HOW MUTINEERS DEPOSED A GOVERNOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22616, 2 January 1937, Page 1 (Supplement)

HOW MUTINEERS DEPOSED A GOVERNOR

By J. C, GRAHAM

JJISTORY, novel, legend and motion picture have enlarged or improved on the share of Captain William Bligh in the Bounty mutiny, but the insurrection that deposed him from the governorship of New South Wales is comparatively little known. Nevertheless, aspects of it are as novel in the history of colonial government as are the circumstances of the mutiny of the Bounty in the annals of the sea.

Ho was given the post of Governor of New South Wales through the influence of Sir Joseph Banks, who had obtained for him command of the Bounty, and who, judging from his letters of the time, believed in him as strongly as ever, and considered him the only man among the post-captains of the Navy capable of governing the colony. Sir Joseph had been for years a trusted adviser of the Government on matters pertaining to New South Wales, and on his recommendation the salary for the position was fixed at £2OOO, double that paid to the previous Governor. An Early Disagreement The transport that conveyed Bligl: to New South Wales had not proceeded many miles before he became involved in one of those violent quarrels that punctuated his career. A difference of opinion arose between him and Captain Joseph Short of the convoy man-of-war, regarding supremacy of commaijd, and it reached such lengths that Captain Short at one stage fired across the

Strange Story of Captain Bli^K

bows of Bliglrs ship. Short was shipped home in a leaking boat as a prisoner at large, losing his wife and a child on the voyage through the privations of the passage. Ho was court-martialled and acquitted, the Court addressing a special message to the Admiralty in his favour.

Bligh took office in 1806. At the end of fifteen months it was recorded that most of the officers of the New South Wales Corps and many private citizens were against him. The question of who was to blame for this has been hotly disputed. It waa claimed that lie had no right to engage in farming on his own account, using convict labour for the purpose, while ho was charged with violent and undignified behaviour to the soldiery and of harshness in his dealings with several prisoners. Causes of Trouble Resentment because he consulted on legal matters an ex-convict who had been a solicitor is less justified when it is considered that his Judge-Advocate was incapable aiul intemperate and a man with no legal training. Again, his vigorous efforts to suppress the iniquitous system of bartering and trafficking in liquor, said to be one of the chief causes of the mutiny, appear to have been more justified than was represented at the time, and the alternative system ho set up appears to have benefited the poor people. The Governor's real troubles can be traced to his quarrels with John Macarthur, pioneer of the wool industry in the colony. These disputes ended in his being drought before Atkins, the Judge-Advocate, on a contempt charge. Atkins was one of Macarthur's bitterest

enemies, but Bligh refused to replace him i'or the trial.

When the Court sat— was composed of Atkins and a captain and five lieutenants of the New South Wales Corps —Macarthur protested against his position, and after a stormy scene the officers refused to proceed with the trial unless a new Judge-Advocate was appointed. They seized the jfiles of the case and declined to deliver them up to the Governor. The following day they were summoned to appear before Bligh. It was learned that they were to be charged with treason and usurpation of His .Majesty's Government. This was the immediate cause of the uprising. The situation culminated in a riot, and Major George Johnston, senior military officer in the vicinity at the time, decided to accede to requests to put Bligh under arrest aud assume the government of the colony. Refuge in Lumber Room He placed himself at the head of his troops and. with the regimental band playing a lively air, marched to Government House and drew the men up before it. An anti-climax ensued, for the Governor "was not forthcoming." It was only after about two hours of searching that he was found in a lumber room. For tiie greater part of the year 1808 a tense situation existed in Sydney. Lieutenant-Colonel Foveaux and later Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson, Johnston's senior officers, took over command as Lieutenant-Governors, pending the receipt of instructions from England. Bligh was confined to Government House. The only communications between the parties during the whole time were frigidly official letters.

Early in ISO 9 he was unceremoniously marched oif and confined in a barrack, but after lengthy negotiations it was agreed to give liim command of the warship Porpoise, provided he proceeded straight to England. He continued to regard his opponents as rebels, and in March, 1809, issued a proclamation declaring the Corps in a state of mutiny, and sot sail. He proceeded only as far as Hobart, however, whero ho was well received. Sojourn in Tasmania

Learning of the situation, Patorson issued a proclamation forbidding any communication being made with Bligh. He replied with a recital of hib authority to "vanquish, apprehend, take and put to death" all "enemies, pirates and rebels." High-sounding manifestos of this kind passed for six months, when news arrived that Lieutenant-Colonel Laclilan Macquarrie had reached Sydney as Governor.

Macquarrie had orders to reinstate Bligh for twenty-four hours and then assume the governorship, but, finding him absent, thought it wise to enter 011 his duties at once. Bligh arrived in haste about a fortnight later, and at once set to work with great zeal preparing material and collecting witnesses to support his case. Macquarrie found him a difficult man .to deal with and said he was lacking in candour and decision, but lie admitted that very few complaints had been made against his administration.

When the former Governor reached England, Major Johnston was subjected to . a lengthy court-martial, in the course of which lie was unable to justify the extreme course he had taken or to establish 1 his assertions that all the lespoctable inhabitants of the colony had importuned him to act. Tt was shown that the requisition asking him to assume the governorship was not signed by more than a few interested parties before Bligh's arrest.

Johnston was cashiered from the service, and John Maearthur, whom he had appointed Colonial Secretary, was prohibited from returning to the colony for eight years. Bligh retained the confident"! of Sir Joseph Banks, who strongly supported him throughout, and also, apparently, of the naval authorities, as lie was promoted rear-admiral in 1811, the year of his return to England.