Vol. 3. pa. 242. The settlement of the country between Harper's Ferry and Coosooky Mountains, is just beginning. Land fetches from 7 to 8 dollars the acre. Vol. 4. pa. 161. Belvidere consists of about 20 houses, but the number of inhabitants is annually increasing, and the neighbourhood is populous. The lands in the neighbourhood are sold at from 40 to 48 dollars the acre. The town lots, which are a quarter of an acre, being at present from 100 to 125 dollars. 305 No. III. PART OF A CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT AND A BODY OF INDIVIDUALS DESIROUS TO FOUND A COLONY. PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE Of the South Australian Land Company. W. Wolryche Whitmore, Esq. M. P. Chairman. George Fife Angas, Esq. Dominic Browne, Esq. M. P. H. L. Bulwer, Esq. M. P. W. A. Mackinnon, Esq. M. P. J. A. S. Mackenzie, Esq. M. P. Walter F. Campbell, Esq. M. P. John Melville, Esq. Henry Drummond, Esq. Richard Heathfield, Esq. Sir R. Musgrave, Bart, M. P. * During the late session of Parliament, Mr. Hutt, one of the members for Hull, requested Lord Howick to agree to a motion for a return of the whole of this correspondence. His lordship said that he should oppose the motion; on account of the expense of printing. On the same account, I can give here only a part of the correspondence: but this part of it is enough to show the animus on both sides; and it leaves the government with the last word. Copy of a Letter from Mr. R. W. Hay, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, to Mr. Wolryche Whitmore, M. P. for Bridgenorth. SIR, Downing Street, 30th May, 1832. Lord Goderich has received the note which you addressed to him on the 28th instant, with its enclosure, containing "a Proposal for founding a British Colony in South Australia, between the degrees of longitude 132 and 141, both inclusive, to extend northward to latitude 20, inclusive, and to include Kangaroo Island and the other islands on the south coast under a Royal Charter ;" and I am directed to acquaint you that after having given to the subject his best consideration, he has come to the determination of withholding the sanction of his Majesty's Government to the undertaking.(1) Independently of the objections which he should feel himself called on to make to several of the propositions which are brought forward, as well from their novelty, as from the difficulty which he foresees in regard to their practical operation, he cannot but consider that great public inconvenience would arise from the circumstance (1) It would appear by the terms of this paragraph, as if Lord Goderich had decided the question in two days, between the 28th, the date of Mr. Whitmore's letter, and the 30th, the date of Mr. Hay's. Let us do his lordship justice: the subject had been before him for a whole year, as will be seen further on; but why should Mr. Hay omit all notice of this fact, and write as if Lord Goderich had never heard of the subject till the 28th of May, 1832? of a new colony being placed so near to the penal settlements at Sydney and in Van Diemen's Land, as that proposed. I have the honor to be, Sir, (Signed) R. W. HAY. W. W. Whitmore, Esq. M. P. &c. &c. Copy of a MEMORIAL addressed to Viscount Goderich, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies; in answer to the above. Office of the South Australian Land Company, 8, Regent Street, June 4, 1832. The undersigned, being members of a Provisional Committee formed for the purpose of founding a colony on the south coast of Australia, persons desirous to settle in the proposed colony, and others taking a deep interest in the matter, have perused, with surprise and sorrow, a letter addressed by Mr. Hay to Mr. Whitmore, dated May 30; wherein it is stated, that "Lord Goderich has come to the determination of withholding the sanction of His Majesty's government from their undertaking:" and they now take the liberty of submitting to Viscount Goderich a statement of the grounds, on which they are led to hope and trust, that his lordship will be pleased to reconsider his decision in this matter; confident that, when all the circumstances of the case shall be examined, Viscount Goderich will not persist in his present determination. I. That the proposal submitted to Viscount Goderich by Mr. Whitmore, as chairman of the Provisional Committee, on the 28th ultimo, is not a new proposal, but was submitted to Viscount Goderich in much greater detail, and in a printed form,(2) during the autumn of last year; when a deputation consisting of Colonel Torrens, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Gouger and Mr. Graham, waited upon Viscount Goderich for the purpose of ascertaining his lordship's opinion of that proposal. That the members of the deputation were so well pleased with the opinion which Viscount Goderich expressed of their undertaking, that they thought it needless to ask for any written reply to their proposal, but advised the persons whom they represented to proceed with the undertaking, by submitting the intended charter to the law officers of the crown, and raising the necessary capital. II. That a notice of the proposed colony having appeared in a newspaper, in which it was stated that his Majesty's government had given their unqualified sanction to the undertaking, Viscount Howick, under-secretary of state for the colonies, then superintending the Australian department, (3) addressed to Mr. Bacon a memorandum in the following words. Colonial Office, 13th Oct. 1881. "I was surprized to see in the Spectator newspaper of yesterday, an assertion that the government had given its sanction to the plan for the establishment of a chartered colony in Australia. This statement is not strictly correct. It is a mistake to suppose that any official sanction has been given to the plan. The only approba (2) Proposal to His Majesty's Government for founding a Colony on the Southern Coast of Australia. 1831. (3) The Australian department was soon afterwards taken from Lord Howick and given to Mr. Hay. |