More About Port Lincoln as Capital

In 1838, T. Horton James published a book ' Extracts from six months in South Australia.' He says he left South Australia in June 1838 ; the preface of the book is dated November 1838 ; the cover of the book bears the date 1839, while the map therein of Port Lincoln is dated January, 1839.

On this map is recorded between Kirton Point and the northern end of Boston Bay, "a good site for a town, abundance of fresh water." As far as I have been able to trace this is the first suggestion of that locality as a site for a town. There are many references to the desirability of making Port Lincoln the capital and so on, but probably all these suggestions refer to Proper Bay.

Light apparently did net seriously consider Boston Bay as a rival to Port Lincoln (Proper Bay). Captain Mitchell favored Boston Bay, but did not go the length of suggesting the site of the town. Whether there was any talk of the township while James was in South Australia, I cannot say, but the first definite move in the actual location was in February, 1839, therefore we can assume that James wrote his views before the initial move to get a special survey.

Again it is not clear whether the residents knew James's view as regards Boston Bay. I am inclined to think not. It was a case of James elaborating his book in England, while almost at the same time the promotors of the special survey were formulating their plan in Adelaide. Some, possibly most people thought very little reliance could be placed on many of James's statements or deductions. He was severely taken to task by Mr. John Stephen. It is difficult to account for his vitriolic denunciation of Adelaide and Port Adelaide harbor, as well as his laudable description of Port Lincoln. This article will only deal with a few of his caustic remarks about Adelaide.

NEVER IN PORT LINCOLN

Mr. John Stephen said that T. Horton James was never in Port Lincoln, therefore all his information about it was from heresay. If for nothing else, his book was worth while, as in Stephen's retort we get what I am sure is a better account of Light's visit to Port Lincoln, as mentioned in a previous article. Miss Mayo of North Adelaide tells me that she is almost sure that Stephen's account of Light's visit corresponds with Light's despatches to the Colonisation Commissioners, but not knowing Port Lincoln did not appreciate the difference between Light's brief journal and the despatches in the England. The following is a synopsis of James's views of Port Lincoln :

It is slated that Port Lincoln was where the capital city was intended to have been established, and " it is a thousand pities '' that the Commissioners' instructions were not complied with. James adds that " nothing can prevent this magnificent harbor. " Port Adelaide is well the emporium of the new colony. The removal of the seat of the Government must follow as a matter of course, and then what will become of the city of Adelaide ?" As to the harbour, Port Adelaide is well enough for small vessels, after they are inside, but it is totally unfit for general purposes of commerce, and will never come to anything, and no amount of expenditure could make it so." James said it was disagreeable to make such comments — implying a censure on Col. Light, but the truth must be told " in order that any impediments to the property of the colony may be remedied, if not removed." Further on, he said "it is hardly possible that such a blunder as this is, this Adelaide and Port Adelaide, can much longer be tolerated by the respective parties about proceeding to the colony, and there is not the remotest chance that the unnatural abortion can over come to good."

IDEAL CAPITAL CITY

Then James gives his picture of an ideal capital city for the new province as "Another town of more modest and moderate pretensions will rise up in the land locked basin of Port Lincoln, along the margin of the deep water, consisting of 640 acres, divided into building lots of one rood each, which will be enough for a population of 50,000 persons, which is as many as the most sanguine friends of the colony can anticipate for a century to come. There, under the shelter of Boston Island, or in Spalding Cove, the merchant may leave his office and walk across a plank into the last ship that arrived from England."

James realised that if that ideal arrangement could have been brought about Adelaide would have been abandoned, and the Governor and the civil establishment should have to be moved to Port Lincoln, therefore why not do it immediately, before more money was thrown away. James came to this conclusion : " Upon the whole, then, after a residence of six months in South Australia, I have no hesitation in pronouncing it a very fine country, and thoroughly adapted, by its soil, climate, and situation, for a flourishing English colony . . . . . But that which gives the greatest value to the new province of South Australia, after its advantages of soil, climate and locality is the splendid harbour of Port Lincoln. It has fallen, indeed, to the lot of few nations in the world to be able to boast of such a port, and sooner or later, in spite of opposition, the capital city of South Australia must lie here. Delays may take place ; the acknowledgment of error, of course, will be tardy and reluctant, and in the meantime thousands of pounds may be squandered and many striving settlers ruined, but it must come at last."

PROPHECY NOT FULFILLED

Possibly James was a visionary. He may, have had an axe to grind, possibly firing bullets prepared by others, but his prophecy is taking a long time in being realised. I cannot ascertain whether his remarks had any effect on the survey of the township. His site for the town is scarcely that of B. Pratt Winter. He did not know that the hills came close to the shore further north. When laying out the township subsequently it was found necessary to abandon some of the northern allotments in favor of some land nearer Kirton Point.

Capt. Mitchell's declaration carried weight with later writers. We seldom hear of James's views being considered seriously, but the sum total of the two must have had great weight in the determination of the settlers to have and to hold Port Lincoln township for their own.

It would be interesting to know whether any of James's views were promulgated before he left South Australia. It is reasonable to suppose that the printed book was not received in Adelaide until the middle of 1839, when the book was reviewed in the local papers. Mr. John Stephen in his book ' Exposure, etc. ...' severely castigates James, and in doing so follows Light's arguments about Port Lincoln and he also quotes from a letter dated September 17, 1837, where Col. Torrens in writing to Col. Light said, " Those who would have the capital at Port Lincoln, or at any other glace westward of Gulf St. Vincent are utterly ignorant of the vast commercial advantages which nature has conferred on the port of the Murray."