Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry into: ...

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

(1) into the State of the Colony of New South Wales. London: The House of Lords printed 19th June 1822. (iv 186pp.); ... (2) on the State of Agriculture and Trade in the Colony of New South Wales. London: The House of Lords printed 13 March 1823. (ii 112pp.); ... (3) on the Judicial Establishments of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. London: The House of Lords printed 21 February 1823. (ii 90pp.). Folio. Orig. navy cloth. Gilt bands and lettering to spine. Rebacked spine with new end-papers. Fine condition. NOTE: As discussed by Wantrup (1987) concern was expressed in 1817 by Lord Bathurst Secretary of State for the Colonies that Governor Macquarie's humanitarian policies were undermining the effectiveness of the transportation system as a means of criminal punishment. Macquarie's administration was already being attacked in the House of Commons in 1816 and in 1817 John Thomas Bigge (1780-1843) was appointed as Royal Commissioner to inquire into the overall effectiveness of the system. As Wantrup points out Macquarie was under review quite as much as the transportation system: From the moment of his arrival in the colony in 1819 Bigge's relations with Macquarie were strained. As time wore on the tension turned to antipathy and Bigge found himself more in sympathy with the exclusives of the squattocracy than with the Governor. Bigge was assiduous in assembling evidence in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land but he was far from judicial and impartial in his methods of collecting it and in the prejudicial conclusions he drew. His series of reports were published in 1822 and 1823. By that time Macquarie had resigned. (Wantrup p. 114) Bigge's reports are an important part of Australia's documentary history. They had a significant impact on the future shape of the colony and as such no collection of early Australiana should be without them.