5 2 CHAPTER THREE

MAKING A PROFIT AND EARNING A QUID

In the early 1830s small parties of men, three or four in number, perhaps a few more, came intermittently to the highlands. They had the view of the mounted horseman, slightly elevated, slightly dominant. They were confident in knowing what they saw and in imagining what might be. They took note of the grasslands and the openness of the country. They sought out the ridges and the watersheds and memorised the views from the ridge lines. They observed the morning plumes of smoke from the Anaiwan camps and were perhaps perceptive enough to see the signs of their hunting and gathering across the landscape. Above all they noticed the watercourses, the creeks, the lagoons and the swamps and decided that the highlands had plenty of surface water which seemed quite permanent. They assembled their impressions and measured them against their one yardstick — was this good grazing country? Finally these scouts memorised the landscape features, left their own marks on selected trees and returned home.

By the mid 1830s a different type of journey was under way. From the Hunter Valley estates of Henry Dangar and William and Henry Dumaresq, establishment expeditions were organised. Drays were loaded with provisions, coarse clothing and tools. Stockmen and shepherds, representing both contracted immigrants and assigned convicts, were given instructions and herds of cattle or flocks of sheep were mustered and headed off for the new country. The trip to the highlands took weeks. It was slow, ponderous and, above all, raucous with the strident sounds of stressed animals and the harsher crack of stockwhips, the shouts of men and the insistent barking of dogs. The procession was noisome with the concentrated odour of massed animals and their enormous droppings carried on the wind. These were the sights and sounds and smells of permanence. This was the beginning of the pastoral industry. 5 3 MAP 3.1 5 4 By 1836, Henry Dangar had a well-established sheep station at Gostwyck, Captain Henry Dumaresq was newly set up at Saumarez and his brother, Captain William Dumaresq, occupied the adjacent Tilbuster run. 1 Between Gostwyck and the gorge country, another run had been created by Frederick Cruckshank and given a Latin name, Mihi, meaning, simply, mine. In that same year Peter McIntyre formed a run at Gyra, north east of the Tilbuster head station and, upon his death in 1842, this run passed to his sister Mary McIntyre. Within a few years Captain Maurice OConnell, son of Major General, Sir Maurice OConnell, the Commander-in-Chief of the colony, had established Gara and Hillgrove runs east of the site of Armidale. 2 The Hillgrove Run was later sold to Richard Hargrave, one of the few resident squatters at the time, whose voyage to New South Wales and whose early experiences in the colony were described in chapter two. By 1851 these runs were functioning fully and their boundaries were supposedly agreed upon by neighbouring squatters (see Map 3.1), although disputes continued well into the 1880s.3

Throughout the 1850s these runs remained open range land, well-watered, well-grassed and unfenced. This was sheep country, as magnificent as any in the world. Arguably the best of these central New England runs was Gostwyck, sweeping in an arc from the gorges and waterfalls of the eastern escarpment to the ponds and watercourses south of Uralla. The run took in Kellys Plains, Gibbons Plains and Wisemans Plains. It was dotted with permanent

1 Deposition of Hugh ONeil taken at Invermain, 4 May 1836, Supreme Court Criminal Jurisdiction, Case 36, Rex v. Thomas Walker, AONSW, T167; Alan Atkinson, The Creation of Armidale, ADHSJ, No. 30, March, 1987, pp.3-14; Jillian Oppenheimer, The Dumaresq Brothers and the Settlement of the Armidale District, ADHSJ, No. 31, April, 1988, pp.117- 124; and Alan Atkinson, A Reply to Mrs Oppenheimer, pp.124-125. 2 R.B. Walker, Old New England, Sydney, 1966, pp.12, 25; and J.F. Campbell, Discovery and Early Pastoral Settlement of New England, The Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings, Vol. VIII, Part V, 1922, pp.236, 264-265. 3 The boundaries of the squatting runs shown on the 1851 map were taken from Claims to Leases of Crown Lands, . . . New England District, Supplement NSWGG, No. 87, 14 August, 1848, pp.1001-1018; and Commissioner of Crown Lands, New England, Description of Runs circa 1851, AONSW, 4/6913; together with various maps in Pastoral Holding Files for Eastern Division Runs, No. 159, Hillgrove; No. 230, Springmount; No. 319, Thalgarrah; No. 334, Gostwyck; No. 368, Gyra or Gara; No. 384, Herbert Park; and No. 566, Tilbuster, Lands Department of New South Wales, Occupations Branch, AONSW, 3/1200; 3/1205; 3/1213; 3/1214; 3/1217; 3/1218; 3/1234, respectively 5 5 lagoons and was threaded by the Salisbury Waters and Saumarez Creek. In good seasons upwards of 20,000 sheep grazed these plains in flocks of close to 1,000 animals.4 Strategically placed across the run was a pattern of outstations, always close to water, always near good pasture. These outstations were marked by roughly fashioned, bark-roofed huts, stock pens, adjacent cultivation gardens and perhaps a small wheat field. 5 Here were the permanent homes of wandering shepherds, the quintessential figures in pastoral management throughout the middle decades of the century. To the south of the run, on the Salisbury Waters, was the headstation with its complex of bush-grey slab huts, outbuildings and stockyards dressed with a fringe of willows and other English plantings. Here Arthur Hunter Palmer, Dangars manager from 1840 to 1863, lived, initially in a slab house with few more pretensions to style and comfort than the outstation huts. But as security of land tenure was acquired and as Gostwyck grew in importance, the primitive headstation house was replaced by another by 1859 and yet another, ever grander, by 1871.6

Palmer supervised a labour intensive operation. In 1862, the last full year of his management for the Dangar family, Gostwyck employed 23 full time shepherds, each minding one but more typically two flocks, as well as 4 stockmen, 3 house servants, an engine driver c u m carpenter, a miller, one general hand, a gardener, a manager, a superintendent, an overseer and Albert Augustus Dangar, the twenty two year old son of Henry and Grace, who was learning the ropes under the exalted title of proprietors representative. Along the narrow alluvial flats of Salisbury Waters

4 For the carrying capacity of Gostwyck see Crown Lands (under lease or license beyond the settled districts), Return to an Order, VP, 1859-60, (4 Vols), Vol. III, Sydney, 1860, p.652. For numbers of flocks see the Gostwyck Ledger, 1862-1868, pp.13-98, held by Peter Dangar, Sunset Ave., Armidale. 5 The locations of the outstations on Gostwyck in 1851 were plotted from the improvement and pre-emptive purchases of the Dangars. See NSWGG, No, 233, 2 December, 1864, p.2753; No. 111, 2 June, 1865, p.1185; No. 190, 8 September, 1865, p.2010; No. 40, 18 February, 1866, p.460; No. 81, 23 May, 1867, p.1268, and No. 24, 31 January, 1868, p.272. The nature of the improvements can be determined from survey plans. See, for instance, Plan of a portion of land applied for by virtue of improvements by Grace Dangar, Lands Department, Surveyor Generals Office, plan S-111-1660. 6 Plan of two 320 acre portions of land applied for by pre-emptive right by H. Dangar at Gostwyck, New England, transmitted 1859, Lands Department, Surveyor Generals Branch, survey plan, N.11.1471; and From Armidale to and beyond Walcha, AE, 9 September, 1871, p.2. 5 6 and Saumarez Creek there was a small number of tenant farmers growing crops for the station and selling their surplus in town. As well as these farmers and full-time employees, Gostwyck provided casual work for a small army of bullock drivers, lambers, ploughmen, reapers, burr cutters, drovers, fellmongers, horse breakers and bush carpenters. Most were itinerants who seemed to have stayed on Gostwyck for a while and to have drawn on the station store. However, with regard to lambing and casual shepherding, the wives and daughters of the full-time male employees formed a significant reserve of labour. Then in late October shearing began on Gostwyck and 32 shearers, 10 sheep washers, 4 woolpressers, 7 shed hands and Mrs McPherson, the shearers cook, descended on the head station for the season, shearing and processing the fleeces of over 60,000 sheep from Gostwyck and the other Dangar properties at Yarrowick and Paradise Creek. Altogether, during 1862, there were 120 full-time and casual employees on the Gostwyck books.7

Such pastoral stations in the under-developed rural hinterland were, of necessity, largely self-sufficient. The Dangars maintained a comprehensive station store on Gostwyck stocked with the usual non-perishables such as flour, sugar, tea and tobacco, supplemented by fresh meat from slaughtered livestock, as well as vegetables, eggs and milk from the outstations and the tenanted farms. There was an assortment of tinned and bottled goods, a range of basic mens work clothes and boots, and calicos, linings and print materials for the making of family garments. The prices charged employees for these goods in July and August, 1864 were compared with prevailing prices in Armidale. Although some Gostwyck prices were higher they were not exorbitantly so and the convenience of purchasing locally must have compensated for the difference 8 (see Appendix 3.1). Nor did the prices rise unduly during the shearing season, a complaint often heard during the shearing troubles of the late 1880s.9

7 Gostwyck Ledger, 1862-1868, pp.13-149. 8 Gostwyck Ledger, 1862-1868, various pages covering the year 1864; and Armidale Current Prices, AE, 16, 23, 30 July, 1864, p.4; and 6, 13, 20, 27 August, 1864, p.4. 9 John Merritt, The Making of the A.W.U., Melbourne, 1986, p.77. 5 7 If any group felt aggrieved by the operations of the station stores, it was more likely the local town shopkeepers. Most of the station stores at Gostwyck arrived by bullock teams from Singleton in the Hunter Valley and, in selling goods at or a little above the town prices, the station manager was realising a profit and competing directly with the local storekeepers. The full-time shepherds on Gostwyck in 1862 spent approximately one third of their annual income at the station store. 10 The insolvency papers of George Kingdom, a Gostwyck shepherd who went broke, conveniently, in the same year, indicated that the local publican was the one town retailer most likely to benefit from the shepherds cheque) 1 The Gostwyck accounts show that little business was carried out directly with the town. Of the main storekeepers in Armidale it seems that only John Moore Co was favoured with a Gostwyck account, there being no indication that such stores as those of Franklin Jackes or John Trim had any regular dealings with the biggest and most profitable enterprise in the district. As well, pastoralists preferred to use solicitors and accountants based in Sydney or the Hunter Valley rather than trust their affairs to local professionals.12.

Pastoral prosperity underscored town development but the linkages were indirect. The pastoralists had a global vision that encompassed a concern for regional transport costs, metropolitan storage fees, international shipping rates and imperial market prices. The local town or village was a minor service centre in the grander scheme of selling a world class commodity on an international market. This wider vision meant that the industry was attuned to the possibilities that changing technologies and changing management might bring. It was also an industry that attracted capital investment. The story of Gostwyck station provides a good example of the nature of change and the thrust of investment in the great days of wool.

10 Gostwyck Ledger, 1862-1868, pp.33, 51, 53, 55-56, 59, 65, 69, 70, 71, 78. 11 List of Creditors, Supreme Court in Insolvency, File 5981, George Kingdom, AONSW, 2/9065. 12 This fact was easily determined from an examination of deceased estate files and official correspondence pertaining to Gostwyck and other nearby pastoral stations. 5 8 Henry Dangar died in 1861 leaving an estate of £2 80,000. 1 3 Two years later Arthur Hunter Palmer left Gostwyck and moved on to make his own fame and fortune in Queensland. In the next few years Henrys widow, Grace Dangar, exerted much effort and expended considerable family wealth in purchasing the best Gostwyck lands from the Crown. By the time of her death in 1869, Gostwyck was impregnable. Over 30,000 acres of grasslands and water frontages had been secured under freehold title. This was the basis for further capital development.

Throughout January 1867 bullock teams headed for Gostwyck from the Hunter Valley loaded with tons of wire. 14 The open plains were about to be fenced and by late 1868 Gostwyck had been spanned by the best fences in the district. 15 Just before the shearing season of 1868 the teams north from Singleton carried the bits and pieces of a marvellous contraption which was assembled and readied for the influx of sheep and shearers in late October. The device with its boilers and cisterns, its pipes and pumps, was a mechanical hot water sheep washer surrounded by a maze of pens and races which channelled sheep up inclines and onto hinged platforms which collapsed beneath their weight and threw the animals into hot water baths. As the boilers chugged and hissed and the cisterns and tanks drained and filled and splashed, the increasingly alarmed sheep were goaded from hot water washes to cold water rinses and finally hurled down slippery slides to be assaulted from all directions by jets of pressurised water, until finally the soggy animals were let out to dry. 16 This sort of convoluted, steam-driven technology was the marvel of the age, and visitors from Armidale and Uralla came to gape at it and were awed.

Other technologies were less spectacular but more revolutionary. One such change was in the nature of the shearing process itself. Older more cumbersome shearing techniques were replaced through the 1870s and 1880s by the expeditious long

13 The last will and testament of Henry Dangar, died 2 March, 1861, Supreme Court, Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Series 1, No. 5050, AONSW, 6/7796. 14 Gostwyck Ledger, 1862-1868, pp.671-672. 15 Gostwyck, AE 31 October, 1868, p.2. 16 Loc. cit. 5 9 blow which removed wool far more efficiently by making shearing both quicker and easier) 7

By 1876 fencing of the New England runs was making shepherding obsolete. 18 Within a short time the Dangars glorious hot water sheep washer, which was still in use in the late 1870s,19 had become a rusting curiosity. The advent of the railway to Armidale in 1883, with far cheaper carriage rates thereafter, put an end to the need to wash sheep before shearing. 20 By 1887 the nature of employment on Gostwyck had changed markedly. In that year the Dangar Brothers employed 7 boundary riders, 5 stockmen, 4 general hands, 4 house servants, 3 stable hands, a manager, an overseer and a gardener. There were far fewer casual workers than there had been in 1862 and most ad hoe work was contracted to tradesmen in Armidale or Uralla. In the shearing season there were 26 shearers, 4 wool rollers, 3 wool pressers, 3 pickers-up and two shearers cooks. 21 The shepherd and the sheep washer had gone forever. The sheep stations were now more cost-effective and far fewer men would call in search of work.

Gostwyck was not necessarily typical, but its story highlights all the major changes of the time. Other pastoral proprietors around Armidale did not have the money to invest in the way that the Dangars had done and so capital investment and the acquisition of secure title were more problematic. Saumarez to the west of Gostwyck had been disrupted by the discovery of gold along the southern creeks of the run and by the encroachment of small freehold farmers on the rich alluvial plains immediately to the west of Armidale. Henry Dumaresqs widow eventually sold the run in 1857 to Henry Arding Thomas, the Indian born son of a British army officer, who took up residence at Saumarez with his wife, Caroline, and baby son in 1857. During their seventeen year residence the Thomas family consolidated over 14,000 acres under freehold title. 22 In 1863 Thomas subdivided Saumarez and sold the

17 Merritt, op. cit., p.4.0. 18 Editorial, AE, 28 April, 1876, p.4. 19 Gostwyck, AE, 5 December, 1879, p.6. 20 Merritt, op. cit., p.16. 21 Gostwyck and Yallaroi Cheque Register, 1886-1889, original held at Gostwyck Station via Uralla. 22 John Ferry, Building a Pastoral Property: Henry Arding Thomas and Saumarez, ADHSJ, No. 33, November, 1990, p.107. 6 0 northern half, under the name of Eversleigh, to his future brother- in-law, Algernon Belfield. 23 Thomas abandoned any claim to Crown land beyond his freehold acres and by the early 1870s Saumarez ceased to be regarded as a pastoral leasehold. In 1874 Thomas sold Saumarez to Francis White of Muswellbrook who died the following year leaving the property to his namesake son, Francis J. White, and so began an association of well over a century between the White family and Saumarez. The Belfield family had a similarly long association with Eversleigh.

Other runs eventually survived as only small freehold parcels. William Dumaresq seemed to lose interest in Tilbuster after the survey and gazetting of the town of Armidale and its surrounding reserve took some of the best pasture and watercourses from the old run. 24 By 1859 he was leasing Tilbuster to William Maister,25 the son of a brother officer, who laboured as a tenant squatter under considerable debt 26 and the onset of insanity. He eventually shot himself in 1864. 27 When Dumaresq died in 1868, Tilbuster had to be sold to pay for the generous bequests in his will 28 but by then much of the run had been lost to free selectors. By 1885 it was a small property of a little over 4,000 acres of freehold and conditionally purchased lands with attendant grazing rights to inferior hill country.29

Gyra and Gara runs to the east were the subject of a major boundary dispute in 1863 between Mary McIntyre and Edward Allingham, Maurice OConnells successor at Gara. 30 The outcome required the redrawing of the boundaries and the renaming of the

23 Rough register of correspondence received by the New England Commissioner of Crown Lands, Passport Book, New England, AONSW, 4/5501, ff. 48, 50, 52. 24 Alan Atkinson, The Creation of Armidale, p.12. 25 Affidavit of William Dumaresq, 15 December, 1865, Supreme Court in Equity, Case 2022, Moore and others v. Cheesbrough and another, AONSW, 3/3794. 26 General Report, 7 September, 1866, Supreme Court in Equity, Case 2022. 27 Death of Mr Maister of Tilbuster, AE, 16 April, 1864, p.2. 28 Will of William J. Dumaresq and Cover Sheet, Probate Papers, Supreme Court, Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Series 1, No. 7859, AONSW, 14/3425. 29 Application for a Pastoral Lease, 27 October, 1885, Pastoral Holding File, No. 566, Eastern Division, Tilbuster, Lands Department, Occupations Branch, AONSW, 3/1234 30 Rough register of correspondence received by the New England Commissioner of Crown Lands, ff. 50, 55. 6 1 Gara run as Gyra or Gara while retaining the name Gyra for the adjacent run. The confusion was compounded when the Gyra run was subdivided into two new runs called Thalgarrah and North Gyra in the 1870s and eventually George H.V. Jenkins, the owner of North Gyra from the mid 1880s, changed its name to Herbert Park. Both Thalgarrah and Herbert Park were modest sheep stations of 7,000 and 11,000 acres respectively under secure title, the main improvements on both, by 1885, consisting of fencing and a little ringbarking.31

Gyra or Gara, on the other hand, operated under the burden of considerable debt. Edward Allingham, who ran a mill and store in Armidale as well as his pastoral interests, was heavily indebted by 1861 to both the Australian Joint Stock Bank 32 and the merchant firm of David Cohen Co. of Maitland. 33 Eventually Cohen Co foreclosed on Gyra or Gara and appointed a manager for many years before selling the run to James Glass in 1877. Glass borrowed heavily from the Mercantile Bank of Sydney to attempt to secure this run and his other property on the Liverpool Plains against free selectors. 34 Although Gyra or Gara was substantially improved and title secured by the time of Glass sudden death in 1881 debts on his estate exceeded the assets and once again the mortgagees took contro1. 3 5

Mihi station, abutting the gorge country, was another story of high hopes turned sour. James Starr, brother-in-law of John Moore the Armidale storekeeper, had purchased the run in 1852 from the original lessee. 36 In 1866, with the run heavily mortgaged and with his personal debts accumulating, Starr was forced to

31 Application for a Pastoral Lease, 16 April, 1885, No 319 Eastern Division, Thalgarrah and No. 384 Eastern Division, Herbert Park, Lands Department, Occupations Branch, AONSW, 3/1213 and 3/1218.. 32 Extracts from the Board Minutes, 21 August, 1866, Australian Joint Stock Bank, Westpac Archives, 33 Indenture of Conveyance between George Allingham and George Judah Cohen and Neville David Cohen, 15 May, 1893, LTONSW, Old System Register, Book 515, No. 747. 34 Indenture of Mortgage between Esther Ann Glass and the Mercantile Bank of Sydney, 14 January, 1884, LTONSW, Old System Register, Book 283, No. 183. 35 Affidavit under the Stamp Act, Deceased Estate File, Z 1406, James Glass, AONSW, 20/6978. 36 Transfer of Runs, NSWGG, No. 73, 20 July, 1852, p.1115.

62 MAP 3.2

MAIN PASTORAL HOLDINGS

1

r3

ti r 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 kilometres

r-

Le

, ,

, --,),(., 1 ‹,., I ,3 3 s ri HILLGROVE c■ I __ri 0 `...., i\ i::"....:1,. ) g ,,, .::., I 4 -•\■ A-C–`,---4 e

.—....-1 1. i SAUMAREZ a 1 f ,-- FREEHOLD r." 11 c.....\ ■ .11_- I GOT CK 1... I -,‘ r. I 1 I r ,.. ROCKY ■ Ili RIVER e, ■ I URALLA , L. t...cr . ) ENIVIORE t ,.....-)\ ri 1 ..... ,-- _, (.2 r ,---, r-^51 3 l --I MIHI CREEK ( 1..,--1) 3 I ( 1 \ ..., 7, J....) i .,,..,_c__,,,,..--,.. SALISBURY ,--- -, L. Li _1 I Boundary of County of Sandon. .--, I _) 1 Freehold and conditionally purchased lands belonging 1- to the pastoralist in respect of his run. 1 r I---. i —J I— I E 1 I Run boundaries. By 1887 these boundaries were largely ,--- ,..., , 1_1 - academic since many had been obliterated by freehold 1..., i r__ ---, purchases, especially close to Armidale. However, 1_ 1 pastoralists were entitled to qualified rights to graze 1J I r stock on vacant crown lands within the old run I _.=i boundaries. L____ J 6 3 insolvency and the run passed into the hands of the mortgagees, McDonald Smith Co. 37 James Starr was left with the ashes of high ambition. He died in Armidale in 1883, broken, bitter and reclusive. McDonald Smith Co. subdivided Mihi in the early 1870s, one half retaining the name of Mihi, the other later known as Rockwood. Both properties were sold in 1874 to Frederick R. White of Harben Vale, near Murrurundi, an uncle of F.J. White of S au m are z . 38 F.R. White and his wife Sarah were to be the most dominant figures in Armidale social life by the last decade of the century presiding in style from their great home, Booloominbah, just outside the city.

As a group the squatters (or pastoralists as they were more properly called after they had secured title to their stations) controlled the most profitable and most stable industry in New England. Most either owned, or controlled through borrowing, large fortunes. The average of their personal wealth far exceeded the average for any other economic group in the district. 39 But it is worthwhile bearing in mind that these pastoralists were not a homogeneous group. There were those who had the capital to turn their runs into vast freehold estates and push those estates to their full potential. Others remained leaseholders and still others were tenants. There were those who abandoned their runs to free selectors. There were those who defended their runs successfully against most intruders. There were those who failed in the effort. Some pastoralists drew on vast reserves of family wealth. Others borrowed and borrowed again until extravagant hope became their main collateral. Many succeeded. Many went down.

37 Sworn Statement of James Starr, Insolvents Schedules, Order Confirming Plan of Distribution and Report of Official Assignee, Supreme Court in Insolvency, Case 7931, James Starr Snr, AONSW, 2/9209. 38 Bruce Mitchell, House on the Hill: Booloominbah, Home and University, 1888-1988, Armidale, 1988, p.6. 39 These statements are based on an examination of sale prices for stations, insolvency files for those pastoralists who went down and asset inventories in deceased estate files. See for instance the sale price of Saumarez Station as stated in: Conveyance: Henry Arding Thomas to Francis White, 17 September, 1874, LTONSW, Old System Register, Book 145, No. 368; or for Gyra or Gara, Mortgage: Esther Ann Glass to the Mercantile Bank of Sydney, 14 January, 1884, LTONSW, Old System Register, Book 283, No. 183. See also the deceased estate files of Algernon H., Belfield of Eversleigh (stamp duty paid 12 February, 1923) AONSW 20/867; or of Henry E. Bigg (stamp duty paid 29 January, 1903), AONSW 20/210; or of George Lorimer Gibson of Longford (file Z7360), AONSW 20/7002. 6 4 The other main industries in the Armidale area in the second half of the nineteenth century were agriculture, mining and urban- based retailing, servicing and manufacturing. In relation to these industries pastoralism has one further claim. It was the seminal European industry in New England and many of the people who were to become small farmers, retailers, publicans, millers and officials came first to New England as employees of the squatters. They prospered with the district.

Small farming had been an integral part of pastoralism. Many life-time farmers had learned about soil, seed and climate on the cultivation allotments of the early runs. If Governor Macquarie had once disparaged the lazy job of chasing sheep and cattle, 40 then there were no such pejoratives for agriculture. In European culture words such as farmer and settler glowed in the associated auras of honesty, hard work and righteousness. 41 But there were further associations. When Josias Moffatts cousin, an immigrant to the U.S.A., wrote to him from Washington in 1865 he praised Moffatt for his success at farming and declared the farmers life . . . the most independent of any . 4 2 Independence betokened individualism — another prized cultural trait. Farming was also given the charge of representing family life — men, women and children of wholesome mind and vigorous character in Godly pursuits. The Bible bulged with agricultural imagery and, as if to evoke Gods further pleasure, farmers at Saumarez Ponds christened their children Obadiah, Vashti, Naomi, Reuben, Samuel, Joseph and Benjamin43 and the Bedford baptists built their chapel amongst the wheat fields. Godliness, of course, was no guarantee of good harvests and good prices.

There were many types of small farm. Wheat was widely grown but other crops such as maize, oats and potatoes were also cultivated. By the 1860s, New England was renowned for its cold

40 Governor Macquarie quoted in C.J. King, An Outline of Closer Settlement in New South Wales, Sydney, 1957, pp.23-4. 41 F.G. Clarke, The Land of Contrarieties: British attitudes to the Australian colonies, 1828-1855, Melbourne, 1977, pp.122-4. 42 Josias S. Moffatt, Washington, D.C. to Josias Moffatt, Saumarez Ponds, 23 March, 1865, Personalities File - Moffatt, New England Historical Resources Centre. 43 A.K. Frost, Frost-Frazier Family History, Beecroft, 1983, pp.28, 35, 48. 6 5 climate fruits 44 and Franklin Jackes, a very successful storekeeper turned orchardist, grew cherries, apples and other stone fruit for the southern markets at Orchardfield, his impressive farm overlooking Saumarez Creek. 45 At Haroldston on Kellys Plains, Robert Issel Perrott, whose primary occupation was Police Magistrate, prided himself on scientific farming and, as well as his orchards and his sheep, he grew from time to time arrowroot and sugar beet. 46 Within the town boundaries of Armidale, Edward Baker experimented with mulberry trees and silkworms while deriving his main income from a small flock of sheep. 47 Others close to town ran dairy herds. Perhaps the most unusual crop of all was wattle, grown by Barnett Aaron Moses on a farm at the foot of Mount Duval to supply his boot factory in Armidale with bark for the tanning process.48 The editors of the Armidale Express, always staunch in their support of free selectors and small farmers, applauded every experiment, were generous with their encouragement, transcribed faint hopes into bright futures and generally tried to weave straw into gold in their enthusiasm for agriculture and the potential of new crops. But for all that, wheat was the staple, grown extensively through the arc of fertile land from the western spurs of Mount Duval, along Saumarez Creek to the boundaries of Gostwyck station. However, the experimentation and the enthusiasm for exotic crops were an indication that there was some unease with wheat as the staple.

In the early 1850s William Gardner described his vision of New England as the future granary of the north 49 but that vision needed the substance of a market. The gold strike at. Rocky River in 1856 provided the impetus for agricultural expansion and within months of the strike, and again in 1857, fertile lands at Saumarez Ponds, west of Armidale and at Kellys Plains to the south were being surveyed and put up to auction. 50 This became Armidales

44 Random Notes (By the Heralds Wandering Reporter.) XIX, AE, 7 July, 1866, p.2. 45 A Day at Orchardfield, AE, 10 January, 1879, p.6, and Orchardfield, AE, 10 December, 1880, p.4. 46 AE, 7 August, 1869, p.4; 19 February, 1870, p.2; 25 February, 1871, p.2. 47 AE, 18 February, 1871, p.2. 48 Correspondence, AE, 16 June, 1882, p.6. 49 William Gardner, Production and Resources of the North District of N.S.W., 1851-52, Vol. II, p.5, Mitchell Library Mss, 50 AE, 5 July, 1856, p.2, and Sale List, Sale held by Public Auction at Armidale, 28 April, 1856, 27 May, 1857, Auction Sale Books, Lands 6 6 wheat belt. By 1859 the Armidale Express was urging the farmers and millers to challenge Maitland for the Tamworth, Liverpool Plains and far western markets 51 and Armidale teams, loaded with flour, began to head down from the highlands and across the black soil plains.

The wheat industry looked promising. Not only was the crop grown locally, it was processed locally. Small horse mills, water mills and wind mills had been evident for some time on the pastoral runs and larger steam mills in Armidale were built by storekeepers, John Moore, Edward Allingham and James McLean. By 1861, Gardners vision had taken a more substantial form. The Armidale Police District, covering all of southern and central New England, had 2067 acres under wheat with a further 1100 acres given over to wheat in northern New England. The region boasted fourteen mills, eleven of which were steam powered. This was an extraordinary number exceeded only by the Sydney Police District. Just as remarkable was the relatively small number of reaping and threshing machines in the region. 52 These statistics indicated the immaturity of the industry, consisting as it did of a few small farms, operating primitively and supplying quite a number of small mills. In so far as these statistics persisted, and they did, they provided every indication that the passage of time was producing only stunted growth in the industry. But retrospective analyses would come later. In the early 1860s prospects seemed good.

The passing of the Robertson Land Acts in 1861 and the extension of the Armidale Reserve in 1862, allowing potential farmers to avail themselves quickly of the new legislation, coincided with the collapse of the wheat industry in the Hunter Valley. 53 New markets on the north west plains were there for the taking and the New England wheat industry expanded confidently. By 1866 the acreage under wheat in the Armidale Police District had trebled from the figure of five years previously. 54 On 6

Department of New South Wales, Bridge Street Sydney and Register of Crown Grants, 1857, LTONSW. 51 AE, 20 August, 1859, p.2. 52 Statistical Register for New South Wales for the Year 1861, Sydney, Government Printer, 1862, pp.189, 190, 200. 53 M.E. Robinson, The New South Wales Wheat Frontier, 1851 to 1911, Canberra, 1976, pp.31-32, 36, 108. 54 Statistical Register of New South Wales, 1866, p.138. 6 7 January, 1866 two days after the squatting runs had been thrown open to selection, the Armidale Express reported the largest wheat crop ever grown in the district and hoped that the markets of the western plains would be more effectively supplied so that the return on wheat to the farmers would remain high. 55 But despite the euphoria over a golden crop the future would still be blighted.

As the bumper crops of the mid 1860s gave way to the more modest harvests of the later years of the decade, pragmatic experts were sceptical about the claims advanced for New England as the granary of the north. 56 Markets were limited and new markets could not be reached. Attempts to get a light tramway or a macadamised road between Armidale and Grafton in order to open the coast to New England flour were derided in Sydney. As western towns grew in the 1870s and 1880s, New England lost market share to new local mills. But there was a greater problem. As early as 1863 noted New England agriculturalist, Walter Bagot, pointed to the inferior quality of New England wheat and flour. 57 The situation did not improve in the years following. 58 The New England wheat industry was small, regionally oriented and greatly protected against competitors by the tariff of distance. It was basically inefficient. Those who were blessed with advanced hindsight, including the editors of the Armidale Express, knew that the coming of the railway would bring only vigorous competition not market opportunities. Farmers were urged into other crops — barley, oats, tobacco, sugar beet and even wattle bark. 59 As the railways slashed across the north western black soil plains, cheap Adelaide flour drove the New England product from its erstwhile markets. The local tableland market held good for a while after the railway arrived in 1883, due no doubt to the increase in population, but with the opening of the Hawkesbury River Bridge and a direct line to Sydney in 1889, followed by a disastrous season in 1890, the local industry faltered. By 1891 three of the four flour mills in

55 Editorial, AE, 6 January, 1866, p.2. 56 Evidence of John Black, Third Progress Report from the Select Committee on the Examination of the Land Law, VP, 1873-4, (6 Vols), Vol. III, Sydney, 1874, p.965. 57 Editorial and New England and Adelaide Wheat, AE, 28 November, 1863, pp.2, 3. 58 R.B. Walker, Squatter and Selector in New England, 1862-95, Historical Studies Australia and New Zealand, Vol. 8, No. 29, November, 1957, p.73. 59 Editorial, AE, 30 June, 1882, p.4. 6 8 Armidale were closed and many farmers had gone out of wheat- growing because they could not compete with the imported wheat. 60 There was no recovery.

Still, the vision had held through the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s. Wheat more than any other crop had come to epitomise small farming in New England. For three decades the habits of the wheat plant beat the rhythms of life on the farmlands west and south of Armidale. Ploughing and cultivating took place in late autumn and winter for an August sowing. Harvesting was usually underway in the Christmas-New Year period and the threshing and winnowing of the wheat had commenced by the middle weeks of January. 61 By February the Armidale flour mills were in full steam. 62 Much of the seasonal round of activity was organised within the family. Women frequently managed the farm in the quiet seasons when their husbands were away seeking seasonal work. In the busiest periods, and particularly at harvest, all members of the family were expected to lend a hand. In 1866, Elizabeth Adrain, the school teacher at Kellys Plains, attributed the very poor attendance figures at her school during January to the harvest when every child, even the smallest is of use at home. 63 In 1889 J.J. Anstey, teacher at Saumarez Public School, sought, and was granted, permission to close his school for a Harvest Home Festiva1, 64 an interesting transplant of an old English custom which emphasised the harvest as a family effort.

Despite the efforts of all family members, the reaping and threshing of the wheat usually required outside labour. In the December/January period, the farmer became an employer. The

60 See question 3857, evidence of John Moore; question 3901 and 3939, evidence of Charles Wilson; question 3976 and 3977, evidence of Russell Richardson; and question 4025, evidence of Frederick Braund, Minutes of Evidence, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works Report . . . Relating to the Proposed Railway from Glen Innes to Inverell, V P , 1892-3, Sydney, Government Printer, 1893, pp.1150-1155. 61 Editorial, AE, 7 December, 1867, p.2; advertisement of Martin Heagney, AE, 16 January, 1869, p.1; Destructive Hailstorm, AE, 7 January, 1876, p.6 62 Advertisement, Edward Allingham, AE, 24 January, 1863; Advertisement, James McLean, AE, 14 February, 1863; AE, 21 December, 1867, p.3. 63 Elizabeth Adrain to Inspector McIntyre, 19 March, 1866, Board of National Education, Miscellaneous Letters Received, Vol. 2, c. January - April, 1866, AONSW, 1/439, f. 338. 64 J.J. Anstey to J.D. Bradley, District Inspector, 15 February, 1889, Department of Public Instruction, Saumarez Creek School File, Letter 89/7830, AONSW, 5/17596.4. 6 9 farmer would call at the local boarding houses and hotels looking for reapers, many of whom would be shearers who had just cut out from the sheds. 65 Contracts for rates of pay and areas to be reaped would be formally drawn up or verbally negotiated and the reapers would be taken to the farm and accommodated there, with rations, until the job was done. Upon completion, the farmer, the reapers and an independent arbiter, usually a neighbouring farmer, would formally measure and calculate the area reaped using a surveyors chain, and the reapers would be paid at the agreed rate. 66 The processes of threshing, winnowing and bagging were also labour intensive, even when machinery came into use from the mid 1860s. Most farms were too small, however, to afford such contraptions as reaper-binders or separate threshing or winnowing machines and these were usually hired out but at the height of the harvest there were never enough machines and many farmers remained dependant on outside labour throughout the period.67

In January 1876, at the height of the wheat harvest, a destructive hailstorm, cut through the farms at Gibbons Plains and along the Great North Road to Kellys Plains. The accounts of damage, which could not have been worse for a wheat crop still being harvested, indicated that most farms grew a variety of crops. Maize crops were shredded, oat crops, almost ripe, were cut down, fields of potatoes were flattened and fruit trees stripped. 68 The devastation had occurred to mixed farms on which wheat was the main crop of several. Obviously the wheat farmers had to regulate their lives according to the demands of other crops. Nonetheless, there were quiet seasons and at these times many male farmers sought casual work. For those who could shear, the shearing season provided excellent opportunities to supplement incomes, coming as it did just before the wheat harvest. At Gostwyck during the 1864 shearing season, half the shearers were local farmers. 69 By 1887, with a more organised industry and greater mobility of shearers,

65 AE, 5 December, 1868, p.2. 66 Cormach McFarren, Patrick Coll, George McGuingal and William Anderson v. Thomas Baker, 18 January, 1867, Minutes of Proceedings, 19 June, 1866 - 9 July, 1867, Bench of Magistrates, Armidale, AONSW, 4/5495. 67 AE, 30 June, 1866, p.2; 25 May, 1867, p.2; 5 December, 1868, pp.2, 5; 13 August 1870, p.3; and 4 February, 1876, p.4. 68 Destructive Hailstorm, AE, 7 January, 1866, p.6. 69 Gostwyck Ledger, 1862-1868. 7 0 the proportion had dropped to one quarter70 but at Saumarez in 1888, one third of the shearers were from local farming families.71 Others took to the roads as carriers, sometimes transporting their own produce to distant markets. July 1869 found local farmer Conrad Bower selling his New England flour along the remote Narran River 300 miles west of Armidale. 72 Others headed for the goldfields or tinfields to try their luck. 73 During any one year a farmer might be employer, employee and self-employed.

One other type of relationship was common to small farmers. To varying degrees, farming relied on credit. For much of the year the farmer was also a debtor. The extent of farm debt varied considerably. On the one hand were the Pearson brothers, Richard, Henry and Robert, sons of Richard and Mary Pearson, all of whom arrived in Australia from Ireland aboard the Cadet in 1841. They were shipmates of Joseph and Sarah Scholes and family. Within a few years of their arrival the Pearsons were farming in New England. As soon as the crown lands to the west of Armidale were subdivided and put up to auction the Pearsons purchased good farms and worked this land for close to fifty years. At no stage were the three farms of Violet Dale, Violet Hill and Woodpark under mortgage. 74 At the time of their respective deaths at the turn of the century the three brothers left estates totalling over f15,000 without so much as an unpaid store account by way of liability.75

By contrast George Frost, son of one of the Bedford immigrants, his wife and family, saw their hopes dashed by debt. He was renting a small farm at Saumarez Ponds and, in 1886, after a series of crop failures his landlady took possession of all his goods and

70 Gostwyck and Yallaroi Cheque Register, 1886-89. 71 Saumarez Station Ledger, 1887-1893, U.N.E. Archives, A149. 72 AE, 17 July, 1869, p.2. 73 AE, 26 October, 1867, p.2. 74 Full property searches from 1856-1904 were undertaken for portions 2- 5; 7-13; 15-19; 59-61; 67 and 69, Parish of Butler, County of Sandon, Land Titles Office of New South Wales, commencing at the respective Crown Grants. 75 Affidavits under the Stamp Act for Henry Pearson (duty paid 29 November, 1898), Robert Pearson (duty paid 7 December, 1903) and Richard Pearson (duty paid 28 October, 1904), AONSW, 20/131, 20/229 and 20/249 respectively. 7 1 chattels and evicted him and his family. 76 He was forced to insolvency by his other creditors who included Armidale storekeepers John Moore Co., Richardson Co. and J.J. Trim with whom Frost had long standing debts. He and his wife had nine children. The three eldest girls were sent out to domestic service but the other children were dependant. Frost took up labouring jobs on the farms around Saumarez Ponds but was soon in debt again and spent months working out his debt to one farmer. During 1889 he worked as a shearer and fencer but could only get work for six months of the year. Mrs Frost and the children received clothing, meat and vegetables from charitable relatives in the district and not surprisingly, Mrs Frosts health was very poor.77

In the period 1850-1887 sixteen farmers in the Armidale area became insolvent. 78 Most of these were tenant farmers. This number was surprisingly small given the number of people in that period who claimed to be farmers. An examination of the deceased estates of farmers who died in possession of their farms in the period 1880 to 1905 revealed a low level of debt. Only 5 of 38 farmers died with an outstanding mortgage (see Appendix 3.2). For 26 of the 38 farmers liabilities were less than 10 per cent of assets and significant outstanding store debts were applicable to only half the cases. However, the very nature of the sources produced a group which was not representative. The farmers who died in possession of their farms in this period tended to be the successful pioneers who had been farming their land for 25 to 50 years and had probably been living in semi-retirement for a number of years before their deaths. Nonetheless the analysis showed that small farming could be quite profitable during the period and that small farmers as a group had accumulated, on the one hand, less wealth than the pastoralists and large retailers but more wealth than most small businesses in the town and certainly more than independent tradesmen and skilled labourers.

A better picture of farmer debt was given by an analysis of chains of ownership on every portion of freehold land at Kellys

76 Sworn Statement of George Frost, Supreme Court in Insolvency, File 21970, AONSW, 2/10340. 77 Teachers report on the character and circumstances of an applicant for relief from school fees, Document 89/13145, Saumarez School File. 78 Extracted from the Insolvency Index, Supreme Court in Insolvency, AONSW, Reel 38. 7 2 Plains and at Saumarez Ponds (see Appendix 3.3). Altogether the ownership of 212 portions of land was examined over the period 1856 to 1891. During this period 45 per cent of the portions of land were mortgaged at least once. Of the 214 people who owned these portions of land over the period, 27 per cent mortgaged their properties. Considering the tensions between farmers and mortgagees, both these figures seemed somewhat low. To express them in another way, more than half the land was entirely debt free over a 35 year period and almost three quarters of the farmers were free of mortgage debt.

Of the farmers who mortgaged their farms, most did so with either storekeepers or the banks. Each indicates quite a separate type of debt. When a farmers store account exceeded a safe limit, the local storekeeper might insist on a formal mortgage being drawn up before further credit was given. A storekeeper mortgage therefore could be an indicator that a farmer was in financial difficulties. A bank mortgage on the other hand could well indicate that the farmer was investing in new capital or the purchase of more land and could well be a sign of a healthy and expanding operation. The analysis showed that 38 per cent of farm mortgages were with storekeepers and 31 per cent were with banks. The remainder were with solicitors, pastoralists, other farmers or the local building society. However, to qualify the comment made above that storekeeper mortgages were a sign of economic difficulty, it should be pointed out that half the mortgages to storekeepers were taken out with John Moore Co. This company consisted of the principal, John Moore, Armidales premier storekeeper, Joseph Scholes, the publican, and his eldest son Robert Scholes. This partnership was dissolved in July 1864, 79 about the time when the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney opened an Armidale branch. Prior to 1864 the only bank operating in Armidale was the Australian Joint Stock Bank which, by its Act of Incorporation, could not contract mortgages on freehold land.80

79 Notice, AE, 13 August, 1864, p.1. 80 See Clause 3, An Act to Incorporate the Proprietors of a Certain Bank called Australian Joint Stock Bank, September, 1853, Westpac Archives, A/9/140. This clause was not repealed until 1886. See An Act to amend the Australian Joint Stock Bank Act. (28th September, 1886.) T h e Statutes of New South Wales, (Public and Private), passed during the session of 1885-6, 49° 50 9- Victorice, Sydney, Government Printer, 1886, p.110. 7 3 Thus stores like John Moore Co provided a loan service in the absence of the normal private banks. Nonetheless the relationship between farmer and storekeeper was always ambivalent.

In summary, the analysis of the mortgage debts of the farming communities indicated that small farming was carried on successfully in the area but there was little debt-financed capital investment on the scale that would typify a strong and expanding industry. This confirms the anecdotal evidence that crop farming was successful during the period but remained technologically backward and vulnerable to competition.

Most farmers, although free of mortgage debt, were not free of store debts. The examination of deceased estate files showed that a typical store debt would be from £30 to £70 per annum. These debts were usually acquitted after harvest, but because most storekeepers were also millers, they often insisted that their debtors sell their wheat harvest to them. There was often contention between farmers and storekeepers over this issue. The obverse of the ambivalence was that farmers needed the storekeepers and storekeepers needed the farmers. 81 The small farmers spent their money locally. Unlike the pastoralists, the town was their only service centre. Their produce, processed locally, brought money into the community from afar. The prosperity of the town was definitely tied to the prosperity of the small farmers especially during the 1860s and 1870s.

Not surprisingly, the town of Armidale experienced a boom during the heyday of wheat in the early and mid 1860s. One former inhabitant who would have noticed considerable change was Margaret Rich. When she departed Armidale in 1859 for the Victorian goldfields to rejoin her husband who was on the run from the New South Wales police she left some unfinished business behind. She owned a choice allotment of land on the corner of Brown and Dangar Streets where she and her family had lived in a good slab house with attendant stockyards and pigsties. She was unable to sell this land in 1859 due, no doubt, to the fact that she was a married woman and her husband was not available to approve the sale. She returned to Armidale late in 1866 to attempt

81 AE, 31 January, 1863, p.2; 27 January, 1866, p.2; 17 January, 1879, p.4. 7 4 once more to sell the property. She remained for several months before she eventually sold the house and land to John Moore 82 and left Armidale for good to return to her family.

During the seven years between Margaret Richs departure from Armidale and her return visit, the town had changed dramatically. In the 1850s the town had consisted of a straggle of stringy bark slab huts along the hem of the rising ground south of Dumaresq Creek. Status differences were barely discernible. People groped for imagined elegance with a shingled roof, a brick chimney, cloudy window glass, a spread of whitewash, a verandah, a fence of rough pales or an interior floor. These signs marked the cottage from the hut. Streets, such as they were, mustered the buildings into some sort of order, but they were unformed, undrained and unhealthy, gouged into ribs and runnels by heavy rain then pulverised into dust and pot holes by carts and drays in dry weather.

Some buildings in 1859 had stood out. At the centre of the town was John Moores store, purchased two years earlier from his erstwhile employer James Gilchrist. Like John Trims rival store down by the creek, Moores establishment was clad in weatherboards and shingled. 83 Across the road Henry Peach Buckler had built the New England Hotel early in 1857 and had sold it to Joseph Scholes before the end of the year. 84 With its bars and dining room opening onto long verandahs and a set of dormer windows catching light for tiny upstairs bedrooms the New England Hotel set the standard for accommodation and banquets. 85 But there were eight other pubs to offer competition, 86 some catering

82 Sale by Auction - The Key to Armidale - House, Land and Improvements, AE, 24 September, 1859, p.3; Valuable Town Allotment For Sale, AE, 22 December, 1866, p.3; and Application to Bring Land under the Provisions of the Real Property Act, LTONSW, Primary Application Form, 7567, AONSW, 6/10050. 83 Lionel Gilbert, An Armidale Album, Armidale, 1982, pp.29, 84. 84 Conveyance, T.J. Markham and G. Allingham to Henry P. Buckler, 2 February, 1857 (for £195), LTONSW, Old System Register, Book 47 No. 594; Mortgage, Henry P. Buckler to Archibald Mosman, Arthur H. Palmer and James Gilchrist, 28 February, 1857 (for £1,000), LTONSW, Old System Registers, Book 48, Nos. 140-142; and Conveyance, Henry P. Buckler to Joseph Scholes, 27 December, 1857 (for £1,360), LTONSW, Old System Registers, Book 52, No. 925. 85 Gilbert, op. cit., p.211. 86 Bruce Cady, We never had to go far for a drink: Pubs in Armidale, ADHSJ, No. 34, August, 1991, p.42. 7 5 more for the weary traveller and others targeting the thirsty tosspot. Quite the most substantial building was the rendered brick English Church, only one street back from Beardy Street, but effectively on the southern edge of town. Above the church was the slab house and stockyards of Margaret and Charles Rich and half a mile beyond that the farm of Archibald Mosman backing up to the tree-covered ridge that separated the run-off to Dumaresq Creek from the waters of Saumarez Creek.

Margaret Rich looked on a very different town in late 1866. Next door to her slab house where once there were vacant allotments, the commodious brick villa of Dr Samuel P. Spasshatt, his wife Angela and two baby daughters had just been completed.87 Eighteen months earlier, on the opposite side of Brown Street the Board of National Education had completed an impressive brick school and attached teachers residence with gables and decorative bargeboards presenting to the street from behind a neat picket fence. 88 Beyond Margaret Richs stockyards, about one hundred yards to the east, Frank Newton was building a two storeyed weatherboard residence and office for Armidales second newspaper, the Armidale Telegraph. 89 On the crest of the hill behind the school, the government had erected a gaol in 1863, which, by 1866, was in a scandalous state of dilapidation due to the shoddy work of the contractors.90

Down town, there was a brick Court House now five years old, a modest but serviceable post office, a new School of Arts building, a brick and stucco church for the Wesleyans, the impressive premises of the Australian Joint Stock Bank and, nearing completion, a restrained classical building for the new branch of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. 91 These banks, together with the newly formed Armidale Building Society92 financed the building

87 AE, 4 August, 1866, p.3; and Notice, AE, 5 January, 1867, p.1 88 AE, 6 May, 1865, p.2; and Gilbert, op. cit, p.170. 89 Conveyance, Edward Baker to Frank Newton, 15 November, 1866 (for £50), LTONSW, Old System Registers, Book 101, No. 368; and Mortgage, Frank Newton to the Armidale Building and Investment Society, 15 November, 1866 (for £380), LTONSW, Old System Registers, Book, 101, No.627. 90 Gilbert, op. cit., pp.72-74. 91 AE, 23 May, 1863, p.2; 25 July, 1863, p.3; 7 November, 1863, p.2; 14 April, 1866, p.3; 4 August, 1866, p.3; and Gilbert, op. cit., p.69. 92 Building Society at Armidale, AE, 30 September, 1865, p.2 7 6 boom of the early and mid 1860s. Fewer tenders for the erection of buildings were now won by outsiders as Armidale could boast a number of competent builders, bricklayers, plasterers and painters. New businesses, especially butchers, bakers, blacksmiths, tailors and watchmakers had commenced operation and the pubs changed proprietors and changed names with great frequency. Most importantly, Armidale had been linked to both Sydney and Brisbane by telegraph in 1861.

The hills around Armidale were now quite bare. Trees had been felled for fences, firewood and building material, and in the north there were two steam saw mills and a shingle splitting operation at the foot of Mount Duval processing the stands of s trin g y bark . 93 Other secondary industries had emerged at this time. In August 1866 George and Barnett Moses from Tamworth announced their establishment of a tannery in Armidale. 94 Under Barnett Aaron Moses leadership this business was to expand to a boot and shoe manufactory and grew to be possibly the biggest secondary industry north of Newcastle. In July 1866 the talk of the town had been a new bone crushing mill which was about to commence operation supplying farmers with fertiliser. 95 Another secondary industry was a cordial factory established in 1865 in the west end of town by Richard Smart Jenkins former manager for Tucks brewery which had been set up in Armidale as early as 1 85 0. 96 But the most vital processing industry in Armidale in the 1860s was undoubtedly flour milling.

In that summer of 1867 when Margaret Rich was waiting for the finalisation of the sale of her house and land, there were four steam mills grinding the January harvest. The three older mills of the storekeepers were now challenged by a large new stone mill at the foot of Dangar Street by the creek not far from the centre of the town. This was the mill of the New England Flour Company, an association of wheat growers who had combined to break the nexus between the storekeeper and the farmer. For the children of the

93 John Ferry, In the Shadow of Duval: The Newholme story, ADHSJ, No. 34, August, 1991, pp.49, 51. 94 AE, 11 August, 1866, p.2. 95 AE, 28 July, 1866, p.1. 96 John Ferry, The Humble Heritage of a Spirited Enterprise', ADHSJ, N o . 35, May, 1992, p.2. 7 7 town, many of whom had been born in Armidale and had not travelled far from it, the new mill must have seemed the wonder of the age. It was by far the biggest building they had seen, its basalt walls housing seventeen tons of boilers and machinery which had lumbered up to Armidale in a convoy of four bullock teams in the winter of 1866. 97 When fully operational the mill provided work for a manager, an engineer, a boiler attendant, several general hands and possibly a clerk, and was a focus for farmers carts and carriers bullock teams throughout the late summer and autumn months. Ultimately it was to suffer the same mercurial fortunes as the wheat industry upon which it depended. Perhaps the greatest blow to the investors was the first one. The mill had come into operation just at the end of the wheat boom and high hopes were only faintly realised.

Economic historians can point to the late 1860s and early 1870s as a time of slight recession when dry seasons in Australia led to a small absolute decline in livestock numbers, and wool prices in Britain declined after 1867 to touch bottom in 1870.98 With their parochial perspectives, the Armidale business people noted laconically that times were dull. James Venture Mulligan, whose propensities to organise others on the immigrant ship Curling were described in chapter two, sold his butchers business, gave up his seat on the Armidale Municipal Council and headed for the goldfields of Queensland because it became dull and prices slumped. 99 John Moore sold his store in 1872 to John Richardson, long-time merchant and Member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales and went off in search of a fortune on the tinfields of northern New England. Moore disliked a dull life and preferred to live in interesting times. Like many others he was caught up in the regionally-based mining euphoria of the late 1860s and early 1870s made more frenetic by contrast with the slow pace of all other business.

Inevitably that pace picked up. The mid to late 1870s were times of steady growth and consolidation in Armidale. The quiet

97 AE, 13 January, 1866, p.3; 26 May, 1866, p.2; and 26 June, 1866, p.3. 98 N.G. Butlin, Investment in Australian Economic Development, 1861-1900, Canberra, 1976, p.34 99 James Venture Mulligan quoted by Patricia McClenaghan in Lynette F. McClenaghan (transcriber), From County Down to Down Under: Diary of Jas. Vn. Mulligan, Armidale, 1991, n.p. (introduction). 7 8 success of this period was Moses Tannery. The firm had begun inauspiciously. Less than a year after the Armidale branch of the Tamworth based tanning and saddlery business opened in 1866, the partnership between George and Barnett Moses was dissolved acrimoniously and George was declared bankrupt. 100 Barnett Aaron Moses moved to Armidale and carried on the business on his own. Within eighteen months he was expanding that business rapidly, advertising for twenty good bootmakers and contracting for 200 tons of green wattle bark for the tannery. 101 By February, 1870 he was making boots at his factory under his own brand n a m e l02 and within weeks was employing extra tanners at the tannery and twenty boys as apprentices at the boot factory) " When the editor of the Armidale Express visited the two factories and retail outlet in November 1870 he found a workforce of 38 men and women receiving in total £70 per week in wages. The bootmakers and finishers worked on piece rates and at peak production the boot factory could turn out between 300 and 400 pairs of boots per week.104

Just on one year later, steam power was introduced to the tannery, and, never backward in advertising his business, Moses invited 150 of Armidales gentlemen to partake of champagne, liquors and sponge cake as they watched the new machinery ripping, shredding and pulverising wattle bark to extract tannic acid which was pumped, together with water, into the numerous tanning pits outside. 105 Moses was a vigorous entrepreneur entering his leather and his boots in every possible show or exhibition and winning some impressive awards and accolades. He published long lists of testimonials from satisfied customers in the newspapers, publicly attacked local storekeepers for not selling his boots and, when he had established his reputation, threatening to sue the storekeepers for selling Sydney boots under the Moses

100 Transcription of the Cross Examination of B.A. Moses, 28 June, 1867; Examination of Barnett Aaron Moses, 24 June, 1867; and Petition for Voluntary Sequestration, Supreme Court in Insolvency, Case 8349, AONSW, 2/9248. 101 AE, 24 April, 1869, p.3; and 6 November, 1869, p.3. 102 AE, 12 February, 1870, p.2 103 AE, 23 April, 1870, p.3; and 2 July, 1870, p.3. 104 Local Manufactures, Mr B. A. Mosess Establishments, AE, 19 November, 1870, p.2. 105 Introduction of Steam at Messrs B.A. Moses Co.s Tannery, AE, 2 5 November, 1871, p.5. 7 9 brand. Moses had his staunch supporters and he made bitter enemies. But his factory was just the fillip Armidale needed in dull times. His business prospered and probably reached its greatest output in 1882 when he employed over 100 men and exported leather to England. 106 His business seems to have suffered a slight decline after the coming of the railway and by 1892 he was employing 80 people, 107 which was, nonetheless, a significant contribution to Armidales economy.

By 1878 Armidale was entering another spectacular boom. The railway was coming. As early as the 1860s residents confidently predicted that the railway would eventually reach Armidale although exactly when was anybodys guess. It was the planning and subsequent development of a line up the Hunter Valley to Murrurundi that stirred all the communities of the north to press for railway favours for their town. Armidale and Inverell vied strenuously to win the Great Northern Line. Hopes rose and fell, soared and plummeted on the strength of accurate reports, inaccurate reports, rumours, leaks, nods and winks. Eventually in May 1878 the announcement was made that Armidale would be favoured with the main northern line 108 but before the first celebratory rocket could be launched, a sobering proviso was noticed. The line would follow the ridge of the main range, by- passing Armidale town some four miles to the west with a station at Saumarez Ponds. Victory sallowed. Nonetheless, from mid 1878 onwards, rural land prices rose as a sign of confidence in the future. Armidales regional importance was confirmed and a small building boom ensued. 10 9

John Moore returned to Armidale, purchased land in the central business district directly opposite Richardson Co to whom he had sold his old store seven years earlier, and built a new two storeyed store in direct competition. The Commercial Banking

106 Sydney Mail, 4 March, 1882, p.343 quoted in Graham Wilson and Jean Cooper, From Jessie Street West, ADHSJ No. 34, August, 1991, p.91. 107 Question 633, Evidence of Barnett Aaron Moses, 19 October, 1892, Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, together with minutes of evidence . . .relating to Proposed Water Supply to Armidale, V&P, 1892, Sydney, 1892, p.893. 108 Gilbert, op. cit., p.43. 109 See the valuation and new buildings in the Armidale Rate Book, 1878- 1884. 8 0 Company of Sydney decided to extend its premises. A new Presbyterian Church was planned for the eastern perimeter of Central Park. 110 The Municipal Council voted to erect a new Town Hall amidst the inevitable criticisms of those who wanted better roads and culverts, especially outside their own front door. A new hospital was planned for the west end despite fears that infections would spread on the wafting miasmas if placed too close to populated areas and a number of new or renovated hotels anticipated the growth of demand for accommodation in the town that was to be not quite a railway town.

In the next two years pressure on the government intensified. Armidale residents were determined that the railway would be more than a smudge of smoke on the horizon. 111 John Moore worked assiduously in the promotion of the railway cause, heading up delegations, travelling to Sydney, waiting upon this politician or that bureaucrat, with the single-minded purpose of getting the railway line to loop through Armidale town. 112 Eventually, on 2 April, 1880 the Armidale Express trumpeted the greatest announcement of its twenty five year history. The railway was coming through Armidale 113 and a substantial railway station, designed with Palladian pretensions and French Second Empire rooflines, was planned for the west end.

Soon a building boom, the like of which Armidale had not seen, was underway. The population between 1871 and 1881 had increased by 57 per cent and between 1881 and 1891 it was to increase by a further 76 per cent. 114The number of new mortgages taken out per year in the early 1880s doubled and then trebled on the average for the 1870s. Other statistics were similarly impressive. Only one council rate book has survived from the nineteenth century but fortunately it covers the very period of the railway boom. A count of all new buildings erected in the period 1880 to 1883 on land that had been unimproved in 1878

110 Gilbert, op. cit., pp. 86, 98, 158. 111 Railway Meeting, AE, 14 February, 1879, p.4. 112 AE, 23 May, 1879, p.4; 19 September, 1879, p.4; 3 October, 1879, p.6; 10 October, 1879, pp.4,6; 9 April, 1880, p.4. 113 AE, 2 April, 1880, p.5; and 9 April, 1880, p.6. 114 AE, 13 May, 1881, p.6; and question 899, Evidence of W.C. Higinbotham, 19 October, 1892, Report . . .relating to Proposed Water Supply to Armidale, p.900. 8 1 showed activity in the housing sector where, as today, most new houses were built on land formerly unimproved. Excluding the central business district (sections 1 to 6) 115 , there were 73 allotments of unimproved land within the town boundaries of 1878, which contained a substantial building by 1883. 116 This figure represents a 40 per cent increase in the number of substantial buildings outside the central business district in just five years. Of these new buildings, 62 per cent were erected in the west end where the railway station was located and where factories such as Moses tannery were to be found. In fact Moses himself subdivided the section opposite his tannery and built a number of workers cottages.

As well as bringing opportunities for developers, the railway brought a new type of work relationship to Armidale — that between the government contractor and a large, itinerant workforce. The railway line swept across Kellys Plains and entered Armidale from the south east cutting through Mossmans gully. This was a focus of activity in the construction period. By March 1881 a railway camp was completed along the rim of the gully and the railway blacksmiths, carpenters, bricklayers, ballasters, platelayers, gangers, navvies, foremen, managers and Mr Proudfoot, the contractor, moved in, together with all sorts of horses from thick shanked draught horses to unbroken colts. 117 Some men lived in tents. For others there were barracks. Stockyards were built for the horses and an array of sheds, workshops and offices were constructed. By the middle of March 1881 there was an industrial village on the edge of Armidale sending drifts of smoke down the valley during the day and stringing lights along the ridge line at night. There was no denying the benefit to Armidale. The Express reported that the monthly pay sheet for the railway employees between Uralla and Glen Innes was £6,000.118

115 In the central business district there would have been building activity in the form of extensions to existing buildings and the demolition of older buildings and their replacement with new buildings. The rate books would not indicate this type of building activity which typified the C.B.D. 116 Armidale Rate Book 1878 1881 (sic), Armidale City Council, Rusden Street, Armidale. 117 AE, 11 March, 1881, p.4; and The Railway, AE, 1 July, 1881, p.4. 118 AE, 4 November, 1881, p.4. 8 2 Many of the newcomers were single men, others had families in distant parts of the colony. Still others brought their families with them, sought private accommodation in the town and enrolled their children in the Armidale schools. There developed in these railway camps the sort of rambunctious, male-dominated culture that had characterised the pastoral frontiers, the gold fields and the shearing sheds. Physical prowess was valued, disputes were settled with fists and pay cheques were knocked down in the pubs around town. 119 Inevitably many sprees ended in the magistrates court the following morning. 120 The work was dangerous and in recognition of this, employees had 1/6 per month taken from their wages to go into a hospital and accident fund. There was a number of accidents from minor to near fatal. Then in June 1882 the Armidale Express reported a fearful accident near Mount Duval when a ganger attempted to dry 25 sticks of dynamite before a fire and blew himself up — the Express feeling it necessary to inform its readers that the victim had been disembowelled and that it was several hours before his severed leg could be found.121

At the height of construction work in Armidale another significant railway event took place to the north. The line from Brisbane to Stanthorpe was opened in May 1881 by Arthur Hunter Palmer the Colonial Secretary of Queensland who, years before, had managed Gostwyck station for the Dangar family. When the New South Wales line eventually pushed through to Tente:rfield near the northern border, Armidale was virtually linked to the most populous corner of Queensland and was able thereafter to play the role of summer health resort. In 1885, Armidale became a city. A little over forty years earlier it had been nothing more than a Crown Land Commissioners camp. The development had been remarkable.

Apart from the building and operation of the banks and the government offices and facilities, the development of the town of Armidale had been financed by residents drawing on accumulated savings, family inheritance or borrowed funds. Joseph Scholes, for instance, made significant investments in Armidale, purchasing the newly built New England Hotel in 1857, the older Horse and Jockey

119 AE, 8 April, 1881, p.4. 120 AE, 4 November, 1881, p.4. 121 AE, 9 June, 1882, p.4. 8 3 Inn and adjacent shops in 1863, a large residence called Bleak House in 1865 and the Victoria Hotel in 1866. In 1863 he built Newton Terrace as his family home on four acres of land not far from the gao1. 122 The pattern of Scholes outlays suggests that he came suddenly into wealth. He had been in Armidale since 1847 but did not make any purchases of land until 1855 and in that and the following year his purchases totalled £235. Then in 1857 he spent £1,376 mainly on the purchase of the New England Hotel and went into partnership with John Moore to form John Moore and Co, his share of the business costing him a further £1,500. 123 One of the major activities of this firm was the lending of money, chiefly to farmers. In 1863 in the last year of the operation of this partnership he spent a further £2,815 on purchasing existing buildings and erecting new ones. He made very few purchases in town after 1866. At no stage were any of his properties mortgaged and his account with the Australian Joint Stock Bank, his principal operating account, was never overdrawn. 124 Although in his early letters home he wrote of being debt free and able to save money in Australia, 125 it is extremely doubtful that, as an employee, he was able to save the thousands of pounds necessary for his investments of 1857. Most likely the source of his wealth was an inheritance.

On the other hand John Trim, as an emancipist with very limited education, can be assumed to have started business with nothing. His store by the creek was well placed but unpretentious and throughout his life he and his family always lived behind the shop. He was able to expand his operations in 1867 by taking out a £5,000 loan with the Maitland based merchant firm, David Cohen C o .126 It took him twenty years to pay off this debt and in

122 This profile was obtained from an exhaustive search of all property title chains in Armidale from 1849 to 1891. Of considerable use in checking his property holdings was his will for which see Last will and Testament of Joseph Scholes, died 2 October, 1884, Supreme Court, Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Series 3, No. 10640, in Primary Application Packet 28116, AONSW, K263510. 123 Joseph Scholes, Individual Account Ledger, 1856-1860, Australian Joint Stock Bank, Westpac Archives, 79-45/2677. 124 Loc. cit. 125 Joseph and Sarah Scholes to Dear Brothers and Sisters, 15 January, 1843, Personalities File - Joseph Scholes, New England Historical Resources Centre. 126 Mortgage, John Trim with David Cohen Co., 1 July, 1867, LTONSW, Old System Registers, Book 105, No. 985. 8 4 recognition of his success the principals of David Cohen Co. in 1887 presented him with a £500 gold watch.127

Most of the largest entrepreneurs in Armidale financed their businesses through mortgages. For some the debt was crippling. Edward Allingham and his son George, heavily in debt to both the Australian Joint Stock Bank and David Cohen Co., eventually lost control of all their assets. On the other hand, storekeeper and miller James McLean was indebted to David Cohen Co. but his debt was serviceable and it had established him in business. John Moores diverse operations were always financed by borrowing, in the first instance from the Australian Joint Stock Bank, but by 1883 the bank had become extremely concerned with the extent of his overdraft 128 and in 1887 issued a demand on John Moore to repay over £34,000. 129 This he did by refinancing with the Bank of New South Wales and securing backing, by way of guarantees, from a large number of Sydney merchants and accountants. 130 For thirty five years, Moores business empire had been vast, vital, but precarious.

The extent of mortgage debt was determined by searching every title for every allotment of land within the boundaries of the town of Armidale from 1849 to 1891. Altogether, 906 allotments of land were searched across this period. Of these allotments, 53 per cent were subject to a mortgage at one time or another during the period. Most of the debt free land was undeveloped land on the outskirts of the town, thus indicating the extent to which commercial and residential development relied on borrowing. The data were then plotted according to the year in which each mortgage was taken out. The resulting simple bar graph (see figure 3.1) shows very clearly the distribution of new mortgages over a thirty five year period and is a very good indicator of the general level of economic activity in the town. The

127 Death of Alderman J. Trim, AE, 4 November, 1892, p.7. 128 Minute, 23 September, 1883, Minutes of the Board of Directors, Australian Joint Stock Bank, Westpac Archives. 129 Minute, 30 August, 1887, Minutes of the Board of Directors, Australian Joint Stock Bank, Westpac Archives. 130 Mortgage, John Moore to the Bank of New South Wales, 15 September, 1887, LTONSW, Old System Register, Book 371, No. 234; and Second Mortgage, John Moore to William McMillan et al., 16 September, 1887, Book 371, No. 402. 8 5 booms of the early and mid 1860s and the early 1880s are clearly evident as are the depressed times of the late 1860s and the steady development of the 1870s.

Over the years the banks and insurance companies were the biggest lenders. The next largest lenders were the two local building societies, the Armidale Building Society which was a terminating society winding up its business in 1870 and the New England Permanent Building Society which succeeded it.131 Squatters, squatters syndicates and wealthy widows were definitely in the market for lending money although, taken as a whole, they provided far fewer mortgages than the banks or building societies. Few townspeople had taken out mortgages with storekeepers over the period and it is clear that storekeepers restricted their lending mainly to farmers.

The foregoing overview of the economy of Armidale and its surrounding farming and pastoral district requires, for completion, a brief account of mining. It is not the intention of this thesis to examine mining or relationships within mining communities in any detail. But there were significant mining operation in the New England region and it is necessary to indicate the impact of those activities on Armidale and its immediate surrounds.

The period of study chosen for this thesis is bracketed by two major gold discoveries near Armidale. The earliest was at Rocky River on the southern stretches of Saumarez run in 1856. Gold had actually been discovered at Rocky River four years earlier, but it was the big strike of February, 1856 which was important. The Old Shepherd, a frequent correspondent of the Armidale Express, worked a metaphor to the threshold of literary pain in claiming that the Rocky River strike lifted the infant city [of Armidale] from the cradle and spread the first mantle of commerce upon her shoulders. 132 John Trim, for instance, seized the opportunity and made money selling goods to miners at the height of the rush.133 Others made sufficient money from their efforts to establish

131 Armidale Building Society, AE, 5 November, 1870, pp.2-3; and New England Mutual Benefit Permanent Building and Investment Society; Objects, AE, 24 December, 1870, p.3. 132 Armidale Forty Years Ago, AE, 16 July, 1889, p.3. 133 Old Rocky Associates Re-Union, AE, 24 June, 1881, p.4. FIGURE 3.1

MORTGAGES PER YEAR OF LANDOWNERS WITHIN ARMIDALE TOWN BOUNDARIES BASED ON 272 MORTGAGES

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T CD INs WWM i YEARS 8 7 themselves locally as farmers. George and Ann Mackay, whose son was a leader of the 1860 expedition to the Mackay district of Queensland, started farming at Saumarez Ponds after some years on the Rocky goldfields. John and Mary Miller farmed nearby. They, too, had been at the Rocky and two of their sons were to be involved in an even greater gold discovery thirty years later. Many long-time Armidale residents first came to New England in search of gold. Certainly a gold strike so near Armidale in 1856 strengthened the towns claim to be a major regional centre in the north.

Toward the close of the century another great gold discovery was made, this time to the east of Armidale. The discovery was in the steep gorge country on Richard Hargraves Hillgrove station. Credit for the discovery went to George Smith, a young prospector, but he was backed by his brother William as well as William and James Miller, who, after their parents deaths, had sold the family farm at Saumarez Ponds and invested in gold exploration. Their investment paid off. Within four months of George Smiths discovery of gold at Hillgrove the Smith brothers and the Miller brothers had won £2,500 worth of gold and ultimately William and James Miller made over £40,000 each from their Hillgrove mining investments. 134 By 1891 a large mining town had developed at Hillgrove and Armidales streets boasted fine, new buildings built from Hillgrove dividends. The finest of them all was William Millers Imperial Hotel which opened in 1890. Rich in filigree cast iron and ornate parapets it was the centre of Armidales tourist industry and the epitome of provincial good taste.

Between the Rocky River rush of 1856 and the Hillgrove discovery of 1887, there were other minor gold discoveries not far from Armidale each producing a brief flurry of activity before fizzling out. Antimony was discovered in the Hillgrove gorges and worked successfully from 1881 135 but it was tin which caused a sensation in Armidale when it was discovered in several locations in northern New England in the early 1870s.

134 John Ferry, A Heritage Decision and a Heritage Debate, ADHSJ, No. 33, November, 1990, p.64 135 The Antimony Mines near Armidale, AE, 25 March, 1881, p.4. 8 8 Mining was the wild card. The inexperienced digger could find the very fortune that had eluded the scientific prospector or the well-cashed mining company. The shepherd could stumble across a nugget as easily as the squatter. The very words strike and rush expressed as simply as the English language could the adrenalin surge that made it hard to stand still in the wake of a mineral discovery. When the regiments of miners, European and Chinese, passed through Armidale on their way to the mining fields there were local men who could not be stopped from going too. The mining camps had all the vitality and excitement that was lacking in the stodgy towns with their dusted-off respectability. For those who could not go there was the vicarious thrill of investment and, at the height of a rush, the difference between prudent investment and wild speculation was only one shade of meaning.

John Moore showed that what was needed was more than effort, more than energy, more than persistence. In the final analysis luck was the basic requirement. Moore had sound business sense and his advice was generally sought as good advice. Yet, when it came to mining, he saw no margin between risk and rashness. He was mesmerised by dreams of mineral wealth and every rush for gold, tin or antimony saw John Moore in the vanguard. He secured his stake at west Hillgrove in 1887 knowing that there was another lead of gold to be found. He fought off all corners and took those who challenged him to court. But in 1892, before he could find his reward, he died. In the final reckoning, he owned large amounts of land and many buildings in Armidale. But he had accrued enormous debts in financing his worthless Hillgrove mines. His liabilities cancelled out his assets. He final estate was worth nothing.136

At the beginning of the last decade of the nineteenth century Armidales importance as a major regional centre was reinforced by the decision to establish a major private boys school in the city and the consequent incorporation of the New England Proprietary School Limited. It was a combination of climate, rail links, pastoral associations and the population of the host town which had given

136 Affidavit under the Stamp Act, Deceased Estate File, John Moore (duty paid 30 August, 1892), AONSW, 20/41. 8 9 Armidale the edge over other competitors. 137 The city was on the cusp of a new era in which education in the mould and form of muscular Christianity would show the way towards the twentieth century.

By 1891, some of the pioneers of old Armidale had been elevated to living local treasures and with very little prompting were prone to reminisce. Edward Baker, a cousin of the Marshes of Salisbury Court, who had come to New England in 1840 remembered Armidale as a howling plain. John Trim, who had first seen the site of Armidale in his convict days, recalled kangaroos and emus and surgical operations carried out with a timber-cutters saw and a poultry knife under a few sheets of bark. 138 John Moore, whose association was not quite so long, having arrived in the middle of 1848, recalled a few small houses in unformed streets139 and the enigmatic Old Shepherd who arrived in Armidale in August 1849 remembered most vividly the sounds of the howling dingo and screaming curlew. 140 Having spent most of their adult lives in Armidale these people found the changes remarkable.

But the rapid growth and development of Armidale was typical rather than exceptional. Through the highlands of New South Wales, Victoria and southern Queensland, and along the adjacent slopes a combination of gold, wool and railways had produced a number of flourishing inland towns. 141 In each there were impressive public buildings, churches, hotels and railway stations on what had been open plains or woodlands only four or five decades before. The second half of the nineteenth century was the golden age for provincial urban development. Armidale reflected a trend rather than set a pace.

The story of Armidale as a saga of singular events emphasises difference and, in the hands of the some historian, shapes a unique parochial story. By contrast, the story can be told as a variation on major Australian themes. The permanence of pastoralism, the

137 Bruce Mitchell, Place and Tradition: Origins of the New England Proprietary School (T.A.S.), ADHSJ, No. 26, March, 1983, pp.28-31. 138 Old Rocky Associates Re-union, AE, 24 June, 1881, p.4. 139 Umpire, AE, 14 April, 1885 quoted in Gilbert, op. cit., p.267. 140 Armidale 40 Years Ago, AE, 16 July, 1889, p.3. 141 J.W. McCarty, The Inland Corridor, Australia 1888, No. 5, September, 1980, pp.33-48. 9 0 persistence of small farming, the growth of a service centre, the development of a regional city, the spluttering of secondary industry, the problems of distance and markets, the good times and dull, even the boom and bust of the mining industry were repeated across Australia. These were the deep thudding rhythms of economic life. From those deep rhythms came the vitality of economic life. Even here there were patterns of behaviour for which Armidale serves best as an example. At the visible surface, the economy throbbed with tense relationships and power imbalances between bosses and workers, debtors and creditors, commercial rivals and business partnerships. It is those patterned relationships, structured by economic activity, legal sanction and customs brought from the old country and opportunities provided in the new, which form the basis of the next chapter.

9 1 CHAPTER FOUR

THE MASTER, THE SERVANT AND THE MASTERLESS MAN

If there was one thing the men of diverse backgrounds already mentioned in this story had in common, it was the motive which brought them to New England. That common motive was economic. Nearly all of them came for what were clearly and primarily economic reasons. Even the convicts such as Charles Rich and John Trim, who had little choice, were sent to New England for economic reasons. The indentured immigrants such as James Tysoe and James McLean came to New England as a result of the conditions of the bounty scheme which were entirely work oriented. When John Miller or George Mackay or Tow Gee from Canton came to New England it was to seek their fortunes on the goldfield and when Joseph Scholes moved up from the Hunter Valley to join his old shipmates, the Pearsons and McCrossins, in 1847, he was seeking more conducive economic conditions. There were no idealists seeking to establish a brave new order in the wilderness. There were very few who came to New England to escape religious or political persecution in Europel.

Economic activity and the way it was organised is quite central to an understanding of the relationships, especially between men, in colonial Armidale. Those economic relationships were structured by colonial and imperial laws; by old-country customs and ideals; and by new ways of solving old problems brought about by new thinking and by new technologies. Economic activity was dynamic, but there were clear patterns to the main economic relationships in the town and in the colony as a whole.

The economy was structured on fundamental power relationships. Those who owned productive property, together with access to liquid assets for new investment, were the most empowered, being able to act most freely to realise their self-

1 Religious or political persecution at home, as a motive for emigration, is only evident in the letters of some of the German immigrants of the 1850s. But even in this correspondence, the primary motive still appears to be economic. See Wilhelm Kirchner, Australien and seine Vortheile fur Auswanderung, (2nd ed.) (translated by Ralph G. Imberger, 1983), Frankfurt am Main, H.L. Bonner, 1850. 9 2 interest. Those who owned no property, and whose labour was not really wanted, were the least empowered, had the least status, and were more likely to form an outcast group, inward looking and excluded. In between these extreme groups were others with varying degrees of power or varying capabilities for resistance.

It was the relationships between people in the productive process which have been conceived as the dynamic of the concept of class. In one of the most frequently quoted passages from his work, historian E. P. Thompson stated his views on class boldly and simply:

I emphasise that [class] is a historical phenomenon. I do not see class as a structure, nor even as a category, but something which in fact happens (and can be shown to have happened) in human relationships.2

Going beyond this simple relational definition, the point needs to be made that these class relationships involved the exercise of power, as a strategy, in order that labour and capital came together productively, and for those exercising power, profitably. In the language of Ralf Dahrendorf, class involved relationships between order-givers and order-takers.3

The most obvious economically-based power relationship in colonial Armidale was the workplace relationship between employer and employee. In the real world of colonial Armidale, there were many examples of this type of relationship, structured by law and custom, and at the very essence of class. However, the real world is rarely unequivocal. There were many people, such as managers and contractors, who did not own the means of production but nonetheless exercised power or had authority in the workplace. There were others who did own substantial means of production but who chose to derive either a regular or temporary income from paid work. As was seen in chapter three, many farmers were also shearers, sheep washers or lambers on neighbouring pastoral properties. These exceptions were certainly not vagaries. However, bearing in mind the complexities of reality,

2 E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, Penguin, 1968, P.9 3 Ralf Dahrendorf, Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society, Stanford, 1959 quoted in Randall Collins, Theoretical Sociology, San Diego, 1988, pp.125-126. 9 3 this chapter concentrates on the workplace relationships between the owners of capital or their agents on the one hand and those who were paid for their labour on the other.

As well, I wish to examine two other structured relationships within the local economy of nineteenth century Armidale. An analysis of property ownership data indicates that the owners of property should not be conceived as a homogeneous group. There were those with sufficient assets and investment potential to operate, defend and expand enterprises of significant size, most especially the larger pastoral properties. On the other hand there were those who were limited to smaller operations, relying overwhelmingly on family, or simply proprietor, labour with few, if any, full-time outside employees. A significant proportion of these latter types of enterprise were encumbered by debt as were some of the larger operations, and freedom to act was often circumscribed by the level of debt. Thus the relationship between creditor and debtor was also an important, structured relationship in colonial Armidale.

Largely outside the means of production was a relationship centred on those unskilled people, often not wanted in the productive process, who were therefore frequently or chronically unemployed. Their presence allowed the productive process to expand and contract according to fluctuations in demand.

This relationship between employer and employee was structured in part by custom, in part by the imperatives of the new capitalist ways of thinking. The relationship was also reinforced by law. The Master and Servant Act in New South Wales pared the work relationship to the core and simply dealt with the payment of wages for work performed over a specified time. 4 There were few references to working conditions or the rights of employees beyond the receipt of wages for work done. The master was greatly empowered by the act, more obviously so when disputes are analysed.

4 An Act to regulate the Law between Masters and Servants. [11th March, 1857], 209 Vic., No. 28, The Public General Statutes of New South Wales from 16 Victoria to 25 Victoria, inclusive. (1852-1862), Sydney, Government Printer, 1862, pp.3081-3084. 9 4 In the second week of January 1867 Thomas Baker, a small free selector at Gibbons Plains on the Dangars Gostwyck run, engaged four men, Cormach McFarren, Patrick Coll, George McGuingal and William Anderson to reap a field of rapidly ripening wheat. None of the parties could write so the work agreement that was reached was verbal. The men agreed to reap at the rate of 16s an acre until all the wheat was in. Baker was to supply the men with rations. However, the men claimed that the rations were bad, and, indeed, that the meat was so rotten that one of them did not eat anything for two days and the others had eaten only bread and tea. At the end of a week, sixteen acres of wheat had been reaped and the men announced their intention of leaving and asked to be paid. Baker refused, claiming that the job was not finished and challenged them to take him to court. They did, and claimed their wages under the Master and Servant Act.

The case came before Justices of the Peace John Moore and George Allingham. Baker was represented by Robert Payne, Armidales most experienced lawyer. The four workmen spoke on their own behalf. The facts as outlined above were agreed to by all parties except that Baker disputed that the meat was rotten and called on his wife, Eleanor, and neighbour, Alexander Munsie, to testify that the men were well supplied with rations. Each of the workmen brought a separate case against Baker but Robert Payne argued that, since three of the four men had approached Baker together and asked for work, they were technically a partnership and therefore not covered by the provisions of the Master and Servant Act. The magistrates agreed and dismissed the cases of all the men urging them to take their grievance to the Small Debts Court instead. 5 None of them did so, the next sitting of the Small Debts Court being over two weeks away. 6 Thus Thomas Baker was not obliged to pay wages to any of the men for the weeks work done by each. This example typifies many of the worst aspects of employment under the Master and Servant Act.

5 Cormach McFarren v. Thomas Baker; Patrick Coll v. Thomas Baker; George McGuingal v. Thomas Baker; and William Anderson v. Thom as Baker, Armidale Bench of Magistrates, 18 January, 1867, Minutes of Proceedings of the Bench of Magistrates, Armidale, 19 June, 1866 - 9 July, 1867, AONSW, 4/ 5495. 6 Small Debts Court, AE, 9 February, 1867, pp.2, 4. 9 5 Under the Act, solutions to disputes lay in the courts. This fact alone was a disadvantage to many employees especially when they were pressing for wages due. The usual court of adjudication was the one nearest the site of the work or nearest the place of residence of the master and servant. ? This meant that itinerant workers had to remain in a place until their case could be heard, or return later. For such employees, delays were costly, and sometimes an employer could have a case postponed several times by the simple expedient of claiming to be too ill to attend a hearing. On other occasions counsels for the employers claimed that the place of work, where the dispute arose, was actually slightly closer to a neighbouring town where the case ought to be tried and succeeded in having cases dismissed on these grounds.8

Another inequity of the court process was typified by the case of Thomas Baker and the reapers, described above. It was common for an employer to be represented by counsel and unusual for an employee to be so represented. As the cases often came before two local magistrates, whose legal knowledge was based on magistrates handbooks which usually described the law without expounding upon it,9 a technical argument from a solicitor might well sway the magistrates opinions. As well, the procedures and language of the courts were a total mystery to some employees. Augustus Mies, a German immigrant with limited English, continually referred to the Police Magistrate as Your Highness 10 and John Burns, who brought his employer, George Clutterbuck, to court for wages due, was so confused by proceedings that when a verdict was delivered in his favour he protested vehemently thinking that he was the one who had to pay the money.11

If the processes of the law gave distinct advantage to the employer, so, too, did the Master and Servant Act itself and the

7 Section I, Master and Servant Act, 1857. 8 James Johnson v. Paul Owen, 3 February, 1860, Armidale Bench of Magistrates, Bench Book, AONSW, 4/5491, f. 144. 9 See the references to the Master and Servant Act in William Hattam Wilkinson, Esq. (ed.), Plunketts Australian Magistrate, Sydney, J.J. Moore, 1860, pp.301-305 or the same act in Henry Connell, Junr., T he New South Wales Magisterial Digest: A practical guide for magistrates, clerks of petty sessions , attorneys, constables, and others, . . . , Sydney, 1866, pp.676-680. 10 Augustus Mies v. George D. Cooper, AE, 5 December, 1863, p.2. 11 John Burns v. George Clutterbuck, AE, 7 April, 1866, p.2. 9 6 usual interpretations placed upon it. Punishments for a transgressing employer were light, those for an employee, comparatively severe. If an employer were found indebted to an employee for wages due the worst outcome for the employer would be a court order to pay the full amount together with court costs which, in courts of Petty Sessions, were usually small. If the employer still refused to pay, the amount would be levied by distress and sale of goods and if the amount due were not realised, then, and only then, the employer might be sent to gaol for up to fourteen days. 12 There was a provision for the employee to claim an additional sum in damages, but an examination of ten years of cases under the Master and Servant Act in Armidale produced only one such claim, 13 probably due to the fact that few employees were represented by legal counsel.

With punishments so light, it was often of little concern to an employer to be taken to court. Certainly, an employer with only moderately perceptive skills could see that simply calling his servants bluff, when threatened with legal action over wages, might resolve the dispute immediately and to his advantage. Probably, for these reasons, one third of recorded wage disputes in Armidale between 1859 and 1868 were settled out of court. There were several risks for the servant in taking the master to court. When Catherine Simpson, a domestic servant, took her employer George Robert Allingham 14 to court she claimed wages due of £10.12.0. Her mistress, Martha Allingham, admitted she paid Simpson less than the usual wage for a domestic servant, but claimed Simpson was unreliable and had taken two periods of leave of about ten days. Allinghams attorney argued for the dismissal of the case, quoting at length from texts on the law of contracts. However, the court found Allingham indebted, but only for the sum of £6.19.6, considerably less than the wages claimed. 15 This was typical of many cases where the court found for the plaintiff but for

12 Section V, Master and Servant Act, 1857. 13 Patrick Fury v. James Starr senior, AE, 28 November, 1863, p.2. 14 George Robert Allingham, a farmer of Redbank east of Armidale, should not be confused with George Allingham the first mayor of Armidale and a Justice of the Peace who frequently sat on the bench. The two men were first cousins. 15 Catherine Simpson v. George Robert Allingham, 9 February, 1864, Armidale Bench of Magistrates, Bench Book, AONSW, 4/5493. 9 7 a lesser amount than sought. Such findings were really victories for the employer. 6

Another risk facing the employee who did not know the law, was that the case could be dismissed if the employer could prove a breach of agreement or negligence in the performance of duty. In such cases the employee could forfeit all wages due. Any employee who left his or her job before the expiration of the agreed period of employment was in breach of agreement. Some servants made the mistake of believing that the bad conditions under which they worked were sufficient cause to leave their employment. However, the Master and Servant Act took no account of working conditions unless they were clearly a part of the original agreement entered into by the employer and the employee.

Rations on farms and pastoral properties were frequently in contention. Many employment agreements specified wage rates and added, nebulously, the words together with rations. Neither the quality of rations provided nor the quantity was specified. In 1862, John Lye left his employment as a shepherd on James Staffs Mihi Creek station and tried to bring his employer to court for wages due. He was a little too slow in getting into town and when he arrived at the Court House he was arrested. Starr had already succeeded in having a warrant issued against Lye for absconding from hired service. In the subsequent case and counter case Lye maintained that his rations had been reduced, that he had been half starved and that when he complained and asked to be allowed to leave, he had been assaulted by Starr and had two teeth knocked out. Both the claim for wages and the charge of absconding were dismissed, a verdict which suited the squatter. John Lyes only consolation was that he won a subsequent case of assault brought against Starr.17

16 I question Michael OConnors claim for Walcha, that there was an even result in cases between employers and employees in the period 1860-73. He does not indicate whether a verdict for the employee in a wages dispute was for the amount of wages claimed or for a lesser amount. If for a lesser amount then the victory must go to the employer. Furthermore, many of his conclusions are based on very small numbers of cases per year. See Michael OConnor, Policing in Walcha, New South Wales, the 1860s and Today, ADHSJ, No. 30, March, 1987, pp.95, 104. 17 James Starr v. John Lye for absconding, 5 May, 1862; John Lye v. James Starr for wages, 12 May, 1862; and John Lye v. James Starr for an assault, 12 May, 1862, Armidale Bench of Magistrates, Bench Book, AONSW, 4/5492. 9 8 Agreements made in terms of both rations and wages suited the rural employer. With rations provided, wages were held for long periods or allowed to accrue until a final settlement day at the end of the contract when the workers store account was deducted from the wages due. Thus if a dispute arose, the employer had the upper hand immediately, holding a considerable portion of the employees yearly earnings. It is not surprising therefore that wage claims in the Armidale Court of Petty Sessions frequently ranged between £10 and £20. It was obvious such a system would lead to abuse and in one case which involved sufficiently large sums of money to be tried at the Armidale Quarter Sessions, the judge expressed the opinion that:

. . . the Master and Servants Act should be amended. It was a very hard thing if the shepherd, after serving perhaps eleven months without any serious fault, did something in the 12th month which would enable his employer to discharge him, and the latter not be obliged to pay him anything for those services which had been faithfully performed. 1 8

In the 1850s and 1860s most of the cases brought to court involved rural workers on farms and pastoral stations. However, from the late 1860s the proportion of urban disputes increased. In town, the question of rations did not arise. At issue were wages and length of agreements. The expansion of Barnett Aaron Moses tannery and boot manufactory provided Armidale with its first experience of intensive secondary industry. Disputes necessarily were of a different nature. Much of the work required a level of skill which could demand high rates of pay and Moses enticed skilled workers from Sydney by providing wages above those in the metropolis. 19 He did this by setting a flat rate the same as agreed to by the boot makers union in Sydney, and adding to it piece rates of one penny per pair of boots extra. 20 These workers formed an aristocracy of labour earning from £3 to £5.10.0 per week. 21 Moses also had a system of outwork and it was these two aspects of the structure of the workplace which were central to most disputes. Some of the outworkers were former independent bootmakers who had become dependent on the factory system and

18 Patrick Fury v. James Starr Senior for wages and damages £70, AE, 2 8 November, 1863, p.2. 19 R.B. Walker, Old New England, Sydney, 1966, pp.107-108. 20 Local Manufactures, AE, 19 November, 1870, p.4. 21 AE, 20 August, 1875, p.6. 9 9 had trouble meeting Moses deadlines. Such workers were usually defendants in cases of breach of contract brought to court by Moses. 22 The skilled workers, such as Alfred Harris, newly arrived from Sydney in August, 1873, were more likely to be the plaintiffs, claiming breach of contract in that the work was not kept up to them and that they could not earn what they had hoped to earn under the piece rate system. 23 Disputes at the boot factory were not frequent, but, without exception, all cases which came before the magistrates were settled in Moses favour.

The factory system also highlighted the situation of apprentices because, without doubt, Moses was the biggest employer of youth in Armidale. In 1870 alone he advertised for twenty boys to be apprenticed as bootmakers 24 and occasionally girls would be apprenticed for the sewing machines. 25 The editors of the Armidale Express were always particularly delighted that so many lads could be employed learning a trade. 26 This was one of the many enconiums Moses frequently received. Inevitably, however, Moses had to deal with the occasional indentured apprentice who absconded but they were few in number and no example of abuse came before the courts. Trouble under the apprenticeship system was more likely to come from small businesses.

Apprenticeship agreements were often for long periods. In one instance Sam Selmes, a boy of ten, was apprenticed to a blacksmith for seven years. 27 Like the Master and Servant Act, the Apprenticeship Act provided few protections for the apprentice and, to secure what little protection there was, the apprentice had to present a case in court against his or her master. Sam Selmes first came before the court at the age of 16 for absenting himself from his master and was persuaded to return to work. However, he was of sufficient years to reckon that things were not as they should be. Within a week his father took his master to court claiming that, over the course of six years, the boy had been taught

22 B.A. Moses v. Thomas Sweetman, AE, 16 August, 1873, p.4; and B.A. Moses v. George Fishbourne, AE, 1 November, 1873, p.4. 23 Alfred Harris v. B.A. Moses, AE, 30 August, 1873, p.4. 24 AE, 2 July, 1870, p.3. 25 AE, 25 February, 1871, p.3. 26 AE, 20 August, 1875, p.6. 27 John Jones v. Samuel Selmes, 22 January, 1861, Armidale Bench of Magistrates Bench Book, AONSW, 4/4591. 100 very little of the blacksmiths trade and could not undertake even the simplest of tasks. Sam Selmes was lucky that he had his father nearby to protect his interests. Many apprentices were not so placed and the law allowed the master to act in loco parentis wit h a wide divergence of opinion as to what constituted reasonable parental control.

Most apprentices who were exploited and abused chose simply to run away. Most were caught and brought before the magistrates, made statements about being hit or kicked, and were enjoined to go back and be a good boy, because they were learning a very good business and might by and by become independent.28 Occasionally, the sort of story that might have prompted Dickens to dip pen in ink came before the court. Poor George Klause, for instance, was an orphan, indentured to his master by his fathers death-bed wish. His master, Albert Zehner the coach builder, brought him to Armidale, far from the district where he had grown up, and began to teach him the coach painting trade. Young George ran away and was 75 miles along the Grafton Road when he was caught and brought back to Armidale to appear before the magistrates. He claimed to have been fearfully mistreated especially by his mistress who was said to be of very bilious disposition. He complained of having few clothes, only one old rug to cover himself at night and of being kicked and beaten. On the day of his court appearance, he certainly had a black eye to prove a point. Despite the fact that the magistrates agreed that he probably had been kicked he was told to return to his master, to serve him faithfully, and if he had any future complaints to bring them before the court.29

Apprenticeships were a significant feature of the world of work. By it a youth learned a trade that could become a vocation and serve him well through life. It could make him independent — help him to realise that great Victorian ideal of the masterless man. Possibly the young apprentice might become a future order-giver rather than a destined order-taker. It was a prize to be sought but with a price to be paid. For many the indenture was a sentence and

28 Absconding Apprentice, AE, 23 June, 1877, p.6. 29 An Absconding Apprentice, AE 14 June, 1878, p.4. 1 0 1 escape the only relief. In absconding, the apprentices were not unlike adult workers bound to an unsatisfactory work agreement.

From the employers perspective, the most common employee offence under the Master and Servant Act was absconding from hired service. The penalties for this included automatic arrest and detention until the case came to court; the loss of any wages owed; fines of up to £10; and the possibility of gaol for up to fourteen days if fines could not be paid. Given that some contracts were for very long periods (Long Gum, a Chinese servant of farmer Roderick McLennan, being engaged for two years 30 for instance), it is understandable that many employees might want to leave their service early, especially if they had the prospect of a much better job to go to. 31 On other occasions employees left their place of employment for a few days to go on a spree. This was particularly the case with shepherds, whose employment was lonely and unremittingly tedious since sheep needed supervision seven days a week. William Green, a shepherd of Gara station took pains to ensure his sheep were in the care of his mate before going into Armidale. Nonetheless, when arrested for absconding and brought before the magistrates, he was given the full penalty of fourteen days gao1.32

The nature of the power structure determined the nature of resistance to it. Absconding from hired service without notice was one way of resisting an unsatisfactory employer. Although it was an offence under the act, absconding was probably very difficult to police if the former employee left the district altogether. Only one case was found where an absconder from a distant part of New South Wales was brought before the Armidale bench and remanded to take his trial in the western town of Dubbo. 33 The goldfields in particular provided anonymity and new work opportunities for absconders.

30 Roderick McLennan v. Long Gum, 1 November, 1859, Armidale Bench of Magistrates, Bench Book, AONSW, 4/4591. 31 James Starr Senior v. John Murray, AE, 8 October, 1864, p.2. 32 Edward Allingham v. William Green, 19 January, 1863, Armidale Bench of Magistrates, Bench Book, AONSW, 4/4592. 33 Case of James Brady, AE, 5 December, 1863, p.2. 1 02 Class antagonism expressed itself in various other ways. Armidales Inspector of Police, J. Dowling Brown, for instance, was forthright in claiming in 1870 that the bushranger, Thunderbolt, was harboured in the locality of Kangaroo Hills and Aberfoil stations on the edge of the remote and barely accessible gorge country north east of Armidale. Here he had numerous friends (presumably amongst the shepherds and stockmen since there would have been few other permanent European residents in that remote country), who kept him informed of police movements.34

Perhaps the most startling form of class antagonism was sabotage, minor forms of which were covered by the fourth clause of the 1857 Master and Servant Act, with major forms coming under the criminal code. The extent of this type of resistance cannot be determined to any accurate degree. On one level, mistresses complained of sullen domestic servants with an aptitude for breaking crockery, cracking glasses and washing clothes until the colour went out of them 35 and out on the stations, some squatters, such as James Starr of Mihi Creek, seemed to lose far more sheep at the hands of their shepherds than did others. More seriously, mysterious fires in haystacks, barns, huts and wheat fields were sometimes attributed to arson. Certainly inquests found that the destruction of the woolshed at Gostwyck in 1872 36 and at Mihi Creek some years earlier 37 was the work of incendiaries.

The most shocking and vindictive acts of sabotage were directed at Barnett Aaron Moses, the boot manufacturer. In 1876 Moses had a peacock poisoned by a strychnine bait at his house near the centre of town 38 and in three separate incidents several months apart in 1880, Moses had a setter dog and two valuable pointers poisoned by the same type of bait. 39 But far more serious was an act of arson on the night of 22 January 1879 at the tannery in west Armidale, when two huge stacks of wattle and hickory bark valued at £1,000 were totally destroyed by fire. Two hundred

34 J. Dowling Brown to the Inspector General of Police, 30 May, 1870, Colonial Secretarys Correspondence Received, File 76/2239, AONSW, 1/2326. 35 Letter to the Editor, AE, 15 November, 1873, p.6. 36 AE, 24 February, 1872, p.2. 37 Mihi Creek, AE, 6 February, 1869, p.2. 38 AE, 4 August, 1876, p.6. 39 AE, 12 March, 1880, p.6; 23 July, 1880, p.6; and 1 October, 1880, p.4. 1 03 people rushed to contain the blaze which could have been devastating had the storage tanks of black whale oil in the currying shed ignited. 40 The town was outraged. The Armidale Express called for the hanging of the villains and, a little more practically, prominent citizens organised an extraordinary reward of £255 for the capture of those responsible. Moses employees actually contributed £35 to the subscription. 41 The arsonists were never discovered, but two former employees, angered over the circumstances of their dismissal, were charged with poisoning Moses dogs. One was found guilty.42

Legal means of resistance invariably centred on the nature of the original agreement. Some workers detected faults in the agreement, whether written or verbal, and exploited these. The case of William Fenton, a wheat farmer at Kellys Plains, was very similar to that of Thomas Baker mentioned earlier. However, Fenton failed to include a description of work to be done and a schedule for completion in his original agreement with reapers in the harvesting season of 1867. One of the reapers complained of the quality of his rations and left, attempting to excite twelve others to follow him. When Fenton refused to pay him for work already done the reaper brought him before the magistrates. A shocked and outraged Fenton was ordered to pay the wages due because his original agreement had not specified that the job had to be completed.43 Other employees could take advantage of the time periods specified in a properly formulated contract. During that period they had job security which must have been particularly reassuring in times of high unemployment (the Act worked best for the employer in times of labour shortage). Nonetheless, legal strategies of resistance were limited.

It is clear that the Master and Servant Act gave legal expression to the interests of the employers over those of the employees. The boss was empowered by the Act to such a degree that employer abuse was bound to occur and there would be little an individual employee could do within the law. Nonetheless, class

40 Fire at Armidale AE, 24 January, 1879, p.6. 41 £255 (Two Hundred and Fifty-Five Pounds) Reward, AE, 31 January, 1879, p.5. 42 B.A. Moses v. William Saggus and James Green, AE, 22 October, 1880. p.6. 43 Wm Collins v. Wm Fenton, AE, 12 January, 1867, p.2. 1 04 relations in the work place were not as polarised as the above might suggest. Over the period 1859 to 1868, there came before the courts an average of only eighteen cases per year which could be classified as labour disputes and, as stated before, one third of these were settled out of court. The courts of Petty Sessions were hardly overwhelmed with labour disputes considering that in any one year in the Armidale district there must have been several hundred employment agreements.

Part of the explanation for the small number of cases of labour dispute must be that the law and the court process were intimidating, and the success rate for employees was hardly encouraging. Workers only attempted to obtain legal redress in cases where relatively large sums of money were involved. Of the cases which came to court, very few of them involved claims of less than a months wages. By way of further explanation, it must be recognised that many employers did not seek to exploit their workers beyond the bounds of fairness. It was not in their interests to do so. Continual labour disputes, continual changes in the workforce and the annoyances to which disgruntled employees could resort were not conducive to a sound business.

In the ten years from 1859 to 1868 some of the largest employers, such as Henry Arding Thomas of Saumarez or Algernon Belfield of Eversleigh, rarely appeared in court as a result of labour disputes. On the other hand James Starr Senior of Mihi Creek was in court on no fewer than fifteen separate occasions between 1860 and 1866 either through his employees absconding or as the result of wage disputes. Testimonies over a number of years described James Starr as irascible, abusive, combative and occasionally violent in his dealings with his shepherds and stockmen and even his style of giving evidence in court was commented upon unfavourably by one judge. 44 His reputation was no doubt well known and he probably employed the more marginal workers who could not easily find work on the better managed stations. As well, variable wage rates suggest that there was quite a difference between desirable employers and undesirable ones. Most shepherding rates fell within the range, usually quoted officially, of £30 to £35 per

44 Patrick Fury v. James Starr, AE, 28 November, 1863, p.2. 1 0 5 annum. 45 However, James Starr paid a base rate for shepherding of 3 0 46 whereas on neighbouring Gostwyck, the standard rate for shepherding a single flock was £3447 , a difference of 13 per cent. It should be pointed out also that most shepherds on Gostwyck were experienced and looked after double flocks thereby earning annual wages of £68. (This example highlights the caution needed when using official figures from the government statistician48).

James Starr should not be seen merely as an example of employer bastardy. Certainly the frequency of his appearances in court was unusual. However, other employers who made three or more appearances at this time included Edward Allingham, in his role of pastoralist at Gara, William Maister, lessee of Tilbuster, Ellen Molloy and George D. Cooper, proprietors of the Wellington Inn, and the miller, William Stevens. Together with other defendants in single wage disputes such as farmers George Robert Allingham, Richard Carpenter, Thomas Smith and publican James Jones, they had one thing in common. All were to become bankrupt within three or four years or, at least, would have all their assets assigned to their creditors. There is a very clear correlation between abrasive labour relations and the high indebtedness of the employer. The marginal enterprises were the ones where trouble was most likely to occur and recur.

Where individual challenges to the system were limited in their success, events in the main cities showed that organised responses to employers were more successful. Organisation by labour in Armidale, however, was slow and fitful. The main issue in the town was the length of the working week. As early as 1864 shop assistants formed an early closing movement with the modest aim of reducing the working week from 72 hours to 67 by persuading their employers to close at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. on each working day except Saturday. This request was seen to be excessive, storekeepers objected and within days the shop assistants had modified their suggestion by confining the eleven hour day to the winter months. With only ten shop assistants

45 Statistical Register of New South Wales for the year 1866, Sydney, 1867, 10. 46 George Broun v. Henry Starr, AE, 12 August, 1865, p.2. 47 The Gostwyck Ledgers 1862-1868, originals held by Mr Peter Dangar, Sunset Ave., Armidale. 48 Rates and Wages, Statistical Register 1866, p.10. 1 06 employed in Armidale at that time, rational and respectful persuasion was deemed the best strategy.49 It was not successful. The organisation languished through 1865 and 1866 with some support but no progress, then faded away through want of success. By 1872, James Salmon, the manager of John Moores store was still working a thirteen hour day, six days a week. 50 It was not until 1873, the year after John Moore sold his business to John Richardson Co., that the four main stores in Armidale announced that they would close at 6 p.m. during the winter months. 51 This suggests that, previously, the main opposition to reduced hours had come from John Moore, a relatively large operator, but always only a few paces ahead of his creditors.

The early closing movement was overshadowed by the more popular half holiday movement which began in Armidale in 1871 and had, as its main aim, the closure of stores for half a day a week. The members of the movement recommended that the ladies should be especially invited to attend, 52 which was unusual in Armidale where most activities were notably segregated along gender lines. 53 It is clear, however, that many of the shop assistants working twelve to fourteen hours a day were women.

The half holiday movement had more rapid success than the early closing movement. Although the storekeepers had objected to closing their stores on Saturday afternoon for fear that their assistants might abuse a one and a half day break, by the winter of 1873, the year after John Moores departure from business, the main stores had decided to close on Wednesday afternoons. 54 By 1877, however, the storekeepers found the system inconvenient and replaced it with a full holiday on the first Wednesday of each month 55 — in effect a return to longer hours. But alas, this compromise, too, succumbed to opposition from the employers and the movement languished. It was not until 1890 that a holiday

49 Early Closing Movement, AE, 16 July, 1864, p.2; and 30 July, 1864, p.2. 50 J.Richardson to Shepherd Smith, General Manager of the Bank of New South Wales, 18 March, 1872, Sundry Correspondence R, 1871-1883, Westpac Archives, 6M 203.30. 51 AE, 10 May, 1873, p.5. 52 Letter to the Editor from Citizen, AE, 16 December, 1871, p.2. 53 See comment by J.W. Emblin, The Moore Testimonial, AE, 29 June, 1872, p .2. 54 AE, 28 June, 1873, p.5. 55 AE, 15 June, 1877, p.6. 1 07 association was revived, this time with some vigour and considerable support.

President of the committee of the shop assistants holiday movement in 1891 was Charles G. Wilson, auctioneer, immediate past mayor of Armidale, nephew of John Moore, and well on his way to becoming Armidales largest urban landowner. He was ably assisted in the positions of vice president by his cousin James Moore, also an auctioneer, and publican Joseph Scholes Junior. The secretary was a draper and most of the committee members were employers in the retail trades. 56 It is somewhat extraordinary that an employees association should be so completely dominated by employers. But under such control the movement for shorter hours was unlikely to get out of hand and the committee circumvented any discontent with a monthly holiday programme of sports and picnics sufficient to silence any malcontent who possessed just the barest modicum of virile sporting interests.

For almost thirty years the shop assistants movements had sought and won employer approval for their campaigns and deferred to employer opposition when rational debate failed to convince them. No case was found of a shop assistant taking a storekeeper to court under the Master and Servant Act. There was nothing to resemble militancy. In return, the shop assistants received from their employers the recognition of being superior to the mere mechanic as far as the civilising virtues were concerned. On the last holiday in 1891 it rained all day. The sports were cancelled. The Armidale Express, with precious little else to write about, mused upon the way in which the shop assistants would have spent a dismal holiday. Any suggestion that the hotels and billiard halls might have done a brisker than usual trade was dismissed out of hand. As a rule, we believe that the [shop] assistants do not patronise such places expounded the editors and speculated that:

It is more probable that the School of Arts was well filled, or that, despairing of the weather clearing up, the male sex got hold of a studious work and some good cigars, and, before a cheerful fire, spent the afternoon in the best way possible, while the more gentle sex gathered together, sang a few of Moody and Sankeys hymns, did a little embroidery, and avoided anything like scanda1.57

56 The Holiday Association, AE, 24 March, 1891, p.4. 57 A Melancholy Half-Holiday, AE, 8 December, 1891, p.5. 1 0 8 With such praise, generously given and sincerely meant, there was every encouragement for white collar workers to perceive themselves as quite distinct from, and superior to, the mechanics and labourers with whom they might share similar class interests.

The mechanics and labourers were, however, following a similar path to the shop assistants in their relation with employers. Already enjoying shorter hours than the shop assistants, the mechanics pressed for an eight hour day. If the significance of the eight hour day struggle lay in its contribution to class mobilisation through the growing awareness of a separate working class identity, 58 then this was absent in Armidale. An association was formed in 1866 at a public meeting where there was the usual talk of mental and moral improvement flowing from increased leisure. No mention was made of increasing employment opportunities and the question of wages was thought to be irrelevant because that was a matter for negotiation when work contracts were signed. The eight hour association felt that it could do little but recommend that the daily rate of pay for a ten hour day be maintained for the eight hour day. Greater concern was felt for builders erecting buildings in the town under contracts based on a ten hour day and it was agreed that such contracts be allowed to terminate before the eight hour day was introduced. 59 When a committee was elected from this inaugural meeting, it comprised three publicans, one of whom, James Tysoe, was an alderman, as well as two builders, a blacksmith, a carpenter and a coachmaker all of whom were employers of labour. Only three members of the committee were actually employees. Not surprisingly, a few weeks later complaints were voiced about the apathy of journeymen after a couple of poorly attended meetings and the Express felt compelled to admonish labourers for not supporting those who [were] willing to assist them in a matter in which they [were] directly concerned.60 The eight hour day came in due course, but not as a result of any major action in Armidale. The main battles had been fought and won in Sydney.

58 R.W. Connell and T.H. Irving, Class Structure in Australian History, Melbourne, 1980, p.135. 59 Eight Hours Movement, AE, 1 September, 1866, p.3. 60 Eight Hours Movement, AE, 29 September, 1866, p.2. 1 0 9 When workers did unite for workplace action, their goals were more focussed. Their concerns were primarily with income. Their struggle might be for increased wages or rates or it might be for greater opportunities to secure more regular work especially in industries where unemployment and under-employment were features of the yearly round. The first example of anything resembling a planned and concerted strike in the Armidale district was on Mary McIntyres Gyra station in the shearing season of 1867. The dispute centred on whether the manager of the station had specified that the ten shearers hired had to continue shearing until all 11,000 sheep were shorn. Although the agreed rate was standard at the time, the sheep were still wet when brought up for shearing and consequently the job was not only hard work, but slow. There was also a widespread belief amongst shearers that shearing wet sheep was extremely unhealthy. 61 All the shearers had another shed to go to and, rather than waste time and risk illness with a wet flock, they struck and demanded to be paid out for the sheep already shorn — about half the flock. The matter came before the magistrates where each shearer was forced to make an individual case and in each case the magistrates found against the shearers. 6 2 Such localised disputes were easily contained and quashed.

Complete failure was less likely to be the case when the workforce was large and concentrated. The nearest Armidale had to such a work force was the boot factory. However, far from being a focus of confrontation, the boot factory and tannery generally mirrored the sort of cooperation between employer and worker seen in the half holiday movement. As the only large employer of factory labour, Moses position was greatly enhanced in a community that valued his energy and investment and feared that the factorys doors might one day close. His relations with his employees were generally good. His factory was a show piece. He developed an esprit de corps amongst his workers, urging them to build their own homes near the factory and encouraging the formation of cricket teams63 and athletic contests. He shaped their

61 John Merritt, The Making of the A.W.U., Melbourne, 1986, p.62 and Raymond Markey, The Making of the Labour Party in New South Wales, 1880-1900, Kensington, 1988, p.65. 62 Neglecting to Fulfil Agreement, AE, 16 November, 1867, p.2. 63 AE 18 February, 1881, p.4. 1 1 0 political views. At each election the factory workers paraded to the polling place, crammed onto festooned drays bearing the name of the local protectionist candidate whom Moses was supporting. Industrial unrest was not common. There was the threat of a strike in 1881 but this was quickly averted, 64 and an actual strike in 1889 was settled by compromise and negotiation in a manner that increased the respect Moses commanded amongst his workers.65

Such hegemony as Moses enjoyed was not evident in the railway camps. The coming of the railway in 1882 brought a different type of work relationship to Armidale. For the first time the townspeople saw a large, concentrated and easily disaffected workforce. No trust had been built up between employer and workers over time and relationships were brittle. Throughout 1882, there were minor squabbles and other labour difficulties often set in the context of general discontent amongst railway workers across the colony. 66 In handling them, Mr Proudfoot the contractor, was judged to be firm but fair. But as the line moved towards the site of Armidales railway station, with the completion date only weeks away, there was a strike of the ballasters and platelayers. The demand was for an increase in daily wages from nine shillings to ten shillings and for an eight hour day. 67 There were negotiations, returns to work and further strikes. Finally, Proudfoot dismissed the striking workers and decided to tough it out. Within a week the men were back at work at the old rate and under the old conditions and the line pressed on for Armidale.68

Strikes were reasonably novel, and attitudes towards them had not hardened into prejudice but, nonetheless, such attitudes as were exhibited were generally moulded by self interest. The editors of the Uralla and Walcha Times claimed to see the railway strikers point of view. They argued that the men needed the extra money because prices in the towns near the railway camps were generally exorbitant. 69 Affecting an air of weary familiarity in the

64 AE, 17 June, 1881, p.4. 65 AE, 17 September, 1889, p.8; and 27 September, 1889, p.4. 66 Markey, op. cit., pp.102-103 and John Gunn, Along Parallel Lines: A history of the railways of New South Wales, Melbourne, 1989, p.201. 67 AE, 20 October, 1882, p.4, and Uralla and Walcha Times, 25 October, 1882, P . 2. 68 AE, 17 November, 1882, p.4; and 24 November, 1882, p.6. 69 Uralla and Walcha Times, 25 October, 1882, p.2. 1 1 1 face of Urallas first strike, the editors questioned the effectiveness of the obsolete system of strikes but, nonetheless, granted the workers every right to secure the highest possible price for their labour. 70 After all, this was no more than the local business people were doing. For the people of Uralla, the railway circus had passed on. Ill-feeling was directed not so much at striking navvies but at some local businesses which were about to leave town and follow the railway line north. This was the axe the editors of the Uralla Times were grinding.

In Armidale the main concern was whether the strike would delay the opening of the railway line, touted as the biggest celebration in the towns history. To the editors of the Armidale Express, the strike was unconscionable, outrageous, dastardly and extortionate, and was blamed on the more debauched class of railway worker whose actions were not tempered by the need to maintain a family. 71 Family values always bloomed best on the high moral ground, where the editors of the Armidale Express were usually to be found. Eventually the great day was something of an anti-climax, delayed by two months by bad weather and lack of materials rather than strikes. The railway station was far from complete; the goods station and engine shed were mere skeletons; there were no triumphal arches in the streets; the Governor failed to attend; the ministers and members of parliament who showed up amounted to no more than a fair sprinkling; the line was opened by the local member of Parliament; and a very ordinary ceremony concluded with the raising of the ensign while the band played God Save the Queen. 7 2

The railway camps had come and gone. It would be stretching a point to suggest that militant industrial action on the railways served as a model for local employees, but there is no doubt that the advent of the railway affected industrial relations in another way. The new technology altered work and management in some industries considerably. In particular the railway gave greater mobility to itinerant workers, especially shearers, and those who would become their leaders. On the other hand the railways provided pastoralists with different means of controlling their

70 Uralla and Walcha Times, 15 November, 1882, p.2. 71 AE, 17 November, 1882, p.4. 72 Lionel Gilbert, op. cit., pp.59-60. 1 1 2 labour force. The changed circumstances are evident in the shearing disputes of the late 1880s. Ultimately the most serious industrial unrest in the Armidale district came, not from the boot factory, but from the shearing sheds and was a part of a national movement polarising work relationships in the pastoral industry.

By comparison with other parts of the colony the disputes in New England were not severe and were confined to the shearing season of 1888. 73 However, the situation in New England shows that regional variations need to be considered in interpreting historical events. The standard accounts of the shearing conflict attribute the cause to the decision of western division pastoralists in 1886 to reduce the rate for shearing from £1 per 100 sheep to 17/6, effectively a 12-1- per cent reduction. 74 However, £1 per 10 0 sheep shorn was not the rate in New England and, for many years prior to the disturbances of 1888, a standard rate of 17/6 had prevailed. 75 When unionists demanded a rate of £1 in. New England they were not seeking a return to old conditions but were demanding a new rate of pay altogether. This puts a different complexion on the struggle. It was not so much a struggle for justice and for maintaining standards, but a power struggle for the right to determine the cost of labour and the conditions of work. As one of the pastoralist friends of A.A. Dangar of Gostwyck expressed it:

73 Merritt, op. cit., p.127. 74 Mid, p.92. 75 Jillian Oppenheimer, Shearing Difficulties in New England in 1888, ADHSJ, No. 25, March, 1982, p.24. Oppenheimer relies upon some comments in the AE regarding shearing rates (26 October, 1888, p.4 and 30 October, 1888, p.8). My own research substantiates the claim that the going rate was 17/6. Terrible Vale station shore at the rate of 17/6 every year from 1883 to 1887 inclusive and then, in the troubled year of 1888, acceded to the union rate of £1. (Terrible Vale station ledgers, 1883-1885, Vol 2241; 1886-1887, Vol. 2242; and 1888-1889, Vol. 2243, University of New England Archives). Saumarez station was shearing at 17/6 in 1877 and that was the most typical rate in 1887 although a small number of shearers earned more. The intervening ledgers are missing. It seems unlikely that F.J. White of Saumarez agreed to a rate of £1 before 1889 (Saumarez station ledger, 1887-1890, U.N.E. Archives A 149). 1 1 3 For my part I am prepared to fight single handed if need be; and when I can no longer keep the control of my own workmen in my own hands, without permitting the interference of a Union delegate, I will give up the business of managing stations to someone else.76

In 1888 the shearers came to New England from the western plains on weary steeds and from both Queensland and the country down south by train. 77 With them came union delegates of the newly formed Amalgamated Shearers Union. The rail network had increased the mobility of the itinerant workers; increased the speed with which significant metropolitan newspapers such as the Town and Country Journal and the Bulletin reached isolated shearers; increased generally the efficiency of communication with a scattered workforce; and allowed union leaders to move about the country with a speed impossible only a few years before.

Confronted with militant and organised shearers, the pastoralists sought their own strategies for maintaining control. Some agreed to the union rate probably calculating that an extra 2/6 per hundred sheep shorn was barely significant and worth the peace of mind of a quiet shed. At Saumarez, Gostwyck and the stations around Walcha, however, the pastoralists stood their ground. At Saumarez, F.J. White feared sabotage and made sure he had police protection day and night throughout most of the seas on. 78 He took the union organiser to court for trespass and w on 79 but was countered with the boast that the union had ample funds to cover such trifling amounts as a fine. White succeeded, albeit slowly, in gathering a team of non-union shearers at his shed, half of whom were either local farmers, some more talented than skilled, or hand-picked shearers he had brought in by train from his familys estates in the Hunter Valley. 80 A mobile workforce was also to the advantage of the pastoralists. So, too, was the presence of local farmers who, typically, were freeholders with adjacent

76 George Mair to Albert A. Dangar, 7 February 1889, Australian Agricultural Co. Records 1/256/WP-C 16c quoted in Merritt, op. cit. pp.134-35. 77 Shearing Difficulties, Uralla and Walcha Times, 24 October, 1888 and Walcha and District - The Shearing, AE, 23 November, 1888, p.4. 78 Entries for 19 and 20 October, 1888, F.J. White Diaries, Saumarez Station Records, U.N.E. Archives, Vol. 066. 79 Francis White v. T. Buckley, AE, 26 October, 1888, p.7. 80 1888 shearing accounts, Saumarez Station Ledger, 1887-1893 and entry 25 October, 1888, F.J. White Diaries, U.N.E. Archives. 1 1 4 conditional purchases. They were themselves employers of labour and would more easily identify with their bosss position even while working for him. 81 White saw a slow season through, and, as if to underscore the fact that the essence of the dispute was power, not labour costs, he introduced a £1 per 100 shearing rate the following year. By this time the New England pastoralists, well organised under the leadership of A.A. Dangar, were generally offering the £1 rate and all was quiet.82

Throughout the period of this study, class relationships between employers and employees were generally quiet, notwithstanding the central importance of this relationship to the economic functioning of the community. Due to both custom and law, there was certainly a considerable power imbalance in these relationships and, as has been shown above, some employers were exploitative and there was little individual employees could do to resist or redress the imbalance. Nonetheless, examples of individual acts of resistance, or sabotage, were few. Organised resistance was more typical of itinerant workers acting on agendas established outside the community. The intensity of this resistance, especially in the shearing sheds, was in part attributable to the previous excesses of pastoralists under the Master and Servant Act, but it was essentially a struggle for control of the workplace made possible by the impact of rail networks in rural areas and by the changing nature of the industry workforce. But these significant changes were accommodated in communities like Armidale without widespread disruption and without evidence of severe and prolonged instability.

As well as the major division between capital and labour, there was another power relationship fundamental to an understanding of the economic and social development of Armidale. That was the

81 A number of writers have stressed the importance of the locally based casual shearer. See, for instance, Markey, op. cit., p.61; Merritt, op. cit., pp.45 and 48; Walker, op. cit., p.80; and Oppenheimer, op. cit., p.36. Oppenheimer mentions (p.39) that the class consciousness of the small farmer/shearer was likely to be different to that of the itinerant shearer but wrongly attributes this difference to some sense of regional identity. Most of them had experience as employers under the Master and Servant Act in their primary enterprise - their small farms. As Oppenheimer states, their shearing was supplementary. This fact is sufficient to explain a difference in class consciousness. 82 Merritt, op. cit., pp.127, 136. 1 1 5 relationship between creditors and debtors. It was fundamentally an intra-class relationship amongst those who owned property and it was a relationship that was not readily visible in the community. But it was a relationship of crucial importance to entrepreneurs, large and small, who wished to make their fortune, expand their business or simply escape from the world of the master and servant. Independence and enterprise were powerful aspirations for many males who internalised these values and enshrined them as part of their positive self image. Borrowing money was one of the main means to success. The debt trap was often the reality. To be crushed by debt, to be consigned to the propertyless working class was a fate so dreaded that many could not bear the thought.

Of all the trades and professions, builders were most vulnerable to their worst fears. Mental anxiety over business losses incurred in building Booloominbah, the magnificent mansion commissioned by pastoralist Frederick White, was said to have contributed to the death of master builder William Seabrook in 18 8 9 83 . In 1875 Alex Robey Smith who built the first Catholic Cathedral in Armidale and who went broke shortly after, said good- bye to his daughter, donned his well-known long black coat, its pockets stuffed with bills and letters from his creditors, walked off into the bush and committed suicide. Pressure of creditors seemed to have been a significant cause of his fatal despair 84 . When Edmund Lonsdale filed for bankruptcy after substantial losses incurred in the erection of the railway station, his guarantors were also placed at risk. Chief amongst these was Rev. Thomas Johnstone, Armidales long serving Presbyterian Minister, who described to the Armidale manager of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney how he was worried to death and how he was haunted day and night to the point of ill health by the affair.85

The common law empowered the creditor greatly. The usual way of raising substantial sums of money was by mortgage with a bank, building society or private lender using property as security for the loan. Under a mortgage, the mortgagor (ie the person

8 3 Deaths, AE, 1 October, 1889, p.8. 84 Death of Mr A.R. Smith, AE, 14 May, 1875, p.6. 85 Thomas Johnstone to Mr McDonald, 30 November, 1883 and Thomas Johnstone to Mr McDonald, 29 December, 1883, Managers Letterbook, Commercial Banking Company of Sydney, National Bank Archives, ff. 50, 73. 1 1 6 borrowing the money) actually transferred title of the property to the mortgagee who held it until principal and interest were repaid and who could force a sale whenever the mortgagee defaulted in repayments. In the record of property transactions in Armidale in the period 1856 to 1891 there are dozens of examples of banks, building societies and private lenders exercising their power of sale.

Unsecured debts, on the other hand, could be recovered by the creditors through the courts. For sums under £30 the local Small Debts Court was used. For greater amounts a Supreme Court writ of Fieri Facias was sought. Once a writ was issued for payment the sheriff might be called in to sell the goods of the debtor to satisfy the debt. If the debtor did not have the assets to cover the debt, imprisonment was technically possible. Thus the common law was fairly severe on debtors. The severity of the law did not stay the hand of those who wanted to use it. In the period 1859 to 1868 inclusive, an average of fifteen cases a year from the Armidale district came before the Supreme Court 86 and dozens more were heard before the Small Debts Court.

The debtors had some relief under the Insolvent Act of 1841 whereby they could voluntarily assign their estate for sale and distribution amongst their creditors and thus acquit all their debts at whatever rate their insolvency would permit. The voluntary insolvency had the beneficial effect, from the debtors point of view, of wiping the slate clean. Without it the debtor might be continually plagued by court writs and the threat of gaol. Ellen Molloy, for instance, the widowed proprietor of the Wellington Inn in the centre of Armidale had writs of fieri facial issued against her on no fewer than 34 occasions between 1859 and 1862, the average amount claimed each time being £132. 87 In 1862 she married George D. Cooper and her husband acquired her debts. In the next six years he had a further 15 writs issued against him before offering himself for insolvency in 1868. Altogether, between 1856 and 1887, there were 116 residents of Armidale and its adjacent farmlands who were declared insolvent, including 20 labourers, 16

86 Register of Writs of Fieri Facias, 28 September, 1858 - 2 October, 1861; 5 October, 1861 - 31 May, 1865; 1 June, 1865 - 31 August, 1869; and 1 September, 1869 - 31 December, 1875, Sheriffs Office, AONSW, 19/17804 - 19/17807. 87 Ibid. 1 1 7 farmers, 12 publicans 6 bootmakers, 5 builders and an assortment of other storekeepers and tradesmen. 88 In that period only one woman was declared bankrupt. Bank records show that many more people, including prominent businessmen John Moore and Edward Allingham, were frequently pressed by their creditors.

There was general carping against the Insolvency Act, the most typical claim being that, despite its good intention of relieving debtors, there were too many loopholes whereby creditors were disadv antaged . 89 Certainly there is evidence of abuse by debtors. When George Cooper of the Wellington Inn filed for insolvency in 1868, both he and Ellen frustrated all attempts by the Supreme Court agent to manage the enterprise in the interests of the creditors. They refused to leave the premises, they were frequently drunk, abused customers, brawled with the court agent, tried to intimidate the domestic servant into leaving her job, and did everything in their power to deteriorate the value of the property of the creditors. There was evidence that they were acting collusively with their main creditor, pastoralist and mail contractor John Gill, whose loans to them were secured by mortgage and that their intention was to lower the value of the hotel and its business to the detriment of the unsecured creditors in Sydney.90

It was inevitable that debtors would use the Insolvency Act to their advantage. But, with the exception of outright fraud, the advantage was always limited. John Trim, having successfully established himself in business in the 1850s , attempted to give each of his many sons a head start. In 1880 he lent his son, William, money to buy a saddlery business in Armidale but covered that loan with a Bill of Sale over Williams stock in trade. The business went bad. In 1884 William was successfully sued by one of his creditors in Sydney and other creditors showed an inclination to do the same. John Trim forestalled them by demanding the repayment of the money he had lent his son and when William indicated he could not pay, his father seized his stock in trade and

88 Extracted from the Insolvency Index, Supreme Court in Insolvency, AONSW, Reel 38. 89 J.M. Bennett, A History of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Sydney, 1974, pp.119-121 and The Insolvency Law, AE, 29 February, 1868, p.2. 90 Sworn Statement of Timothy Stevenson, 22 February, 1868, Supreme Court in Insolvency, File 8582, George D. Cooper, AONSW, 2/9267. 1 1 8 forced him to insolvency. The other creditors got nothing. Something of the business had been saved but both father and son had lost money and William had to start in business all over again.91

There are other examples of manipulation of the insolvency law and examples, too, of downright fraud. Certainly creditors could cite cases to justify their periodic calls for the introduction of harsher laws against debtors. But notwithstanding this, the power in the debt relationship always resided with the creditor. For many of those who went bankrupt, their lifes dreams were shattered. In October 1866, James Starr, the pastoralist of Mihi Creek station, stood in the auction rooms of Richardson and Wrench in Sydney and watched his stock and station go under the hammer. He had worked the station since 1838 according to his own reckoning and had trained his sons to take over from him. Now he had nothing and the mortgagees were selling off his livelihood. There were only four bidders in the auction room. James Starr was in a state of acute distress and throughout the auction ranted loudly about the frightful state of the country at Mihi Creek and the rotten condition of the sheep. He had to be removed.92

In the final carve up he was left with little to show for half a lifes work. He retired to a house on Sion Hill across the creek from Armidale and lived a virtual recluse, rancorous and acerbic in his relations with others. He died there in 1883. There were many who suffered a similar fate, others who held on. Many theorists have seen such people as belonging to a separate class — a nervous class, with quite distinct characteristics, experiences and perceptions.

Theorists have also emphasised a category of people beyond the pale of the other classes. These were the indigent poor. They were not just people who had fallen on hard times. The more fortunate citizens of Armidale could be quite charitable towards the deserving poor. For instance, when George Clutterbuck, one of

91 Minutes of Proceedings of a Single Meeting of Creditors and Sworn Statement of William J. Trim, Supreme Court in Insolvency, File 19234, William J. Trim, AONSW, 2/10104. 92 Report of Official Assignee, F. Humphrey, 31 March, 1868 and Sworn Statement of James Starr, 7 April, 1868, Supreme Court in Insolvency, File 7391, James Starr Senior, AONSW, 2/9209. 1 1 9 Armidales carriers, lost two horses by accident and could not carry on his business, a local subscription raised over £14 for him, his wife and large family. 93 When the dwelling house of Victor and Robert Baumgartner, farmers of Saumarez Ponds, was destroyed by fire the farming communities at both the Ponds and at Kellys Plains raised over £30 to help them build again. 94 Within a matter of months in 1868 Mary Gallegos lost her husband from a heart attack and her fourteen year old son in a horse accident. In accordance with notions of Christian charity, a subscription was raised for her and her surviving nine children to help them manage their small farm on the western creeklands of the town. 95 These were people who had supporting networks in Armidale. Most prominent in helping George Clutterbuck were storekeepers and farmers for whom he had worked. The German farming community, in particular, rallied to the aid of the Baumgartner brothers and Mary Gallegos received her greatest support from the Catholic community.

But there were also the destitute for whom there was little support. The historical record provides scant testimony of their existence. School records highlight those who could not pay their childrens fees and give an indication of the difficulties families faced when the main breadwinner was chronically ill or unemployed for a long period as was the case for many in the mid 1880s after the railway construction boom had passed. Deserted wives and widows with families to support were also frequently in poverty. Annie Cardwell, for instance, who was described as being in very indigent circumstances twelve months after her husband had left her, was trying to support a large family on the meagre earnings which her two eldest daughters made on junior female wage rates at the boot factory.96 Margaret Smith (about whom the headmaster of the National School thought it best not to make too many enquiries because he suspected Smith to be her maiden

93 Acknowledgement, AE, 18 May, 1867, p.3. 94 AE, 27 October, 1882, p.5. 95 AE, 12 December, 1868, p.2. 96 Annie Cardwell to the Undersecretary of the Department to the Public Instruction (sic), 23 March, 1886 and A. Cardwell to L.M.B. Mills, June, 1888, Armidale National School File, AONSW, 5/14678A. 1 2 0 name) was supporting herself and several children despite her own serious ill health. 9 7

The peripatetic poor who arrived in town looking for work but often without means of support, were another group for whom there was little charitable disposition. They were usually men who were often quite ill and who came before the magistrates for vagrancy. The hospital was reluctant to admit them because they were seen as a drain on local resources and so they frequently ended up in gaol where at least they could be supervised and visited by a doctor. This was where swagman Frederick Wayne died of exposure and malnutrition in March 1879.98

In a similar state of destitution were those local people chronically addicted to alcohol. Although drunkenness was a feature of all classes of society in colonial Armidale, it was the drunken poor who were thought to be a problem. Most were men who spent several periods in gaol, each sentence being longer than the previous one until, presumably, they were forced to move on. For alcoholic women there was the added stigma of moral turpitude. Margaret Chandler, otherwise known as Bush Mog, Rosanna Wilson and Mary Riley were frequently arrested for drunkenness and prostitution. They were long term residents of Armidale and were often victims of violence and homelessness over the years.

To the above indigent poor could be added another group. On the northern side of Dumaresq Creek opposite the town of Armidale there was a favourite camping place of the Anaiwan people. 99 They were largely segregated from European society by custom and by law , loo but their labour was at times very necessary and even valued. As Dr Thomas Markham said in 1855:

97 Marginal Comments of Andrew Herd, Margaret Smith to Sir, 11 September, 1888, Armidale National School File, AONSW, 5/14678A. 98 AE, 28 March, 1879, p.4. 99 Police v. William Horin, 8 February, 1864, Armidale Bench of Magistrates, Bench Book, AONSW, 4/5493. 100 Ibid, and Henry Connell, op. cit., pp.776-777. 1 2 1 . . . the greater number are excellent reapers. Many of the settlers saved their Harvest last year which without the assistance of the Blacks must have been lost.101

Even so the Anaiwan formed part of a marginal labour force. They were often employed on the stations, but usually for short periods at low rates of pay and it seems to have been a practice to cancel any balance of wages due to Aboriginal workers at the end of a period of employment. 102 Any attempts by Anaiwan people and by other Aborigines to gain independence by acquiring and working land were derided and blocked, 1 03 even if the attempt were made under the provisions of the free selection acts. 104 Race was a disqualifying capacity in colonial society 105 and for the Anaiwan people there was little chance of breaking out of a cycle of powerlessness. For them race and class came together as powerful structuring forces.

The economic relationships in colonial Armidale were characterised by power imbalances and struggle. There were conflicts of interest which were played out through strategies of power and strategies of resistance. There were competing aspirations to become the masterless man, the debt-free entrepreneur, the wealthy businessman, the landed gentleman and the social lion. For many, there were the insistent expectations of others to do well. The attempt to realise these aspirations unfolded as a competition for scarce resources. There were prizes of varying worth for many, but certainly not for all. As the economic potential of Armidale and New England emerged from the capitalist mould, vast and easily recognisable inequalities in the distribution of wealth were evident.

But despite the struggles, at times intense and bitter, the town and district were not the site of instability and social dislocation.

101 T.J. Markham, Half yearly Aboriginal report up to 31st December, 1855, Surveyor Generals Letters Received, File 56/87, AONSW, 5/5447. 102 See pencilled comment on entry for Yarrowyck Jackey and Tommy, Gostwyck Ledger 1862-1868, f. 371. 103 See final comment from the Armidale police, Aborigines. (Report of the Protector, to December, 1882), Journal of the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, 1883, Vol. XXXIV, Pt. II, Sydney, 1883, p.327. 104 See N. Stewart Caswell to the Surveyor General, 15 April, 1862, Surveyor Generals Letters Received, File 62/4254, AONSW, 5/5615. 105 Anthony Giddens, The Class Structure of Advanced Societies (2nd ed.), London, 1981, p.112. 1 22 There are a number of reasons for the fundamental stability of class relationships in communities such as Armidale. Throughout the period of this study the local economy expanded steadily. There was room to dream and the sharpest edge of competition was not wielded ruthlessly. In small communities the hegemony of employers such as Barnett Aaron Moses was strongly felt and there were persuasive and pervasive ideologies that legitimised the prevailing social structure. Methods of social control were quite effective. As well, in these communities, class consciousness did not develop significantly as a form of personal identity amongst workers and is still not a major form of identity in rural communities. 106But above all, there was an obverse to the potential tensions and abrasiveness of power relationships. The exercise of power through legitimate leaders gets things done, and the acceptance of this fact contributed also to social stability and cohesion.

For many individuals, social tensions were internalised finding expression in forms that were tolerated in the community - in drunkenness; in introspection and reclusiveness; in aggression directed against the less powerful members of the community; in bonding behaviours which excluded those deemed to be inferior; or in simply moving on. For those at the bottom of the social hierarchy, controls were the most rigorous; roles were the most restricted; and the power of others was to be avoided.

106 Ken Dempsey, Smalltown, Melbourne, 1990, pp.126-130.