special circumstances the governor and council could grant a salary of £100 per annum where the congregation amounted to less than 100.

Where there was no place of worship, £100 might be granted from the colonial treasury if £50 a year were raised by private contributions. Under this act £3,000 a year was divided between the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and the Church of Rome, and recently the Wesleyan Methodists shared part of the grant.

In his attempt to introduce an improved system of education Sir Richard Bourke was defeated by religious jealousies, but the despatches and act quoted will remain monuments of his patriotism and statesmanship.

The two great events of General Bourke's government were the abolition of the assignment system, and the substitution of sales by auction, at a minimum upset price, for free grants of land.

The Pastoral System and the Sale of Land.

Scarcely second in importance to the discussions on the Church and School Act are the still-continuing contests on the land question, in which Governor Bourke again displayed his foresight and legislative capacity.

By a despatch dated February, 1831, the colonial secretary instructed the Governors of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land to discontinue the grants, and substitute sale by auction at a minimum upset price of 5s. an acre, without any of the privileges in assigned servants which had been annexed to sales at the same rate by Governor Brisbane. And in 1835 Governor Bourke carried through the Legislative Council the act to restrain unauthorized occupation (7. W. IV. No. 4), on which the squatting system is founded; and in the following year he commenced issuing the licences under which two-thirds of the stock of New South Wales and Victoria are now pastured. He did not then contemplate obtaining more than sufficient funds to defray the expenses of the necessary staff, crown land commissioners, and police. There he was much mistaken.

Before the appointment of crown land commissioners it was common for great settlers to "eat out," as they called it, any small settler, by sending sheep to devour all the pasture for miles round his hut. It took some years to convince the old magnates that they could no longer do as they did in the old days of white slavery and irresponsible government.

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