AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26971, 21 February 1953, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

SOME NEW ZEALAND LINKS [Reviewed by A.R.I C,Borg e Bass. 1771-18C3. By Keith Macrae Bowden. Geoffrey Cumberlege. Oxford University Press. 171 pp. The Journal of a Journey from New South Wales to Adelaide. 1838. By Joseph Hawdon. Georgian House. 74 PPrivde Company Papers. Vol. 11. 18363 1810. Edited by P. L. Brown. Geoffrey Cumberlege. Oxford University Press. 503 pp. As New Zealanders living in an island Dominion, separated from our sister Dominion of Australia by 1200 miles or more and from Britain by 12,000 miles, we tend far too frequently to take a parochial view of history and to concentrate on books which deal exclusively with New Zealand. But, even if we submit to the charge of being parochial, at least we should remember that important chapters of ou r history are partly concerned with Australia, especially in the period before 1840. That this is so is best understood when we recall that New Zealand was in part colonised from New South Wales (early missionaries, whalers and sealers, and important settlers with their sheep, came from Australia) and that New Zealand first became British territory through the “ingenious device” of enlarging the boundaries of New South Wales to incorporate the new dependency. The three books now under review may not be primarily concerned with New Zealand but it is no coincidence that all” three should refer in some detail to this country. Thus, George Bass visited Dusky Sound and proposed to lease the “south part of New Zealand, or that South of Dusky Bay” and establish a fishing industry there; Joseph Hawdon, the stockman-explorer, became an impQrtant settler in Canterbury, while the settlers of the Clyde Company in Victoria and, still more, their supporters in Scotland, were keenly interested in the effect of the colonisation of New Zealand upon the prices of their sheep and land. Dr. Keith Bowden’s scholarly biography of Bass fills a definite gap in the history of Australian exploration. Bass is well known as the associate of Flinders in proving that Tasmania was not connected with continental Australia, no full-length biography had been written until Dr. Bowden completed the manuscript which won the first prize in the biography section of the Victorian State Government’s Literary and Historical Competition. As naval surgeon, scientist, explorer and adventurer, Bass was an ideal subject for an entertaining as well as important biography. Bass was the first to explore a large part of the coast of Victoria; he was the discoverer of Twofold Bay, Bass Strait, Wilson’s Promontory.

Western Port Bay and other important features. In addition to giving a great impetus to maritime discovery, he was one of the first naturalists to begin a scientific study of Australian < flora and fauna. The man, who made 1 remarkable discoveries in the tiny 1 Tom Thumb disappeared in the f Venus in 1803 at. the early age of 32, j but, says his biographer, “in his short < life he had written his name imperish- ; ably on the pages of Australian his- - tory.” , < This biography of Bass is a good ] one, and readers will find it both informative and interesting, but it is by ; no means first class. It was perhaps . unfortunate that the lack of reliable ( source materials, which had so long delayed the writing of this book, ; should have tempted the writer into . sninning out his material more fully than was necessary. Too often he gives the reader the main facts of some incident in Bass’s life twice over before finally presenting them, as he himself originally found them, in Bass s own , letters. This needless repetition becomes more than a little annoying, and shows that the book could have been profitably shortened. While Dr. Bowden supplies a more adequate < geographical and historical background to Bass’s life, and shows, as one might . expect, that he knows his Australia ; perfectly, he is somewhat at . sea” when dealing with Bass s work in the Pacific. While completely consistent in his use of modern names for places in Australia, he is quite inconsistent in handling the names of Pacific islands. Thus, his reader would have no reason for suspecting that the Sandwich Islands are really the Hawaiian Islands, Otaheite is more • frequently used than Tahiti, and while ihe refers to “the Navigator’s Islands, joy Samoa, as they are now known, there is no explanation of the '“Friendly Islands,” although mention ■is made of the principal Island, which lis anachronistically spelt as “Tongai taboo.” Dr. Bowden is guilty of a howler, in that he apparently • has no idea that the Georgian Islands of the eighteenth century I are the Society Islands of today • and, after dealing with Tahiti and »Eimeo, the principal islands of the Windward Society group, he says he then paid a visit to the Society Islands 70 miles further to the west.” Possibly the Adelaide printing of this book accounts for two or three minor lapses in the proof-reading. , The fact that Dr, Bowden should ihave considered it necessary to reproduce so many of Bass’s letters reminds us that only recourse to original sources can give the fullest possible understanding and flavour of the lives, thinking and actions of past generajtions. Both Hawdon’s Journal and the Clyde Company Papers are books of original documents, which, with a small amount of editing, bring to life the thoughts and events of the late eighteen thirties. They throw new and reliable light on the problems of the settlers in what was mainly unexplored country, and they give the readers of today a better appreciation of the type of man who pioneered new stock routes and found water and fertile land.

Just to the left of the main door of the Cathedral in Christchurch is a stained glass window erected to the memory of Joseph Hawdon who died in this city, April 12th, 1871. Although the introduction to his Journal records that he “raised sheep and* cattle in Victoria until 1858, when he went to New Zealand,” B. G. D. Acland has stated that he was associated with the Aitken Brothers in the bringing over to Canterbury at the beginning of 1851 of a ship-load of sheep and cattle, that he took up Run 15~on Spaxton in j-852 and Run 89 on the Rakaia in May, 1853, and that in 1857 he took up both Craigiebum and Grasmere. Acland’s last comment reads: “He had been a great explorer and squatter in Australia and a very successful squatter m New Zealand. He made a fortune.” His name has been perpetuated in the Hawdon river, a tributary of the Waimakariri, and Bake Hawdon.

This man, Joseph Hawdon, was responsible for the first overlanding of cattle from New South Wales to Adelaide. His journal, now published for the first time, is a vivid straightforward account of his experiences and impressions on his remarkable journey through unknown and difficult country ibqo mon ths of January to April, Hawdon also relates how the first mail was carried overland between Melbourne and Sydney. He is exB> ei ?®ly interesting in his descriptions of the aborigines who were met in large numbers at practically every watering place used on the journey. J €adin S this diary or journal, the the < r ?? today can recapture some of jS®. feelings which inspired Hawdon the days on which he made his nines. From his departure from ’jeibqurne, where he was “saluted by inhabitants with three times un til. he dined with Governor 9r^«E nars h in the new capital of Australia, Hawdon and his “’Charles Bonney, had endured v2S. y J?^. rdsil iP s ’ and crossed some wa? + s™ cu lt country. Back of water e n (ll heir , great problem—they experiovp^d^°?i?y one slight shower in well 4k thousand miles —but neverthecatti. • y managed to land over 300 “wa. Adelaide. This achievement .onoured with a public dinner, u “ thosa who could not join in it.

displayed their sympathy in the general joy, by roasting a bullock whole, and. regaling themselves in the true spirit of Good Old England.” Not the least interesting sections of the Journal are the author’s comments on the fine siting of Melbourne and Adelaide. The Clyde Company was a ScottishTasmanian syndicate of seven men with a working capital of £B4OO, formed to develop the unoccupied land in the Port Philip district of what was then New South Wales, although it shortlv afterwards became Victoria. With George Russell as the working manager, this company took up about 20.000 acres of land on the Moorabool and Beigh rivers, north-west of Geelong. Volume I of this series dealt with the fortunes of the Australian partners in this concern from their arrival in Van Diemen’s Band in 1821 until 1836, the year in which the company was founded. Volume II gives a very detailed assortment of papers germane to the story of this successful group of squatters in the important formative years of pastoral Victoria. “The rough beginnings, the initial disappointments and small successes, the strong commercial integrity and drive, the predictions of failure so often proved unsound, the ultimate prosperity”—all these are covered in the personal letters, the diaries and journals, the newspaper extracts and the accounts of sales and purchases, which make up ‘‘The Papers.” The sponsor of these publications, George Russell’s youngest daughter, has aimed at presenting in readable form the complete documentary records of the promoters and settlers of this company. Nothing available that could be of interest or value has been omitted. The result is an extremely full collection of documents which will be of great interest to the reader who wants to know how such a pioneering company operated. These papers will also be of considerable value to the social and economic historian, and will provide manv useful illustrations for the student reading ‘‘The Squatting Age in Australia, 1835-1847,” by Professor S. H. Roberts.

The general reader will be amazed at the rich variety of the documents here assembled. They range from the extracts from Mrs Williams s Journal, written mainly in Scotland, with its prayers to the Deity and its reports on social and religious life in Scotland, to George Russell’s more matter-of-fact reports on the labour problems at shearing time, the prices of stock and of wool. Thus, from Mrs Williams: ”... We drove under an old gateway belonging tp the old Scone Palace, were shown the spot where the Kings of Scotland stood when being crowned —but the stone e they stood on was removed to Westminster Abbey.” Writing to her brother-in-law, the Rev. Robert Russell, from Hobart on March 20, 1838, Mrs Philip Russell referred to “the Races, which have been commenced and continue two days longer. “The Town is quite in a- bustle all the morning, but in the afternoon scarcely a person to be seen, all being at the Races. 1 heartily wish they were abolished, as they are anything but beneficial.’ Mr and Mrs Parsons are in Town: I rather susnect Mr P. came on account of the Races, although he pleads business ■ ‘business’ ’ being underlined. By June 30, 1840, George Russell was able to report that there were some 10,771 sheep, 308 cattle and 16 horses on the Clyde Company station. They were reported to be in excellent condition. Altogether? the Clyde Company Papers reveal that much progress had been made since the first (editor Brown’s word for the jettiers from Tasmania) brought their 3000 sheep across Bass , str l a Jl» and P£an the squatting age in 1 8381