184 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



the same power that joined Port Phillip to, can, I conclude, with 

 equal facility and propriety, dissever it from, New South Wales, 

 greatly, I conceive, to the advantage of the mother-country. 



"These lands, unless formed into a free colony, must, I am 

 humbly of opinion, lie dormant, or be grazed by squatters only, for 

 a century to come ; whereas, if now granted by the Crown to the 

 Geelong and Dutigalla Association upon equitable terms, they will 

 be speedily rendered a valuable acquisition to the State. 



" I may be permitted to observe, that the purchase of the tract 

 of land ceded by the native chiefs to the Association, upon the terms 

 prescribed in the Commission and instructions to Governor Bourke, 

 is out of all question, unless the advantages of a full portion of con- 

 vict labour were accorded, as well to the body purchasing as for 

 public purposes of general improvement, making roads, bridges, etc., 

 thus involving the necessity of an expensive Government establish- 

 ment, civil and military, for the improvement of the colony, for the 

 control of the prisoners, and for the protection of the settlers ; in fact, 

 planting another penal colony, with all its concomitant charges to 

 the parent state. 



" The Association profess their wish to be a free colony, without 

 pecuniary sacrifice to the mother-country ; at the same time, every 

 member of it is aware of the absolute necessity of the presence of 

 British local authorities to see that due protection be extended to all, 

 and that justice be done to the aborigines, whose welfare and general 

 improvement the Association takes a pride in declaring to be one of 

 its objects, as evinced by the tribute paid to and arrangements made 

 with the natives. 



"It is unnecessary for me to call your Lordship's attention to 

 the fatal consequences at Hunter's Eiver (about 100 miles only from 

 the capital) of the absence of such amicable arrangements and the 

 presence of runaway convicts, these combined causes operating de- 

 struction and murders in every direction. Yet I may take the 

 liberty, as pertinent to the subject, and not perhaps so well known 

 to your Lordship, to advert to the many acts of aggression committed 

 by the whalers and others at Portland Bay, where a tract of country 

 has lately been granted by the Home Government, formerly refused 

 to an application made by memorial through Colonel Arthur (please 



