HISTORICAL REVIEW OF AY://' SOUTH WA LI-IS. 



61 



eight 

 Totn 

 sail- 



TH1-: LA PEROUSK MONUMENT. 



following year. While at Home he wrote and published his " Historical Journal of the 

 Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island." During his subsequent term of office 

 as Governor, he took an active interest in the work of exploration, a subject which 

 naturally engaged the attention of all the early Governors, and many discoveries were made. 



It was during Hunter's Administration that the gallant Surgeon Bass, accompanied by 

 Lieutenant Flinders, explored 

 the south-eastern coast in a 

 little open boat, only 

 feet long, called the 

 Thumb, and a year later, 

 ing south again, 

 they entered West- 

 ern Port, when their 

 provisions being ex- 

 hausted they were 

 compelled to return 

 to Sydney. In their 

 next voyage the)' 

 discovered the pas- 

 sage since known 

 to the world as 

 Bass's Straits, sailed 

 round the coast of Van Diemen's Land, and completely demonstrated its insular character. 



Another discovery was made during Hunter's time, which has since been identified 

 with his name. In June, 1796, some fishermen were driven by stress of weather into 

 what seemed to them to be a small bay, but which was really the mouth of a large 

 river. Landing there, they found coal lying on the surface of the ground. The town 

 of Newcastle now stands on the spot ; and the river, well-known as the Hunter, was 

 discovered one year later by a military party sent in search of runaway convicts. 



Hunter's Administration was marked by the restoration of the civil magistrates, whose 

 functions had been usurped by the military men during the time of Grose and Paterson. 

 The Governor referred to this singular proceeding in a despatch to the Secretary of 

 State, in which he said : " After the departure of Governor Phillip, a general change 

 took place. All his plans and regulations were completely laid aside. The civil magis- 

 trates were superseded entirely, and all the duties respecting the distribution of justice, 

 and every other concern of that office, was taken into the hands of the military." At 

 the same time they had used their powers to obtain a complete monopoly of trade. 

 They were not only magistrates, but they were general merchants and importers as well ; 

 and by this means they had made themselves so powerful in every direction that Hun- 

 ter found it difficult to exercise any kind of authority over them. 



The progress of settlement in the colony at this time was checked by the spread 



* 



of this degrading traffic. Everything was sacrificed to the dealers in rum. Out of 

 nearly eleven thousand acres cleared in 1800, only seven thousand were under cultiva- 

 tion. The reason will be found in a despatch from Governor King, written in 



