156 



TASMANIAN STATE RECORDS. 



By J. Moore-Robinson, F.R.G.S. 

 (Librarian and Publicity Officer, Chief Secretary's 

 Department, Tasmania.) 



[Originally written for the Hobart meeting of the Aus- 

 tralasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Janu- 

 ary, 1921. Revised, and in part re-written, and read before 

 the Royal Society of Tasmania, 8th August, 1921.]" 



A careful consideration of all facts concerned compels 

 the belief that, ranking in prime importance among State 

 functions, is a proper preservation of State Records. Other 

 processes being normally in a continual state of progression 

 or development, can never share the innate quality of 

 Records. Records do not develop — they are th? imprint of 

 current events. They stand alone in the world of Science. 



Records have not been well treated by Australia since 

 she took her place among the living entities of the earth. 

 It is the exception to find important Records explicit an I 

 reliable. For instance, the very date of Captain Cook's dis- 

 covery of the N.S.W. coast is now called in question, owinr^ 

 to an alleged error by the Great Navigator in his calculations 

 in crossing the 180th Meridian, while sailing westward from 

 Tahiti in 1770. It is true that December 1st, 1642, has never 

 been challenged as the day on which Tasman cast anchor 

 on Tasmania's coast; yet many different dates have bscn 

 assigned to Bowen's Settlement at Risdon in 1833. Th'i 

 almanacs up to 1S93 give the date of Bowen's landing as 

 August 10th, 1803. In those of the following year that date 

 is altered to September 12th, and later Sept2mber 13th, 1833, 

 is adopted. Curiously enough, in Walch's Red Bojk for 

 1920 the date is assigned as September 14th, owing probably 

 to an error in copying. So careful an author as James 

 Backhouse Walker writes ("First Settlement of thi Der- 

 went," Early Tasmania, p. 26) : — 



"I have searched in vain hitherto in printed 



"accounts for the correct date of Bowen's Settlement. 



* Gwiiur to the Shippinsr Strike, the Meeting of the A. A. A S , which 

 was to have been held in Hobart in January, had to be held in Melbourne. 

 Many difficulties had to be overcome, and it was found impossible to 

 publish the usual full report of the A.A A.S. Meeting and to print all 

 papers. Arrangements were, therefore, made for certain papers to be 

 read before the Society and published in the Papers and Proceedings 

 for 1921. 



