For service of a medical man to accompany the expedition £90 Total 150 £1,615 Sydney, April 27, 1853. NEW SOUTH SIR, I DO myself the honour to state to you that I have reason to believe I may be able to organize a surveying party for the expedition to Port Curtis, at wages at the rate of 501. a year each man, provided a bonus of 101. each be guaranteed to them upon the expiration of their agreements, to enable them to return to Sydney. £50. £10. No. 5. COPY of a DESPATCH from Governor General Sir CHARLES FITZROY to the Duke of NEWCASTle. (No. 21.) MY LORD DUKE, Government House, Sydney, In my Despatch, No. 119*, of the 29th Grace with the steps which had been taken for pation the country at and around Port Curtis. January 30, 1854. September last, I acquainted your * Page 9. 2. From the minute of the Executive Council, forming an enclosure to that Despatch, it will have been perceived, that at the outset, I had caused the country within a radius of fifteen miles of the proposed township of Gladstone to be reserved from pastoral occupation, with the intention of recommending that the land comprised within that radius, should, if Her Majesty should be so advised, be declared to be of the settled class of land. 3. The survey, I am happy to say has so far progressed, that I am enabled to adopt the preferable course of proposing the reservation of a still larger tract of country, described, not by an imaginary line, but by natural features. 4. With the advice of my Executive Council, a copy of whose proceedings on January 3, 1854. the subject is enclosed. I have caused eight counties to be provisionally proclaimed, which, subject to Her Majesty's allowance, have been named as follows: 1. Clinton; 2. Deas Thomson; 3. Livingstone; 4. Palmerston; 5. Liebig; 6. Raglan; 7. Pelham; 8. Flinders. The only one of these names which does not at once suggest its derivation is perhaps that of Livingstone, which has been so named after the Surveyor General Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, now absent from the colony. 5. I also enclose a copy of the public notice, intimating that the lands com- Appended to prised in three of these counties would be wholly reserved from pastoral occupa- Council Minutes. tion pending the receipt of Her Majesty's pleasure; and that the remaining five 10th January 1854. counties would be treated as intermediate lands. 6. From this notice, your Grace will further perceive, that the former pastoral districts of Burnett and Wide Bay have now been united under the jurisdiction. of a single commissioner; that the five intermediate counties above named, will form another pastoral district, under the former commissioner of the Burnett, Captain O'Connell; and that an entirely new district has been added, which has been called the Leichhardt district, in memory of the distinguished traveller, whose life there is no longer room to doubt, has been sacrificed in the cause of Australian exploration. 7. The distance of this settlement from the seat of government, as well as the importance which is likely to attach to it, have induced me to think it desirable to confide in an officer on the spot a general supervision of all other local authorities, as was recently done at Moreton Bay. I have therefore appointed Instructions enMaurice Charles O'Connell, Esq., the Crown Commissioner of the pastoral closed. district of Port Curtis, to be also government resident at Gladstone. NEW SOUTH 8. I have now the honour to request that, if your Grace sees fit, Her Majesty may be advised to issue an Order in Council under the terms of the Act of Parliament, 9 & 10 Victoria cap. 104, declaring the counties of Clinton, Deas Thomson, and Livingstone, to be of the settled class of lands; and the remaining five counties, namely, Palmerston, Liebig, Raglan, Pelham, and Flinders, to be of the intermediate class of lands. I enclose a sketch, showing the position of these counties, and of the pastoral districts immediately beyond them. 9. It is only necessary for me to add, that a large number of allotments of land at Gladstone, both town and suburban, have been proclaimed for sale in Sydney, on the 8th proximo. I have, &c. (Signed) &c. Enclosure 1. in No. 5. C. A. FITZROY. Encl. 1 in No. 5. Encl. 2 in No. 5. PROCEEDINGS of the Executive Council with respect to the Proclamation of Eight Counties in the Port Curtis District. Extract from Minute No. 54/1, dated January 3, 1854. Present: His Excellency the Governor General, the Honourable the Colonial Secretary, the The Council having resumed the consideration of the question respecting the reserve to be made at Port Curtis, and the division into suitable commissioners' districts of the country to the westward thereof, advise as follow: 1. That instead of the semi-circular reserve contemplated in their recommendation of the 8th February last, the following eight counties as shown on the sketch submitted by the acting deputy surveyor general be provisionally proclaimed, namely; 1, Clinton; 2, Deas Thomson; 3, Livingstone; 4, Palmerston; 5, Leibig; 6, Raglan ; 7, Pelham; and 8, Flinders. 2. That application be made to Her Majesty's Government for an Order in Council, under the provisions of the Act of Parliament 9th & 10th Vict., cap. 104, constituting three of these counties, namely the counties of Clinton, Deas Thomson, and Livingstone, to be of the class of settled lands, which will thus be withheld from pastoral occupation, and be available for purposes of settlement, together with so much of the counties of Liebig, Palmerston and Flinders as lies within three miles of the sea coast, which by the operation of Her Majesty's Order in Council of 9th March, 1847, is already of the settled class of lands. 3. That application be made for the like authority for constituting the remaining five counties (with the exception of the portion of the counties of Liebig, Palmerston, and Flinders, bordering the sea coast) to be of the intermediate class of lands which will be open to tender for pastoral purposes, but on the conditions specially applicable to intermediate lands as defined in cap. 3 of Her Majesty's Order in Council above referred to. 4. That the tract of country comprising these five counties (except as before excepted) be erected into a commissioner's district, to be called the Port Curtis district, and to be under the control of the officer who has been appointed government resident at Gladstone, who will also exercise a supervision over the Crown lands in the three settled counties and the settled portion of the counties bordering the sea coast. 5. That the present districts of Wide Bay and Burnett be united into one district, according to the amended boundaries appended hereto. 6. That a new pastoral district be established as shown on the sketch to be called the Leichhardt district, and to be bounded as described in the appendix hereto annexed. In notifying the new pastoral districts of Port Curtis and Leichhardt as open to occupation, the Council recommend that a distant day (say the first Monday in the month of March next) should be named for the receipt of the first tenders, in order to afford those persons who are located in those districts a reasonable opportunity of competing for the runs. (Signed) MICHAEL FITZPATRCK, Enclosure 2 in No. 5. Clerk of the Council. Colonial Secretary's Office Sydney, January 10, 1854. PORT CURTIS. THE Survey undertaken at Port Curtis having so far progressed as to enable the Governor General to determine what extent of country it is expedient to throw open to immediate settlement, his Excellency, with the advice of the Executive Council, has been pleased provisionally to establish the several counties hereunder described, and which will be designated as follows:-Clinton, Deas Thomson, Livingstone, Palmerston, Liebig, Raglan, Pelham, and Flinders. |