# The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 1/Chapter 9

CHAPTER IX.
OLD MELBOURNE DESCRIBED. 1840—1843.
SYNOPSIS: —Difficulties of Pedestrianism. —Early Legal Difficulties. —The Queen's Wharf. —Solar Perplexities. —First Public Clock. —Early Letter-carriers. —Tardy Mail-deliveries. —First Burial Ground. —A Threatened Famine. —Early Mercantile Firms. —Jewish Residents. —Population of Colony in 1840-1. —Nocturnal Outrages. —Bill of Wants. —Sir George Gipps' Visit. —"Kite-flying." —The Unemployed. —Street Procession. —Open-air Demonstration. —Population of the Town. —First Executions of Criminals. —Commercial Depression. —Mr. Wentworth. —First Boiling-down Establishments. —Revival of Trade.
A PERSON now standing on the summit of Parliament House, and looking at the city spreading its wings, fan-like in every direction—its steeples, domes, and edifices glinting in the sunlight—the people, like bees, buzzing and busying about—the vehicles of every description, tram cars, and other evidences of active life thronging the streets—the whinnying and whistling of the "iron horse" as he rushes through the suburbs, and the fleet of shipping in Hobson's Bay—will smile with incredulity at m y portraiture of the Melbourne of nearly half a century ago, yet it will be limned to the life without a single shade or tint of exaggeration thrown in to set off the effect. Forty odd years is such a brief period in the life of a great city, that unless the Melbourne of 1840 could be attested by an eye witness, it is difficult even to imagine the state of things then existent as compared with the present, and there never has been a stronger verification than the comparison supplies, of Burke's famous adage, that "fiction lags after fact, invention is unfruitful, and imagination is cold and barren."
Melbourne in 1840 was certainly not a city, and could hardly be called a town; nor did it even partake of the characteristics of a village or a hamlet. It was a kind of big "settlement," in groups pitched here and there, with houses, sheds, and tents in clusters, or scattered in ones and twos. There were streets marked out, and stores, shops, and counting-bouses; but with the exception of those in the old Market Square and portions of Flinders, Little Flinders, Collins, and Elizabeth Streets, so dispersed that, after dark, residents incurred not only trouble but danger in moving about. The taverns, or houses of entertainment, were few in number, and, with a couple of exceptions, the accommodation for the public was of the most limited and comfortless description. There were several brick-built houses and a few weather-board cottages, with some, though not much, pretension to comfort; but the majority of the business or residential tenements were made up of colonial "wattle-and-daub," roofed with sheets of bark or coarse shingle, for slates or tiles were not to be thought of, and the corrugated iron age had not arrived. As for the thoroughfares (misnamed streets), they were almost indescribable. In the dry season some of them were in places barely passable, but in wet weather it needed no sign-board with "No Thoroughfare," or "This street is closed" inscribed thereon, for then a "close season" veritably set in, and all out-door operations, if not stopped, were materially impeded by flood-waters. In fact, during winter, the streets were chains of water-holes, and the traffic had to be suspended in places. Along the street line there was the greatest irregularity in the manner in which the tenements were placed, some being in accordance with the surveyed alignment, others several feet back; and not a few built out on what could be only in courtesy, styled the footpath. A considerable number of the allotments abutting on the streets were either unenclosed commonage, or, in some places fenced in, and a miserable abortion of a potato or cabbage garden attempted. Trees, tree-trunks and stumps were to be found everywhere; and laundresses used to suspend their wash-tub lines from tree to tree across the streets. Frequent accidents occurred through the fluttering and flapping of the white drapery so elevated, frightening horses and causing "bolts." In one instance a ​very respectable townsman was treated to a broken collar-bone, by being jerked from his trap into the highway, and just stopped short of a coroner's inquest. T h e washerwomen, and the half-dozen police then in existence, were on the best of terms and seemed to understand each other thoroughly; so the ladies were allowed to have a good deal their own way. Elizabeth and Swanstons Streets were shallow gullies, with deep and dangerous ruts every twenty yards. Flinders Street was a swamp, and even Collins Street was so slushy and sticky, that often to cross over from any portion of the n o w well-flagged and fashionable " Block" one required to be equipped in a pair of leggings or long mud-boots. Horse-power was useless in m a n y places, bullock teams being chiefly the order of the day, and some of the most dangerous " hoggings " of the cumbersome vehicles of the time happened at the intersections of Collins and Queen, and Elizabeth and Bourke Streets. In two of the localities of greatest traffic now, there were then twofissuresrunning towards and discharging into the Yarra, which for some years were known as the rivers T o w n e n d and Enscoe. T h e former starting from near the junction of Collins and Elizabeth Streets, some thirty-six feet above sea level, took its n a m e from a fat, comfortable-looking grocer w h o long did business in a little shop at the south-west corner; whilst the other propelled its waters along near the north-west corner of William and Flinders Streets, and was designated after one of the limbs of a mercantile firm having a counting-house there. Such was the condition of Elizabeth Street in winter, that it was seriously proposed to put on a punt or two there for the transit of goods and passengers ; but the project was regarded as unworkable. In one of the newspapers of the day this advertisement a p p e a r s — " T H E S T R E E T S — W a n t e d immediately one thousand pairs of stilts for the purpose of enabling the inhabitants of Melbourne to carry on their usual avocations— the m u d in most of the principal thoroughfares being now waist deep." Stilts would be about as useless as walking-sticks for the purpose indicated, and the notice, though a skit, did not very m u c h overrate a condition of affairs which n o w appears simply incredible. O n e of the earliest popular delusions was a belief that Little Flinders Street would be the best business part of the town, Collins, Elizabeth and Bourke Streets being merely second, third, and fourth fiddles. Swanston Street was little thought of, and all the other streets except portions of William and Flinders Streets, as business places, were completely out of the running. There was, consequently, a desire to secure building sites in the western quarter of Little Flinders Street; and h o w the longest heads m a y sometimes be foiled in their calculations is amusingly exemplified by this incident:—Mr. W . F. Rucker, deemed a shrewd and wide awake m a n for his generation, owned as part-purchaser with J. P. Fawkner, the allotments of land about the corner of Collins and Market Streets, upon part of which the Union Club Hotel is n o w built. T h e purchase took in frontages to Collins, Market and Little Flinders Streets, and when it came to a division of the property, Rucker thought he had done a very clever trick when he persuaded Fawkner to take the Collins Street half, which was considered the less valuable. T i m e soon told him that he had the worse of the bargain, and Fawkner used to laugh over the supposed smart stroke of business for many a day after. T h e township east of Swanston Street was then known as " Eastern Hill;" and anyone w h o could think of investing there for anything other than a dwelling, a timber yard, a brewery, or a house of prayer, was booked as little less m a d than a hare in the March season. A n auctioneer in puffing a tract of land offered for sale a short distance above the present Argus office asseverated as a strong inducement to intending purchasers that there was a very valuable and inexhaustible stone quarry on the ground. A s for the suburbs, they were at a discount. A few well-to do merchants and professionals had cottages (which they called villas) erected at Brighton, South Yarra, Richmond and Fitzroy (then N e w t o w n ) ; but nothing in the shape of business was dreamed of in such far-away places. In consequence of the manner in which land was sliced up into small sub-sections at Newtown, bunches of cabin residences leaped up there, formed of sods, brick, wood, canvas, or any other sort of material available ; and d o w n about where Brunswick and M o o r Streets now embrace each other, there gathered a conglomeration of huts, which offered a harbour of refuge for the worse half of the rascality of the town, and whenever a " spotted" individual was wanted by the police, he was sure to be picked up either there or at the Brickfields between the Yarra and Emerald Hill, an area squatted upon by a brood of the greatest scoundrels in the district. A s for Emerald Hill itself, it was a sheep pasturage; and the present flourishing Sandridge was represented by the one tent of an adventurer, w h o afterwards was well and favourably known as " the Liardet," but in the course of a few months he put up an hotel there, and was generous enough to offer to bring the mails from the shipping to Melbourne without charge. ​The " West End," i.e., the quarter of Melbourne lying between William and Spencer Streets, and the Yarra and Bourke Street, was for a time a subdivision of the town of some stir and importance. T h e offices of the Superintendent and Sub-Treasurer were at the North-Eastern corner of Little Collins and Williams Streets, though subsequently transferred to Batman's Hill. T h e Survey, Immigration, Public W o r k s and Medical Officer's Departments were planted in this region. T h e gaol was also here, and in 1841 the Supreme and Insolvent Courts and Sheriff's Office were added. Though the Lonsdale Penal Settlement had been considerably curtailed in some of its least attractive proportions, the barracks remained, wherein were quartered the military party stationed in town, and a stockade for the ticket-of-leave holders not yet called in. T h e duty of the military was mainly to provide a guard for the newly put up gaol in Collins Street, and to overawe the convicts. T h e latter, though privileged on account of presumed good behaviour, were a pack of as arrant blackguards as ever disgraced a free community. The Immigrants' Depot, consisting of a couple of rows of canvas tents, formed an encampment in rear of the site of the present Model Lodging-house, off King Street, and the Immigration Officer (Dr. Patterson) had often unpleasant times in keeping off undesirable male and female visitors. T h e ticket-of-leave m e n were supposed to constitute a gang for employment in making and mending the streets, but they did little else than beg from the passers-by, and, whether by begging, borrowing, or stealing, some of them contrived to get drunk over-night, and for so doing got soundly flogged next day. Occasionally a squad of sailors, " three sheets in the wind," would roll up towards the stockades, where, convivialising with the soldiers and the prisoners, the nocturnal orgies frequently indulged in were beyond description, especially as the roysterers were generally able to set at defiance one chief and eight constables, the sole public protection. T h e Yarra was crossed by means of a punt and ferry-boat; and, though well enough off for general provisions, the people were wretchedly provided with water. Unless when the tide was low, the river was brackish, for there was as yet no real breakwater at the "Falls," and the water had to be procured by hand-buckets. After a time p u m p s were fixed, and the fluid retailed in loads to water-carters, by whom households were supplied. But if the water was bad, there was an abundance of the n o w almost unknonn luxury, unwatered milk, for everyone of any means kept a milch cow, which, for a trifling weekly sum was taken charge of by a town herd, and there was such an abundance of cow-feed about the township, that pure new milk was easily attainable. At almost every turn one met with the Aborigines, in twos, and threes, and half-dozens—coolies, lubras, gins, and picaninnies—the most wretched-looking and repulsive specimens of humanity that could be well found. T h e m e n half-naked, with a tattered 'possum rug, or dirty blanket, thrown over them, as far as it would go; and the w o m e n just as nude, except when an odd one decked herself out in some cast-away petticoat, or ragged old gown. T h e young "gin" had usually stowed in some mysterious receptacle on her back, a sooty-faced, curly-headed baby, whilst the younger members of an "unfair sex " dandled mangylooking cur dogs as playthings in their arms. Their eternal "yabbering whine" was for " backsheesh" in the form of white money, a " thikpence " or so, to invest in tobacco or rum, for they soon grew inordinately addicted to both. It is said that a seaman of the Collins' Expedition of 1803 treated a blackfellow to a mouthful of r u m one day at Sorrento ; but the m o m e n t he tasted it, fancying he had a plug of firestick between his jaws, he spat it out in disgust, and could not be induced to repeat the dose. Well would it have been for his unfortunate countrymen had they always acted likewise, for the fire-water of the whitefellow became a potent factor in the extinction of their race. Such is a general outline of the state of Melbourne when the Superintendent (Mr. Latrobe) began to settle down to his work ; and though the district was prospering in an extraordinary degree, considering its little more than four years' growth, he had before him a task of unexampled difficulty ; and few persons can withhold from him the credit of having done the best that was possible, and with no ordinary ability and efficiency. Nothing could well exceed the neglect and superciliousness with which Port Phillip was treated by the Executive of N e w South Wales, and the facts to be disclosed in this resume are almost beyond belief. At the commencement of 1840, there was, perhaps, no British community with a population, natural resources, and hopeful prospects such as Port Phillip possessed, and with such limited legal machinery ; for, though supposed to be under the laws and government of N e w South Wales, all legal and constitutional protection was of a meagre description. T h e only courts in operation were those of ​Quarter and Petty Sessions. If a man was to be hanged, or made insolvent, a probate or letter of administration to be applied for, a title to land or bill of sale to be registered, the delay, risk, and expense of recourse to Sydney interposed an inconvenience amounting almost to a denial of justice. N o merchant or tradesman could locally recover the smallest account, for, though the Court of Requests Act had been passed, no Court had been appointed for the district until April, and even then it could only adjudicate on claims not exceeding £ i o . There was no m o d e of detaining a runaway creditor unless vi et armis, and if a baffled bolter were subjected to such process, he could not readily bring an action for false imprisonment. There was no coroner to hold an inquest, or pilot to bring a vessel into the Bay, or means for procuring the mails when they arrived. Harbour or wharf accommodation did not exist. T h e Queen's Wharf was a mud-flat, and the vessels coming up the Yarra had to be m a d e fast to the stumps of trees. T h efirstpile for the Melbourne Wharf was not driven until September, 1841. Though people managed to ascertain the day of the month and week, they were ignorant of the correct time o' day, and a precise answer to " W h a t o'clock is it ?" could not be had, for there was no such thing as a public clock. T h e clocks and watches in town ticked away as they liked, fast or slow, subject only to the regulation of the sun's rise or set ; and the two or three watchmakers in business were in a state of literal chronic disagreement, for no two of them were ever known to approach to even a rough approximation of h o w the hours were gliding by. This so incommoded business as to stimulate thefirstco-operative effort in the public subscription line wherewith to buy an old-fashioned clock which an enterprising watchmaker, named Ley, had ventured to bring with him from England. H e offered to sell it to the commonwealth for ,£65, and " the hat " was accordingly sent round. T h e whole amount was at length raised (on paper) ; but next arose the difficulty of turning the promises into a legal tender. Mr. D. C. M'Arthur patriotically volunteered his services as an emergency man, and the clock became the property of the public ; but it had no sooner changed hands than "the public" was disappointed in having no suitable place wherein to put it. T h e market reserve was the only locus in quo likely to secure general approbation ; but there was no tower orfixtureof any kind to which it could be elevated. It was suggested that a pillar, pedestal, or obelisk should be erected in the centre of the square for the purpose; but as this would necessitate either a further levy, or the floating of a public loan, it was not to be seriously thought of. There was a large g u m tree growing in a corner, and the notion occurred of providing an upper bunk for the time-piece there, until an expert announced that on windy days the vibration of the clockcase would affect the equilibrium to so great an extent as to render it impossible for the pendulum to observe due regularity in its oscillations. T h e clock was looked upon as something akin to a white elephant, so it was deposited in the police office, and there it remained in d u m b show, a silent, if not always a solitary prisoner, on the floor of the court until 1843, when it attained the height of its ambition by being placed on the summit of thefirstPost Office erected on the site of the present pretentious edifice. Letter-carriers were not yet k n o w n ; and there was no street letter-delivery until an arrangement was sanctioned in March, by which a private person acted as post-letter carrier, and was paid for his trouble by such of the public as chose to accept his services. This practice continued until Government provided a regular red-coated Mercury. Another postal abuse was the non-delivery of the English ship mails, which included nine-tenths of the letters and newspapers received. There were no funds to meet such a contingency; and as it depended on the pleasure of the captains of vessels, important mails were delayed sometimes for a couple of days or more in the Bay before they reached Melbourne. T h e second great effort at a public subscription was to provide for fencing the General Cemetery. T h efirstburial ground was on a side of the Flagstaff Hill; but it was found to be unsuitable, and a reserve of eight acres was granted where the Old Graveyard now is. Interments were thenceforth m a d e there ; and as it was a mere open track, the sights became repugnant to public feeling. Stray cattle grazed and trampled on the graves ; but pigs and dogs learned to do worse. A s Mr. M'Arthur financed the T o w n Clock movement, so Mr. J. H . Patterson took that of the cemetery in hand, and by a persistent door to door solicitation, and collections in some of the churches, ^,'200 was obtained, and the good work partially
A Threatened Famine.
In the infancy of the various Australian Colonies the probability of a Flour Famine was a cause of much periodic uneasiness. Of beef and mutton there was no lack; but as the cultivation of cereals was not general, the possible disappearance of the indispensable "damper," or 41b. loaf, was a phantom requiring something more substantial than one's imagination to lay. N e w South Wales had such warnings of this kind that it learned from experience to look ahead, and its Government imported cargoes of flour from Calcutta and other Indian ports, had it ground by convict labour at Sydney, and stored in granaries, or siloes, ready for the needful day. In the early part of this year there were grave apprehensions of a dearth offlourin Melbourne, the average weekly town consumption being estimated atfifteentons. For two months not a single shipment was received from Launceston, Hobartown, or Sydney, and the bakers were such unscrupulous cheats that, not satisfied with high prices, they resorted to that seemingly inevitable trick of the craft—the fraud of light weights. T h e stocks were running short, and theflourtrade being in the hands of three or four individuals, the screw was put on accordingly. T h e price ran up to ,£65 and ,£75 per ton, and was for a time as high as £go—the 41b. loaf bringing from 3s. to 4s. Other provisions also increased in value ; potatoes ranged from £16 to ,£18 per ton ; butter, 3s. per lb.; and eggs, 6s.—and even 8s.—per dozen, whilst hay brought ,£15 per ton, and soap ,£52, or 53s. per cwt. Luckily there was a large surplus supply of Indian flour in Sydney, ground in 1839, and some timely consignments of this article were sent down and disposed of by auction. T h e market was thus eased, and an impending crisis tided over. This was done a couple of times in as many years, and was of very material benefit. Meanwhile, in many respects, the district was on the advance. Squatters continued to take up land, the germs of innumerable flocks and herds were introduced, and Bounty Immigration from Britain added thousands to the bone and sinew of the soil. T h e Crown Lands Act gave capitalists a right of selection, and what were known as "Special Surveys" were secured in various directions, such as Dendy's at Moorabbin, or Brighton (first known as Waterville); Unwin's, on the Yarra, opposite Heidelberg; Jamieson's, near Cape Schank ; Elgar's, at Kilmore ; Rutledge's, at Port Fairy, etc., etc. Mercantile firms (some of them bubbles that burst, others that lasted and prospered) sprang up in quick succession, and amongst them figured the well-known names of Rucker, Kemmis, Campbell, Wooley, Were, Graham, Craig, Broadfoot, Thomas, Enscoe, James, Welsh, Manton, Gourlay, Cain, Cole, cum aliis. General retail shops and stores increased, and Harris and Marks, Cashmore, A. H . Hart, and the Benjamins were some of our earliest Jewish shopkeepers. T h e auctioneers were represented by Williams, the Auction Company, Brodie, Power, Salmons, Kirk, and others. These gentry sometimes took high hand with their constituents, and on one occasion they condescendingly agreed to allow the owners of property offered for sale only one bid, after which there was to be no buying in. Several companies were started, and amongst them, providing a supply of water, the erection of a bridge over the Yarra, the establishment of a Tradesman's Bank, etc., etc. In July an Exchange was opened at the rooms of the Auction Company in Collins Street. There were three Banks and a Steam Navigation Company in full business, and the Insurance Company, started in 1839, was plodding along slowly, but safely; whilst three newspapers—the Gazette, Patriot and Herald— represented the public, but united in believing personal abuse and recrimination to be the cardinal tenet in the creed of journalism. T w o Club-houses were in full play, and three breweries in full blast. Education was not altogether forgotten. Embryonic literary and charitable institutions were much talked of, and ministers of religious denominations wrought hard in pointing the way to eternal salvation, according to their doctrinal lights. At the end of the year 1840 the population of the colony was returned as 10,291, i.e., 7254 males and 3037 females, an under-estimate by some thousands. 358 births, 198 deaths, and 177 marriages are recorded. ,£220,000 had been realised by Government Land Sales, and an extent of 3000 acres (an over-ratement) was stated to be under cultivation. T h e stock statistics showed 782,000 sheep, 51,000 horned cattle, and 2500 horses in the district. The new year (1841) opened with a population of between 5000 and 6000 in Melbourne, protected by a police corps of ten constables and a chief, 25 soldiers for guard and escort duty, and 250 ticket-of-leave ​convicts—thirty as a street gang, and the residue assigned as servants in town and country. Three pilots were appointed in January to superintend the navigation of the Bay. T w o steam sawmills, put up in Flinders Street by the Mantons, and Alison and Knight, c o m m e n c e d work, and a Mr. Dight, recently arrived from Sydney, prepared to establish aflourmill at the Studley Park Falls, which thenceforth adopted his name. Owing probably to the insufficiency of the police force, the setting-in of the winter was marked by a series of nocturnal outrages, and robberies became so rife that the shopkeepers of Collins Street were compelled, pro aris et focis, to retain at their o w n cost the services of two private watchmen for night duty ; but very poor value did these worthies return for the m a n y easily earned (or rather unearned) shillings they pocketed, for the incumbents were generally discarded constables or expirees—lazy, dissipated, bullying rascals, m u c h more disposed to go halves with a thief in his plunder than to attempt to apprehend him. T h e town kept gradually pushing its way into the bush ; brick houses and cottages or cots kept popping up, trade and traffic increased, and the wonder was h o w such progress could be m a d e in the teeth of the worse than apathetic neglect shown at head-quarters. T h e Superintendent did all he could to satisfy, or stave off, public requirements ; but this was little more than nothing, for no matter what might be his will to do good, he was rendered impotent by stronger than red-tape obstacles, for he had the " iron-hand " of Sir George Gipps firmly closed to every popular demand, no matter h o w urgent or reasonable. A n d so the year 1841 passed away amidst constant discontent, and repeated protestations against absentee misrule, until public feeling assumed such a threatening attitude, that, probably in consequence of the urgent representations of Mr. Latrobe, Sir George Gipps signified an intention to visit Port Phillip and see and judge for himself. There can be no better index of the neglect and injustice with which the young colony had been treated than a recapitulation of the " Bill of Wants " prepared for the Governor on his arrival, as published in the newspapers of the time. According to this, Melbourne needed a river m a d e navigable, the harbour properly buoyed, traversable streets, a bridge and breakwater for the Yarra, a road to the beach (Sandridge), effective Police, and a Police, Survey, and Sheriff's Offices, a T o w n Surveyor, Health Officer and Hospital, a Barracks and code of signals to advise the arrival and sailing of ships, extended jurisdiction of the Court of Requests, an enlargement of the powers of the Superintendent, and an annual visit by the Governor of the colony. Sir George came, saw, and departed, chary in promises, and more chary in the performance of them. Nevertheless, exaggerated notions were entertained as to the miracles his visit would effect, and the ardent minds of the colonists conjured a brilliant phantasm of what the future had in store for them, little dreaming howr all this airy architecture would be shivered into atoms by contact with the reality during the next couple of years. T h e population of the district increased by December to 20,416, of w h o m 14,391 were males, and 6025 females, the births 618, deaths 319, and H y m e n had 406 hypothecated as his share. KITE-FLYING.
Almost from the commencement of commercial operations over-trading had set in, and over-credit ensued. M e n began wholesale and retail businesses with little or no capital, and, starting on paper, rattled away until their houses of cards tumbled down about them. Small beginnings rapidly increased, and in 1842, bills and promissory notes, renewals, assignments, and re-assignments, presented such a complicated reticulation of what was known as "kite-flying" in the commercial system of Melbourne, as almost defied unravelment. H o w things got into such a maze of entanglement is a marvel to the uninitiated, but there was a general trading upon nothing, and every Jack, Bill and Harry gave and received accommodation bills ad libitum. T o thisfinancialembroglio a mania for land speculation contributed a powerful ingredient; and, as prior to the opening of the Supreme Court, the process of sueing was a risky and expensive experiment for the creditor, the debtor had the odds vastly in his favour, and a pleasant "from hand to m o u t h " time of it. But n o w the Supreme Court was in working order, and the judge officiated pro tern, as Commissioner of Insolvency. T h e consequence was a pouring in of plaints for the recovery of claims, with verdicts for the plaintiffs, sheriff's sales, and sequestrations of so-called " Estates" by the score. T h e newspapers teemed with notices of compulsory auction sales, fore-closures of mortgages, assignments and insolvencies ; and as is always the case when depression is at its worst, the banks applied the break, restricted
The First Open-air Demonstration.
As an addendum to the greater monetary troubles of the time, the since hackneyed grievance of " T h e Unemployed " sprang up to drop its quota into the chaldron of discontent. It is a mistake to classify it as " a weed of modern growth," for it became acclimatized in the colony as early as 1842. There was plenty of employment, and fair wages for those able and willing to work, male or female, single or married, with or without families, if they would only go a few miles into the country to get them; but they would not. They loafed and prowled about the Immigrants' Depot, and at every tavern door the m e n sponged for a " nobbier" whenever they could get it, and after swallowing one, thirsted or re-sponged for another. They clamoured for Government employ, and the Superintendent directed some to be set to work on the streets; and others to form a road between Melbourne and Sandridge. O n e day in June it was announced that the wage was to be reduced from 20s. to 18s. per week, and there was a general strike instanter. Pitching aside wheel-barrows and shouldering picks and shovels, the m e n formed into line, and marched, about two hundred strong, upon the town. Preceded by a giant of a fellow with a large loaf of bread stuck on the top of a ti-tree, they crossed by the punt, and this, thefirstpopular demonstration that ever turned out in Melbourne, tramped through Collins Street and pulled up at the office of the Superintendent, failing an interview with with him, they grew m u c h excited, and muttering what they would and would not do, passed along William Street towards the Flagstaff Hill. Tidings of the menacing turn of the movement were conveyed to the police office, where Major St. John (the Police Magistrate) happened to be sitting. So he jumped up, pocketed the Riot Act (without which he never travelled), and, mounting his horse, galloped after the procession, which he soon overtook. T h e Major, w h o was as brave as a lion, and, unless when much irritated, gifted with a large quantum of good humour, rode in amongst the crowd, and by a clever admixture of bullying and palaver, obtained a respectful hearing. W h e n he hadfinished,a m a n armed with a big cudgel, exclaimed in a stentorian voice, that " it was better to fight and die than live and starve," and springing forward was aiming a tremendous blow at the magistrate, when the latter, wheeling his horse round, took the fellow near the butt end of the ear with the h a m m e r of his riding whip and "floored" him.
T h e pluck and promptitude of the act, and a few conciliatory words, well seasoned with promises, caused the assemblage to quietly disperse, and though St. John, on returning to his office, issued warrants for the apprehension of half-a-dozen of the ringleaders identifiable by the police, nothing further was heard of arrests or riots. T h e town population had increased to about ten thousand, and burglaries and other felonies abounded. Though there were no pawn shops where stolen booty could be readily put away, the thieves' want was supplied by the night auctions, which answered equally well. Several of these places were regular dens for the receipt and sale of improperly acquired property, and so m u c h the resort of the light-fingered fraternity, that whenever any particular scoundrel was in request, from sunset to midnight, there was little difficulty in citching him in one of those cribs. Horse and cattle stealing also prevailed so much than an Association was organised by the settlers for its suppression, and an Inspector or Ranger appointed at a liberal salary. Murders by whites and blacks were perpetrated in several places, and Melbourne beheld the first executions (in public) of black and white criminals. Three aboriginal w o m e n and a child'were barbarously shot by a party of white demons in the Western District; and though the Government offered a large reward, and three persons were tried the following year for the massacre, no conviction was obtained, and the blood-stained slayers, whoever they were, escaped " unwhipt of justice." Commercial distress andfinancialdifficulties so far from abating, went on increasing, and to such a pass had matters come, that on the n t h October a public meeting was held, on requisition to the DeputySheriff, to consider the steps advisable to be taken for the relief of the existing monetary depression. The admitted causes of the crisis were insufficient capital, over-trading, too m u c h credit, extravagant habits, reckless expenditure, excessive land speculation, and the excess of imports over exports turning the balance of trade against the Province. Atfirstit was thought that some Legislative interference should be asked for towards the introduction of a modification of the usury laws; but this idea was abandoned. T h e Banks allowed 7 per cent, upon deposits, and charged 10 per cent, for discounts, which with the ease with which credit was obtainable, was supposed to have occasioned the deplorable condition of affairs. T h e difficulty ​was intelligently ventilated, and resolutions were passed appointing a deputation to interview the banks, to urge a reduction of discounts to 8 per cent.; and deposits, of whatever duration, to 4 per cent. A resolution declaratory of the firmest confidence in the vast resources and ultimate success of the colony was also agreed to. T h e Insolvent Act was very defective ; it was a premium upon roguery instead of security for the honest. Judge Willis one day in the investigation of a suit, exclaimed from the Supreme Court Bench, "There are so m a n y insolvents that I do not know their names. I never saw any place in such a state before." A n d again in the same case, " T h e whole Insolvent Act appears such a chaos that it blinds m e entirely, and the only dividend it has ever produced is is. 7d. in the pound." T h e Bank of Australasia and the Union Bank soon after offered to advance upon the season's clip of wool, the bills of lading being deposited as security—a proposition hailed with m u c h pleasure by the settlers, though distasteful to the Commercial houses. Hitherto, when a settler obtained an advance upon a wool shipment, he had to take it in bills from the merchant. It is an old saying that "it never rains but it pours," and in more than one sense this was amply verified, for since the advent of winter there had been an unusally heavy rainfall, and the floods produced m u c h loss of property and distress throughout the country. Sheep-shearing was greatly retarded, and considerable damage sustained by the clip. In one respect Melbourne had m a d e a step forward (though a small one), for the town had tasted of self-government—First, by the creation of a Market Commission, and, secondly, by its Act of Incorporation. T h e year closed with a population of 23,799, in which the males counted 15,691, and the females 8 1 0 8 — a small increase; but there were 1025 births, whilst the deaths reckoned 413, and marriages 514. T h e proceeds of land sales amounted to only ,£21,085, and imports exceeded exports by ,£78,644. T h e N e w Year (1843) w a s r^e harbinger of great expectations as making and mending the public highways, and hope was quickened by the enactment of an A m e n d e d Constitution Statute, conferring upon the District the privilege of returning six members to the Legislative Council of N e w South Wales. T h e banks reduced the rate of interest upon deposits from seven tofiveper cent. ; but this did not produce any appreciable effect, for reckless credit, reckless trading, trafficking in accommodation bills, and excessive expenditure (where it could at all run it) continued. Things were drifting into such a terrible state (in February) that the most influential newspaper advocated the closing of the Supreme Court for twelve months as a desperate remedy for a desperate disease. Commercial property became unsaleable, unless at ruinously low prices; sheep and cattle did not bring a third of what ought to have been their ordinary value, and bills were scarcely negotiable. House and land property had fallenfiftyand seventy-five per cent. ; and as a few out of many instances it m a y be mentioned that the freehold of a cottage and garden in Lonsdale Street, previously let at ,£360 per a n n u m was sold for .£450; and another cottage occupied by a solvent tenant at a yearly rental of ,£150, brought only ,£157 10s. A n allotment offifty-fourfeet frontage to Bourke Street, was disposed of for 15s. per foot, and a station near Cape Schanck with 323 head of cattle, 51 calves, 2 horses, 2 imported Durham bulls, another high-bred bull, and station appurtenances, implements, etc., all changed hands for ,£800 cash ! Mr. Williams, a well-known auctioneer, in preparing his schedule, prior to a declaration of insolvency, could not get a valuator to assign any value to a tastily built cottage and grounds at South Yarra, which only two years before cost ,£1800. Fat cattle were selling for £1 a head, sheep 2s. each, and a good leg of mutton could be had for sixpence; but the " tanner" then was a coin of the realm more potent than aflorinnow. Servants had m u c h difficulty in obtaining payment. of their wages, and one day at the Police Court thirty-three claims were adjudicated, running from ,£2 to ,£30, the total amount sued for being ,£441 10s. 5d. O n e thousand small debt plaints used to befiledfor a monthly sitting of the Court of Requests, but the retailers, driven by self-preservation, pronounced against giving more trust, and though not successful in the general introduction of cash payments, the effort very perceptibly diminished the Court of Requests Cause Lists. In April the banks reduced interest to three per cent, on current account deposits, and five per cent, at three months; the discount upon bills having not more than 100 days to run, was lowered to eight per cent. T o intensify the daily accumulating troubles, two special, though unintentional contributories added their dividend to the vortex of general discontent—the Corporation and the Resident Judge. T h e T o w n Council was severed into contemptible cabals; and its meetings were ebullitions of personal spite and rancour. W h e n not quarrelling with the Superintendent and the Executive, its members were rowing with ​each other—the welfare of the town, if not altogether forgotten, being a matter of minor importance. The townspeople in such hard times were either unable or unwilling to pay the municipal rates ; warrants to levy were issued in large batches, and the Corporation bailiffs and auctioneers had such a brisk season as " distressed" almost everyone but themselves. B y all thinking people the Council was voted an intolerable nuisance, and burgesses began to repent having ever asked for such a worrying sample of H o m e Rule. Judge Willis was passing from bad to worse. H e was like a self-acting, social firebrand; and though m u c h allowance must be m a d e for the circumstances surrounding him, and the mazes of rascality through which he had to grope without a clue, interwoven with the complicated equity and insolvency suits brought before him, his unfitness for his important position was unquestionable. H e had warred with not only the principal officers, but had almost every m a n of position and reputation arrayed against him, and an influentially-signed memorial for his recall had been transmitted to Sir George Gipps. T h e state of the district was attracting the attention of the neighbouring colonial press ; and the Sydney Australian, a very ably conducted journal regretted " the examples of judicial indecency, municipal wrangling, social discord, and universal embarrassment which the southern district of Port Phillip presents," and believed " that the Governor must see the expediency of interposing his authority, at all events as far as Judge Willis is concerned." Though the N e w South Wales Executive could not abolish a Corporation, it could extinguish a Judge, so Willis was snuffed out, and a gentleman succeeded him in every way a vast improvement. B y a strange freak of chance, whilst the cloud of almost universal distress brooded over the land, the novelty of thefirstpolitical General Election was introduced, and so far had the good effect that it forced the public for a while to disregard the coming shadow of the door-wolf, and to launch into the whirlpool where candidates and canvassers, election addresses and election promises (brittle as the proverbial pie-crust) were floating about. For thefirsttime in the colony the embers of religious bigotry were gathered up, some fuel added, and, fired by the "Lucifer" of Fanaticism, the town was lighted by the lurid blaze until the election was over. T h e "flare-up,"flickeredfor a while, and burned out. Efforts have been since made at rare intervals to rekindle it, but the unholy fetish never found a congenial abiding place amongst us. T h e elections over and the year advancing, commercial troubles still kept to the front, and continued their pressure; but as there is no cloud without a silver lining, a gleam of hope flashed at a time, and from a quarter least expected. THE
TURNING OF THE TIDE.
Mr. Wentworth, the greatest son of the soil ever born at the Antipodes, could not see why, if sheep and cattle could not be rendered remunerative by converting theirfleshinto meat, the desired result might not be accomplished by turning their fat into tallow. H e was a m a n , prompt in deed as in thought, and forthwith purchasing a sheep at a butcher's stall in Sydney, had it slaughtered and boiled down, when it yielded 24lbs. of tallow. T h e experiment was repeated, and eventuated in a grand success; such a discovery was not long making itself k n o w n — a Mr. Henry O'Brien of Yass, and others, further tested it; and the boiling down of not only sheep, but cattle, soon spread. Port Philip was not slow in profiting by what might be termed an invention, the importance of which could not possibly be over-rated. Boiling-down establishments, as they were called, were opened in several places, the first at the Salt Water River, by Bolden and Ryrie, two squatters, w h o placed it under the control of a M r . R. Forrest, possessed of much practical knowledge acquired in Cork, the then pig-killing entrepot for the exportation of pork carcase-meat from the South of Ireland to England. Mr. Edward Curr opened another at Port Fairy, and Dr. Thompson, at Geelong. Hunter Somerville and Co. built premises for the purpose in Bourke Street ; Brock and Mollison, and Watson and Wight had large establishments at the Melbourne s w a m p (now the Spencer Street Railway Station). Boiling down was soon improved into melting d o w n (the complete antithesis of the meat freezing projects of to-day) and the profitable outlet thus presented for realising on stock wrought such a change, that prices immediately improved and manifestations of a m e n d m e n t showed themselves. Another new industry was added to colonial products by the exportation of bark, with which the n a m e of Mr. William Hull must be always associated. Amidst those indications of returning prosperity the resumption
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Such is a cursory view of the condition of the colony at the most peculiar stage of its early history. It suffered, so to speak, from a surfeit of excesses, and the regimen which adversity had for a time prescribed, was working off the noxious humours and pointing to convalescence. In fact, the vigorous young patient was "suffering a recovery," and, warned by the tribulation of the past, was righting itself and preparing for that future in which the colonists always implicitly believed. Little did they dream of the revolution which the coming decade would work in the land of their adoption—by which the earth would give up its golden treasures, and cause such a social and material disruption as would render 1843, when compared with 1853, as a mole-hill is to a mountain; and much less could the most sanguine imagine that many of them would live to see the "unnamed village," in less than four decades more, undergo such a magical transmutation as to make it the metropolis of the Southern Hemisphere, inviting all nations to several displays of the industrial resources of the world in an International Exhibition Temple, the erection of which cost a quarter of a million of Victorian money.