No. 10.

COPY OF A DESPATCH FROM GOVERNOR SIR G.F.  BOWEN TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF
NEWCASTLE

Government House, Brisbane,
Queensland, April 7, 1860.

(Received June 18, 1860.) (Answered, No. 22,
July 19, 1860, p. 84.)

My Lord Duke,

In continuation of my former Despatches No. 5 of the 19th and No. 8 of the 23rd Dec., 1859, and No. 18 of the 4th February, ult., I have the honour to enclose copies of the Addresses presented to me at the three towns of Warwick, Drayton, and Toowoomba, which I visited during an official tour of inspection, from which I have lately returned.

2.  It will be satisfactory to the Queen and to Her Majesty’s Government, to receive these further proofs of the affectionate loyalty of the people of this colony towards Her Majesty’s throne and person and (I may, perhaps, be permitted to add) of their confidence in the arrangement made, under Her Majesty’s favour, for their Government.

3.  My recent journey extended through those districts of Queensland, which have been longest settled and are mostly thickly inhabited.  I was everywhere received with cordial hospitality by the principal settlers, and with loyal enthusiasm by all classes of the community.  The numerous cavalcades of hundreds of well-mounted horsemen, which came forth to meet and escort the first representative of their Sovereign, presented spectacles such as can be exhibited in only two countries in the world—­in England and in Australia.

4.  As it was during your Grace’s first administration of the Colonial Department that the wishes of the Australian Colonists were crowned by the concession of responsible Government, I will take leave to draw your attention to a paragraph in one of the enclosures, which explains a sentiment generally entertained by this people.

After stating that “the journey of his Excellency has been one continued ovation from beginning to end”; that “all classes have vied in doing honour to the representative of the Queen”; and that “all little sectarian differences, petty jealousies, and presumed rival interests have been merged in the laudable wish to give our first Governor a hearty welcome”; the “Darling Downs Gazette” proceeds as follows:  “Not the least pleasing reflection that suggests itself when reviewing these demonstrations of general joy is the confirmation of the fact, now so long and in so many lands established, that those descended from the old stock at home, to whom self-government has been a timely concession, not a charter wrung from the Mother country by the force of arms, still recognize and revere the grand old institutions, which have made England the greatest power on earth.”

14.  I have described in a former Despatch, that rich pastoral District of the tableland which is known as the “Darling Downs.”  The droughts and the epidemic diseases which are frequently fatal to sheep and cattle in other parts of Australia seem alike unknown in this favoured region.  Many large fortunes have been amassed there during the last 15 years.