|
|
A tribute to influential Australian Christians - Sir George Gipps. Number 106 in our series.
|
Produced by:
|
ACL
|
|
Date of Production:
|
Wednesday, 8th August 2007
|
|
Abstract:
|
Sir George Gipps, NSW Governor. Gipps' passion was to extend equality to all men: Protestant and Roman Catholic, emancipist and squatter, immigrant and Aborigine. The governor urged the colonists to treat the Aborigines humanely as they were human beings with the same Creator. Gipps also believed the Aborigines deserved special respect and protection as they were the original settlers.
|
|
Printing:
|
Click here for a printer friendly version of this page.
|
Sir George Gipps Governor of NSW from 1838 to 1846.
George Gipps, the son of Rev. George Gipps, was born at Ringwold, Kent, and was educated at the King's School, Canterbury, and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He joined the Royal Engineers in 1809, and served in the Peninsular War, France, and the West Indies. He became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1834. In 1838 he succeeded Sir Richard Bourke as Governor of New South Wales.
Gipps, though an able administrator, was unpopular because he represented the Colonial Office at a time when the demands for fully responsible Christian self-government were strong. So he found himself in conflict with the Legislative Council (whose chief spokesman was the influential land-owner Wentworth, who from the time Gipps refused to sell him the southern island of New Zealand, had targeted Gipps as "enemy number one"). Gipps' conflict with the Legislative Council increased after representative government was introduced by the Imperial Act 1842, which required that two-thirds of the members of the Legislative Council be elected. Most of the twenty-four elected seats had been won by the graziers and their friends, who often joined with the twelve wealthy nominated members (the Devil's Dozen) to oppose further reforms.
The Council opposed the Governor's control of the land fund, which had been approved by the Colonial Office to pay for roads, bridges, police maintenance, assistance to immigrants, and the care of Aborigines. The New South Wales Act 1842 provided for the establishment of local government, which was to take over the administration of local roads, bridges and police maintenance. They were to be paid for by local taxes, but this proposal met with much opposition from the squatters and pastoralists, who were also unhappy about losing convict labour when transportation was discontinued in 1841. New immigrants tended to congregate in the cities and were not as willing to go inland and work for the low wages offered by squatters. The new immigrants were upset with Gipps because of the high price of land; they wanted to return to a system of free land grants. The settlers in the Port Phillip area demanded a separate government because of their distance from Sydney. The Anglicans (the largest religious group and led by Bishop Broughton) and the Roman Catholics violently opposed the Irish National School System, while the dissenting clergy, headed by Dr Lang, supported it.[41]
Gipps' passion was to extend equality to all men: Protestant and Roman Catholic, emancipist and squatter, immigrant and Aborigine.[42] The governor urged the colonists to treat the Aborigines humanely as they were human beings with the same Creator as themselves. Gipps also believed the Aborigines deserved special respect and protection as they were the original settlers.[43] However, his policy towards the Aborigines was no more successful than his educational policy. Gipps had great difficulty with coming up with any solution that would make all parties happy. Killings and abuse of the Aborigines were common. Many argued that the blacks were subhuman beings--mere monkeys. Thus, colonial practice differed from official colonial policy that considered the Aborigines to be British subjects, protected by the same British law and justice system as the colonists.[44] The governmental policy was best expressed in a report of the Aboriginal committee to the House of Commons in 1837. The committee recommended "the reservation of lands so that the Aborigines could continue [their lives] as huntsmen" and encouraged "the education of their children, increased expenditure for missionaries and protectors, and, if necessary, the prosecution of whites".[45] Gipps' attempts to create a "Protectorate" were completely thwarted because of inadequate finances and the general philosophy held by the settlers that "the only good Aborigine was a dead one". Outrages culminated in the murder of 28 friendly Aborigines. This became known as the Myall Creek Massacre--"one of the blackest stains that ever disgraced the pages of British history". When Chief Justice Dowling acquitted the seven white men involved, Governor Gipps demanded a retrial before Sir William Burton and all were found guilty of capital murder and condemned to be hanged. Judge Burton, in sentencing the men, reminded them that:
You have been found guilty of the murder of men, women and children, and the law of the land says, whoever is guilty of murder shall suffer death. . . . This is not a law of mere human convenience which may be adopted or rejected at pleasure according to the conventional usages of society, but it is founded on the law of God, given at the earliest period of Scripture history when there were only a few people on the face of the earth. . . . I cannot expect that any words of mine can reach those hardened hearts, but I hope that the love of God may reach them.[46]
Despite many public protests, all seven were hanged. However, atrocities continued; and the press were relentless in their savage criticism of Gipps. The heart of the matter, according to James Stephen of the Colonial Office, was "the hatred with which the white man regards the black".[47]
Gipps was not a popular governor, but he was an able administrator. Though lacking in the political skills that would have assisted him in building popular support to counteract the vested interests of the squatters and pastoralists, he built around him a group of loyal subordinates. He was a man of "high principles, a strong sense of justice, unostentatious generosity . . . and unimpeachable moral character".[48] He was known as a Christian and a man of prayer. In 1838, when a severe drought threatened the livestock of the colony, Gipps declared Sunday 2 November 1838 to be a national day of fasting and prayer. On November 4, the drought broke and it rained so much that people came down with the flu.[49] Gipps will be remembered for his stand in the Myall Creek Massacre case and for his Aboriginal protectorate policy--"the most comprehensive effort ever made in eastern Australia to civilize, Christianize, and protect the Aborigines".[50] It lasted from 1838 to 1849 and was supported by La Trobe, who later became the first Governor of Victoria. Though Gipps' protectorate failed as did his schemes for local government, the structure of municipal government which he designed was later adopted. Gipps has been called the "architect" of municipal self-government. As an engineer, he had a sound understanding of the fundamentals of town planning; as an Englishman, he knew the principles of local self-government. In a communication to the legislature in 1839, Gipps wrote:
The representative form of government . . . is essentially adapted to people, who through their representatives, exercise control over the general government. In the management of their local establishments, they acquired a knowledge of local business, and a knowledge too of the difficulties of it, which they are otherwise apt to underrate. In the township, or the parish, at county meetings, or in the halls of corporate bodies, the rudiments are acquired of that knowledge which shines forth afterwards in Parliament or in the Senate--of that knowledge which enables them to exercise, with wisdom and moderation, a constitutional control over government.[51]
Gipps also realised that local control was preferable to central control.
Let people of each county, parish, or township spend their own money, and they will spend no more of it than is necessary, and they will spend it much more satisfactorily than it is possible for the government to spend it for them.[52]
Gipps was an able governor in a difficult time of transition. The beautiful district of Gippsland in Victoria was named after him.
Source, with above references : http://www.chr.org.au/fpbooks/SL/slhs9.html
also : http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010529b.htm
Other influential Australian Christians in our series (listed in presentation order) :
117 Gertrude Kumm - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=17163
116 Una Porter - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=17158
115 Fredrick Cato - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=17093
114 David Unaipon - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16947
113 Lancelot Threlkeld - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16940
112 John Symons - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16786
111 John Blacket - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16767
110 John Blundstone - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16760
109 Mary Barlow - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16573
108 John Bradfield - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16523
107 Sir Richard Bourke - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16351
106 Sir George Gipps - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16152
105 John Hunter - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16126
104 B. A. Santamaria - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16095
103 Graham Staines - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16076
102 Patrick 'Paddy' Hannan - http://www.acl.org.au/nt/browse.stw?article_id=16076
101 Arthur Phillip - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16002
100 Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15978
092 Carl Strehlow - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16404
053 Johann Flierl - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16688
041 - 099 John Flynn's associates - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15822
040 Florence Young - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15814
039 Dr. Fred Schwarz - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15805
038 Major-General Lachlan Macquarie - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15778
037 Sir George James Coles - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15729
036 William Arnott - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15633
035 Sir Bruce Small - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15531
034 William Cooper - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15349
033 Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15346
032 Ethel Helyar - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15225
031 Marjorie Wilkinson - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15225
030 Maria Elizabeth Kirk - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15136
029 Robert Steel - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15027
028 Robert Cartwright - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14973
027 William Branwhite Clarke - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14899
026 Isabella Parry - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14747
025 William Guthrie Spence - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14712
024 Samuel Marsden - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14686
023 Tom Price - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14499
022 John Lang - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14414
021 John West - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14405
020 Edward John Eyre - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14252
019 Leon Morris - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14162
018 John Curtis - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14104
017 John Ridley - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14068
016 Joseph Orton - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13936
015 Thomas Gainford - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13891
014 Mary MacKillop - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13703
013 Charles La Trobe - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13591
012 Georgiana Molloy - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13491
011 Elizabeth Macarthur - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13291
010 HV McKay - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13223
009 Mary McConnel - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13077
008 Caroline Chisholm - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=12860
007 Arthur Stace - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=10594
006 Rev Dr Sir Alan Walker - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=10354
005 Captain Charles Sturt - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=10068
004 Alfred Deakin - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=9859
003 Pedro Fernánez de Quirós - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=9758
002 Richard Johnson - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=9696
001 John Flynn - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=9511
Other influential Australian Christians in our series (listed in alphabetical order) :
036 William Arnott - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15633
109 Mary Barlow - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16573
111 John Blacket - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16767
110 John Blundstone - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16760
107 Sir Richard Bourke - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16351
108 John Bradfield - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16523
100 Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15978
028 Robert Cartwright - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14973
115 Fredrick Cato - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=17093
008 Caroline Chisholm - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=12860
027 William Branwhite Clarke - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14899
037 Sir George James Coles - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15729
034 William Cooper - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15349
018 John Curtis - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14104
004 Alfred Deakin - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=9859
003 Pedro Fernández de Quirós - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=9758
020 Edward John Eyre - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14252
053 Johann Flierl - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16688
001 John Flynn - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=9511
041 - 099 John Flynn's associates - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15822
015 Thomas Gainford - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13891
106 Sir George Gipps - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16152
102 Patrick 'Paddy' Hannan - http://www.acl.org.au/nt/browse.stw?article_id=16076
032 Ethel Helyar - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15225
105 John Hunter - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16126
002 Richard Johnson - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=9696
030 Maria Elizabeth Kirk - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15136
117 Gertrude Kumm - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=17163
022 John Lang - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14414
013 Charles La Trobe - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13591
024 Samuel Marsden - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14686
011 Elizabeth Macarthur - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13291
009 Mary McConnel - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13077
010 HV McKay - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13223
014 Mary MacKillop - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13703
038 Major-General Lachlan Macquarie - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15778
012 Georgiana Molloy - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13491
019 Leon Morris - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14162
033 Pastor Sir Douglas Nicholls - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15346
016 Joseph Orton - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=13936
026 Isabella Parry - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14747
101 Arthur Phillip - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16002
116 Una Porter - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=17158
023 Tom Price - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14499
017 John Ridley - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14068
104 B. A. Santamaria - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16095
039 Dr. Fred Schwarz - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15805
035 Sir Bruce Small - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15531
025 William Guthrie Spence - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14712
007 Arthur Stace - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=10594
103 Graham Staines - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16076
029 Robert Steel - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15027
005 Captain Charles Sturt - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=10068
092 Carl Strehlow - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16404
112 John Symons - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16786
113 Lancelot Threlkeld - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16940
114 David Unaipon - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=16947
006 Rev Dr Sir Alan Walker - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=10354
021 John West - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=14405
031 Marjorie Wilkinson - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15225
040 Florence Young - http://www.acl.org.au/national/browse.stw?article_id=15814 |
|
 
|
|
