Part Seventeen

The question has often been asked were the early Governors imposed upon by persons who applied for grants of land, and were successful in obtaining them ?. Well, it is said that open confession is good for the soul, and this ss what Governor-General Macquarie states nn a despatch to Lieutenant-Governor Sorell on October 13, 1820:—

"I fear I have been imposed upon by persons who were traders, and not real settlers, sending in fictional values of their property. I have determined in future to force applicants to make affidavits."

In this despatch he enjoins the Lieutenant-Governor in future to be more economical in the ares granted.

The year 1820 was a red letter one for the settlers in this island, for nn this year 132 grants, containing a total of 15,513 acres were registered and despatched to Hobart Town. It is of course, impossible to name and describe all the grantees and their areas, but I will mention a few of the most Important and valuable grants. Perhaps the most historic is the grant to James Lord, of the site on which the General Post Office now stands. The possession of this area remained in the family of the original grantee until it was purchased by the State Government for post and telegraph purposes, just prior lo the Federation of Australia. The Supreme Court recently decided that the land on which the A.M.P. Society's offices stand, is worth £20,000; that being so, this grant to James Lord must now be worth double that sum.

The grant on which Ingle Hall stands, now known as Norman's Coffee Palace, just below the "Mercury" office, was made to John Ingle, who also received three country grants, amounting in all to 1100 acres, during this year. The site on which the Hobart Hotel is built at the comer of Argyle and Macquarie Streets, was granted to James Mitchell in 1820, also a grant of the site on which that well known group of offices known as the Stone Buildings, at the corner of Murray and Macquarie Streets. This site was granted to P. G. Hogan, at one time a public servant, in Hobart Town. The Rev. R. Knopwood received another gift of 500 acres at Herdsman's Cove.

The following surgeons received the grants opposite their names: — Hopley, 300 acres; Younge, 500 acres, both at Pitlwater; Luttrell, 6OO acres, at Coal River. Other historic grants are 200 acres to Richard Dry, who was building up his estates at Quamby. John Beamont received 500 acres, and Richard Lewis, whose name was woven with the ups and downs of the early Derwent settlement received a grant of 400 acres. Uriah Allender received a grant of 30 acres at what is now known as Bellerive, then known as Kangaroo Bay. He was a boatman, and received his pardon for being one of the party that carried Collins' despatches to Sydney in 1803, in an open boat, from Port Phillip, when Collins decided to abandon that locality for the Derwent. He is mentioned in the Calder manuscripts in the Melbourne Public Library, volume 1. The grant of 30 acres is right in the heart of Bellerive, and as it goes right down to Kangaroo Bay without any reservation, along high-water mark, it has permanently spoilt the lay out of the town. What ought to be beautiful marine terrace, is now a scraggy foreshore, the repository of rubbish of a miscellaneous and worthless character. Uriah is reported by one who remembers him to have, been a large, powerfully-built man, Just the sort that Collins would choose for such a job.

Seven of the grants registered during this year are marked as Norfolk Island claims. Daniel Stanfield, jun., and Wm. Maum were each given a grant on the eastern side of the Derwent. During this year, there was a Governor's fee of 5/ payable on each grant. Vice-Royalty must have had quite a dividend to draw from the settlers in this island in 1820.

Some few years ago it was proposed by the Government interests of the Hydro-Electricity and the welfare of the general community, to take from landowners their title to the running water bordering on or running through their grants. You can imagine, gentle reader, what a reception such a proposal received from the possessors of broad acres, and a legal adviser to the inevitable deputation which waited on a Minister of the Crown in opposition to the bill produced a letter, of which the following is a copy, as evidence that promises of grants of land, with no such restriction, were made to the forefathers of the present landowners, needless to say the proposal was dropped, or is probably deferred until the millennium, or a Soviet Government arrives with power to act. 1

Downing Street, 14th August, 1820.
Sir,—I am instructed by Lord Bathurst to acquaint you that he has given permission to the bearer, Mr. Francis Desailles, to proceed as a free settler to the settlement of Van Diemens Land, and I am to desire that you will make to him upon his arrival a grant of land in proportion to the means which he may possess of bringing the same into cultivation.
(Signed) HENRY GOULBURN.
To Lieutenant-Governor Sorell,
The officer administering the Government of Van Diemens Land.