Visit of Lieut.-Col. George Gawler

Owing to inability of the various parties to work harmoniously, Governor Hindmarsh was recalled and Lieut-Col. George Gawler was appointed in his stead. He assumed his duties in South Australia on October 17, 1838, and he in his turn was recalled on May, 15, 1841. In addition to the office of Governor, he was appointed Resident Commissioner in place of Fisher, thus doing away with the friction between the representative of the Crown and the Colonization Commissioners.

Shortly after his arrival he had to deal with the two claims for the special surveys at Port Lincoln. How he dealt with them was told in a previous article, but it was not until April and May 1840, that he went to Port Lincoln to see the country for himself. The issue of the Port Lincoln Herald for May 19, 1840, has given us a comprehensive report of his doings on the trip. On March 6, 1840, the Surveyor General was instructed to send a surveyor with the Governor to Port Lincoln, to survey independent sections and proceed with the second special survey.

LAND CLAIM WITHDRAWN

Mr. D. McLaren, the S.A. Company's manager went to Port Lincoln at the same time in the company's schooner Victoria to inspect the company's special survey. By the time the party arrived there the Port Lincoln Special Survey Association had surveyed all the best land, and the outcome of the visit by the Governor and McLaren was that the company withdrew its claim and was granted the privilege of taking 4,000 acres elsewhere. It was on May 16 or thereabouts that McLaren bought 400 acres of the Port Lincoln special survey, as will be told elsewhere.

On April 7, 1840, His Excellency, Mrs. Gawler, Captain Lipson and the Governor's aide-de-camp (Mr. Alfred Hardy) with attendants left by the brig Porter from Holdfast Bay for Port Lincoln, accompanied by the government cutter Waterwitch. They arrived on April 8. Probably Mr. T. Burr (deputy Surveyor-General) accompanied the party, and may have been one of the attendants.

The local harbormaster boarded the brig at the entrance. The Governor was greeted with a salute from Dr. Harvey's and Mr. Porter's guns. A levee was held on Friday, April 10, and an address was presented to the Governor. It was read by Matthew Smith. After voicing loyal sentiments, the address went on to say :

"Your Excellency is the first ruler of the Province who has visited this portion of the settlement and we beg leave to express a hope, that such part of the district as may, during your continuance here, be visited by your Excellency will afford you as much gratification as the sight of our beautiful bay and its surrounding scenery must have done."

" In the midst of reports, hostile to the eligibility of Port Lincoln as a settlement, and to Boston Bay as a safe and accessible harbor, we congratulate ourselves on the arrival of your Excellency, feeling the utmost confidence in the justice and impartiality of your decision on these points." The address was signed by about 80 inhabitants.

"HARBOR UNSURPASSED."

His Excellency in replying stated that he was " very gratified with the view of your magnificent harbour, it I cannot certainly be surpassed in the world, for commodiousness, safety and facility of access. I most sincerely desire for it all the success which it deserves and am persuaded, from what 1 have already seen, that much may be done for it and with it, by unity, industry, enterprise and perseverance among the settlers on its shores."

" I trust that these principles will be characteristics of South Australians wherever they may be found — differing in relative positions and in those minor points in which men will differ, but agreeing heartily in that great object — the general prosperity of the Province and labouring for its attainment."

The following ladies and gentlemen were presented to His Excellency and Mrs. Gawler by Alfred Hardy : — W. F. Porter and wife and Miss Porter, David McLaren, Matthew Smith, J. B. Harvey and wife, Barnard, Barnett, Bentham, Bishop, Blot, DeHane and wife, Hutchinson, Kemp and wife and two Misses Kemp, Latham, J. Mitchell, Piddington and wife, Poole, R. F. Porter and wife, H. J., W., and S. Smith, A. White, B. P. Winter and Miss Hawson.

During the Governor's absence from Adelaide, R. Gouger was appointed to act in his stead, and Charles Sturt was appointed to cany out the duties of Land Commissioner.

The Governor rode out to North Side Hill and viewed the country from the same hill as did Flinders, 38 years previously, then according to the "Southern Australian," "he was, we I understand to proceed overland to the head of Spencer's Gulf with a view of exploring the country in that neighborhood."

FRANKLIN HARBOUR VISITED

The "Adelaide Chronicle" gave the same information. Before reviewing the Governor's trip northward, it might be mentioned that Mr. John Hill who accompanied His Excellency northward from Port Lincoln, left the party, according to the "Register " (9/5/1840) "on Monday se'night" at Lagoon Harbour. Mr. Hill was landed by the cutter Waterwitch near Point Riley and rode thence to Adelaide in four days. A favorable report of the country passed through was given. It would appear that Mr. T. Burr, deputy Surveyor-General also accompanied the Governor's party; no mention is made in any of the newspaper accounts, but his name is as sociated with Captain Lipson's on the plans prepared of Thorny Passage (no date) and Lipson's Cove (April 16, 1840) and on a plan of the journey from near Point Riley to Adelaide, the title of the plan is " Track of T. Burr, D.S.G. and I. (should be J. — J.D.S.) Hill etc. April 28 to May 1, 1840."

The writer was pleased to get these details, for nowhere else is it recorded how His Excellency got to Franklin Harbour. Apparently portion of the party travelled by land and the cutter Waterwitch sailed along the coast, doubtless keeping in touch with the land party, probably supplying them with water and provisions from time to time. Probably the horses were shipped at Franklin Harbour, and transferred to Point Lowly to enable Burr and Hill to ride to Adelaide.

The "Southern Australian" was very wrath about the Governor absenting himself from Adelaide, principally according to that paper, it delayed the transmission of a memorial for the institution of municipal institutions and expressed their motto of "business first and pleasure afterwards." They did not object to His Excellency's visit to the "important and rising settlement provided a suitable time had been chosen." They complained of the palpable injustice of running away to Port Lincoln instead of attending the Legislative Council in maturing and bringing forward the Municipal Corporation and other important bills, also that the colony might have "for the present" been saved the expense of the trip, when governmental expenditure was so enormous.

GOVERNOR SUPPORTED

The "Adelaide Chronicle" takes up the cudgels on behalf of the Governor. " 'The pleasure trip' of His Excellency has for its object the full exploration of one of the most important tracts of country is yet totally unknown — the western shores of Spencer's Gulf. The Governor's devotion to the true interests ot the Colony — the deprivation of ordinary comforts and the personal risks he willingly endures for their promotion, cannot we imagine be appreciated by the 'South Australian.' In these respects it is some consolation to know that our contemporary is solitary in the expression of such sentiments, and that there is not among the colonists a censuring voice besides, affecting the present proceedings of His Excellency."

This brought a rejoinder from the "Southern Australian" that "His Excellency's business as Resident Commissioner is not the exploration of one of the most important tracts of country as yet totally unknown .... but a constant regard to the interest of the resident emigrant, and an attitude to the sales of lands. We need no exploring Governor or exploring Resident Commissioner. This should be left to individual enterprise. The desire for land is sufficiently strong to induce persons who are anxious to possess it, to seek out tracts and districts for themselves."

On the return of the party, the residents of Port Lincoln tendered His Excellency a dinner on May 5. A handsome marquee at Mattison's hotel, was tastefully decorated with flags and evergreens. Matthew Smith was chairman and B. P. Winter vice-chairman. Harvey, Bishop and S. W. White were the stewards. The others attending were Captains Backburn (?) and Murray, Messrs, F. White, H. and T. B. Hawson, Innes, W. and H. Smith, Barnard, Kemp, Barnett and Mitchell. The guests were His Excellency and his aide, and Captain Lipson. Murray was the captain of the Porter, but who Backburn was has not been ascertained. Following the loyal toast— which I notice included: the Queen, the Queen Dowager and the Army and Navy — was that of His Excellency the Governor. In his reply he gave his impressions of the Peninsula, from which the following is extracted:—

POOR QUALITY LAND

No one could enter the magnificent harbors without feeling an earnest desire that they should be turned to advantage. His ride to North Side Hill did not remove the feeling of depression he had previously of the surrounding country. North Side Hill, though very commanding, was certainly the worst from which the country could have been seen in reference to its pastoral and agricultural, capabilities. He left the further examination of Port Lincoln, until after his inspection of the more northerly shores of the Gulf.

He said, " I calculated that if good land existed to any considerable extent on the Peninsula it would most probably be in the valleys at the termination of the great mountain range which Mr. Eyre met with coming from the interior from the North-West. I found that termination seven miles to the westward of Flinders' Lagoon seen from the masthead, and am glad to say that the mountain slopes and intervening valleys are covered to a considerable extent with available and that some long grassy tracts were seen in the interior running from the bases to the southward. The lagoon I have named Lake Flinders, and the port connected with it Franklin Harbor."

(Another instalment next week.)