SECOND MUTINY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23631, 15 October 1938, Page 4

SECOND MUTINY

BLIGH AND THE "RUM REBELLION " “ Rum Rebellion.” By tlie Hon. Mr Justice Herbert Vere Evatt (Angus and Robertson). 12s 6d. Bligh of the Bounty has been the subject of many books, but it is only m recent years that biographers have dared to divert from tradition and accord him his true niche In history. The mutiny in which the Bounty was seized, and Bligh and his loyal companions turned adrift, captured public imagination, and the distorted accounts of this episoae in Bligh’s life resulted in a condemnation of his character, which is almost entirely inaccurate. Later research is doing much to vindicate him, and to the important works published on his career must be auded Mr Justice Evatt’s “Rum Rebellion.' Here a first-class legal mind analyses and annotates are full story of the conflict of interests which culminated in the second mutiny that Bligh was to experience, and resulted in his overthrow as Governor ot New South Wales. Chief of the clique which was opposed to him was, of course, John Macarthur, founder ot Australia’s merino wool industry, and conspirator without equal when his path was opposed. Macarthur and his friends m the New South Wales Regiment had already “broken” Governors King and Hunter, but Blight was of sterner stuff and conflict was inevitable. The iegimental coterie and its satellites had secured a stranglehold on me iraae of the colony, and by the employment of rum (which by virtue of their position they acquired in unlimited quantities) as practically the only medium of exchange, they controlled almost every activity. Bligh, with characteristic directness, put an end to this and lent his support to the small agriculturists. Macarthur eventually manoeuvred to have Bligh arrested by the Regiment, but the ridiculous charges could not be supported at the subsequent inquiry, and the Governor was completely exonerated. Mr Justice Evatt deals at length with the various court cases which marked the preliminary clashes between the monopolists and Governoi Bligh. The New South Wales Corpa, as the only organisation Horn which the military judges could be drawn, unscrupulously thwarted tno sdniims tration of justice. The author, a judge of the Hign Court of Australia, his, by a critical analysis of all the legal aspects of the struggle, provided a work far beyond the accomplishment of most biographers. ffis book presupposes a fairly sound knowledge of Bligh s rife, but it will be read eagerly by students and historians. meet.