Posts Tagged ‘new england’
Discovery and Early Pastoral Settlement of New England (part 2)
The Scone Advocate (NSW: 1887-1954), Tuesday 3 October 1922
Discovery and Early Pastoral Settlement of New England.
PIONEERS OF UPPER HUNTER PLAY LEADING PART.
(From a paper written by Mr. J. F. Campbell, L.S., and read before a recent meeting of members of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Sydney).
(No. 2).
With reference to the activity displayed by squatters about this time (1842) in the appropriation of the country lying generally to the north of the latitude of Armidale, Abington was first taken up by John Cameron, who was one of the first pioneers to come to New England. Some years later the property came into the hands of Henry and George Morse. Stonybatter was taken up by Tom Hall, of Dartbrook, and Beverley, first taken up by Allan McPherson, of Keera. It passed through many hands, eventually coming into those of Tom Cook, of Scone. Aberfoyle passed from Denny Day to Captain Pike, then to Walker, and Kangaroo Hills become the occupancy of William Dangar, whose agent had secured it on the advice of a local stockman named Joe Brooks. Falconer Plain was taken up by John Falconer for Donald McIntyre, and Guyra by the same man for Peter McIntyre. A bushranger named Cooney, from the Ballarat side, took up Cooney Creek, but when his identity was disclosed, he was hunted out of the district. Cooney was hanged in Sydney, and the run fell into the hands of Mr. Robertson. According to the “Government Gazette” of the time, the following were included among those to take up land between 1832 and 1839: Hamilton Collins Sempill (Walcha), Edward Gostwyck Cory (Salisbury Waters), A. A. Company (Nowendoc), H. Macdonald, (Bendemeer), Henry Dumaresq (Saumarez), J. Chilcott (Kentucky), William Dangar (Gostwyck, from E. G. Gory ) , William j Dumaresq (Tilbuster), William Frederick Cruickshanks (Mihi Creek), John Dow (Inglba, obtained from John McIvor), Allman brothers (Yarrowitch), J. Morse and T. Foule (Balala), Francis Forbes (Yarrowich), Robert M. Mackenzie ( Salisbury, from E . G. Gory), Edward George Clerk and John Rankin (Clerkness and Newstead), John Cameron (Abington), Alexander Campbell (Inverell), Donald McIntyre (Falconer), C. H. and W. F. Buchanan (Rimbanda), Henry Nowland (Guy Fawkes). It was in 1839 that Edward Denny Day came into possession of Aberfoyle. Others to take up land at the same time included Stephen Coxen, Gregory Blaxland, and Charles Windeyer. In 1843 the New England district, which hitherto embraced the Darling Downs, was limited on the north by the latitude of Wallangarra, but it extended southerly to the Manning River, easterly to Mount Sea View, and westerly to the western limits of the tableland. The Downs squatters included Colin Campbell, John Cameron, Patrick Leslie, and John Pike. It was about this time that the craze for land, which had induced men of all ranks and professions to try their luck in squatting, having run its course, was followed by probably the most serious depression the pastoral industry has experienced, and this depression was more apparent on the tableland, than elsewhere, owing to the great disabilities of transit and the adverse climatic conditions of the winter months. When stock became almost unsaleable, excepting for the tallow their carcasses yielded, the upland runs, as a matter of course, also became more or less valueless, and so much was this the case that at auction sales of bankrupt stock the purchaser was frequently given the rights of occupancy, if he so desired., With the authorisation of pastoral holdings in 1848, an opportunity was afforded of ascertaining the extent of many tracts of country taken up by individual holders. For instance, leaving their interests in the Hunter River and other districts, perhaps further south, out of it, the Dumaresq family, controlled approximately 175,000 acres, Morse and Toule 96,000, George Hall 76,000, Henry Dangar 48,000, and John McIvor 20,000. On their different runs, the Dumaresqs ran 31,000 sheep, as well as 3600 cattle. All areas ranged from 10,000 to 100,000 acres.
For a quarter of a century after its discovery by Oxley, New England remained practically unknown to the Government authorities in Sydney, and it was not until about the year 1846 that any serious attempt was made to acquire a geographical knowledge of it. In 1839, the Government learning of the rapid, progress of squatting on the northern tableland, took action with a view to the establishment of law and order in that region. The appointment of a Crown Lands Commissioner was accompanied by a notification defining the limits of the new district, which was vaguely described as bounded on the east by a line north from the top of Werrikimber Mountain, which is at the head of the Hastings River; on the south by a line west from the top of the same mountain to the Great Dividing Range; on the west by the western extreme of the Great Dividing Range, so as to include the tableland; and on the north the boundary is indefinite.” The name New. England (“Arrabald” by the aborigines), was given to this elevated region because of the similarity of its climatic conditions to those of Britain. . . . When the pioneer pastoralists of New England reached the tableland they found it a vast tract of well-watered woodland country, interspersed with numerous lightly-timbered patches of grassland, but the coarse and sour character of much of the pasturage, together with the inclement winters and the difficulty of access to the tableland from the east, south, and south-west, militated somewhat against permanent or at least perennial occupancy in its earlier stages. It was soon observed that the granite country on the west, and the basaltic ranges on the south and in other places, were unsuitable for the healthy maintenance of sheep all the year round, and especially in wet seasons. The early squatters on these two classes of country had, therefore, to abandon sheep to more suitable pasturage. Hence the frequent changes in occupancy which, being unrecorded, obscure much of the early history of pastoral settlement. All primary upland squattages were usually bounded by leading ridges, and embraced the valley or valleys lying between. They were briefly described as including all the land drained by the main stream and its tributaries. Later pioneers adopted, where practicable, a similar system of boundaries, but in many eases arbitrary lines limited adjoining runs, and the fixing of these lines frequently gave rise to disputes, in the settling of which there was then no jurisdiction, as stated or implied by Governor Gipps in his despatch of April 3, 1844. He writes: “Parties, originally, in taking up their runs were limited only by their own moderation, or by the pressure of other squatters on them, and it is this pressure of one squatter on another, and the disagreements which arose therefrom which in the year 1837 led to the first appointment of Crown Commissioners.” In an earlier despatch, dated September 28, 1840, the Governor describes the conditions under which squatters held their occupancies at that time. The extract runs: “Beyond the boundaries the country is roughly divided into districts in each of which there is a Commissioner of Crown Lands, who is the chief magistrate of it, and has under his control a small force of mounted constables, who, in order that they may be distinguished from the more regular mounted police of the colony, are called by the name of border police. . . . Beyond the limits of location land is neither sold nor let, but licenses are granted, at the discretion of the Crown Commissioners, for the occupation of such portions of land as may be desired by proprietors of stock, on each of which licenses a fee of £10 is payable annually, and an assessment under a local ordinance is levied on the stock depastured there. Each allotment of land for which a license is given is called a station, and the station may vary in extent from 5000 to 30,000 acres.” The troubles which beset pastoral pioneering, especially on the tableland, were many and varied. Apart from the ordinary discomforts of bush life as then experienced, the visits of bushrangers, the destruction of stock by aborigines, and the delinquencies of many of the assigned servants, were causes of annoyance and unrest, and occasionally the loss of life itself. The Legislative Council’s enactment of July 29, 1836, prohibiting the occupancy of ‘Crown lands beyond the “limits,” without first obtaining a license ior such purpose was, more or less, directly the result of petitions from pioneer squatters, who, under the authority of the Governor, had ventured beyond the “boundaries,” but were seriously handicapped by the depredations of lawless men, usually of the convict class. The following extract from a memorial to Governor Bourke portrays the trouble which pressed upon these pioneer pastoralists in this direction: “We beg leave to add our own personal knowledge of the fact that the interior of the colony is infested with gangs of cattle stealers and other disorderly persons, whose depredations are carried out to an alarming extent. These gangs consist of freed men, who have served short sentences, or those of long sentences holding tickets-of-leave, who combine with the assigned servants to plunder the herds of their masters. Many of these men are known to possess large herds of cattle, obtained in a very short time by a series of schemes for stealing them.” — Sydney “Herald,” April 11, 1836.
In reviewing the bushranging and other lawless acts incidental to the convict days, by aid of information gleaned from law court proceedings and Press narratives, etc., one can not fail to realise that “man’s in humanity to man” gave rise to many retaliatory offences of a more or less serious nature, which could readily have been averted. The earliest recorded instance of bushranging on the tableland occurred about the beginning of the year 1836 at Saumarez (Armidale). The bushrangers in this instance were absconders from the service of a few squatters who had established themselves on that portion of the tableland, but their misdemeanours appear to have been confined to robberies only. In the absence of correspondence from the tableland, news respecting the movements of bushrangers, or in fact any other movement, seldom reached the Sydney Press. Traditional tales, however, are numerous, but conflicting, and therefore unreliable. Of the more interesting cases reported, mention may be made of the Port Macquarie road-gang deserters, whose depredatory intentions on the tableland were nipped in the bud; and of Wilson, the leader of the gang that for several years terrorised travellers, chiefly along the Great Northern Road.
(To be continued in Friday’s issue).
Discovery and Early Pastoral Settlement of New England (part 1)
The Scone Advocate (NSW : 1887 – 1954), Friday 22 September 1922
Discovery and Early Pastoral Settlement of New England.
PIONEERS OF UPPER HUNTER PLAY LEADING PART.
(From a paper written by Mr. J. F. Campbell, L.S., and read before a recent meeting of members of the Royal Australian Historical Society).
(No. 1).
The writer commences by touching upon Oxley’s trip to the New England Tableland in the year 1818 and having crossed the southern end, making his way to the coast at Port Macquarie. At this early date, Oxley had good reasons to believe that he was not the first white man to enter the tableland, for from his journal, he reports having encountered natives, who, “from the whole tenor of their behaviour, had previously heard of white people.” By way of confirmation of his surmise, it is significant that upon continuing his journey southerly from Port Macquarie along the coast, he found in Chowder Bay a small boat, half buried in the sand, and the remains of a hut which had evidently been constructed by Europeans; the saw and axe having been employed upon it. From these and other indications, it would appear that adventurous bushmen, free and otherwise, had already explored to some extent the coastal and tableland regions, especially the former, lying far beyond the recognised limits of settlement.
EARLY PASTORAL SETTLEMENT.
When it became known in Britain that rich pasture lands had been discovered beyond the range of mountains which for a quarter of a century had confined settlement to a limited portion of the coastal region, immigration, especially of pastoralists, became more pronounced. Mr. Campbell incidentally refers to the rapid progress of settlement in the Hunter Valley, and quotes from Assistant Surveyor Henry Dangar’s “Hunter River Dictionary and Emigrants’ Guide,” published in 1828, wherein it is set out that “whereas in 1822 a division of country occupying upwards of 150 miles along the river, which in 1822 possessed little more than its aboriginal inhabitants, in 1826-27 more than half a million acres were appropriated and in a forward state of improvement, and carried upwards of 25,000 head of cattle and 80,000 sheep.” In order the more readily to control this rapid advance of pastoral settlement, and to safeguard the lives and the property of settlers generally, it was decided in 1826 to limit the area within which land could be selected and securely held. The northern limit of this area was fixed as from Cape York in a line due west to Wellington Vale, beyond which land was neither sold nor let. In the meantime, however, pastoralists from the Hunter Valley, whose selections had become overstocked, or were drought-stricken, began to steal over the boundary and squat in favorable positions of the Liverpool Plains. Foremost among these was a Mr. Baldwin, who, actually in 1826, with his stock, ventured beyond the limit. His teams were the first to cross the Liverpool Range and to form the northern road over the gap at Murrurundi. No particulars are given respecting this adventurous squatter, but from official papers of that time, mention is made of an enterprising settler, Henry Baldwin, of Wilberforce and Patrick’s Plains, who may have been the pastoralist referred to. By the end of 1831, the so-called waste lands of the colony had become exploited up to the New England Tableland. The trend of this pastoral occupancy was naturally directed along the main creeks and rivers that drain the open valleys of the Namoi basin, but little information, other than traditional, seems to be available adverting to the personnel and doings of the pioneers outside the limits of settlement. In the case, Eales v. Lang, however, the evidence on record reveals something about the early occupancies on the Mukai (Mooki) River, a branch of the Namoi. Donald McLaughlan (MacIntyre?) informed the Court “that from 1825 to 1831 he was in the service of Thomas Potter Macqueen, of Segenhoe (then in England), and was several times on the Mookl looking out for runs.” In his last years of service he formed a station (Breeza) for Macqueen, which station he occupied himself in 1835. This occupancy, under license, was affirmed by the Police Magistrate, Edward Denny Day, then residing at Muswellbrook. In the same case, John Rotton deposed that in September, 1828, he formed a station at Walhalla, on the Mooki River, and remained there two years. Doona run, which was situated between Walhalla and Breeza, was first occupied on behalf of Macqueen, and formed into a station in 1833. Samuel Clift stated in evidence that he entered into possession of Doona in 1837. In 1832 the Australian Agricultural Company’s exchange grant, Warrah, situated on the northern foothills of the Liverpool Range, displaced the early occupiers of that portion of the Liverpool Plains, and the Peel River part of the grant monopolised about a quarter of a million acres on the upper reaches of that tributary of the Namoi. According to the Company’s Commissioner, Sir Edward Parry, who personally inspected the areas in 1832, the squatters who were wholly or in part displaced by the exchange grant of Warrah were as follows: — Messrs. Robertson and Burns (on Mooki), John Blaxland (Kilcoobil), William Lawson and Fitzgerald (Muritloo), Otto Baldwin, William Osborn, John Upton, George and Richard Yeoman, and Patrick Campbell (Yarramanbah), John Onus and Robert Williams (Boorambil), Thomas Parnell, Philip Thorley and William Nowlan (Warrah) and Major Druitt (Phillips Creek). The above occupiers ran 8200 head of stock, mostly cattle, between them. As to the Peel River exchange, the following were affected: — Messrs. George and Andrew Loder (Kuwerhindi, or Quirindi), Brown (Wollomal), William Dangar, Edward Gostwyck, Cory, and Warland (Wollomal and Waldoo). There were 3800 head of stock held on the properties mentioned.
The squatting invasion of New England (according to William Gardner, of Armidale, writing in 1844), commenced in 1832, when Hamilton Collins Sempill, of Beltrees (one l), Hunter River, from his out-station, Ellerstone, crossed the boundary (Liverpool Range) with his stock, and following approximately the Great Dividing Range north-easterly to the Hamilton Valley of Oxley, formed a station in the upper Apsley Valley, which he named Wolka (Walcha), with headquarters on the flat near where Oxley pitched his camp on the evening of September 8, 1818. The precise route is not recorded, but probably he reached the tableland by way of the Nundle spur, a route defined by survey the same year (1832) by H. F. White, Government Surveyor, in conjunction with H. Dangar, the Australian Agricultural Company’s surveyor. About the same time, Edward Gostwyck Cory, a settler, also from the Hunter district (Page’s River and the Patterson, and a squatter on the Page’s River, about where Tamworth is now situated), is said to have passed over the Moonboy (Moonbi) Range, along the route of the Great Northern Road from Tamworth, which route, it is also stated, was previously discovered by him, and, proceeding northerly, he camped for a time on one of the upper tributaries of Carlyle’s Gully. This tributary streamlet still bears the name of Cory’s Camp Creek, and where the camp stood may be seen in the Dog-trap paddock of Rimbanda. A memorial of his ascent to the tableland is also to be seen in the form of a rock at the foot of the second Moonboys, known to the present day as Cory’s Pillow. . . It is not definitely known on what part of the main stream Cory first formed his homestead, but it is surmised that Gostwyck was his headquarters for a time. Later on he established himself at Terrible Vale, about where the present station is situated, while the representative of William Dangar occupied the lower part of the valley with the homestead, Gostwyck, included. In the meantime Colonel Henry Dumaresq had formed a station in the vicinity which he called Saumarez, after the home of his ancestors in the Isle of Jersey. This station appears to have been fully equipped with the necessaries of pastoral life prior to the year 1836, as indicated by the evidence given in the Supreme Court, Sydney, on November 4 of that year in the case, the Crown v. Thomas Walker. In this case, the historic importance of which is obvious, Walker was indicted for the murder of a bushranger near Saumarez, in April, 1836. O’Neil, of the mounted police, “on duty at Colonel Dumaresq’s,” in giving evidence, said: “I heard that bushrangers used to be harboured at Dangar’s station, about five or six miles from Dumaresq’s. The prisoner at the bar was a shepherd there, and he told me that the bushrangers had given him the (stolen) things, and that they were to rob Mr. Cory’s and Mr. Chilcott’s stations the day after. These stations were about twelve miles from Mr. Dangar’s,” etc. Chilcott appears to have been the first occupant of Kentucky run. About this time Cory and Chilcott Had transferred their pre-occupancies. Dr. William Bell Carlyle, about the same time, occupied the valley drained by the creek which bears his name, and Captain William John Dumaresq joined his brother on the north-east. This coterie of adjoining squatters were landed proprietors from the Hunter Valley, where they usually resided. . . Sempill was soon followed by others, including the Allman brothers. The discoveries which led to the pastoral occupation of Cory’s, New England, were continued by Messrs. James and Alexander McDougall, and Alexander Campbell (one of the five overseers who accompanied Peter Mclntyre — he was T. P. Macqueen’s agent — to Australia in 1824), who in March, 1835, started, on an expedition to examine the country now named New England, and at the time unexplored. These explorers evidently followed Oxley ‘s trail to the tableland, their subsequent course being described as due north to Tilbuster, which station was then in the course of formation. From that locality they proceeded easterly, and then northerly, locating suitable positions for stations en route. Some ten years later, Campbell settled on his Macintyre occupancy, which he named Inverell.
In dealing with the pastoral settlement of the western slopes, of the tablelands, which commenced in the year 1836, the writer quotes from ‘The Reminiscences of Mrs. Susan Bundarra Young,” an author whose father, Edward John Clerk, in partnership with John Rankin, settled at Clerkness (now Bundarra). This lady’s story of the incidents and events of her childhood days, in the then Australian bush, although subject in part to correction, is, nevertheless, of historical value, insofar as it portrays the rise and progress of pastoral settlement on the tableland. Her father, who was born in England, was the son of Major Thomas Clerk, of the Indian Army. He came to N.S. Wales, via Tasmania, about the end of 1835, and with John Rankin, purchased Dr. Carlyle’s Invermein or Cresswell property, on Kingdon Ponds, and apparently his New England occupancy, Carlyle’s Gully, as well. They also formed Newstead Station, which upon the dissolution of partnership in 1842, became the occupancy of Rankin, while Clerk retained the original station, Clerkness. (Looking up records in the possession of the ‘Advocate,” we find the names of Messrs. Rankin and Clerk, both of whom were, as far back as 1838, on Satur, and not Invermein, as stated by the writer. Each subscribed a tidy donation towards, the erection of the original St. Luke’s Church, Scone. After the name of each of the two donors, the word “Satur” is plainly written).
(To be continued).
The Extinction of the Aborigine (1933)
The Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate (NSW), Saturday 22 July 1933
THE EXTINCTION OF THE ABORIGINE.
“REMNANTS GOING FAST.”
By R.H. Croll in the “Australasian.”
As a sporting people we Australians are proud of our records; for such a handful of folk, scattered over a huge area, we have done rather well in quite a number of ways. But, unfortunately, some of the achievements are records of a kind, any country would rather be without, and perhaps the worst is that of our treatment of the original owners of the land we now possess.
What a shocking tale it is! Never mind for a moment who has been to blame; take just the plain, fact that in less than 150 years the black population has been reduced from an estimated 300,000 (a report to Exeter Hall in 1840 gave it as 1,400,000) to about 59,000 and these remnants are going fast.
TASMANIAN RAGE EXTINCT.
Tasmania, leads the way; not one of the interesting race which once peopled that pleasant island remains alive to-day. Whites settled there first in 1803; the Tasmanian race was extinct by 1876. It is always difficult to gage the numbers of a shy, nomadic people, but there seems to be little doubt that the native Tasmanians numbered something like 2,000. Brough Smyth described them as a mild, kindly folk, diffident, willing to be friendly. Captain Cook said they showed neither fear nor distrust. An early writer, the Rev. T. Dove, remarked that harmony and good humour reigned generally among the members of the tribe; and that “the force of the parental instinct was strong enough to render the main tenance of their offspring a care and a delight.” He added that, looking to “the methods which they devised of procuring shelter and subsistence in their native wilds, to the skill and precision with which they tracked the mazes of the bush, and to the force of invention and of memory which is displayed in the copious vocabulary of their several languages; they claim no inconsiderable share of mental power and activity.”
They seemed on the whole rather afraid of the invaders of their territory until escaped convicts and ticket-of-leave men began to steal the black woman, and settlers began to occupy their lands. Then the spears, flew and a bloody war of extinction started. Brough Smyth, the historian of the Victorian blacks, writing in 1876, has some, caustic things to say about this: “If they had not been men and women, if they had not been human creatures, if they had been quadrumanous, every detail connected with them would have, undoubtedly, been thoroughly investigated and recorded. But they were indeed human; and they were the enemies of the white man because they wished to live in places where cattle and sheep would thrive, and it was deemen necessary to exterminate them; and they have been exterminated.”
Leading up to that the famous “line” was drawn in an endeavour on a large scale to drive the whole of the aborigines into one corner of the island. Despite the thoroughness of the preparation the attempt was a signal failure, the entire result being the capture of one native. The others slipped through the cordon. That was in 1830. More pacific, and suitable methods were then adopted by some well-disposed citizens, and in the succeeding five years the remaining Tasmanians were gathered together and placed on one of the islands in Bass Strait. In 1854 there were but 16 survivors. Truganini, last of her race, died in May, 1876.
DECREASE IN VICTORIA.
Estimates of the number who existed in Victoria before the coming of the European vary considerably. One early investigation placed it at 7,500, another at 6,000, another at 5,000; the lowest was 3,000. An official return to the Legislative Council made it 6,000; by 1851 that was down to 2,693; the 1871 census set the total as 1,330. Sir Thomas Mitchell, in his excursions through. Australia, saw very few natives, but early as his journeys were, one of the gifts of the white man to the black had already been given; smallpox had been introduced and had destroyed a great many of the original inhabitants.
It seems certain that in Gippsland there were more than, a thousand blacks. In 49 years they had dwindled to 200. The two Melbourne tribes in 1838 tallied 292; there were 20 left in 1876. When the first settler camped on the Barwon the Geelong tribe was about 200 strong; at the end of 20 years 34 remained alive. To-day, in the whole of the State, there are certainly not more that 100 fullbloods— the official figure is 45 as the number under the cape of the Aborigines’ Protection Board of Victoria.
But in this matter the history of one State is the history of all States. At the 1921 census the New South Wales numbers had come down to 1,597 from 4,287 in 1901, and those of South Australia to 1,609 (the estimated number of the southern portion alone, when the colony was founded in 1836, was 12,000), while Queensland still had 12,614. Western Australia had 25,597, and Northern Australia 17,349. The next census will assuredly show further decreases, for civilisation so far, in whatever form it has touched these wild peoples, has been deadly in its effects.
It was inevitable that there should be clashes between invaders and invaded in this, as in every other country. In many places, though, where bold exploratory nations have pushed a way in, they have had to contend with people armed and organised, whose powers of resistance made them formidable opponents. Not so the Australian. His tribes were in small, scattered groups, speaking many tongues, and quite incapable of unity because of these and many other reasons, such as the huge distances separating the parts. The black had his spear and his boomerang against the gunpowder and weapons of precision; it was the Stone Age against the Age of Armaments, a baby against a grown man.
Nomadic they were, these native Australians, but nomadic only within well-defined areas. ‘My country’ was a very definite place to which the owner was bound by sacred ties hardly to be understood by a European, and wherein he looked for his means of living. That means were the native animal, the fish, the root, the berry, whatever flourished in his domain. Strangers must not enter there, save by formal sanction or at the risk of challenge of battle. Suddenly the tribes found men stalking about their immemorial territory, asking no sanctions, disregarding or pushing a side the aboriginal owners, uprooting the trees, and building huts, despising all that the tribes held sacred. More and more of these intruders came, they travelled inland, and, behold the native game was destroyed, fences criss-crossed the land, and new animals cropped the grass where the kangaroo had fed. Deprived of his natural food, forbidden to roam at liberty, across his old hunting grounds— what was the blackfellow to do? He did what the white man would have done in like case — he killed a sheep or one of the cattle and filled his empty stomach.
TREATMENT CREATES PITY.
An English doctor travelling in the Mallee, wrote in 1851: ‘The result of my investigations as to the treatment of the blacks by white men was a profound pity for the blacks, and indignation against some of the whites for their, cruel neglect of, or barbarous behaviour to, the defenceless aborigines, whose hunting grounds have been rendered useless by the myriads of sheep and cattle introduced, which had utterly driven away the kangaroo and emu, upon which, they had principally depended for food; and, while their, main sources of food were thus destroyed, not the slightest attempt at compensation had been made by the powerful aggressors, who shot down mercilessly any tribe which, impelled by hunger, dared to touch a single sheep or cow of the vast flocks and herds, a round them.”
In killing a beast the black broke the white man’s law, and he must be taught the lesson. If within reason able distance of settlement he was brought in (often strapped to the stirrup of his captor — even as some tunes happens to-day, in certain remote parts of our Commonwealth) and put through a meaningless (to him) court ceremony which ended in imprisonment. Or, when the law did not conveniently function, the station might muster its hands and make a raid upon the nearest camp, shooting wherever a head showed. Retaliation followed; the lonely shepherd was speared in his hut and occasionally a homestead was attacked in force. Then the battle between white and black joined indeed. Once a state of war was established, the stockmen went armed to protect himself, and organised raids were made where ever the natives were known to be gathered together.
With no intention of discussing the merits of a case which had been closed, readers may be reminded that within the last four years a policeman in Central Australia, who went out to arrest a native for killing a white man, stated in evidence that his party shot down 17 blacks and a little later another 14. The court of inquiry officially justified the action — but the pity of it! It seems incredible that there was no better means of bringing a black criminal to justice than by the indiscriminate shooting of 31 of his tribe. By virtue of his office the constable was a protector of the aborigines!
ABORIGINES RESENT INVASION.
Detailed tales of atrocities in the younger days of colonisation are plentiful enough. Many awful deeds were done by the blacks, but, as E. R. Cribble points out in his ‘Problem of the Australian Aboriginal,’ it must be remembered that they naturally resented the presence of the invader of their land, an invader against whom they were powerless in any other way — moreover, every dark deed perpetrated by the natives was duly recorded, but not every case in which whites were the culprits.
In 1843 an Assistant Protector of the Aborigines in what is now north-western Victoria reported that he had gone carefully into the question and had found that from 1833 to 1842 the blacks in his district had killed eight white men, the greatest number slain at any one attack being two, while in the same period and locality 43 natives were done to death by the whites — as many as 14 being destroyed at one tune. ‘This you will perceive exhibits a fearful preponderance against the whites,” remarks the assistant protector.
Edward John Eyre, who in 1845 was resident in charge of the most densely populated native district in South Australia and lived there for three years, reported on certain acts of aggression by blacks : ‘I believe were Europeans placed under the same circumstances, equally wronged, and equally shut out from redress, they would not exhibit half the moderation of forbearance that these poor untutored children of impulse have invariably shown.”
It may have been the massacre of some 40 aborigines, young and old, male and female, at Myall Creek, in New South Wales, a massacre for which seven white men were hanged, that caused the Governor of the day to issue a proclamation in 1839 that a special Act had been passed “to put a stop to the atrocities which have of late been so extensively committed both by aborigines and on them.” He went on to say that he had received instructions from Her Majesty’s Government to cause an inquest or inquiry to be instituted in every case wherein any aboriginal inhabitants may come to a violent death in consequence of a collision with white men, and that he meant to make no distinction in such cases whether the aggressors or parties injured be of one race or the other, but to bring all to equal indiscriminate justice. His Excellency concluded by stressing the importance which he and the Government attached to the just and humane treatment of the aborigines, and he declared earnestly and solemnly his deep conviction that there was no subject or matter in which the interest as well as the honour of the colonists were more essentially concerned.
Two years earlier it had been found necessary by the Governor to threaten landowners in the outlying districts with cancellation of their licences to occupy Crown lands, and with the intimation that prosecution would follow as well, if the practice on the part of “overseers and other persons in charge of sheep and cattle” of detaining by force in their huts black women of the neighbouring tribes were not stopped. “It is an offence,” remarked His Excellency, “not only of a heinous and revolting character, but in its consequences, leading to bloodshed and murder.”
There he touched up one of the most frequent causes of hatred of white by black. Again, what possible recourse had husband or tribe, in their ignorance of Government proclamations and powers, but the spear? Here may be mentioned, the half-caste. “God made the white man; God made the black man; the Devil made the half-caste,” says the Indian proverb. Half-castes. belong to neither race; they are customarily disowned by both. Hard indeed is their lot, unjustifiably hard. As a statesman once said in the Victorian Parliament: “It is not the child who is illegitimate; it is the parents.” Though the full bloods decline, the half-castes steadily increase in Australia. In Western Australia his numbers leaped from 900 to 2,853 in 25 years. That is typical.
INJURY BY KINDNESS.
But enough of assaults and atrocities. While it is clear that the aborigine has suffered cruelly in that regard, it is equally true that he has been injured by many of the well intentioned efforts at kindness. Civilisation and he, as the two are now brought together, have proved them- selves definitely incompatibles. To take the naked black, accustomed to the constant exercise of his faculties in the pursuit and procuring of food, living altogether under the sky, knowing no restraint upon his freedom, and place him in a stuffy hut with a tin to open instead of a kangaroo to catch, clothes to keep him dirty and unhealthy, is to invite him to a quick death.
Again I would record my conviction that the missionaries, earnest, self-sacrificing, and well-meaning, are among the very few who are doing any practical work in the interest of our natives. But again I would protest against some of the practices which strike me as ill-advised. One was referred to by Dr. Elkin in his address “Understanding the Australian Aborigine,” when he said: “We do need to realise that the family spirit is a real thing in aborigine life, and that, therefore, any system which separates the children from, their parents for long intervals is unwise, unless it be while the parents are on walk-about. The dormitory system, according to which the children sleep, perhaps behind locked doors, and eat away from their parents, is not necessarily in the best interest of the children, their parents, or the tribe.”
Bad, too, is the insistence upon the wearing of clothes where natives have always been unclad. Centuries of exposure to cold and heat have inured them to what a white man would call very great hardships. A naked black has been seen to sleep in the sunshine, apparently without discomfort, when the temperature was so high that a bar of iron beside him was too hot to hold. And in the Macdonnell Ranges the tribes lie, quite uncovered, by their tiny fires when frost is thick on the ground, and again are seemingly content. Assuredly they need no covering or they would use the skins of the furred animals they are constantly hunting and killing. But too often the missionary, moved by compassion as much as by a sense of decency, demands that clothes shall be worn.
“Consumption,” states D. Ramsay Smith, “which is inseparable from the habits of clothing and housing, is responsible for a large number of deaths. It has been remarked that while many die from our diseases, a great many also die from treatment.” Decency could be honoured by the adoption of a short skirt or loin-cloth, leaving the body otherwise free. Comparison of pictures of a native in his natural state with photographs of the rag-clad mendicants who advertise our Commonwealth so disastrously to tourists on the East-West railway line should prove a liberal education to those who are interested but do not know the aborigine at first hand.
ABORIGINES WERE NOT WARLIKE.
But what like were these savages to whom the coming of the European has proved so disastrous? Definitely, as a people, they were not warlike. They had no chiefs; all was an old man government. To avoid any hint of sentiment, let me quote from a scientist’s description: “One can hardly be said to have seen human grace of carriage who has not seen an aboriginal walk ? The voice is soft and musical and rich in inflections. .. Mentally the aboriginal in his native surroundings is observant, self-reliant, and quick. As a race the aboriginals are polite, proper in their behaviour, modest, unassuming, gay, fond of jokes and laughter, and skilful mimics. They are by nature frank open and confiding and cheerful under all sorts of privations. Some times they show great delicacy of feeling. In many things the aboriginal is scrupulously honest; and his morality according to his lights and teaching is as high as among the generality of uneducated white people.” Thus, Dr. W. Ramsay Smith, permanent head of the Department of Public Health of South Australia.
Charles Pickering in his book “The Races of Man” tells us that “strange as it may appear I would refer to an Australian as the finest model of the human race I have ever met with; in muscular development combining perfect symmetry, activity, and strength; while his head might have compared with an antique bust of a philosopher.” Spencer and Gillen testified to the generosity of the natives. Mathew described them as a peaceful, kindly people. Many are the explorers who have spoken in glowing terms of black friends.
Professor Gregory, in his “Dead Heart of Australia,” after recounting how the natives with him offered to go without tea and sugar (the most precious of things in that country of bad water) when they found the supplies for the white men were running short, remarked: “The popular conception of the mental and moral characters of the Australian aborigihies is as erroneous as in the caricature of their personal appearance. The extreme kindness of the people, especially to the old, is one of their most striking characteristics. Instead of being cruel and without affection, they show a fondness for their children and a generous consideration for the old and infirm members of their clan, unusual among primitive people.” He concluded, as so many of the scientists do to-day, that the Australian is of Caucasian origin— that is, he belongs to the. same race-group as ourselves.
To paraphrase Kipling:—
"They ain't no blooming angels And they ain't no blackguards, too, But simply human beings Most remarkable like you."
An interesting commentary on the foregoing is contained in an official report by the chief protector of aborigines in South Australia. Of a certain reserve he said: “The aborigines on this land are practically untouched by the vices of civilisation.”
THE TRIBES VANISH.
A few of the mission stations are now reporting small increases in the number of full-bloods under their charge. These are but drops in the ocean of waste — still the tribes melt away! A century and a half of effort on the part of the Governments, missions, and numerous organisations and individuals had had no better result than this — the tribes continue to vanish! Professor Wood-Jones has pointed out that all through the story of the settlement of our continent runs this declaration, almost wearying in its reiteration, that “something must be done” in way of repayment, the resolve that we must deal fairly with the blackfellow. “To-day these protestations are made with equal fervour,” he adds: “to-day, as yesterday, they beget ready sympathisers. Were the aborigine to find salvation in pious wishes, or were he to derive prosperity from sympathetic resolutions, then indeed we would have to rank him as a chosen people, so blessed would be his lot.”
‘A NATION’S JOB.’
It is time, much more than time, that protestation and sporadic effort alike were put an end to. The regeneration of the black is a nation’s job and can never be accomplished by any section, however earnest. Obviously it is a Federal matter, and one that the Federal Government should undertake promptly if it is to retain the world’s respect.
Many are the suggestions which could be made as to the lines on which action should proceed. One basic essential is the employment of a scientist, the best man the world can produce, one preferably with successful experience in the ruling of native races, a man of the Hubert Murray type, who should be given first a free hand regardless of expense (bear in mind we owe these people for the whole of a continent), and then the power to carry out his findings. That will do for a beginning.
Is it too much to expect any good results at this stage? Listen to one of our greatest authorities: ‘Those who think that the Australian aboriginal race is doomed to die out, and the sooner the better; those who think the effort to save him is not worth the making; and those who deceive themselves into imagining that in Australia we already have native reservations, should go to Gallup in New Mexico and see for themselves the Navajo Reserves, in which an interesting and nomadic race is flourishing and increasing.’ And as a final word: ‘No man should be entrusted with the care of captive kangaroos unless he has some understanding of the ways of kangaroos. Much more, no man should be entrusted with the care of a native race unless he under stands the lore, the legends, the beliefs, and the prejudices of the people who are placed under his jurisdiction.’
Pastoral Holdings (1848)
The following interesting particulars are extracted from the “Maitland Mercury” (File 1848)-
"Kentucky," Bank of Australasia, 30,000 acres, 8000 sheep; "Nowendoc," A.A. Company, 14,000 acres, 800 cattle, 8000 sheep; "Giro Flat," 14,000 acres, 250 cattle, 2000 sheep; "Jeogla," Betts and Panton, 28,000 acres, 1500 cattle; "Rimbanda," C. H. and W. F. Buchanan, 38,000 acres, 1000 cattle; "Abington," Alex. Barlow, 53,760 acres, 2000 cattle; "Clerkness," E. Clerk (or Clark), 65,560 acres, 16,000 sheep; "Oban," A. Coventry, 32,000 acres, 7000 sheep; "Moona Plains," 15,000 acres, 600 cattle, 4000 sheep; "Enmore," F. Cruickshank, 10,000 acres, 1200 cattle, 4000 sheep; "Mihi Creek," T. Cullen, 12,800 acres, 640 cattle, 5000 sheep; "Gostwyck," H. Dangar, 48,000 acres, 640 cattle, 20,000 sheep; "Bald Blair," H. Dangar, 19,200 acres, 960 cattle; "Aberfoyle," E. D. Day, 75,000 acres, 25,000 sheep; "Kangaroo Hills," W. Dangar, 35,840 acres, 10,000 sheep; "Serpentine River," W. Dangar, 19,200 acres, 630 cattle; "Tienga," Darby and Goldfinch, 80,000 acres, 8000 sheep; "Winscombe," Arthur Darby, 22,400 acres, 1000 cattle; "Tilbuster," William Dumaresq, 65,000 acres, 2000 cattle, 15,000 sheep; "Saumarez," Elizabeth Dumaresq, 100,000 acres, 1600 cattle, 16,000 sheep; "Tia River," H. and R. Denne, 64,000 acres, 640 cattle, 20,000 sheep; "Cooplacurripa," H. and R. Denne, 64,000 acres, 640 cattle; "Ollera," G. I. and E. Everett, 96 square miles[1], 1200 cattle, 8000 sheep; "The Peak," G. I. Elliott, 19,200 acres, 8000 sheep; "Emu Creek," G. I. Elliott. 38,000 acres, 12,000 sheep; "Yarrowitch," C. D. Fenwick, 30,400 acres, 600 cattle, 4000 sheep; "Branga Plains," John Fletcher, 38,000 acres, 1000 cattle; "Branga Park," L. Darce and T. Ryan, 30,720 acres, 10,000 sheep; "Longford," G. L. Gibson, 20,000 acres, 6000 sheep; "Woolomombi," T. S. Hall, 115,200 acres, 2500 cattle; "Stoney Batter," G. Hall, 138,240 acres, 2500 cattle; "Callaghan's Swamp," Richard Hargrave, 20,480 acres, 12,000 sheep; "Mihi," G. Jenkins, 40 square miles[2], 8000 sheep; "Surveyor's Creek," G. C. Turner, 30,000 acres, 1000 cattle; "St. Leonards," J. Brown, 30,000 acres, 1200 cattle: "Walcha," Laneven, 64,000 acres, 1000 sheep; "Rock Vale," J. and J. Landsborough, 20,000 acres, 300 cattle, 6000 sheep; "Salisbury," M. H. Marsh, 146,000 acres, 2500 cattle, 10,000 sheep; "Balala," Morse and Tourle, 96,000 acres, 1000 cattle, 20,000 sheep; "Haning," R. Murray, 9000 acres, 500 cattle; "Bergen-Op Zoom," John McLean, 44,800 acres, 16,000 sheep; "Glen Morrison," Chas. Morrison, 20 cattle, 6000 sheep; "Guyra," Mary Mclntyre, 92,100 acres, 1200 cattle; "Tiara," A. P. and W. McNab, 16,000 acres, 4000 sheep; "Ingleba," J. McIvor, 20,000 acres, 8000 sheep; "Tiara West," W. Murphy and T. Tullock, 12,800 acres, 900 cattle; "Falconer," C. M. McDonald, 48,000 acres, 1000 cattle, 10,000 sheep; "Nuandle," A. Munro, 56,320 acres, 1600 cattle,. 10,000 sheep; "Ohio," A. Nivison, 20,000 acres, 200 cattle, 6000 sheep; "Congi," A. Nivison, 16,000 acres, 4000 sheep; "Ward's Mistake," Wm. Nowland, 49,600 acres, 1280 cattle; "Gara," M. C. O'Connell, 50,000 acres, 12,000 sheep; "Hernani," M. C. O'Connell, 50,000 acres, 4000 cattle; "Guy Fawkes," E. Parke, 25,600 acres, 1300 cattle; "Guy Fawkes River," E. Parke, 25,600 acres, 1300 cattle; "Bendemeer," T. A. Perry, 16,000 acres, 200 cattle, 3000 sheep; "Yarrowyck," T. A. Perry, 64,000 acres, 2500 cattle; "Europambla," T. G. Rusden, 50,000 acres, 400 cattle, 15,000 sheep; "Torryburn," J. Smith, 23,040 acres, 7000 sheep; "Laura," William Smith, jnr., 60,000 acres, 1400 cattle; "Terrible Vale," W. T. Taylor, 42 square miles[3], 10,000 sheep; "Tenterden," F. Vine, 64,000 acres, 12,000 sheep; "East Yarrowitch," A. Tod, 32,000 acres, 8000 sheep; "Moredun," A. Wauchope, 67,200 acres, 15,000 sheep; "Aberbaldie," Wilson and Milford, 24,300 acres, 1200 cattle, 8000 sheep.
[1] 96 square miles == 61,400 acres [2] 40 square miles == 25,600 acres [3] 42 square miles == 26,880 acres
“Australia Subdivided”
The Northern Daily Leader (Tamworth, NSW : 1921), Thursday 6 January 1921
‘AUSTRALIA SUBDIVIDED.’
Some of the Parliamentarians who are interested in the New State movement, namely, Dr. E. Page, M.H.R., and Messrs. Drummond, Perdriau and Bruxner, M’s.L.A., are responsible for the production of “Australia Subdivided.”
The centralisation policy of a series of State Governments, which has been responsible for accumulating half the population of Australia into a few capital cities is trenchantly criticised, and an unnatural railway system is blamed for a large share of the stagnation which exists in connection with rural industries and development. It is shown that all the conveniences of civilisation, which are provided by the united resources of the State, are grouped round the capital cities.
The remedy indicated is subdivision of the present States into smaller areas, a simplified or provincial form of Government such as that of Canada, with local control of local resources and development, leaving all affairs of national importance in the hands of the central Government.
That the time is ripe for this is convincingly shown and an attempt is made to collect some of the startling facts and deductions which point unerringly to the wisdom of this conclusion.
The book is made interesting by its many maps, diagrams, illustrations and comparative tables, which afford valuable information as to what has been done in connection with the development of other and similar parts, of the world, and it provides much food for reflection for all those who are seriously interested in constitutional reform.
“Australia Subdivided” can be had from all stationers.
Education in the bush
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Thursday 22 June 1848
ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.
EDUCATION IN THE BUSH
To the Editors of the Sydney Morning Herald,
GENTLEMEN, – The post has just brought me your report of the debate on education in the bush; the result being that £1500 have been voted, confining the expenditure to schools conducted on Lord Stanley’s national system.
Allusions were made to New England, and I conceive that my duty both to those among whom I labour, and to myself, requires that I endeavour to correct misapprehension on so important a subject.
The member for Sydney asked “What religion there is beyond the boundaries ?” adding “If there is any, they are not indebted to the clergy for it, for he never heard of one visiting the districts, except perhaps a stray itinerant Catholic.” Now that this is unfair, and to a great extent untrue, will be seen by the following facts :- Out of our small community, a congregation of more than sixty people assembled at Armidale yesterday. On Easter Day the congregation could not be accommodated in the Court-house, which was then used for public worship ; and fourteen persons partook of the Holy communion. And as to visiting, I find by my note-book that during the five months of the present year which have passed I have travelled 1358 miles in visiting the stations in this district, or 3250 miles per annum. If it be true that there is little religion beyond the boundaries, and I do not deny it, how should it be otherwise? Yet it would have been more becoming both in a legislator and a Christian if instead of being ” the first to cast a stone at us” he had helped to send us some of the light which he enjoys, and which is apparently superfluous for his necessities. But bad ye are, ye bushmen, and bad you may remain !
I can corroborate Mr. Wentworth’s statement that Roman Catholics are often content to send their children to Protestant schools ; I have myself taught them; abstaining strictly from attempts to make proselytes directly or indirectly, teaching the grand doctrines of Christianity, and leaving the rest to their parents. And by God’s help I hope to be in a position to be able to offer to do so again. Government aid is virtually denied us, but we have built a school-room of our own without it. The Roman Catholics have done the same ; and if those buildings are to remain useless except of places of worship, let the blame rest where it is due.
Honorable members were in error in saying that there are two schools in Armidale. There is neither Church of England nor Roman Catholic school in the district. There was indeed a private school, and when the master gave it up I continued to instruct the children gratuitously for two months before last Christmas, hoping to get another master; none, however, was found, and my duties called me elsewhere.
I said that government aid was virtually denied us – for this reason :- the school-house to which I refer was built on these terms, viz., that although “children of all denominations would be admitted, the sole control as to instruction would be vested in the Church of England clergyman at Armidale.” It would I think be impossible for any conscientious clergyman to connect himself with a school receiving boarders, (in which Mr. Cowper well observed the children would be”as a large family.”) and feel himself precluded from calling them together morning and evening for family prayer.
The school-house, of which I have spoken, is a substantial brick building, containing a large dormitory intended for boys ; and what is now wanted is a schoolmaster’s residence, sufficiently large to allow him to receive girls also. If this were done, a respectable married man would find himself well supported, and a properly conducted school would be an inestimable benefit to tho community. The cost of such would be from £200 to £300. And I feel assured that if such a boarding school were provided, the gentlemen in this district would assist their poorer neighbours to take advantage of it. But they cannot build the house and pay for the children also. I appeal then, from the representatives of the people to the people themselves. I ask them not to stand by and see us struggling ineffectually in such a cause, when so little is required.
Twelve years and more have some of these lands been occupied. Immense sums have been paid into the revenue, and yet nothing has been done on this all important subject. I have met with children who, I believe, never heard the word “God,” except in the mouth of the blasphemer. And parents who, when urged to assist their children, have unblushingly told me that “they gave them a bellyful of victuals, and that was all they could do for them.”
Truly, the Colonial Secretary was right when he said this was a “disgrace.” And what has been done for religious instruction among bushmen in other ways ? In most squatting districts, nothing at all. In this one, since March, 1846 £100 a year has been given for the support of a clergyman ! I feel myself fully entitled in thus appealing to our fellow-colonists. Let them judge between the Council and us, and I hope that they will not hesitate either to express their opinion of this vote, or to counteract its evil consequences by assisting us in our necessity.
You will much oblige me by inserting this letter in your valuable publication.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
HENRY TINGCOMBE.
Armidale, New England, June 12.
The Squatting Districts
Saturday 22 December 1860, The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser
THE SQUATTING DISTRICTS AND THE RESERVES.
NEW ENGLAND AND MACLEAY.
(From the Empire.)
The following is a list of runs in the above district, with the names of their proprietors, according to a parliamentary return ordered by the Legislative Assembly to be printed, 21st September, 1859. The rent paid for these 7,123,580 acres is £4285 15s, or about half a farthing per acre per year. The amount of reserved land whoch would have been thrown open to free selection, in this district, if Mr. Robertson’s Bill had passed, amounted to about 165,000 acres. A list of the different reserves, with the number of acres in each, is given at foot. There are a few “indefeasible reserves” not included in the following list, but as they are devoted to public purposes they would not have been available for free selection if the Land Bill had become law. We have no means of ascertaining what portion of the reserves has been taken up under the leaseholders’ pre-emptive right-but it is believed that this right has not been availed of to any considerable extent. We give these particulars of the New England and Macleay district in preference to those of others, as it is probable that should a liberal Land Bill be passed in the coming session, a good many persons, in taking advantage of free selection, will turn their attention to that district, from the well-known adaptability of its soil and climate to the purposes of agriculture.
Stations and Owners. Acres. Auburn Vale, J. Borthwick. 76,800 Aitken's Flat, G. Bowman. 67,200 Abington, W. H. and G. P. Morse. 76,800 Aberfoil, R. N. Clarke. 70,000 Aberbaldie, T. G. Wilson. 17,920 Bellinbopine, A. Chapman. 9,600 Booningli, Messrs, Kemp. 16,000 Barnard River, A. A. Company . 7,680 Barney Downs, T. J. Thompson and T. Symonds. 43,000 Branga Park, R. Dacre and T. Ryan. 17,930 Bald Hills, Mort and Cameron. 76,800 Branga Plains, J. Fletcher. 44,800 Bannockburn, W. Durham. 32,000 Bonshaw. J. H, Keys and W. C. Hetherington. 160,000 Bolivia, E. Irby. 50,000 Byron Plains, M. McIntyre. 115,000 Balabla, Morse and Tourle. 96,000 Boorolong, M. H. Marsh. 81,920 Bergen-op-zoom, E. R. Boulton and D. Bell. 44,800 Bartobrick, W. Clogher. 16,160 Ballindean, H. H. Nicol . 60,000 Blair Hill, J. Dickson. 24,960 Bendemeer, T. A. Perry. 16,000 Buckulls, G. Wyndham. 100,000 Beverly, C. Blaxland and T. Cooper. 80,000 Balblair, E. Atherton. 30,000 Cullatin, H. Salway and R. A. and A. Wauch. 11,520 Corangala, M. Caffrey. 15,360 Cunderang, R. and R. Hill. 40,000 Cullatini, H. Salway. 11,520 Clerkness, E. G. Clerk. 60,000 Clairvaux, P. Ditmas. 28,000 Clifton, S. A. Donaldson. 59,000 Cooplacumpa, H. and R. Denne. 12,800 Cope's Creek, E. Hughes. 26,400 Callaghan's Swamp, G. Loder. 81,400 Coondang, C. Codrington. 640 Congo, A. Nivison. 16,000 Dungee, H. Salwey. 11,520 Dundee, O. Bloxsome. 40,000 Deepwater, A. Windeyer. 50,000 Dondingalong, H. Tozer..,. 2,560 Euroka, W. H. Chapman. 2,560 Elslineur, J. Henderson. 12,000 Elmsmore, A. Campbell. 61,100 Enmore, J. Dickson. 10,000 Edgerton, J. J. Fitzgerald. 64,000 Emu Creek, S. K. Salting and A. Macdonald. 38,000 Eurapambella, F. Huth. 50,000 Fiveday Creek, J. and C. F. Warne. 20,480 Fraser's Creek, Cameron, Tooth, and Holt. 46,000 Falconer, West, I. Hutton. 30,000 Fraser's Creek, R. Vivers. 40,000 Glen Feruaigh, McLennon and Freeman. 15,560 Glenroch Plain, James Verge. 2,560 Glen Innes, J. Dickson and W. Dumaresq. 25,000 Giro Flat, A. A. Company. 9,600 Gostwych, H. Dangar. 50,000 Glen Elgin, A. Rodgers. 30,720 Gyre,C. Marsh. 48,000 Glen Morrison, A. Loder. 34,560 Gyra, M. McIntyre. 19,200 Greenwioh, W. Freeman. 15,000 Glen Lyon, A. Walker. 38,400 Gyra, E. Alingham. 92,160 Guy Fawkes, E. Parke. 25,600 Guy Fawkes, J. Rigney. 16,000 Graham's Valley, W. Boyd. 17,920 Hanging Rock, W. Gray. 9,600 Hernani, E. Hargrave. 37,000 Hillgrove, R. Hargrave. 20,480 Hanin, R. Murray. 11,520 Inverell, A. Campbell. 50,000 Ingalba, J. Scott. 20,000 Jeogola, D. Bell. 32,000 Innes Creek, A. C. Innes. 17,920 Klybucca, C. Spencer. 15,360 Klywotica, C. Lawson. 32,000 Kentucky, J. Fletcher. 40,000 Kingsgate, D. McIntyre. 20,680 Kangaroo Hills, A. and Nicol T. Menzies. 64,000 King's Plains, R. Vivers. 17,920 Long Flat, Mort and Cameron. 17,920 Loangra, W. Alison. 10,240 Langford. G. L. Gibson. 38,400 Llangothan. C. Codrington. 51,850 Laura, W. Smith and D. Baker. 38,400 Moonaba, W. G and J. S. Ducat. 5,120 Macleay River Steam Works, J. Warne. 640 Mole River, J. Dickson and W. Dumaresq. 60,000 Mount Mitchell, T. S. Hall. 102,400 Mona Plains, A. F. Crawford. 16,000 Mihi Creek, J. Dickson. 20,480 Marengo, J. Brown . 19,200 Mount Mitchell, J. Barker. 16,000 Mihi Creek, G. Jenkins. 12,800 Mendowey Creek, J. H. Keys. 76,800 Mongola, R. and J. Logon. 40,000 Moredun, A. Wauchope. 76,800 Maronan, W. Rawson. 17,000 Maidenhead, G. Bowman. 115,200 Nullah Nullah Creek, J. Hinchcliffe. 11,520 Nowendock, Ebsworth and Co. 30,000 Newstead, M. S. Anderson. 71,680 Nuandle, Blaxland and Cooper. 70,000 Nullamona, G. Wyndham. 32,000 Oban, J. Dickson. 44,800 Ollera, G. J. and E. Everett. 74,800 Orrabar, J. Furd. 61,400 Ohio, A Nivison. 8,960 Peedee Creek, C. Ducat. 11.520 Paradise Creek, H. Dangar. 26,000 Pindari, A. Campbell and B. Buchanan. 60,000 Retreat, R. Pringle. 32,000 Ranger's Valley, O. Bloxsome. 70,000 Rimbanda, J. Stitt. 46,080 Rockvale, J. Dickson. 19,200 Stonehenge, W. Boyd. 17,920 Sherwood, C. W. and F. B. Briggs. 4,480 Stockyard Creek, Freeman and Gorham. 15,360 Seven Oaks, S. Oakes. 6,400 St. Leonard's, H. Salway. 32,000 Spring Mount, J. Gilchrist. 12.800 Serpentine River. S. W. Cook. 32,000 Saumarez. H. A. Thomas. 230,400 Sugar Loaf, E. Flood. 53,760 Sugar Loaf Extension, J. Milson, jun. 19,200 Strathbogie, H. Gordon. 64,000 Stoney Batter, Estate of G. Hail. 204,800 Stoney Creek, W. Kelly. 15,360 Salisbury, M. H. Marsh. 35,840 Shannon Vale. T. G. Rusden. 60,000 Surveyors' Creek, James Scott. 61,440 Scotch Town, J. Cheers. 140 Tatt's Station, A. C. Innes. 17,280 Tanban, W. H. Chapman and Co. 20,480 Toorunbee, W. H. and R. A. H. and K. R. Remp. 17,280 Toorookoo, Garland and Bingham. 14,720 Towal Creek. J. Warne. 32,000 Tyrnigham, J. Perrott. 16,000 Tarn. W. Buchanan. 16,640 Toryburn, C. Blaxland and J. Cooper. 23,000 Tiengah, Darby and Goldfinch. 80,000 Tenterfield, S. A. Donaldson. 180,000 Tilbuster, W. Dumaresq. 62,620 Tia, H. and R. Denne. 64,000 Tiara, J. Alexander. 16,000 Tiara, W. Murphy. 10,240 Terrible Vale, W. T. Taylor. 40,320 Tenterden, J. W. Cheeseborough. 64,000 Winterbourne, Daniel and King. 30,720 Wabbea, C. Kerr and F. G. and W. W. Panton. 21,760 Woodfield, E. W. Rudder. 3,800 Warwick, W. Smith. 3,840 Waterloo, J. Alexander. 32,000 Whitmore, O. Bloxsome. 51,200 Winscombe, A. Darby. 17,920 Wallarumble, T. S. Hall. 115,000 Waterloo, M. Mclntyre. 92,160 Ward's Mistake, W. Nowland. 81,920 Wellingrove, A. Campbell and B. Buchanan. 100,000 Wellington Vale, R. R. C. Robertson. 65,000 Walcha, Rundle, Chapman, and Dangar. 60,000 Yarrabandini, A. Chapman. 23,040 Yarrawel, J. Ferrier. 12,800 Yesaba, H. Salwey. 7,680 Yarrowich W., C. D. Fenwick. 30,400 Yarrow Creek, J. Dickson. 64,000 Yarrowich, H. Dangar. 51,200 Yarrowich E, C. D. Fenwick. 32,000 Yarraford, O. Bloxsome. 12,800 Oak Wood, W. Penson. 30,000 Glen Rock, A. Campbell. 16,000 Barry's Station, J. Scott. 16,000 Toggolo, R. Campbell and Co. 13,000 Morven, W. Rodgers. 16,000 New Valley, G. J. and E. Everrett. 15,360 Kangaroo Flat, G. King. 16,000 Paddy's Land, Newby and Sons. 16,000 Elsineur, G. W. Sutton. 12,000 Boura Boura Creek, A. K. Cullen. 16,000 Total. 7,123,580
Old news from Armidale and New England 