QUAINT HISTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 103, 4 May 1933, Page 7

QUAINT HISTORY

AUSTRALIA'S EARLY DAYS

REAL DEPRESSION

Major ■ Casey, M.H.E., lias presented to the Commonwealth and Mitchell libraries copies of an exhaustive index of the references made to Australia in the London "Times'^ between 1791 and 1892. In. this'potted, history of early Australia there are many quaint items, and indications; too, that London showed great interest in tho progress of the colony, and* notYa 'little anxiety. There is a wealth of information- concerning the convicts, and it is' plain that the policy that was followed in. those; days * did not find; gon-i eral support. : The early efforts of- tho primary producers; make" ' interesting reading, and judging" by their fighting spirit in those days it is little wonder that their successors .'have:.done; so wonderfully against the jgrc'at bdcls-.that have ruled iii recent-years. Much is made of the arrest of Governor Bligh, one of th© outstanding..figures.in the history of New South Wales, and there are references to the state of health of Captain Co olj's sister. ' ' In 1894 "The Times" correspondent, giving an account of Mr. Me Arthur's.' introduction of "flocks of -Spanish' sheep," i wrote: —"On the- plains of Parramatta the sheep now' number 400. Mr. McA'rthur offered the ; sheep to the Government for tho good of the- colony. They were refused/and ho will now trade in wool himself." ■ The beginnings of- a great industry and a rioblcvfamily which played so important a part in the development of Australia, are- thus epitomised;'.. . One wonders whether Mr. Me Arthur ■ ever dreamed of the day when the flocksl of Australia would run into . millions —of the day when the wool industry-would b,e the main one upon which''the'prosperity of a vast Commonwealth'depended. The struggles of :tho early settlers an 6 chronicled in a number of remarkable extracts,' and it is plain that .tho early settlers know the meaning of depression even more: than those of the present day. In January, 1807, conditions were so bad that "even the Lieutetiant-Governqr is on an allowance of 21b of rotten pork and lib of flour." In even more harrowing terms the correspondent relates that "noj spirits are obtainable, -either." In j 1823 there Was a demand for the introduction into New South Wales of "respectable females." " In 1819 colonists were finding that the work was not too hard, but there was excessive rum drinking, that/was "deleterious to virtue." It was about this time that a Sunday seh'ool was established, and it seems strange to read of such an event in the London "Times." In 1818, it is recorded, three out of 07 female convicts who had been sent to New South Wales died on tho voyage. , Tho correspondent, recording this fact, evidently believed in condensation. His reference concludes:— "One, out of irritability, threw herself overboard, find was drowned. A ball was given by the Governor's lady."