Part 8 (2/2)

Secondly, With respect to the number of candidates to be admitted, they ought perhaps, in the first instance, to be limited to fifty, although they might, and indeed ought to be subsequently increased to not fewer than two hundred. More than those in the commencement, before a due degree of order and economy could be introduced, would undoubtedly create confusion and an unnecessary augmentation of expence. Fifty are as many as I conceive could be advantageously occupied for the first two or three years. It must, however, be obvious, that the capability of this inst.i.tution for the reception and profitable employment of a greater number of pupils, would very materially depend on the director, and be, in a great measure, accelerated or r.e.t.a.r.ded by his ability or incompetency for a due discharge of his duties.

As to the description of these candidates, it would, I consider, be proper that they should consist of young men born in the colony, or who may have come to it with their parents; that they should not exceed eighteen years of age, nor be under fifteen; that they should be of docile tempers and regular habits, which points should be ascertained previously to their admittance; and that their parents or guardians should bind them apprentice for the s.p.a.ce of four years to the trustees or directors of this establishment for the time being, during which period they should renounce all control over them whatever.

I will not here pretend to prescribe all the various modes of occupation which it might be proper to allot them; I have already enumerated those productions, the culture of which I conceive might be most advantageously taught and disseminated by means of this inst.i.tution. Others, however, of equal and perhaps greater utility, may be hereafter suggested by persons more conversant with the situation and interests of the colony, and ought unquestionably, if there be any such, to become identified with those which I have specified. Whatever may be the decision of more competent judges than myself on this subject, I may perhaps confidently venture to recommend, that the pupils should be divided into cla.s.ses, that each of these should be instructed in a particular sort of culture at a time; and that upon the attainment of a thorough knowledge how to cultivate and prepare any one article, and not before, their attention should be directed to some other, and so on, till the expiration of their several apprentices.h.i.+ps. It would be proper also to allow their parents or guardians the selection of the occupations in which they might wish their children or wards to be instructed, in so far at least, as such occupations might be compatible with any of the purposes of the inst.i.tution.

And lastly, with reference to the nature and extent of the encouragements to be accorded to the pupils, I would recommend, in order that their energies might be stretched to the greatest possible point of extension, that six eighths of the net annual profits arising from their labours should be set apart, and remain in the hands of the trustees, for their sole use and benefit; and that on their retiring from this inst.i.tution, the acc.u.mulated amount should be equally divided among them, both to secure their successful establishment in life, and to render the knowledge which they may have severally acquired, of permanent benefit to the community. I would also recommend that the accounts both of the expenditure and profits of the inst.i.tution should be annually submitted to the trustees for their approval, and afterwards printed and distributed among the pupils, not only for the purpose of provoking inquiry into their accuracy, and obtaining that rectification in case of error, which it might be difficult to effect after the lapse of five years; but also with a view to bring home to their understandings, and to convince them beyond the possibility of doubt, of the benefits which they may have derived from their past labours; a conviction that would prove the most cordial incentive, the most powerful lever which could be applied to their future industry and exertion. I would lastly recommend, that the quant.i.ty of land, and indeed that the encouragements of every kind which the government are in the habit of granting to the ordinary cla.s.s of settlers, should be increased in a two-fold proportion to the pupils of this inst.i.tution; but as it evidently would not be expedient or equitable that those who might habitually violate the regulations to be made for the good government of this little community, should receive on the one hand an equal recompence with those whose conduct might have always been regular and exemplary, or that they should be deprived on the other of their quota of the emoluments that might acc.u.mulate during the period of their apprentices.h.i.+ps, I would suggest, in order to mark that due gradation which in every well regulated society must necessarily exist in the scale of rewards to be accorded to such as may be subordinate or refractory,--industrious, or idle; that these latter encouragements should only be extended in this double ratio to those who might quit the establishment with a certificate of good conduct from the director.

With regard to the allowance to be made the gentleman to whom the directors.h.i.+p might be confided, I should imagine that one eighth of the clear profits arising from the inst.i.tution, would be a most liberal compensation for his trouble and attention, and that the remaining eighth would be an equally handsome provision for the whole of his a.s.sistants: one of whom would be required for the superintendence and instruction of each of the cla.s.ses into which it might be determined that the pupils should be divided.

Such are the princ.i.p.al measures which are essential to the revival of the agricultural prosperity. I will now briefly notice the various restrictions with which the commercial interests have been not less injudiciously fettered, and the removal of which is of the highest importance to the progress and welfare of the colony. These may be divided into two heads, duties and disabilities; and first, with reference to the duties with which the various articles of export that the colonists possess or procure, have been shackled by the successive governors. The duties in question are enumerated in the following schedule, and are levied upon the undermentioned articles, whether they are intended for home consumption or for exportation, in which latter case it will be seen that some few of them are even doubled.

On each ton of sandal wood 2 10 0 On each ton of pearl sh.e.l.ls 2 10 0 On each ton of beche la mer 5 0 0 On each ton of sperm oil 2 10 0 On each ton of black whale or other oil 2 0 0 On each fur seal skin 0 0 1 On each hair ditto 0 0 0 On each kangaroo ditto 0 0 0 On cedar or other timber from Shoal-haven, or any other part of the coast or harbours of New South Wales (Newcastle excepted, as the duties are already prescribed there) when not supplied by government labourers, for each solid foot -010 For every twenty spars from New Zealand or elsewhere100On timber in log or plank from New Zealand, or elsewhere, for each solid foot 0 1 0 For each ton of coals from Newcastle for home consumption 0 2 6 Ditto if exported 0 5 0 For each thousand square feet of timber for home consumption 3 0 0 Ditto if exported 6 0 0

That all these duties should be levied on these different articles, in as far as they may be consumed in the colony, may be highly expedient; but that they should be equally levied on exportation, and in two of the most material instances doubled, is so manifestly absurd, that it must be quite superfluous to dilate on the subject. It is a system of policy which it may be safely a.s.serted is unknown in any other part of the world; and nothing but the indubitable certainly of its existence would convince any rational person that it could ever have entered into the contemplation of any one intrusted with the government of a colony. These duties have had the effect which might have been expected from them; they have in most instances amounted to actual prohibitions. Their operation, indeed, has been found so burdensome and oppressive, that the colonial merchants have frequently pet.i.tioned the local government for relief; but no attention whatever has been paid to their repeated representations and remonstrances. Had it not been for the duties on coals and timber, some hundred tons of these valuable natural productions would have been exported annually to the Cape of Good Hope and India; since the vessels which have been in the practice of trading between those countries and the colony have always returned in ballast; and the owners or consignees would, therefore, have gladly s.h.i.+pped cargoes of timber or coals, if they could have derived the most minute profit from the freight of them. This observation holds good in a great measure with respect to the various other articles which have been enumerated: the exportation of the whole has been greatly circ.u.mscribed by the same ridiculous and vexatious system of impost. It can hardly be credited that the veriest sciolist in political economy could have been guilty of such a palpable deviation from its fundamental principles; but it is still more unaccountable, that a succession of governors should have pertinaciously adhered to a system of finance so absurd and monstrous.

Highly injurious, however, as are the duties which are levied in the colony, they are not nearly so oppressive as those which are levied in this country, on spermaceti, right whale, and elephant oils procured in vessels built in the colony. The duties on the importation of such oil into this country, are 24 18s. 9d. for the first sort, and 8 6s. 3d. for the two last.

If we add to these enormous duties those which are levied by the authority of the local government, it will be perceived that all the spermaceti oil procured by the colonial vessels has to pay a duty of 28 8s. 9d. and all the right whale and elephant oil a duty of 10 6s. 3d. before it can come into compet.i.tion with the oil of the same description procured in vessels built in the united kingdom. It has, however, been seen, that the colonists, propelled not less by that spirit of enterprize which distinguishes Englishmen in every quarter of the globe, than by the desire of finding profitable employment for that large portion of unoccupied labour, of which I have hastily pointed out the causes and march for the last fifteen years, have frequently attempted, notwithstanding these overwhelming prohibitions, to carry on these fisheries, but always without success; and that the valuable fishery of right whales which the river Derwent affords at a particular season, is now only resorted to, in order to procure the trifling supply of oil which is requisite for the East India market and for internal consumption. All attempts to export oil to this country have been for many years abandoned; since the trade could only be maintained at a dead loss, as the ruinous experience of many of the colonial merchants has abundantly attested. The reason why these enormous duties were imposed on oil procured in the colonial vessels is not generally understood here, but it is universally known in the colony; and the knowledge has materially tended to increase the dissatisfaction which the imposition of such duties would of itself, to a certain extent, have naturally excited. The act which authorizes these duties, is one of those smuggled acts by which, to the disgrace of our legislature, the welfare and happiness of helpless unprotected thousands have been so frequently sacrificed on the shrine of individual avarice or ambition. It originated in a certain great mercantile house extensively concerned in the South Sea fisheries, and could never have been pa.s.sed, had there been a single person in either house of parliament, at all interested in the prosperity of this colony. This act, indeed, is such a terrible deviation, such a monstrous exception to the usual policy of this country with respect to the fisheries, that it carries with itself the strongest internal evidence of its polluted origin. No such restrictions had ever before been imposed on any of our colonies, as will be sufficiently evident, if we compare the duties which are levied in this country on oils procured in the vessels belonging to the colonies in North America and the West Indies, with those which are levied on oils procured in the vessels fitted out from the united kingdom. These duties are as follow:

*Train oil, the produce of fish, or creatures living in the sea, taken and caught by the crew of a British built vessel, wholly owned by his majesty's subjects, usually residing in Great Britain, Ireland, or the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, or Man, registered and navigated according to law, and imported in any such s.h.i.+pping, per ton 0 8 3

[* See Pope's Practical Abridgment of the Laws of Customs and Excise, etc. etc. t.i.tle 246.]

Train oil, the produce of fish, or creatures living in the sea, taken and caught on the banks and sh.o.r.es of the island of Newfoundland and parts adjacent, wholly by his majesty's subjects carrying on such fishery from that island, and residing therein, and exported directly from thence in a British built s.h.i.+p or vessel, registered and navigated according to law, per ton 1 4 11

Train oil, the produce of fish, or creatures living in the sea, taken and caught wholly by his majesty's subjects, usually residing in any of the Bahama or Bermudas islands, or in any British plantation in North America, and imported in a British built vessel, registered and navigated according to law, per ton 3 6 6

Train oil, the produce of fish, or creatures living in the sea, taken and caught wholly by his majesty's subjects, usually residing in any other British plantation, territory, or settlement, and imported in a British built vessel, registered and navigated according to law, per ton 8 6 3

Spermaceti oil, or head matter, taken and caught by the crew of a British built vessel, wholly owned by his majesty's subjects, usually residing in Great Britain, Ireland, and the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, or Man, registered and navigated according to law, and imported in any such vessel, per ton 0 8 3

Spermaceti oil, or head matter, taken and caught on the banks and sh.o.r.es of the island of Newfoundland and parts adjacent, wholly by his majesty's subjects carrying on such fishery from that island, and residing therein, and imported directly from thence in a British built vessel registered and navigated according to law, per ton 1 4 11

Spermaceti oil, or head matter, taken and caught wholly by his majesty's subjects, usually residing in any of the Bahama or Bermudas islands, or in any British plantation in North America, and imported in a British built vessel, registered and navigated according to law, per ton 4 19 9

Spermaceti oil, or head matter, taken and caught wholly by his majesty's subjects, usually residing in any other British plantation, territory, or settlement, and imported in a British built vessel, registered and navigated according to law, per ton 24 18 9

From the foregoing statement it will be perceived that the duty levied on train oil, or spermaceti oil, or head-matter procured by the inhabitants of Newfoundland, is precisely the same, and only three times the amount of _that_ which is levied on the same substances procured by British subjects residing in the united kingdom; and that the duty levied on oil, procured by British subjects residing in the Bahama, or Bermudas islands, or in the plantations in North America, is only _eight_ times the amount on train oil, and _twelve_ times the amount on spermaceti oil or head-matter, of _that_ which is levied on the same substances taken by British subjects residing within the united kingdom. While on the other hand, the duty levied on oil procured _in any other colony_; (for mark, the contrivers of this act had sufficient cunning not to particularize the unfortunate colony against which it was levied) is _twenty times greater_ on train oil, and oh, _monstrous injustice!_ upwards of _sixty times_ greater on spermaceti oil, or head-matter, than _that_ which is levied on similar substances taken by British subjects residing within the limits of the united kingdom. The duty, therefore, which is payable on train oil procured in vessels belonging to this colony is _nearly seven times_ greater than _that_ which is payable on the same description of oil taken in vessels belonging to the island of Newfoundland, and _considerably more than double that_ which is payable on it, when taken in vessels belonging to the Bahama or Bermudas islands, or to the plantations in North America; while the duty which is levied on spermaceti oil, or head-matter, procured in vessels belonging to this colony, is _five times_ the amount of _that_ which is levied on such oil or head-matter, when taken in vessels belonging to the Bahama, or Bermudas islands, or to the plantations in North America; and _twenty times_ the amount of _that_ which is levied on similar substances when taken in vessels belonging to Newfoundland. This very unequal proportion which the duties levied on these two sorts of oil, if procured by the inhabitants of this colony, bear to each other when compared with the duties which are levied on the same substances if procured by the inhabitants of any of the foregoing colonies or plantations, furnishes an additional proof, were any required, of the correctness of my a.s.sertions with respect to the origin of the act by which they were imposed. The house who were the authors of it, could not consistently get the duty on one description of oil raised, without at the same time admitting the necessity for raising the duty on the other; but as they were not interested in the right whale fishery, they were only anxious to prevent the colonists of New South Wales from embarking in the sperm whale fishery; and could they have accomplished this object without running the risk of discovering the covert aim of the act in its progress through parliament, they would have gladly compromised this point with them, and have left the right whale fishery open to them on the same conditions as it was before the enactment of this bill. To have evinced, however, any such tolerant inclination might have betrayed their design, and accordingly the colonists were debarred from both the fisheries; for notwithstanding that regular gradation has by no means been adhered to in the imposition of these duties, which had been previously observed in the scale of the duties levied in the other colonies or plantations, they have in both instances been more than sufficient to const.i.tute actual prohibitions.

That any superiority of privilege whatever should have been conceded by the legislature of this country, in the various acts which have been pa.s.sed for the encouragement of the fisheries, to British subjects residing within the limits of the united kingdom, is at best a manifest injustice to such of her subjects as inhabit the colonies; but yet so long as this partiality was confined within any reasonable bounds, it would not have excited any considerable feeling of dissatisfaction. That there should, however, be any gradation in the scale of duties to be levied on any description of merchandise procured or produced in the colonies themselves, is a system which it is impossible to reconcile with any principle of justice or policy. Still so long as this disproportion of impost, however unwise and unjust, did not become so burdensome and oppressive as to confine this branch of commerce, whatever it might be, to the privileged colony or colonies, some palliation might be offered by its advocates for its continuance, although the warmest of them would not be able to attempt its vindication. But that any one colony should be utterly excluded from privileges freely accorded to another, is such a monstrous stretch of tyrannical partiality, that it never could have been deliberately discussed in a free government, and must therefore have been contrived by the secret machinations of private avarice and corruption.

Can any reason be adduced why British subjects residing in one colony, should be excluded from the whale fisheries more than British subjects residing in another? Why vessels built in Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, or the Bahama islands, should possess a privilege denied to vessels built in New Holland or Van Diemen's Land? The whale fishery is not more contiguous to the inhabitants of the former colonies than to those of the latter; yet every encouragement is afforded for the carrying on of the one, and every obstacle thrown in the way of the successful prosecution of the other. Why such a broad line of distinction is drawn, it is impossible to divine; since the disability which is the consequence of it, is not only not in furtherance of any of the ends contemplated by the navigation act,* but in diametrical opposition to the whole of them. This will be evident if we refer to its preamble, and to a few of its prominent provisions.

”Whereas for the increase of s.h.i.+pping and encouragement of the navigation of this nation, wherein under the good providence and protection of G.o.d, the wealth, safety, and strength of this kingdom is so much concerned; it is enacted that no goods, or commodities whatsoever, shall be imported into, or exported out of any lands, islands, plantations or territories to his Majesty belonging, or in his possession, or which may hereafter belong unto or be in the possession of his Majesty in Asia, Africa, or America, in any other vessels whatsoever, but in such vessels as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of England, Ireland, or are of the built of and belonging to any of the said lands, islands, plantations, or territories as the proprietors and right owners thereof, and whereof the master and three-fourths of the mariners at least are English, under the penalty of the forfeiture and loss of all the goods and commodities which shall be imported into, or exported out of any the aforesaid places, in any other vessel, as also of the vessel with all its tackle,” etc. From this, which is the princ.i.p.al clause of the act, it clearly appears that British subjects in whatever part of the empire they may happen to reside, are ent.i.tled to precisely the same privileges, and that vessels built in any of her colonies are to all intents and purposes to be deemed of British built, in the same manner and on the same terms and conditions as if they had been built within the limits of the united kingdom, i. e. so long as the master and three fourths of the crew are British subjects. That this admission to a perfect equality of privilege, was and is still the intent not only of the navigation act, but of all the leading acts of navigation which have been pa.s.sed since, we shall be still further satisfied, if we trace them in their whole progress to the present hour. It will not, however, be necessary to extend our examination either way beyond the great registry act pa.s.sed in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his present majesty, cap.

60. ”By this act very considerable alteration was made in the whole concern of registering s.h.i.+pping, with a view of securing to s.h.i.+ps of the _built_ of this country, a preference and superiority which they had not enjoyed so completely before. The plan of regulation then proposed to parliament was the result of an inquiry and deliberation of great length before the committee of Privy Council for the Affairs of Trade and Plantations; and that inquiry was commenced and carried on, and the measure at length decided upon princ.i.p.ally by the exertion and perseverance of the late Earl of Liverpool.”** What vessels are still deemed in this careful and elaborate revision of the navigation code to be of _British built_, may be seen from the first clause of this act, which ordains ”that no vessels _foreign built_ (except such vessels as have been, or shall hereafter be taken by any of his Majesty's vessels of war, or by any private, or other vessel, and condemned as lawful prize in any court of admiralty) nor any vessel built or rebuilt upon any foreign-made keel or bottom, in the manner heretofore practised and allowed, although owned by British subjects, and navigated according to law, shall be any longer ent.i.tled to any of the privileges or advantages of a _British built s.h.i.+p_, or of a s.h.i.+p owned by British subjects, and all the said privileges and advantages shall hereafter be confined to _such s.h.i.+ps only_ as are _wholly of the built_ of Great Britain or Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man, or of some of the plantations, islands, or territories in Asia, Africa, or America, which now belong, or at the time of building such vessels did belong, or which _may hereafter belong to_ or be in the possession of his Majesty; provided always, that nothing hereinbefore contained shall extend to prohibit such foreign built vessels only as before the 1st of May, 1786, did truly and without fraud wholly belong to any of the people of Great Britain or Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man, or of some of the plantations, etc. etc.” Here then we have cited the _two leading clauses_ in the _tw

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