THE PASTORALIST AND THE CONVICT 111 



In 1850-1 the 570 convicts brought to Moreton Bay 

 by three ships were " quickly snapped up," we are told, 

 by the pastoral tenants as ' assigned servants,' but 

 many of these, it is stated, " deserted their liired service 

 almost before the ink on their agreements was dry." 



The early squatters of Queensland were almost un- 

 conditionally in favour of the importation of convicts. 

 They might be for separation from New South Wales, 

 but only on the understanding that it should be accom- 

 panied by the continuance of convict-labour. Forming 

 a Northern Districts Association Separation in 1851, 

 they passed a resolution to that effect. They had three 

 milHon sheep, they said, and they had only 1,200 " ex- 

 iles " and Chinamen, while they needed 3,000 shepherds 

 and hut-keepers. There was an absolute dearth of 

 free labour. Give us that, they cried. A few weeks 

 later, with the arrival of the Bangalore in 1851, trans- 

 portation for ever ceased, at least in Eastern Australia. 



Convictism had another aspect than its primary or 

 industrial feature. It bred a social and political move- 

 ment. This surprising new complexion it owed to 

 Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who reigned for the long 

 period between 1809 and 1821. Macquarie is an inter- 

 esting figure in Australian history. His dry, contracted 

 visage, as of wrinkled parchment, the thin, tight lips, 

 the aquiline nose, the high, arched eyebrows, raised 

 as if in mute surprise that anyone should presume to 

 dispute his authority, a lofty sense of his own import- 

 ance, and an unswerving resolution — such is the physical 

 man who looks out on you from his portrait. The 

 physiognomy was true to his inner nature. Shall we 

 say that his social ideal was low 1 It was, at all events, 

 not that of a mean nature, but that of one who dreamt 

 of lifting up to a higher plane the sin-stained souls 

 whom he so sympathetically governed. 



He came out to the Colony with no other thought 

 than to govern the convicts by the methods hitherto 

 customary. Only after he had entered on ofiice did 

 he entertain the happy thought that no retrospective 



