A PROPHETIC SPEECH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1373, 18 October 1886, Page 3

A PROPHETIC SPEECH

We are indebted to a writer In the Argus for the following—being the first speech of the first Governor of Australia, uttered 100 years sgo, when that country was a desolate wilderness :—Forth steps Captain Arthur Phillips, delicate of form, pale of face, sweet and kindly of ex preasior ; ha addresses to the freemen of the colony a speech which welt deserves, both for feeling and syst m and matter, to be regarded as the pioneer effort in Australian literature. How singularly prophetic have been the words of this founder of the leasi hopeful of colonies ! How elevated the stylo of this seaman a warrior from his youth upwards, wh > had fought through three long struggles. “ We are here,” he slid, f< to t ke possession of this fifth quarter of the globe on behalf of the Prinsh people, and to found a state which we hope will here»fi-~ n-.t only occupy and rale this great country, but will also be the beneficent patroness of the entire roulhern hemisphere. For grand is the prospect which lies before the youthfal nation ! Enough of honor for any etate would it be to occupy the first position in a country so vast, bo b-autiful, so fert'le, so blessed in climate, so rich in all those bour.tiea that Nature can confer. Enough of merit for any nation would it be to have been the first, as this colony will bo, to throw open bo extensive and ao highly favored a country to the oocopati -a of mankind ; to exp ore its remote regions, to discover its rivers, to subdue its forests, to render accessible its mountains, and make pathways through its d-serts ; enough of reward It would be to have the p ivl ege of e joying those blessings and treasures which must spring from the possession and occupation of such a country ; its fertile plains tempting only the slightest labor of*the husbandman to produce In abundsnee tha fahet and richest fruits, its interminable pastures, the future home of flocks and here's innumerable ; its mineral wealth so great as to promise that it may yet rival those treasures which fiction lores to describe.” He was a bold prophet, this first Governor of ours ! But it Is Impossible he could have understood that all his imagination foresaw was to be realised in less than a century from the time he was speaking ? How strange the contrast when his audience, fired by his long and eloquent address, turned from the vis’ons of fancy to the matters of reality. Some tents dotted over a barren point ; a band of sullen convicts and their redtooated jailorsFrom these were to spring that long line of glories. Truly he had faith in his mission, this man whom the divining eye of William Pitt had chosen to be founder Australasia.