EARL GREY acted as if he were determined that Moreton Bay should not enjoy the blessings of free immigrants of good character if he could help it. During 1849, he, indeed, sent out a few free emigrants but he neutralised the benefit by also despatching a superior number of exiles. His determination to revert to the abandoned system of transportation, being about this time openly declared, brought him into direct conflict with the patriotic party throughout Australia. The struggle that ensued, and in which the residents of Moreton Bay took their part, belongs to the history of New South Wales, and the main features have been narrated in the historical account of the mother colony. There were, however, episodes which distinctly appertain to the chronicles of the Moreton Bay community. While the inhabitants of the towns entered heart and soul into the anti -transportation agitation, the squatters, still hungering after cheap and servile labour, assumed an attitude of antagonism, and gladdened the heart of Earl Grey by an independent movement for the continuance of the transportation system, in which they were abetted by some influential sympathisers in Sydney. Hopeless of being able to stem the torrent of public sentiment in New South Wales, they believed that they could overbear the influence of the town populations in the northern districts. A memorial praying for more exiles was signed by almost every one of the more considerable squatters in the Darling Downs. Mr. A. Boyd, of Sydney, wrote to the Colonial Office that the squatters were ready, if Moreton Bay should be created a distinct colony, separate from New South Wales, to receive eight thousand convicts. Moreton Bay colonists, then in England —pretending, as is the invariable custom of men, who, having acquired wealth in Australia, have turned their backs on the country, to represent the sentiment; of the resident population —memorialised Earl Grey to the effect that they could absorb on their stations three hundred exiles annually. These petitioners were dealt with in a spirit very different, from that which Dr. Lang had encountered. In less than a month they were apprised that a ship with exiles would be immediately despatched for Moreton Bay. The prospects of the anti -transportation party seemed desperate. The Courier, as the leading journal of the colony, supported the views popular at the time with the upper classes. At a later period, when the growth of urban population and the increase of free immigration had made a great change, it did good service in posing the convict policy as no longer suitable, though at the critical period in the middle of the century the leading press was pro-convict.

But the excitement in New South Wales and Victoria had attained proportions so formidable that the Ministry hesitated to commit itself. This hesitation created delays which saved the future colony of Queensland. During several years the struggle continued, between the squatters and their connections on the one hand, and the bulk of the free population on the other. At length, in 1852, a despatch was received from Earl Grey which shattered the hopes, up to that moment ardent, of the pro-exile party. In lieu of offering separation -cum-transportation, his lordship intimated that he would be prepared to authorise the revival of transportation to the projected northern colony, in the event of it being created only on the request of its own legislative council. This condition paralysed the transportation party, as the popular party had been steadily gaining by the accretions of new arrivals all the time that the dispute had lasted. This numerical increase had, at the same time, to a great extent, eased the demand for labour. The transportation party gave up the struggle for the time being. A heavy fall in the price of wool had smitten them sore, and suspended the expansion of their industry. A supply of additional servants was not, consequently, for a time so pressing a necessity as it had been. Its most prominent partisans even professed conversion, and at a public meeting shortly afterwards a prayer for separation was adopted, without any mention of transportation, on a series of resolutions which were moved and seconded by leaders of the lately contending parties, without distinction.

The slow consolidation of the industrial interests of the community continued while these contentions agitated the population. When Earl Grey recommenced to cast the human refuse of Great Britain among the indignant free colonists, they claimed to have at least protection against a servile insurrection, and a detachment of soldiers was sent up from the south to re-occupy the barracks. Regular communication with Sydney by steamer had been established by the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company. The boats were poor affairs, and frequently overloaded. The wreck of one of these, the "Sovereign," owing to the collapse of her machinery while she was threading the intricate South Passage between Moreton and Stradbroke Islands, was attended by a deplorable loss of life, and stimulated Captain Wickham to undertake personally a survey of the northern entrance, which has since been almost invariably availed of by sea-going vessels. The Bank of New South Wales opened a branch office in Brisbane in 1850, much to the relief of the trading community; other banks followed at intervals.

THE discovery of gold in New South Wales —predicted by Sir Roderick Murchison in 18461 and confirmed in 1848 by the receipt from a "Mr. Smith, of Sydney," of an auriferous specimen —had been made known to Earl Grey by Sir Roderick in November, 1848. But the Partingtonian policy of the earl in endeavouring to suppress the discovery had postponed its effects until 1851. From the influence of the stupendous excitement which then swept over the Australian colonies, the northern population did not escape. A heavy exodus to the south set in forthwith, ordinary business of all kinds was paralysed, and those residents who could not proceed to the southern diggings, organised and supported expeditions for vigorously prospecting all parts of the occupied districts which were regarded as likely to be gold-bearing. The main range was especially, and most eagerly explored, owing to its prominence, and to the fact that it was known to be a continuation of the great chain on the spurs of which the gold country of New South Wales had been discovered. In short, every likely neighbourhood was scoured, and for awhile hopes were buoyed up by actual "finds" of auriferous specimens; but, although indications of the existence of gold were met with in widely separated localities throughout he Moreton Bay, Darling Downs, and Wide Bay districts, nothing substantial came of the researches made at the time, and for a score of years later it was popularly believed that northern Australia, as far as settled and traversed, was destitute of the rich deposits of gold which gave a particular attraction to New South Wales, Victoria, and New Zealand.

When people had recovered their composure, enterprise flowed afresh in its ordinary channels. The cultivation of cotton was attempted in earnest, but still not on any considerable scale, although a very lively interest was excited with respect to the prospects of establishing the industry. The coal measures on the banks of the Brisbane and the Bremer were worked with augmented energy and matters settled into quiet progression wheat -’growing and arrowroot culture were commenced; a project for a meat-preserving establishment, with the British Admiralty for a probable customer, flickered for awhile, and the ambition and confidence of local capitalists rose to the point of projecting, but not of establishing, a Moreton Bay steam navigation company, which was to relieve the local trade from the negligence and imposition suffered at the hands of a Sydney monopoly. A spirited start was made and a good deal of the capital subscribed; but under the practical test of calls the affair collapsed. In the outlying settlements a restoration of good prices had revived activity. Pioneers continued to push outward. Mitchell’s Fitzroy Downs were visited by Bunce, and their excellence being by him confirmed, it was not long before they were stocked. The usual conflict between while men and aborigines went unceasingly on, with occasional incidents of exceptionally striking character, as when four or five hundred natives combined to attack a station in the Maranoa district, and were beaten off when attempting to storm the hut in which the hands had entrenched themselves. In the Wide Bay district several runs had to be abandoned owing to the combined discouragements of low prices and incessant attacks by blacks. In 1851 the first wool ship direct from Moreton Bay for London sailed. In the same year a circuit of the Supreme Court was inaugurated at Brisbane in the chapel of the old convict barracks, an apartment which was, after separation, utilised as a legislative assembly chamber, and which subsequently, until its demolition, accommodated the Supreme Court of Queensland. The towns of Drayton and Warwick had attained some importance. Pastoral occupation had expanded to the Maranoa in the west and to the Port Curtis district in the north. Some attempts at cotton-growing gave encouraging results, and wheat was successfully cultivated over a wide range of coast country, where it has long since been abandoned.

IT is not human to contemplate with equal regard the scorn sprouting in the ground and the spreading oak-tree, although in the one is encased ‘the potentiality of the other. Similarly, among the apparently trifling efforts and incidents of the immature community were a multitude pregnant with magnificent Future accomplishment, some now realised, others still only in process of development. Regarded in the abstract, the history of the period of which we are treating presents little more than "chronicles of small beer," albeit their relative significance, when considered in connection with ultimate developments invests them with esoteric dignity.

There is, however, unmistakable importance in the agitation for separation which was unceasingly maintained. Having accommodated their differences, squatters and citizens persistently strove to secure by their united representations the boon of self-government. They encountered a determined and little scrupulous opposition at the hands of the representatives of the southern communities. The southern press was intensely hostile, and where it failed in cogency of argument sought to succeed by amplitude of abuse. Mr. Coote quotes, in his history, from the Sydney Herald of August 18th, 1852, a passage illustrative of the tone of supercilious arrogance occasionally resorted to. "It is difficult," wrote the Herald, "to mete out the portions of laughter, pity, and contempt which must be awarded to our misguided fellow-colonists lying to the northward of the thirtieth degree of latitude." The thirtieth degree of latitude was the line of separation originally advocated by Dr. Lang in his definition of "Cooksland," and includes the watershed and embouchures of the Clarence and Richmond Rivers, together with a considerable portion of the New England district, all of which remain within the existing boundaries of New South Wales, but of which the population were at that time generally desirous of throwing in their lot with their northern neighbours. Mr. Wentworth made an attempt in drafting his new constitution Act for New South Wales to provide against any curtailment south of twenty-six degrees —a line which would have retained the basin of the Mary River to the mother colony, alleging as his reason the pro-exile inclinations of the northerners, and conveniently blinking the fact that the anti-exile party in the north had prevailed, and that in the latest petition to the Home Government, to which both parties had agreed, the advocacy of renewed transportation had no place. Mr. Wentworth saw, or affected to see, foreshadowed in "this miserable policy for separation the creation of a federal government, and the inevitable overthrow of the British throne;" views which strikingly contrast with the prevalent sentiment of latter-day imperialists, which centres round a federal government as the only means of averting the dissolution of the empire. In committee, the limitation clause of the Bill was excised, together with a remarkable one which made provision for the creation of a colonial hereditary titled order. Pending the inauguration of the new constitution, which was postponed until 1855 by the delay of confirmation by the Imperial Parliament, the struggle for independence was continued in the old legislative council. Dr. Lang never faltered in his exertions. As member for the county of Stanley, which may be roughly defined as comprising the present Moreton Bay and Darling Downs districts, he moved for an address to the Queen praying for immediate separation. Mr. H. Stuart Russell, a squatter of liberal sentiments, who still survives, seconded; but Mr. Leslie, the pioneer of the Darling Downs, opposed the motion, and Mr. R. J. Smith, a shifty political neophyte, who had been elected by the oddest chance to represent the Wide Bay, Burnett, and Maranoa districts, moved the previous question. The motion was, however, put, and defeated by twenty-seven votes to seven.

In brief, it is apparent that had it been necessary for the northern settlers to obtain the assent of the New South Wales Legislative Council before securing separation, they would not have been free to this day; but the Imperial authorities intervened. Lord John Russell requested from Governor Sir William Denison a report on the expediency of permitting the separation so constantly claimed. The southern opponents of the project, alarmed and disheartened on realising that separation had gained to the extent of being regarded as worthy of serious contemplation, shifted their ground, and endeavoured to avert defeat by illusory concessions, and by raising side issues. The Sydney Herald, as the mouthpiece of the loyal unionists of the epoch, suggested something in the way of local boards or municipal institutions with extended powers. With wrathful satire which blinded it to the incongruity and absurdity of its comparisons, it suggested that a servile British Parliament would have framed a constitution for even Pinchgut Island, a barren rock in Sydney harbour, had Lord John Russell intimated that he desired their performance of such a function.

The initiation in 1856 of the new constitution for New South Wales brought about no substantial change in the controversy with regard to separation, which continued to be characterised by repeated petitions from the northern settlers, by intrigues on the part of individual dissentients there, and in the Clarence and Richmond districts, and by back-stairs insinuations at the Colonial Office in London. Advices that Sir William Denison’s report had been adverse to separation rather irritated than discouraged the northern settlers, and irritation rose to fury when the text of the despatch itself was published and its partisan and inconsequent tenor was exposed. But anger was swept away by delight on the publication of a despatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which Governor, Denison was plumply informed that Her Majesty’s Government had determined that the time had arrived "when separation would be desirable," and that the arguments to the contrary employed by Sir Charles Fitzroy and himself were regarded as resting on premises which were every day more and more set aside by the progress of events.