Chapter 2: 13 (4)

I am not of course, as I have said, prepared here even to sketch a new plan of convict discipline; but I think that the suggestion I have made with reference to the employment of prisoners in the construction of railroads, the capital to be supplied by a private company, would afford a temporary relief to the labour market, whilst it would confer a lasting benefit on the colony. During the diversion thus created, time would be afforded for digesting a plan of convict discipline, which should be consistent with economy, with a due regard to the interests of the settlers, and with the moral improvement of the prisoners.

LIGHTHOUSES IN BASS STRAIT.

I would also suggest another mode of employing the probationers. They might be dispersed through the islands in Bass Strait, and engaged in constructing the lighthouses which are so much wanted there. Six years ago his Excellency Sir John Franklin drew the attention of the Government of New South Wales to the necessity existing for these lighthouses. On this occasion a mass of evidence was given before the Legislative Council as to which would be the most eligible sites; but up to this period only two have been founded, both by the Tasmanian Government, one on the Chappell Isles, another in Banks Strait. The important ones for the eastern and western entrances of the Strait have been neglected, although the fullest information was obtained on the subject. Opinions concur in representing Kent Group as the best position for a light at the eastern entrance, where certainly one is most required, the Strait being there so much impeded with rocks and islands. I gave my opinion to this effect before the Legislative Council, in September, 1842. At the same time, for the western entrance, I recommended Cape Otway in preference to the north end of King Island, for reasons already assigned.* The melancholy wrecks that have of late occurred in Bass Strait will, it is to be hoped, direct immediate attention to the construction of these lighthouses, and I think that the collateral benefits to be derived from the dispersion of the convicts ought to be given their due weight. The expense would, in consequence of the ample supply of labour, be small; some of the islands afford stone in abundance; and the convicts might raise part of their food in the vicinity of the proposed buildings. I cannot but think that this, in the end, will prove a lucrative undertaking for Government; as on the number of vessels that pass, light-dues of about a penny a ton might be levied.

(*Footnote. The following is the Report of the Committee of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, on lighthouses proposed to be erected in Bass Strait: Your Committee have the honour to report, that having been favoured with the attendance of Captain Stokes, of her Majesty's ship Beagle, lately returned from a survey of Bass Strait, and ascertained his ideas as to the best position for placing a lighthouse at the western entrance thereof, they are induced to change their opinion as set forth in their Report of the 1st September, 1841, and to coincide with him in thinking that Cape Otway would be a better site for a lighthouse than King Island, as being equally advantageous to the trade at large, and much more so to that of Port Phillip.

It would appear, too, that no danger could accrue to vessels endeavouring to make the former, while much mischief might arise in trying to sight the latter, should there be any error in their reckoning; and that it is therefore desirable to keep them as far as possible to the northward of King Island, instead of inducing them to risk the danger of approaching it, to ascertain their true position.

Captain Stokes perfectly coincides with the Committee, in the opinion formerly expressed by them, that the eastern island of Kent Group, is the best position for a light at the eastern entrance of Bass Strait; and they beg leave respectfully to recommend to your Excellency and honourable Council, that immediate steps may be taken for commencing so desirable an undertaking as the erection of a lighthouse on that spot.

(Signed) J. GIBBES, Chairman. Council Chamber, 6th September, 1842.)

In another part of this work I have adverted to the desirability of forming other convict establishments than those at present existing, particularly on the north-west and north-east coasts; and I would especially recommend the neighbourhood of Hanover Bay on the former, and Halifax Bay on the latter.* By these means many hitherto untrodden lands may speedily be adapted to the purposes of colonization, and reclaimed from their present unprofitable state. In a country like Australia, where the proportion of bad land predominates, it is almost necessary, in the first instance, to force settlements by means of convict labour. A number of buildings is always a cheering sight to a settler on his first arrival, and gives him encouragement to exertion; whereas, if the country wears its natural arid, desolate, uninviting appearance, dejection and despondency ensue.

(*Footnote. We have just learned that it is the intention of Government to form a settlement of the kind mentioned in the text on the north-east coast; and that the province is to be called North Australia, the southern boundary of which is to be the 26th parallel. I have already expressed my opinion, that convicts should not be sent to Port Essington, as the proximity of the islands would afford them facilities of escape.)

COMET.

During our stay in the Derwent, perhaps one of the most splendid comets that has ever appeared, illuminated the southern hemisphere for several nights. We did not see it until the evening of the 5th of March; but it was observed on the 2nd at Launceston; and by a ship at sea, off Cape Leeuwin, on the 27th of February. Several observations were made with it, when the nucleus, which was of a deep red colour, somewhat resembling the planet Mars, was visible.* The length of the tail (on the 5th) measured forty degrees; but was afterwards ten degrees longer. Towards its centre it showed great intensity of light, becoming visible in the crepusculum before stars of the second magnitude. Through its more attenuated extremity, the stars were plainly seen, the coma seeming to be much less dense, showing the sky through the centre like a dark line.

(*Footnote. On the evening of the 5th its right ascension was found to be about 0 hours 13 minutes 0 seconds, and declination about 13 degrees 0 minutes South. The following evening it was observed to have had a motion of above three degrees and a half in the direction of the constellation Orion; the right ascension being 0 hours 26 minutes 0 seconds, and the declination 12 degrees 50 minutes South. On the following night it was found to have had a further motion in the same direction, and with much the same velocity. Its position, shortly before setting, was as follows: right ascension 0 hours 41 minutes 0 seconds, declination 12 degrees 30 minutes South.)

COLONIAL CORN.

Whilst we were in the Derwent, a ship was loading with corn for England; and I could not help regretting that, although grain from these colonies, on account of its dry nature, is well adapted for a long voyage, the heavy duty almost shut it out from the English market. It was impossible not to feel, that justice as well as policy should have dictated the admission of Australian wheat on the same terms as Canadian. The injury inflicted by the exclusive system pursued, is, that less land is put under cultivation, and fewer people are encouraged to go there; both the colony and the mother country are sufferers thereby.