I came across some print-outs from the Examiner in a box I was looking for, full of anti-transportation and the "10th of August" material. Letters to the editor, accounts of meetings and a number of poems.
What is interesting, is those prominent in Anti-Transportation League and its successor are today seen as forward thinking and progressive, yet a lot of the sentiments expressed by them would in a similar context today be seen as bigoted and self-serving. The big divide in society at the time was whether you/your parents arrived Free or at His/her Majesty's expense so this sort of debate enhanced the division. There's a lot of heated debate just in the newspaper columns.
These two are from May 5, 1847.
The first, is a slightly overwrought, emotional appeal "To the Freeman of Tasmnia"
The second, entitled "Lines on Transportation" is more rational, and does give the main arguments in the debate (cheap labour vs progress).
(And a note on the name, officially Tasmania became the island's name 1 Jan, 1856, but obviously it was in common use before that.)
TO THE FREEMEN OF TASMANIA
Hail ! sons of Freedom, hail !
Who dwell in Tasman's isle ;
O'erwhelm'd by streams corrupt, impure
The refuse and the vile.
Say, shall these streams yet flow
Thro' our adopted land;
Engend'ring death, disease, and woe,
With an unsparing hand !
( Cut for length )
LINES ON TRANSPORTATION.
Tasmanians hear ! attend unto a Muse
Who with impartial eyes this question views,
" If transportation should, or should not cease,
Does it augment our welfare or decrease !"
While some for its continuance contend
And in its praise their eloquence expend,
Others oppose it with an equal force,
And look on Transportation as the curse
Of this devoted land, which Britain's choice
Made its receptacle of outcast vice.
First let us weigh the arguments of those
Oppos'd to its cessation, we would lose
( Cut for length )
What is interesting, is those prominent in Anti-Transportation League and its successor are today seen as forward thinking and progressive, yet a lot of the sentiments expressed by them would in a similar context today be seen as bigoted and self-serving. The big divide in society at the time was whether you/your parents arrived Free or at His/her Majesty's expense so this sort of debate enhanced the division. There's a lot of heated debate just in the newspaper columns.
These two are from May 5, 1847.
The first, is a slightly overwrought, emotional appeal "To the Freeman of Tasmnia"
The second, entitled "Lines on Transportation" is more rational, and does give the main arguments in the debate (cheap labour vs progress).
(And a note on the name, officially Tasmania became the island's name 1 Jan, 1856, but obviously it was in common use before that.)
TO THE FREEMEN OF TASMANIA
Hail ! sons of Freedom, hail !
Who dwell in Tasman's isle ;
O'erwhelm'd by streams corrupt, impure
The refuse and the vile.
Say, shall these streams yet flow
Thro' our adopted land;
Engend'ring death, disease, and woe,
With an unsparing hand !
( Cut for length )
LINES ON TRANSPORTATION.
Tasmanians hear ! attend unto a Muse
Who with impartial eyes this question views,
" If transportation should, or should not cease,
Does it augment our welfare or decrease !"
While some for its continuance contend
And in its praise their eloquence expend,
Others oppose it with an equal force,
And look on Transportation as the curse
Of this devoted land, which Britain's choice
Made its receptacle of outcast vice.
First let us weigh the arguments of those
Oppos'd to its cessation, we would lose
( Cut for length )
