AT length, on May 13th, 1859, royal letters patent were issued creating the colony of Queensland, and appointing as its first governor Sir George Ferguson Bowen, a gentleman who had graduated in diplomacy, as private secretary to Mr. Gladstone and who had subsequently officiated as Colonial Secretary at the Ionian Islands during the British protectorate. A second order invested the governor with specific powers to make laws and provide for the administration of justice, while the Governor of New South Wales was empowered to create a nucleus of the Queensland Parliament by appointing for four years gentlemen to sit in the new Legislative Council. The Governor of Queensland was to complete the personnel of the council by additional nominations of members with a life tenure. With respect to the election of members to sit in the representative chamber —the Assembly —a retrogression from the democratic advance in New South Wales was effected. In that colony an amendment in the constitution Act had been effected introducing universal suffrage, subject to six months’ residence. Queenslanders had to be content with the suffrage provided in the original constitution Act, which limited the franchise to such residents as had at least the qualification of a ten-pound annual lodgers’ tenancy. This unexpected deprivation was received with considerable ill-humour, but all classes united in resenting the exclusion from the new colony of the debatable land —the Clarence, Richmond and New England districts —the residents of which also were generally disappointed at being left to suffer the neglect of rulers of whose indifference to their interests they had had long experience. Indeed, for many years later a perfunctory and half-hearted agitation continued in that part of New South Wales for tie transference of their districts to the new colony.

Sir William Denison signalised the relinquishment of his authority over the Queenslanders by a final exhibition of class preference. Having been charged with the function of constitution electorates for the Legislative Assembly, he managed so to arrange them as to leave to the new colony a legacy of internal feud, which for many subsequent years distracted the politics of the country and introduced discordant elements of party warfare, to the prejudice of useful and practical legislation. It would be unjust to blame Sir William personally for what was merely the perpetuation of a system which had for centuries prevailed in what has been termed constitutional government in Great Britain. He simply invested the colonial equivalent for rank and property with advantages in the distribution of the voting powers, which enabled the classes to dominate the masses.

Sir George Bowen arrived in Brisbane on board the war corvette "Cordelia" on December 10th, 1859, and on landing he formally proclaimed the new colony of Queensland amidst the acclamations of the exultant population, who were buoyant with the most sanguine hopes of a progress which should thenceforth surpass all their previous experience.

The population of Queensland was at this starting-point about twenty-five thousand souls. Her wealth consisted almost exclusively —apart from the natural resources of her magnificent and fecund territory of about six hundred and sixty-eight thousand two hundred and twenty-four square miles —of flocks and herds, worth perhaps two and a half millions sterling. Houses and other structures within the two towns, and half a dozen villages which existed, might represent a third of a million more. Of industries, other than pastoral, scarcely any existed. Agriculture was almost exclusively confined to the culture of maize, and hay for beasts to consume. Mining was circumscribed to a couple of coal pits of small output. Influenced by the prevailing faction, the two or three newspapers, which struggled to exist in weekly or tri-weekly issues, were wont to repeat that farming would never pay. Three-fourths of what are now recognised as the richest pastoral lands were untenanted, save by aborigines who had never seen a white man. Population was increasing, but slowly. There was not a seaport town in the colony to the wharves of which a laden ship of one thousand tons could approach. There was scarcely a made road in the territory. The revenue for the first year, 1860, was only one hundred and seventy-eight thousand five hundred and eighty-nine pounds sterling while the exports were valued at above five hundred thousand pounds. Branches of four banks, whose proprietary and management were foreign to the colony, monopolised the financial business of the inhabitants, with an important exception. Many station-owners and managers had no bank account in Queensland, but drew cheques on banks in Sydney or orders upon mercantile firms in the same city. Even current coin was scarce. While some station owners issued promissory notes payable at sight, or at short dates, in Sydney, and engraved so as to resemble bank notes so closely as to be undistinguishable at first glance, retail tradesmen in the town put into circulation a coinage of copper tokens purporting to represent half-pence and pence. These were invariably of less metal value than the sum they represented, and being stamped with the issuer’s name, business, and address, served as a very profitable advertising medium.

High as rose the expectations of the inhabitants on scouring their long-desired independence, it may be admitted that they were not disappointed. In Sir George Bowen’s company had arrived Mr. Robert G. W. Herbert, who had had, like the Governor himself, the privilege of sitting at the feet of the British Gamaliel, Mr. Gladstone, in the capacity of private secretary, and who was despatched to the new colony charged with the mission of giving personal direction to the form and guidance of its parliament. Mr. Herbert amply justified the confidence in his abilities and judgment which had prompted his nomination by the Colonial Office, of which he has now for many years, having returned to England, been the permanent under-secretary.

ACTING upon the authority vested in him by his commission, Sir George Bowen nominated a cabinet, of whom Mr. Herbert, as Colonial Secretary, was Premier; Mr. Ratcliffe Pring, a barrister, and for some time preceding a resident holder of legal office in Brisbane, was Attorney-General; Mr. Robert R. Mackenzie, a squatter —a cadet of the house of Coll, and in after years incumbent, by succession to his childless brother, of the chiefship of that family as Sir Robert Ramsay, Bart., of Coll —was Colonial Treasurer, and St. George Richard Gore —like Mr. Mackenzie, a squatter, and also like him the brother of a childless baronet —was Secretary for Lands and Works.

The Cabinet thus inaugurated is of historical interest, not only as the first Ministry of the Colony of Queensland, but because, with various modifications of its personnel, it held office for a longer period than any which succeeded it, and served as a school, in which graduated a number of colonists who subsequently, and in different political combinations, exercised a potent and prolonged influence upon the affairs of the colony. Thus, Mr. Pring was succeeded first by Mr. John Bramston, a college companion of Mr. Herbert, who came to the colony somewhat later than he; and, secondly, by Mr. Charles Lilley, who, during the succeeding decade, maintained a position in the very front ranks of the liberal party, won his way to the Premiership, and now, as Sir Charles Lilley, Kt., occupies the distinguished position of Chief Justice. The Treasury passed likewise under the charge of the late Thomas de Lacy Moffat, and the late Sir Joshua Peter Bell, of whom the latter became, in later years, President of the Legislative Council, and, during the absence of Governor Kennedy, Administrator of the Government. Sir Maurice O’Connell, now also passed away, after filling for many years with infinite distinction the post of President to the Legislative Council, and for a period the dignity of Acting-Governor, was for some time a member, without portfolio, of this cabinet. In that situation he was succeeded in order by Messrs. John J. Galloway and by Dr. Hobbs, who still survives, an esteemed colonist and citizen. Mr. Gore was replaced by Mr. Arthur Macalister, an active participator for many years in the parliamentary affairs of Queensland, who became Premier of three administrations, and who closed his career as Agent-General for the colony in London.

The first parliament of Queensland assembled on May 22nd, 186o, ninety years, and a few days, after the date when Captain Cook cast anchor in Moreton Bay. During the six following years the progress of the young colony fully justified the prognostications and expectations of the residents as expressed when pleading for and when welcoming separation. The "prentice-hands" of the first Queensland rulers did indeed inflict upon the community some very botched work, and grievous extravagances were incurred in consequence of the inexperience of ministers. But the fecundity of the territory, and the impulse derived from a government which devoted to the interests of this portion of Australia its sole and entire devotion, more than compensated for all blunders, serious as the results of some of these unquestionably were.

So long as Queensland had been merely an outlying province of New South Wales, comparatively slight advantage had been derived by that province from the immigration system. The new arrivals were poured into Sydney by tens of thousands; Moreton Bay had to be content with the advent of a shipload at long intervals. Now, the Queensland Government inaugurated an immigration system of its own. Mr. Henry Jordan, a most capable and enthusiastic advocate of the cause, was despatched to Great Britain, where by organising, by lecturing, and by energetic exertions, worthy of Dr. Lang, he speedily succeeded in directing to the new colony a copious stream of most desirable population. Special inducements were offered by the Legislature in the provision of land-orders. To immigrants who defrayed the cost of their own passages, orders were granted, available in payment for lands, representing to each adult eighteen pounds on arrival and twelve pounds additional after two years’ residence. Two children were reckoned as equal to one adult. An extensive traffic in these orders speedily sprung up. The newly-arrived immigrants, uncertain at first where to proceed, or how to adjust themselves to their altered conditions, were generally glad enough to sell their orders for something below their land-buying value, and utilise the money received for immediate necessities, or squander it in the convivialities induced by their release from the monotony and discipline of months spent on ship-board. To a serious extent, the purpose for which the orders were provided was thus defeated. The newcomers, instead of settling down upon homesteads of their own, commonly sought hired service, or established themselves in the towns, while the cash revenue expected from sales of land was diminished by the general practice by squatters and other purchasers of paying in land-orders, bought at a. discount. This miscarriage led to much wrangling and dispute, and a series of contentions in the Legislature were occasioned by endeavours to repair or remove the evil.

Meanwhile, a proportion of the immigrants did select land with their orders, and settle down. Sales of urban and suburban lots led to additional settlement. A land Act passed in 186o had made provision for the establishment, in each of the districts of East and West Moreton, Wide Bay, Port Curtis, and Keppel Bay, of agricultural reserves of one hundred, thousand acres; and reservations for settlement, ten thousand acres in extent, were to be defined within five miles of every town of five hundred inhabitants. These lands were made available to selectors at one pound per acre, payable by instalments. The influence of the runholders, from whose squattages these reserves were excised, proved almost invariably powerful enough to prevent the best choice being made, and the bona fide settler was seriously hampered by the operations of "dummies" —that is to say, pretended setters, who were generally persons in the service of the runholder, furnished with money by him, and selecting with the intention of securing areas to be presently transferred to his possession. Still, the requirements of settlers were, to some extent, satisfied for the time. The grazing interest was exceedingly prosperous. Pioneers were constantly pressing out and occupying tracts on the ever-expanding frontier, harassed, as usual, by the blacks. In October, 1861, this perpetual conflict of races, which ordinarily was productive of the almost unnoted, but unceasing, murders of solitary shepherds and straggling stockmen, produced one of its more serious catastrophes. A family named Wills had formed a station on the Comet River, and, with their station hands, were slaughtered in one night, to the number of nineteen souls. A project by a public company to construct a tramway to facilitate traffic, between the Darling Downs ‘and the Bremer Creek at Ipswich, to which point river steamers daily plied from Brisbane, was set afoot. This having collapsed, the conception of a railway took possession of the public mind, but for several years contentions between Brisbane and Ipswich as to the proper point of departure from the coastal end obstructed the enterprise.

MEANWHILE, the expansion of settlement in a northerly direction received a very important acceleration from the exertions of the late George Elphinstone Dalrymple, a cadet of the distinguished Dalrymples of North Berwick. In consideration of his proved fitness for the leadership, as established by his private expedition in 1859, the government entrusted Mr. Dalrymple with an expedition to further explore the localities which he had at that time partially defined. Mr. Dalrymple was appointed commissioner for the district, which was named after the unfortunate Kennedy. A small schooner, the "Spitfire," commanded by J. W. Smith, R.N., was placed at his disposal, and he was instructed to extend his investigations respecting the mouths of the Burdekin River. Setting sail in August, 1860, the voyagers inspected Port Molle, and thence proceeded to investigate Port Denison, a harbour which had been discovered in 1859 by Messrs. James Gordon and H. D. Sinclair in the schooner "Santa Barbara" while co-operating with Dalrymple’s overland exploration of the Burdekin, Suttor, and Belyando country. Skirting the coast, the explorers doubled Cape Upstart, and traced the indentures of the bay of the same name, discovered by Captain Wickham in the "Beagle" in 1839. Cape Bowling Green was next turned, and was ascertained to be a delta enclosed by several mouths of the Burdekin. On September 14th Cleveland Bay was entered. Here the vast mass of Mount Elliott dominated the scene, and the "probable river" indicated by Captain King when, in June, 1819, he explored these coasts in the "Mermaid" cutter, was sought and found; Captain Wickham had found and explored it in 1839. Still sailing northward, a harbour was discovered under Hinchinbroke Island, and named Cardwell in honour of the then Secretary of State for the Colonies. During this expedition several collisions with the natives occurred which, in the official fashion of the day, were alluded to in light and gingerly terms. The chief results were to establish the fact that the Burdekin, although the noblest stream of the east coast, had no outlet of corresponding magnitude, but spread, like the Nile, into numerous mouths embracing an extensive delta. Mr. Dalrymple reported emphatically that Port Denison should be the port for the Kennedy district. In pursuance of this recommendation, Mr. Dalrymple was almost immediately despatched to superintend the formation of a settlement on the shore of the harbour, and the town of Bowen sprang into existence.

In the following year Governor Bowen, in pursuance of instructions from the Colonial Office and Admiralty, personally proceeded in H.M.S. "Pioneer," flying the flag of Commodore Burnett, to inspect the apex of Cape York with the object of selecting a station to replace that so long uselessly maintained at Port Essington. The latter port had been constantly condemned by the best authorities. Captain Macarthur, one of the early commandants, condemned it. Captain Blackwood, Mr. Jukes, and Captain Owen Stanley, all commanders of the Queen’s ships exploring in these seas, had declared their preference for Port Albany, near the point of Cape York. Sir George Bowen confirmed their recommendations. Mr. Jardine, Sen., was appointed Government Resident, and a small detachment of marines was established at what was named Somerset, a harbour of refuge on the inner side of Albany Island.

By this time pastoral settlement had expanded all along the coast as far north as Cardwell and the Valley of Lagoons; inland, the Thomson was being, rapidly occupied, and the flocks of the pioneers commenced to overrun the Gulf country watered by the Flinders. The Plains of Promise were covered with cattle, and the tracks of the stockman’s horse marked the sand on the shelving shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Extensive deposits of copper ore had been discovered in the Peak Downs country, and active mining operations were proceeding.

LEGISLATION was mainly directed to consolidating the interests of the predominant, that is to say, the squatting party. The growth of population c Me to immigration had, indeed, sensibly affected the unequal balance of influence established by Governor Denison’s arrangement of the electorates at separation. But the jealousy between the people of Brisbane and those of Ipswich created a division in the popular party of which the squatting politicians were adroit enough to avail themselves. The Ipswich people clung to their dream —that their town was the natural head of the navigation, and that their little creek, navigable for flat-bottomed river steamers, was convertible into a canal for ships of burden. Failing this, they were determined that Brisbane should not gain the supremacy, and the early predilections for Cleveland were revived and employed against the capital. The subject of a railway to tap the Darling Downs’ was complicated by his dispute. The combination in parliament was powerful enough to decide that Ipswich should be the terminal station for the present on the coastal end, and no disguise was made of the intention to extend it from Ipswich to Cleveland rather than to Brisbane, should it be conceded that extension to a sea-port other than Ipswich might become necessary.

After much discussion, parliament decided that in view of the circumstances of the colony, a narrower gauge than that generally adopted in older and wealthier and more thickly populated communities should be employed. A precedent was found in New Zealand, and a width of three feet six inches was fixed upon, and has, up to the present time, proved adequate for all purposes. The first sod was formally cut in the year 1864. Brisbane influence proved sufficiently potent to carry, as some sort of compensation, a measure for improving the access to that town, and the river bar and flats were dredged with the view of cutting a deep-water channel. Sugar culture was encouraged by liberal arrangements for the acquisition of plantations on the alluvial lands along the coastal rivers and creeks; and the growth of cotton was effectually stimulated by liberal bounties on the export of the staple.

It is not to be supposed that the revenue of the young colony was adequate to defray all the expenses of founding its institutions and laying the basis of great public works. The government had early resorted to the money market of the world, and during the years 1861-3-4, loans had been authorised and negotiated in London aggregating one million eight hundred and fifty thousand two hundred and thirty-six pounds. By the year 1864 telegraphic lines had been stretched from the capital to the towns of Maryborough, Gladstone, and Rockhampton. A temporary wooden bridge for pedestrians had been constructed in 1865 across the river at Brisbane, which town had been scourged by an extensive conflagration, and materially improved by the superior class of buildings which replaced those thus destroyed. In July of the same year the first section of the railway from Ipswich towards the Downs was opened for traffic, and in the following September a beginning was made with a line to connect Rockhampton with the country to the westward of that port. From January, 1860, to the end of September, ‘1865, about thirty-eight thousand immigrants had been added to the population. A Bank of Queensland, with local shareholders and a local directorate, had been established towards the close of 1863. Money was plentiful, and credit readily available. Building societies had sprung up, and were flourishing. Altogether, the colony appeared borne rapidly onward on a tide of prosperity.

BUT clouds began to gather. The expenditure of borrowed money upon public works had been most extravagantly and inexpertly conducted. The distinction between engineers advising the government and contractors engaged in construction had been, in some cases, scarcely maintained. On the railway works, and in dredging operations, enormous extravagances were permitted. The engineers were making immense fortunes; and while this ruinous profusion was draining the resources of the colony, one of those periodical depressions which afflict commerce in Europe set in, and its effects extended with extraordinary severity to the young community in Queensland. Prices of all descriptions of pastoral produce fell; banks restricted their credit, and began to call in advances; the revenue dwindled; the Herbert Ministry tottered and fell. Mr. Macalister, in February, 1866, formed an ad ministration, and attempted to grapple with the crisis, but confusion had seized upon all classes, and before July closed Mr. Herbert was again in office, only to succumb in turn after a few weeks. Mr. Macalister again accepted the responsibilities of office on August 7th amidst the wildest confusion. It had been hoped that the financial storm might be weathered with the help of a fresh loan already authorised, and. the Sydney agency of the Agra and Masterman’s Bank had undertaken to make the necessary advances, when the news of the collapse in London of that institution brought total wreck upon the whole situation. The Bank of Queensland closed its doors; building societies collapsed under the blow; insolvencies followed in rapid succession. The entire organisation of society appeared tumbling in ruins. The treasury was actually empty; trust funds, savings bank deposit —all were gone. House-owners could get no rents. Thousands of citizens were either deprived of employment or unable to extract salaries from employers who knew not where to turn for the cash necessary for their own household expenses. To crown the confusion and dismay, the navvies working on the railway construction were turned adrift by contractors who could no longer pay them. In a formidable body, these men seized a train proceeding to Ipswich, and thence marched on Brisbane. Their approach was heralded and preceded by the most alarming rumours. The navvies had vowed, it, was said, to loot the banks, to sack the shops, to burn down Government House, to hang the Ministers. The members of the government were panic stricken and dismayed; they behaved as if demented, and their frantic bewilderment served to increase the general agitation. They armed the police, however; they swore in the members of the civil service as special constables, and provided them with batons. Other citizens were also sworn in, but these were furnished with nothing more formidable than badges or rosettes. At length the storm broke. The dreaded navvies arrived —one hundred and thirty-five men, very weary and very hungry. On entering the town, this formidable band was heavily reinforced by accretions from the unemployed. The Riot Act was read, and the police demonstratively loaded their rifles with ball cartridge. Some marching and counter-marching ensued, and the "rioters" were headed off to a vacant reserve on the flank of Windmill Hill, where they were furnished with food, and addressed by the Roman Catholic bishop and others. Provision of employment on relief works, where they received rations and five shillings per week, satisfied them, and immediately the community recovered repose.

The Ministry got breathing time, and, receiving from parliament the requisite authority, managed to stave off the total collapse which had now closely impended by an issue of three hundred thousand pounds of treasury bills at short dates, bearing ten per cent interest, which realised two hundred and ninety-eight thousand six hundred and seventy-one pounds. In addition, treasury notes of one pound each, to the value of one hundred thousand pounds, intended to serve alike as a relief to the authorities and as a currency, were legalised, and other devices of a similar desperate character helped to tide over the deepest depression of the crisis.

For awhile the community remained prostrated by the severity of the shock it had experienced, but before the next year closed another period of prosperity for Queensland had commenced to dawn. A golden gleam shot across the midnight sky of the colony’s adversity, and since that moment the sun of its prosperity has never ceased to shine, although passing clouds have ever and anon veiled its lustre and interposed chill and threatening shadows.

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