SWAN RIVER.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 81, 9 May 1843, Page 3

SWAN RIVER.

Having been. so long without intelligence from Swan River, we think the following extracts from the Perth Gazette of December and January, giving the history of the colony for the past year, and shewing, in some degree, its present state, may be interesting to most of our readers:— &

We now proceed to lay before our readers a short review of the events of the past year. The year opened with lowering prospects as to the state of monetary affairs, and it was fully anticipated this colony would meet with the same embarrassment as that which was then visiting the neighbouring colonies. Some few . failures, did. occur, but sby j udicious forbearance, .. and reasonable compromise, the impending storm was averted. The value, however, of every description of property now commenced to be on the decline; live stock and farming ;

produce, from their abundance, fell at last 50 per cent., and land, owing to the absence, of purchasers, was rated merely at a n^min^l

Value. Some few forced sales of stock, &c., tended to hasten the reduction in price of all colonial productions, and up to this time, the grazier and agriculturist have not had it in their power to restore the market to its pristine, state of liig’h prices. This reduction in price has operated beneficially for the new emigrant, but has entailed no slight disappointment upon the speculators. Considerable improvements of public utility have been effected during this year: the most prominent are—the opening and clearing roads to the interior districts, and Australind; the formation of jetties at Liverpool; and the works on the flats, above Perth; completing a line of communication throughout the territory. The post-office department, although supported at increased, and indeed a heavy expenditure, is well conducted, and affords great facilities to the settlers in their communications with each other.

A proposition emanating from' the members of the Agricultural Society, to the effect that all imported flour or grain should be taxed, was partially supported, but the bill, when brought before the Council, was rejected. An act imposing a duty on all imported goods was passed, but not without its meeting with general disapproval, as it taxed the immigrant before he landed.

The arrival of the Diadem gave renewed vigor to the settlement at Australind. The confirmation of the selection the Chief Commissioner, M. W. Clifton, Esq., had made, restored confidence, and since that period the Company’s establishment has made rapid advancement. A trip to Australind is now talked of as an excursion of pleasure. The loyal disposition of the colonists was evinced by addresses to her Majesty the Queen, his Royal Highness Prince Albert, and her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, on the occasion of the birth of a Prince of Wales.

In the month of April several immigrants arrived, and apprehensions were entertained that too sudden an influx would occasion embarrassment: the supply has, however, not met the demand, and we may still welcome many to our shores.

An investigation of the nature and properties of a poisonous plant, found in the colony, was instituted by the members pf the Agricultural Society : it was proved that the plants are innoxious during several months in the year, and may he eradicated by simple means. In noticing this subject, we\consider it necessary again to revert to the “ Observations on the Plants, by Mr. J. Drummond.” There are now known four plants, all belonging to the natural order Leguminosee, and to Mr. Bentham’s section or sub-class Pultnee, the character of which is Beovuiatum, that is, having two germs, but the plants often bring but one seed to maturity. The Glaucus-leaved plant, found to the east of •the Darling range, now well known as the common poison, has no doubt been the cause of the loss of by far the grenter number of animals. The Black-adder Creek plant, which is closely allied to it, as to be scarcely more than a variety, is equally virulent, and there is reason to suppose, from the experiments of Mr. Tanner, Mr. H. Landor, and the experiments tried yesterday at Perth, that the plants do not act as a poison after the seeds are shed, until they shoot up again fresh from the root, which they do in the months, of May and June. The narrow-leaved poison found near York, was first discovered by the natives, who had charge of Wall’s goats. It appears, as far as can be judged by the plant after the flowers are past, to be a species of the same genus with the other two known poisons, and it certainly belongs to the same division of Leguminosee, and not as Mr. Lander supposes, tb Thymalee (the seed vessels of which are either a nut or a drupe). This plant appears to be a more virulent poison than the others, as it acts as. much in a dry state, and after the seeds are past. But fortunately the plant is very rare, growing among almost inaccessible rocks, and not at all likely to be met with by cattle or sheep, and only by goats under particular circumstances. It was first discovered, as I stated before, by the natives, who brought a branch of it to Mr. Wall, who stuck it up in his house at York. It accidentally fell down, and was eaten by a pet lamb, which soon died, poisoned by it. The fourth plant belongs to the same section of Leguminosee, but a different genus, on account of the different shape of the pods; they resemble Chorizen\a, but I do not think the plant is a true species of that genus ; the leaves are opposite, which is rather unusual in Leguminosee, but common at Swan River. This plant has not been put to the test of experiment, hut' there is sfrong circumstantial evidence of its being a poison; from the observations of Mr. Dod, jun., of the York district. Some casualties have occurred to the shipping* bubal though of moment to the owners and -insliters,' have no reference to the insecurity Of our harbour. Two vessels were lost in approaching an open roadstead, and one on the Abrolhos reef/some 3QO miles distant from the anchoraget These unhappy events have their individual'causes ofexplanation,but it is unjust to foist the blame upon either the approaches to. anchorages, or the protection the afford.

Sale of Land and Town Allotments.— Messrs; L. & W.‘ Samson sold at public auction,

on Wednesday .last, a grant of land - situate in the Avon|district, containing 2,560 acres, with the improvements thereon, for 520/. Dr. Viveash was the fortunate purchaser. This is understood to be as fine a grant as any on the Avon, but owing to its being forced on the market at auction, it has. scarcely realised one-half of its value. Here we have another proof of the injurious consequences arising from forced sales in a small community like this, more particularly at those seasons when cash is not easily to be obtained, for any description of property, although offered at a most ruinous sacrifice. Can it be wondered at when such instances of the sale of land come under notice, that the crown lands at 20s. per acre/or cash remainpn hand, placed out of the reach of any rational purchaser.

Allotments.— Half of an allotment in a most desirable situation in the central part of the town of Perth, with a good brick building, four-stall stable, and outhouses, upon it, was sold by the Sheriff a few days ago, under execution, for 400/. The buildings alone must have cost more than this sum. Mr. Croft was the purchaser. Three allotments at Freemantle, in a good situation, were sold by Messrs. Samson on the 21st instant; two for 30/. each, and one for 25/. They are in fee-simple, and have a stone wall four feet high facing the street. — Ibid. We publish this week a most satisfactory report relating to the affairs of the Western Australian Bank. At the formation of this bank, it was apprehended by many persons that the overpowering resources of the Australasian Bank, a branch of which was established in the colony a short time previously, would have weighed the former bank down. It has stood its ground, however, and, at present, is a formidable rival to the great Australasian. What will our friends at home say to our local hank making a dividend at 19 per cent, per annum ? The Government juvenile emigrants, landed here in August last, were placed, immediately on their arrival, in suitable situations ; and such has been the success of the experiment, that numerous applications heve been made to the guardian, Mr. J. Schoales, to be entered on the list as applicants for the choice in rotation from the next arrivals. These boys are sent out by the Government from the Parkhurst .establishment, and it is pleasing to find that the benevolent intentions of the promoters of this experiment have been assisted and satisfactorily carried out in this colony. A full report communicated to his Excellency the Governor by the guardian of the juvenile emigrants, stating their classification and employments, as well as their condition, will be published by the Local Government in the next week’s Gazette.

(From the Weekly Chronicle.) The new (downing-street, not wakefield,) principle of colonisation ; —or, the the ART OF TORMENTING PRACTICALLY EXEMPLIFIED. The Colonial office seems to have taken Dean Swift as its model. His instructions to servants are its text-book for Governors, and, as a servant has nothing to do but to follow the Dean’s advice literally, in order to make a hell, upon earth of the house he lives in, so a Governor need only adhere to the recommendations of Downing-street, if he wish to make his person odious, and his authority contemptible. We are not speaking here of old, established, Colonies, —still less of Colonies which have the power of protecting themselves by their institutions. There Governors are harmless enough, and even useful, occasionally. The place to study the vagaries of Governorship, is. in an infant colony, struggling through the difficulties of a first settlement —more especially if, in . that settlement, it should have alarmed the Bureaucracy of Downing-street, by any appearance of slighting its authority. Now, if ever there were a .case, in which such a desire, or design, was —we wiU not say pardonable, but inevitable—it was that of the New Zealand Company. To.rmed upon the soundest principles—composed of the most practical men —for the names of some of our greatest merchants and shipowners are to be fpund amongst its Directors—amply supplied with capital—and taking every imaginable precaution for the safety, comfort, and ultimate prosperity, of the emigrants, who sought, through. it>. the means of bettering their condition, it had the additional merit of applying its resources to an Island, by far the most important in the. Southern. Hemisphere, and which, but for. its promptitude, and energy, would have been annexed to Trance within six months after the, commencement of its operations. ; Yet,, from first to last, it was thwarted, and, browbeaten by the Government, One might have thought the Barings, and Petres, and Soames, and Sinclairs, who watched the development of this enterprise with parental anxiety, and endeavoured ,by representations, deputations, and solicitations of every kind, to propitiate the Government in its favour, were a set of uhprimcipled conspirators, banded, together for th,e purpose Of dismembering the British empire,, instead of adding a fresh jewel to its Crown. Well do we recollect the comings and. goings of those days, and the moral torture, to which

sqme hundreds of respectable individuals were consigned, who had realised their property in in this country, in order to seek a new home, and were left,to, waste their substance in all the miseries of hope, deferred,-while their Directors were endeavouring to impart something like, fixity of purpose to the vacillations of Lord, Glenelg, or to warm, by their own enthusiasm, the. cautious frigidity of Lord John Russell. Everybody knows the issue, who has taken the slightest interest in Colonial matters. The 1 Government, after many fair .promises, and foul failures, forced the Company to choose-between disappointing the hopes of men, who had trusted to it, and staked their fortunes upon the hopes which it held founding a Colony without the aid, or sanction, of the Crown. The Company chose the last alternative; and the first expedition to New Zealand actually sailed without any legal authority whatsoever to hold it together—the members being simply bound by a voluntary pledge, to live under a sort of Constitution Which they had devised for themselves/until the Government chose to recognise them as its subjects. The thing was novel. The precedent startling. The Whig Cabinet itself was roused by it; —and Lord John Russell never gave a stronger proof of that sound sense, which, in spite of occasional mistakes, seldom fails him, when it comes to the pinch, than he did in reopening negociations with the New Zealand Company —conceding its charter —celebrating his reconciliation with it by the dinner, which he accepted from its Directors; and accompanying these conciliatory steps by the formal annexation of New Zealand to Great Britain. Six months later, as we said before, Louis Philippe would have forestalled him. But though great men can afford to admit their mistakes, it is the characteristic of littleness to persist in error. Lord John Russell might forgive, and forget, the good things which he was forced to do. Not so his clerks; and it is the clerks who form the permanent atmosphere of Downing-street. They have never pardoned the New Zealand Company for having dared to dispense with their assistance; and, amidst the perpetual changes at the head of the department, they have ample means of indulging their hostility. They could not stop the New Zealand Charter —hut they have given the colony a Governor, to whom the Charter is as hateful as it is to themselves; and so effectually does the one blessing counterbalance the other, that t© get rid of both would be an excellent bargain. Nothing can be more curious than the Colo-nial-office theory of Governorships, as exemplified in this unfortunate colony. First, catch your Governor —as Mrs. Glass says of her hare —a matter, in which there is not the slightest difficulty in these hard times, when Governors may be picked up at the corner of the street, with as much facility as the quails were by the Israelites in the Desert. Having caught the man you want, drop him upon that precise point of his future Barataria, at which he can be of least utility to its inhabitants. Give liim some troops —a few policeman —three or four Har-bour-masters, (the harbours are of little conseduence,) —a Colonial-secretary —and a Custom-house-officer, or two —as a sort of nucleus of civilization. Let all this be done, as Dean Swift would enjoin, without the slightest reference. to the progress of settlement, or the wants of the population —and the ground is then clear for future annoyances. The Governor is, of course, infallible—for a Governor is not a Governor if ever allowed to be mistaken. This is the first postulate in the science of Colonial mis-management; and, as a necessary consequence, it follows that, right or wrong, the Governor must be supported; —mot from any. regard that the Colonial-office bears to his person, but because it sees in him its own representative. He is the Stanley, or Stephen, of the Antipodes; a sort of duodecimo despot—shining as Rogers says, 11 With, the mild magic of reflected light,” and sheltering; under the mantle of Downingstreet, his own mischievous, and blundering, incapacity. Having thus developed the principles of colonisation, as professed at Head-quarters, we shall take the liberty of bringing under Lord Stanley’s notice the practical application of them by Capt. Hobson in New Zealand. His Lordship may not be responsible for the choice of that functionary, but he is for supporting him in his malevolence and folly ; and if we can. show that, from first to last, he has been animated by a paltry jealousy of those whose interests it was his duty to promote—that he has paralysed their industry—shaken their confidence, in the justice of their own Government—tried to seduce the labourers, whose passage they had paid for—and to embroil them with the natives, by disputing their title,, to the lands,, which they held under a Government charter —and all this to make New Zealand the very dearest Government,. iii proportion to the population, that is known upon the face of the , globe—;we think that we shall have made out. a. case, that will rouse the indignation of the public,, and justify our demand.; for the instant disipissal of a man, who. has done more.harm within his.limited, sphere; than was ever done before by any public officer, .. . , ■