Interesting Old Papers Discovered

This series lends itself to recording some scattered facts relating to previous articles. It has just been pointed out to me that Col. George Gawler, formerly formerly Governor of South Australia, wrote from Southsea on December 2, 1865 to "The Times" (London), upholding Mr. E. J. Eyre in the action he took at Jamaica, in suppressing riots by the natives, and inter alia he said : "My rule in South Australia as expressed whenever a tendency appeared among the outsettlers 'to shoot down the natives' was 'the mercy you show to the black men and no more, I will show you.' " From this it would appear that he thoroughly approved of his own action taken some 25 years previously regarding the indiscriminate shooting of natives by settlers in retaliation for murders committed by them.

It has been previously mentioned that the Governor issued a proclamation after the murder of Frank Hawson. The proclamation was printed in the "Gazette," and in addition, a large poster was issued for exhibition at prominent places. One of these posters has just been found and recently I had the opportunity of seeing it.

The following information is not from Government official sources, but is quite authentic and is of the utmost value to Eyre Peninsula history. On March 14, 1936, an interesting collection of papers was found at Bardini, Gilberton. Many of the papers, which refer to the Port Lincoln Special Survey, will, it is hoped, be reviewed a little later on, but the one referring to C. C. Dutton, whose history we have so recently looked into, requires immediate attention.

LINKED WITH PORT LINCOLN

George Hutton Barnard, followed his brother John Erving Barnard as secretary for the Survey Association in 1839. As this family was so intimately connected with Port Lincoln, the following particulars are of interest. John Erving [Barnard] arrived in South Australia in the Tam O'Shanter in November, 1836, the month prior to the reading of the province's proclamation, and George Hutton most probably arrived in the Lord Goderich in April, 1838. Subsequently another brother, Thomas Bond, came out to South Australia, dying in 1860.

Of the subsequent movements of John Erving Barnard, very little is known at present, except that he and his wife led a more, or less roaming life. [Left province in 1849, later of New Zealand and Hawaii. where he died 1883]. As regards George Hutton Barnard, I have been courteously supplied with the following : — " Apart from, or should we say as well as, his administrative business ability, he must have been a man of fine culture. His large Collection of books on all subjects, technical and classical, contained many volumes of French, Spanish and Italian literature, and those who knew him best in his private life, remember him as a great lover of music, a flautist of no mean order and his voluminous stock of printed music shews him to have had an all-embracing love of the best writings."

I had the pleasure of viewing the library prior to it being broken up. I believe George Hutton Barnard was married in 1839, and seven years afterwards took his wife and child to the above-named house at Gilberton (having lived in North Adelaide in the meantime) and he lived there till his death in 1867. The house, since then has been occupied, first by the widow and the two children, after the death of their mother, until the death of the daughter four years ago, the son continuing there until his death last year.

DUTTON'S LAST LETTER

The house had in the course of years been increased from the original two rooms of 1846 to quite a commodious residence. I think it is fairly safe to say that the occupation of this house is almost unique in the annals of South Australia, the tenancy of the father and his family covering a period of about 90 years. On the death of her father, Sister F. K. Barnard, of Norwood, had the onerous task of going through the accumulation of nearly 100 years of books, papers and letters. Among the papers there was found and handed to Mr. Travers C. Borrow, the following memo — after having been filed away and probably never seeing the light of day, for over 90 years — and which can with safety be said to be the last extant letter written by Charles Christian Dutton:—

" Port Lincoln, 19 May, 1842. Please transfer to Captain Underwood my twenty acres No. 64 in the Special Survey No. 1 at Boston Bay. C. C. Dutton. Geo. Banard Esq., Secretary to Special Survey No. 1. Adelaide."

On the same day Dutton endorsed the scrip he held, to enable the transfer to be effected. Mr. Borrow, into whose hands came this valuable memo, is an enthusiastic collector of early books and papers of South Australia, and by his courtesy I was enabled to see the memo, and the other papers relating to Port Lincoln. The memo has been reproduced by the kind permission of Sister Barnard, to whom the thanks of all South Australians, but particularly those of Eyre Peninsula, should be extended, for making available these papers of Port Lincoln.

LITTLE SWAMP BLOCK

Dutton's letter is self explanatory, but it might be mentioned that block No. 64 referred to is at Little Swamp, and that Capt. Underwood was Emanuel Underwood, the captain of the little Governor Gawler, the boat that played such an important part in the settlement of Eyre Peninsula. It will be noticed that Dutton spelt the name of the secretary without the first "r." This may have been a slip, as no doubt he was having a very anxious time just then, further, in connection with the association, we have the three names, Barnard, Bernard, Burnard, quite enough to make anybody spell any of them incorrectly. This memo of Dutton was written just one month before he left on the hazardous journey overland, and has been narrated in a former article.

The late Mr. Holroyd, once inspector of Police, Resident Magistrate at Port Lincoln and proprietor of the Duck Ponds station, in his manuscript autobiography, when referring to Dutton's party stated, "They were never again seen, or heard of. They were either speared by the natives or died from want of water, but no trace whatever of this unfortunate expedition has ever been discovered."

When dealing with Major Warburton in the Gawler Range, I will have more to say about this autobiography, but for the present will content myself by expressing thanks to his nephew, Mr. G. W. Halcombe, lately retired, from the position of stipendiary magistrate, for making the manuscript available for my use.

AN OLD BANK NOTE

As the outcome of Sister Barnard's search amongst the papers of her forebears the following extract from "Mr. Pim's" column in the "News" is of interest : — "Sister F. K. Barnard, of Norwood, has a bank note which she could not be persuaded to sell, although a bank would not give her a penny for it. Drawn on the Bank of Port Lincoln, it is dated 1840, and is for 10/-. I am prepared to wager there are not many of those notes in existence. The directors of this bank, now being defunct, were Messrs. W. F. Porter, J.P., J. B. Harvey (collector of Customs), C. C. Dutton, J. Bishop and J. Kemp. An advertisement of the bank stated that deposits would earn 5 per cent interest, that the rate of discount on all bills not exceeding three months would be 10 per cent., and that endorsed cheques and notes issued in the other colonies would be discounted at 5 per cent. Supposing that 10/- had been banked and ever since had earned 3 per cent interest, what would be the amount to credit now, 96 years later ? Work it out ; the figure will surprise you."

No details of this bank have been found, beyond those narrated by "Pim." It has been calculated that the present value of 10/- deposited 96 years ago at 3 per cent compound interest, would be about £8 15/-, provided a banking institution could have been found to accept these terms. If calculated at 5 per cent, the rate advertised by the bank, the sum would be considerable.

The series of articles which will begin next week will deal with the exploration of the Gawler Range.