OF THE SOCIETY. 133-' 



1913. 



The Tennifiation of Sir John Franklin s Governorship. 



Sir John Franklin, when he succeeded Ailhur, found the 

 principal residents of Tasmajiia. divided into factions; but 

 he had been welcomed by all, and he strove to restore 

 social peace, and to promote the harmony of parties. In 

 these aims he soon found success to be ini(>iissiijle. A tri-^ 

 buto he paid to his predecessor endangered his popularity; 

 while the supporters of Arthur's policy found that the 

 Governor was critical of them. Two of Arthur's nephews 

 occupied important offices — Captain John Montagu as 

 Colonial Secretary, and Captain Matthew Forster as Chief 

 Police Magistrate — and they had considerable local influ- 

 ence, particularly in connection with the Derwent Bank, 

 of which CajDtain Swanston was manager, and which to- 

 wards the end of Franklin's governorship held mortgages 

 over the greater number of estates in the island. Franklin 

 soon formed the opinion that thcB© connections were not 

 in the interest of the country, and an estrangement gradu- 

 ally arose between him and the party of C;iptaiu Montagu. 

 The estrangement became acute through certain incidents 

 connected with the removal of the District Surgeon of 

 Richmond and with the erection of the tower of St. 

 George's Church, Hobart ; and early in 1842 the Governor 

 suspended Montag'U from office. 



Montagu returned to England to place his case before 

 the ColonipJ Office- Meanwhile the sources of the differ- 

 ences between the Governor and the Colonial Secretar}^ 

 had become well known, and were vigorously debated in 



tion Society was formed, and on 29th November. 1866. Lady Franklin 

 executed a deed, in which she declared that she wislied the island 

 to be vested in trustees, by vvliom it should be held for the purposes of 

 the Society so long as those purposes should be carried out in a 

 manner beneficial to the public of Tasmania, but that if the purposes 

 of the Society should not be so carried out, then the island should be 

 held by the trustees for such other purposes beneficial to the public 

 of Tasmania as the trustees should direct. On 27th December. 1868, 

 the island was conveyed by Dr. Bedford and Mr. Gunn to Messrs. 

 Robert Officer, R. C. Gunn. Morton Allport, and John Woodcock 

 Graves, as trustees (No. 5 6667). Mr. John Woodcock Graves was the 

 Secretary of the Acclimatisation Societv, and the island was used 

 for manv vears bv that Societv. In 1903 it was vested by Act of Parlia- 

 ment (1903 No. 42, s. 15) in the Trustees of the Tasmanian Museum and 

 Botanical Gardens. (Betsy Island had much earlier been the scene of 

 an experiment in acclimatisation — of the rabbit. In the chronological 

 table of events in Bent's Tasmanian Almanack for 1829 there are the 

 following items:— "1827. May 10th.— Silver-haired rabbits, pheasants, and 

 "peacocks imported from England per the ship Tiger; many thousand of the 

 "rabbits increase on Betsy Island, Mr. King intending to make the skins 

 "an article of export to China. 1828, March Sc'th.— 30,000 silver-hair rabbits 

 "belonging to Mr. King upon Betsy Island.' The common rabbit was already 

 in Tasmania. The Hobart Town Gazette and Vati Diemen's Land Advertiser of 

 24th June, 1825, mentions that rabbits were being bred in various parts of the 

 country, and gives directions for the growth of parsley as being "their 

 "favourite food." The Colonial Times of 11th May, 1827, mentions that "the 

 "common rabbit is becominti so numerous throngh'ut the colony, that they ar« 

 "running about on some large es^ates by thou.sands.") 



