History of Tasmania. John West

Authority. Date. Terms. Superseded. Remarks. King's sign manual to governors of New South Wales. 1787 and 1789. Residence on the grant. Cultivation and improvement. Reservation of naval timber. Quit rent: emancipists. 6d. per 30 acres; free settlers, 2s. per 100 acres, after ten years. 1810. 100 acres only to any person, over the quantity allowed to emancipists. Governor Macquarie. January 1, 1810. Quit-rent, 2s. per 100 acres. Cultivation of a proportion (20th part) in five years. Reservation of naval timber. Right of forming highways. Non-alienation in five years. November 30, 1821. Town allotments usually leased at Hobart Town for twenty-one years, quit rent 30s. per acre; 7 only were granted, 1820. Allotments were occupied at Launceston on permission of the commandant.—Bigge's Report. Governor Brisbane. July 11, 1822. 1823. Omits cultivation clause, and saddles every 100 acres with a convict servant. This was cancelled by indorsement on some grants, on condition of cultivation. Grants liable to quit-rent of 15s. per 100 acres. Colonial Office, November 1824. Notified in Van Diemen's Land, 18th May, 1825. Colonial Office. 1824. April, 1826. Convict clause inserted. Purchase money repaid, if claimed within ten years, or for the redemption of quit rent. Quit rent 5 per cent. value. Settlers who could obtain no convicts, allowed abatement of half quit-rent; or a new purchase at half price, who should expend five times value of the grants, given or sold them. Convict clause withdrawn, in 3rd edit. of notice, 1827. Town lots granted on specified expenditure within three years, and non-alienation for 18 months. Governor Arthur. 1828. Land Board established; capital required, £500 for each square mile granted. Land sold at highest tender; one-half left on mortgage for twelve years, at 5 per cent. Precious metals reserved. January 20, 1831. Colonial Office. January 20, 1831. Order: all land to be sold by public sale; upset price 5s., conveyed in fee simple at a peppercorn rent. Precious metals reserved, and indigenous produce for public works. August, 1838. Colonial Office. August, 1838. 1842. 12s. per acre. £1 per acre. 1842. 1845.[184]

      FOOTNOTES:

      [177] Report on the Disposal of Crown Land, 1836.

      [178] England and America.

      [179] The plan of selling crown lands, and appropriating the proceeds to emigration, was claimed as his own by Galt, the novelist and projector. See Life of John Galt, vol. ii. p. 135.

[180] Edinburgh Review, 1849.

[181] "We are much mistaken, if the letters addressed to the secretary exceed six, and they are written by the paid magistracy."—Launceston Advertiser, 1832.

[182] Protesters:—Charles Swanston, Charles M'Lachlan, Richard Willis, John Kerr. October, 1833.

[183] Backhouse's Narrative.

[184] 1845.—The Act 5th & 6th Victoria, chap. 36, repealed; as to Van Diemen's Land only: which returned to the status of 1787.

      SECTION XIII

       Table of Contents

      The increasing population of the Australian colonies led to important changes in their monetary institutions. Hitherto the stock employed in banking was supplied by the merchants, or invested by East Indian capitalists. These local relations were not without their advantages: they enabled the banks to extend accommodation beyond the ordinary usage of companies subject to more extensive and complicated interests.

      The announcement of the "Leviathan," as the Bank of Australasia was called, created the usual amount of discussion. The capital was desired by those who had occasion to borrow, and dreaded by such as were interested in lending. It was incorporated in 1835; and commenced operations the following year. By granting bills on London at par, the manager first drew largely on the current coin. Treasury bills were no longer the cheapest remittance, and the disposition to purchase them declined. The outcry of the local banks reached the legislative council, and it was proposed to make a treasury bill a legal tender. An act passed for the purpose, but was never called into force by proclamation. The resources of the English enabled them to vex and contract the sphere of the colonial establishments; but had treasury bills become a legal tender, they could have redeemed their own notes by their payment, and thus recovered the coin which found its way into the coffers of the stranger.

      At Launceston, the quarrel between the Australasia and a local bank, afforded much sport to those not deeply interested. Of the Tamar Bank, 20 per cent. only had been paid on its capital, which was exceedingly small compared with its discounts and issues. Every morning, the agent of the London took a wheel-barrow to the Tamar bank, attended by an armed guard, and carried away the dollars in exchange for notes. The superior strength of the Australasia soon brought the contest to a crisis, and Mr. Gilles, the manager of the Tamar, shut up his books. He, however, first gave warning, that such must be his course, unless it was agreed to restore the dollar bags to the state before the war. To this it was replied that, perhaps, the Tamar had exceeded the just limits of its capital, and an offer made to discount a bill for its accommodation. In the end, time was given. The parties concerned were more frightened than hurt: no serious injury was intended.

      In 1837, the Union Bank of Australia, with a capital of £1,000,000, divided the field. This institution was formed in England, under the auspices of Mr. Philip Oakden, a merchant, of Launceston. With such spirit was the project accepted, that the amount was subscribed in