AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL HEROINE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 45, 16 November 1907, Page 11

AUSTRALIA'S NATIONAL HEROINE.

(Frora tho Melbourne "Age.") . In all probability there is not a school child in the Commonwealth to-day who does not know by heart the stories of Graco Darling and Joan-of Arc. But how many have as much as heard the name of Caroline Chisholm mentioned P Very few.Ut is much to bo feared, arid yet the gracious, grand and sweet woman whose name'we reverently recall was by adoption air Australian. She devoted the major part of her lifo, her big heart and her splendid genius to the service of this country, and her exploits, although unaccompanied with tho thunder of wind driven surf or the crash of cannon, exalt her in all thoughtful minds to a pinnacle of fame beyond the power of any of her hiore glittering historic, rivals to attain. . . Caroline.Chisholm made Now South Wales her homo in tho year 1839. Landing in Sydney with her children and her husband, Captain Archibald Chisholm, of tho Madras army, who was on sick furlough, it had been her first intention merely to pay tho colony a short visit, but she had hardly landed when sho perceived her lifo.work before her, and without hesitation sho responded, to the call, hor philanthropic hus-band-generously, consenting to an enterprise which'for .years deprived him of tho'plcasuro of her society,- since ho was obliged to return to India when his leave expired. ' '■• It was-the ■hideously'neglected stato of tliq bounty emigrants which ■ engaged Mrs. Uiisholm s attention, and chaincJ hor to tho colony. Sho'found that hundreds of unfortunate young .women, enticed'and collected by the bounty agents in tho rural districts of Great Britain, wero pouring but in the emigrant ships to Australia, who needed them so sadly, and yot on their arrival, instead of being cared for by the authorities thoy wero left to shift for themselves As a consequent of this abominablo "I'snile thore wero in. Sydney about the time of Mrs. Chisholm s appearance on tho scene 000 Tospectablo females, unemployed destitute and starving, wandering friendless about tho city streets. It was nobody's business to look alter them. They mipht die of hunger or go to the dogs for au£ht tho colonists appeared to caro. Somo of these poor creatures slept in caves and retired nooks in tho public gardens for want of better shelter. Others, more daring bogged for bread and temporary accommodation from door to'door. But the majority tortured by tho pangs of famine and tho ifidilferqnco of tho public to their suffering sank into prostitution as tho readiest moans available to keep themselves alive. Thero woro oven worse evils in tho system. Tho emigrant ships arrived daily, bringing out their human cargoes. The Emigration Board was only concerned to seo that tho emigrants were delivered in good health. That dono, they paid tho agents the bounty and their duty ended.

Mrs. Chisholm saw the evil, and forthwith set about its cure. She was as full of wisdom as of courage. Realising to the full the debased tone of society, she made no immediate attempt to hold up the mirror to its face, a course that would havo antagonised tho whole community. She began by appealing to tho oeople throuch the press, in

the name of liumanity and charity, on behalf of tho poor, penniless gir! emigrants. At first she met with notliing but discouragement. The Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy joined forces to decry her efforts on sectarian grounds. The authorities would not howl her. Tho officials refused to help her as they foresaw more work, with no increase of pay for themselves, if sho was listened to and her reform schemes instituted. The employer classes could see no advantage in protecting tho employed, and finally the Governor, Sir George Gipps, perceiving his administration inferentially reflected on, cavalierly refused her the slightest aid. Mrs. Chisholm was almost in despair, but she was nerved to persevere by a chanco mooting with a girl she had known in England, a Highland beauty, "poor Flora °> whom sho had last known a happy, hopeful girl—now drunken, despairing, and hastening to commit suicide

-Mrs. Chisholm saved this wretched creature s life, and in tho act a providential inspiration camo to her assistance. She secured a deserted building from tho Government, a ramshackle, low. wooden barrack, some 14 feet square, and this she promptly converted into a "Home of Protection , ' for ■emigrant girls. Poor Flora was its first guest.. Mrs. Chisholm found it needful for tho protection of tho girls to sleep on the premises. A storo room 7 feet square, without a fireplace, and infested with rats, was. her accommodation. There sho dwelt for seven toil-filled years, eating, drinking and.living in common with ,tho women who soon filled tho "homo" t<foverflowing; and there she laid tho foundations of a system to which thousands on thousands owed their happiness, which saved them from temptation and vice, and put them on the sure road to industrious independence. This was not accomplished easily. Mrs. Chisholm's means wero limited, and sho was forced to obtain pecuniary assistance from without. Taught by.experience, she no longer approached tho wealthy city residents, but sho mado her appeals_ to the poorer settlers in the country districts. Herein her dormant economical talents wero first revealed. She addressed tho settlors in a circular letter, in which sho not only requested money help; but information as to their domestic requirements, and she promised in exchange to supply them with whatever domestic help they needed. ,Tho settlers, touched by the appeal, camo forward nobly and sent tho "homo ,1 both money and provisions. Mrs. Chisholm's next task was to devise machinery- for the distribution of tho girls through 'tho country. .The girls, frightened by stories of blacks and bushrangors, would not leave the city alone. But Mrs. Chisholm was equal, to .the emergency. At her own oxpenso she took an experimental party herself up. tho Hunter River by steamboat. Tho enterprise • was considered so Quixotic by her frionds that not one of thorn, as she'sat on tho deck a surrounded by hor girls, dared to oxpose,himself to tho ridicule of owning her acquaintance. But the plan succeeded; She placed all the girls in respectable families and returned to Sydnoy alone. Bush jour-

neys now bceamo tho chief part of her business. At the head of parties of young women, varying in number from sixteen to a hundred, she fearlessly penetrated to the wildest and remotest parts of the country, her charges contained in waggons and drays, and sho riding on horseback. No dangers could daunt her; no difficulties could turn her back. Her little armies made forced marches sometimes as far as three hundred miles into the interior, proceeding to such places as I'ass, Gundigai, MumimbidgeeY Uoulburn, , Bathurst, iliaitland and Port Macquarie. By day they travelled, by night'- they slept in sqttlers' huts, at tho stations of wealthy squatters, or camped out in the lonely open bush. Whorevcr sho went- Mrs.'. Chisholm established branch "homes" ami registry offices, and the liberality of tho settlers, who very soon came'to worship her as a being from somo hotter world, sent to bless their lives, enabled her to make the system a triumph right along tho lino. By 1845 she had, by her personal exertions, provided, either with good husbands or permanont employment ,no fower than 10,000 women,, and sho had either reformed or saved from tho worst sort ,of ruin countless others who are tho grandmothers, living or dead, of many thousands of respectablo and prosperous peoplo dwelling in tho Commonwealth to-day. It was in the midst of these weary, bush marches, in \ which she .managed the route, the discipline, the commissariat, tlio hospital, and the billeting "of her armies alone arid unassisted, that Mrs. Chisholm (Sonceived the idea that, useful as her work was, -she. might do oven greater service to her adopted country by proceeding to England, and, armed with the needful quantity of unquestionably accurato statistical information, prove to tho British peoplo what a splendid field for immigration Australia afforded; to the end that instead of tho sweepings arid scourings of England, Australia might obtain as settlers from tho Motherland a fair proportion of her best blood. With this aim in view, sho collected an immenso treasury of first hand information,- on , the sworn testimony of the settlers themselves, as to their lives, their progress and their prospects. Thus equipped, sho laid her plans beforo a committee of tlio Legislative Council of tho colony, and her proposal was enthusiastically adopted. Tho authorities had by then long ceased to bo her adversaries. Sir George Gipps had mado a public acknowledgment of his conversion to a duo appreciation of her virtues, and indoed tho entire population was at her feet.

During the soven years of hor first residence, without'rank or wealth or any support excopt what hor magnificent selfsacrificing practical philanthropy had gradually acquired, she had provided for raoro than 11,000 souls. Yot in tho next few years she personally selected and sent out more than 1000 cmigrants'of tho best class from England, and she procured by correspondence tho emigration of tens of thousands whom it was impossible for her to personally interview. Her last great service was rendered to Victoria. Discovering that the faiminjz emigrants she despatched to this

State were denied access to the lauds owing to the squatting monopoly,shc once more crossed tho seas, and after travelling Victoria from end to end she directed the whole force of her wonderful resources to procure tho destruction of the squatting tenure and tho unlocking of the public estate to the people. Mrs. Chisholm first taught the Australian squatters that property has its duties as well as its privileges. Before her time emigrants were merely tumbled out on our shores like so much live stock, to find .their own way to market—to marriage, slavery, sin or death. One woman against a callous and besottedly selfish society, she cured the evil, and regenerated in spite of itself tho society that strove against her. She tapped tho springs of spontaneous self-supporting emigration, and with her wise, . far-seeing brain and soft white hands she moulded tho destiny and shaped the future of our raco; Australia, as sho exists to-day, could not havo been except because of her; and this incomparable woman, for all her work would take no recompense, would accept no reward, save the loving gratitude of .tho people her matchless care upraised and bonefacted. Tho annals of the world may bo ransacked in vain to find a parallel to her nobility.

Australia has been blessed with a heroine without a peer among all the heroines of history, a woman in whom all the tenderest mid most helpful attributes of womanhood shone resplendent and serene; whoso great heart heard and answered the cries of the unfortunate, whoso Christ-liko charity forgave tho blackest vice, whoso courageous example charmed from minds, however depraved, the demons of sin and tho attendant demon of despair; whose gentle pity touched the. most wicked to repentance and remorse, and whose mother caro for all mankind framed this continent within an .aureole of human kindness. Australia owes her more that man can say. To our shame, be it said, wo havo forgotten her. Her history, the merest cursory perusal of which would thrill the hearts and stir to generous depths of pride and emulation the imagination of our children, is not included in .pur school books. Caroline Chisholm led even greater armies of-tho helpless and oppressed into life and happiness; she consoled them in their distress, supported' them in their trials and afflictions, and through long years of tedious and vexing labour and painful privations and fatigues unrepiningly endured, she motheerd and nrotected, and played the part of guardian anpel to, tho women of Australia. Our national heroine is an incomparably sublimer figure than any other country in the world possesses, and yet not ono in ton Australians knows her name!