OF THE SOCIETY. 121 



1913. 



In 1826 Governor Arthur commenced the erection of a 

 new Grovernment House at Hangans Farm. For several 

 years previously there had been some uncertainty as to 

 the site of the capital town of Van Diemen's Land. 

 Brighton and New Norfolk (or Elizabeth Town, as the 

 settlement to the south of the Derwent on the site of the 

 present New Norfolk was then called) had been proposed; 

 but Governor Ai'thur determined in 1826 that Hobart 

 Town should remain the capital. Government House of 

 those days was an incommodious wooden building on the 

 site of the present Franklin Square, and the new Govern- 

 ment House was to be a much more suitable I'esidence. (8) 

 The new Government House was shortly abandoned, (9) 

 but Governor Arthur gave his attention to the garden, and 

 on 28th September, 1827, in a minute to the Colonial 

 Secretary, in which he directed that more labour should 

 be supplied from the Penitentiary, he wrote : 



"It was my wish that a Botanical Garden should be 

 ''proceeded with in the Domain, and I had hoped it might 

 ''have commenced this season ; nothing having yet been 

 "done in collecting the Plants, Shrubs, etc., with which the 

 "Colony abounds. It is discreditable not to stir in this, 

 "and I am anxious about it, as I find it is remarked by 

 "strangers."' (10) 



Prior to 1828 the Gardens seem to have been in charge 

 of an overseer- In 1828 the first Superintendent (Mr. 

 William Davidson) was appointed. Mr. Davidson had 



Government on the site of Hutchlns School. "The ground was 

 "originally a garden belonging to the Government, but had ceased 

 "to be cultivated in, when the large garden in the Domain was 

 "appropriated to the use of the Lieutenant-Governor "— Despatch, 8 

 Sept., 1847, Lieut.-Gov. Sir Wm, Denison to Earl Grey, Secretary ' of 

 State for the Colonies. (A garden in the vicinity of Hutchins School is 

 .shown on a plan of a survey made in 1804-5 — see these Papprs and Proceedings, 

 1889, p. 246, reprinted in J. B. Walker's Early Tasmania, p. 64). 



(8) A few days after his arrival in Tasmania, Sorell wrote to Governor Mac- 

 quarie (Despatch No. 2, 3rd May, 1817): "The State of the Government House 

 "rendering it uninhabitable not only with regard to comfort, but even as to 

 "security and common decency; I have undertaken some additions and alter- 

 "ations— and I am at Mr. Birch's until the House can be occupied." In 1820 

 Governor Macquarie determined that a new Government House should be built at 

 Macquarie Point, in line with Macquarie St. (Oespatch Xo. 10, 3rd July, 1825, 

 Arthur to Secretary of State). In 1825 Deputy Surveyor General Evans reported : 

 "The present house occupied l>y the Governor of Van Diemen's Land has ever been 

 "in an unsafe state since I first saw it in 1811—1 think it probable that some severe 

 "gale of wind will cause the destruction of it." The new Government House pro- 

 posed >>y Arthur was to be a two-storey bailding of 25 room-s— C.S.O. 576/10 

 (Arthur), a file containing many papers on the proposed buildini:. 



(9) "It was the intention of the Governor to have built himself 

 "a palace here, there being an excellent freestone on the spot, a great 

 "deal of which was laid out and cut ready; the plan of the house 

 "and foundations were laid, and a garden planted, but the project 

 "was eventually abandoned, owing, as I understand, to tlie great 

 "expense that would have been incurred before Its completion."— 

 Widowson, Present State of Van Diemen's Land (London, 1829), p. 27. 



(10) C.S.O.. 4.588 (Arthur). 



