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Place
of Many Crows (Part 3) By
Eric Irvin 17
August 1953Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga) |
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A
brief history of the foundation of Wagga Wagga This
is the third of a series of articles, to appear daily, tracing the
history of the foundation and early growth of the town of Wagga
Wagga. The complete history will be published in book form later. |
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The sixteen men who signed the
petition to the Governor in 1847 for the establishment of a police post
at Wagga bore names which are prominent in the history of this State. They were all property owners in the
Lachlan and Murrumbidgee district, though few of them lived in it. The petition must have circulated
for a while In that district, and in Sydney, before it was finally
delivered to the Governor. The men who appended their
signatures to the petition were: George Macleay, Henry Osborne,
Charles Tompson, E. W. Flood, M. Backse (or Barker), F. A. Tompson,
G. Hill, J. B. Holden, B. Boyd, W. Robinson, W. Walker and Co.,
James Devlin, R. H. Best, John Peter, John A. Dallas, and W. Wentworth. “Wagga notified” in the margin of
the letter appear the words: "Wagga Wagga notified as a Court
of Petty Sessions 30 April 1847." A further note asks: "Shall the
gentlemen signing this be informed?" dated May 6, followed by a
terse "Yes" under the same date and a note to the effect that William
Macleay had seen the letter on May 11. On April 30, 1847, the NS.W. Gazette
bore notices to the effect that Mr. Michael Norton was appointed to
be Chief Constable at Wagga and that Wagga was appointed as a place
for the holding of Courts of Petty Sessions. Mr. Norton was given a policeman
named Murphy to assist him in carrying ou this
police duties. R. J. E. Gormly states that he
had "three assisting constables." On May 10 of the same year the
Gazette listed Mr. Frederick Walker (who had been appointed C P. S. at Tumut
on January 6, 1846) as clerk at the newly-formed Wagga Court of
Petty Sessions. The Gazette for June 16 listed
the appointment of John Peter, of Gumly Gumly, and Frederick Tompson,
of Oura, Murrumbidgee, as Justices of the
Peace (Magistrates of the territory and its dependencies). It is apparent that John Peter
was the first magistrate to sit on the bench at Wagga. The appointment of Justice of the
Peace in those days was an important and sometimes onerous one, for
these men were the law's "maids of all work." It is significant that of all the
men who signed the application of February 22, 1847, to the Governor
(and John Peter, was among them) not one added the initials
"J.P." after his name, as any one of them would most
certainly have done had he held the appointment. Therefore it is safe to assume,
for want of any evidence to the contrary, that John Peter was
Wagga's first magistrate. F. A. Tompson, as it
will be seen, sat on the Gundagai bench before, in 1849, he came to Wagga. The exact date on which Michael Norton, arrived at Wagga to establish the desired legal
machinery is not known. James Gormly, writing in 'The
Advertiser' in 1905, stated that Norton took up his duties in July,
1847, and although many other of this writer's claims are suspect,
there is reasonable evidence in existence to support this date. Memories at fault Writing from
Wagga to the Colonial Secretary on August 24, 1852, John G. Church, John
Peter and William Macleay (who signed the letter as the Wagga bench)
said:"This court having been established in July, 1847." It so happens, however, that in this
letter their memories were at fault, John Peter, in particular, should have
remembered that on June 21, 1849, he signed a letter to the Colonial Secretary
in which it was stated: "It will be borne in mind that our
Court of Petty Sessions has been established little more than two years, and
its first sitting took place on August 10, 1847." Even this letter leaves a doubt,
for if the first sitting was held on August 10, 1847, and as this
letter is dated June 21, 1849, the court would not have been
"established little more than two years." It would have been a little less than
two years. However, we know from a paragraph
in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1847 that Norton had to forward a prisoner
to Tumut in July for trial as the lockup at Wagga was not completed. Apparently it was completed for
the first sitting in August, 1847. With the establishment of the
necessary machinery such as resident police and a Court House, on a
spot a little over a mile from the Best station on the south bank
of the Murrumbidgee (Gormly senior describes the spot as, being
"now part of the river, and about 100 yards above where
Kincaid Street joins the stream." However, as he made three
verifiable mistakes at the same time as he made this statement, it too
must be taken at face value only), the sixteen pastoralists were able to
restore some measure of the order they desired among their
employees, and the place Wagga began to appear for the first time
in the news. At this time a Sydney Morning
Herald correspondent who apparently lived at Gundagai (and who, judging on
literary style, was certainly F. A. Tompson) used to
contribute material under the general heading "Lower Murrumbidgee." His first mention of Wagga (or,
as the Herald printed it, "Warga Warga") dealt with the theft of the Melbourne mail
by some thieves in the Wagga district, and their capture by Michael
Norton and Murphy. "Too much praise cannot be
awarded to Mr. Norton and Murphy for their zeal and energy, and the
rapid capture of the scoundrels is a strong proof of the efficacy of
the Warga Warga police, and
an earnest of the public benefit likely to accrue from the
establishment of police beyond the boundaries." (14) Maiden
session The report then continued: "The
maiden session of the Warga Warga court will come off this week, and from the
business indicated there can be no doubt but the locality chosen for the
establishment is the best that could have been selected to meet the
wants of the district." Later on this correspondent reported,
in a tone which even to today's, reader carries the
conviction of "no better than they deserve." The general clean-up among recalcitrant
hirelings made by the Wagga bench at its first Sittings: 'At Warga Warga a court is
held regularly every fort- night, and a great deal of business transacted.
The bench, by punishing hired servants
for insolence and neglect of duties are impressing
some wholesome lessons upon the operatives, who imagine they are
punishable for nothing short of absconding from their
agreements." (15) This paragraph contains a clue to
the fact that there were two or more magistrates sitting at the
Wagga court at the time. If, as seems likely, the phrase
"the bench - are impressing some whole some
lessons" is meant to indicate the presence of more than one active
magistrate at Wagga, then the chances are that this second magistrate
was F. A. Thompson himself. He was, in 1847, resident at Gundagai,
and would have thought nothing of travelling between that place and Wagga
once a fortnight to attend the court. From the fact that sittings of
the Wagga court under the Small Debts Act, took place as early as
the first week in Nov., 1847 (16) it is apparent that hired
servants were cowed into submission by the full rigour of the law. What the Masters and Servants Act
commenced, the Small Depts Act completed. In fact, so successful was this
new police post, and the choice of Wagga as Its site, that it was
only six months after the appointment of Wagga as a place for the holding
of Courts of Petty Sessions that the pastoralists again petitioned
the Governor - this time for "the establishment of a village at Warga Warga." (17). At this time the embryo village
of Wagga could boast a combined court house and lockup, with one or two
huts housing policemen and the first man to hold a publican's
licence for Wagga Henry Collls. (18) The whole collection would not
have made one substantial building, but these bark roofed slab huts were
temporary affairs erected pending the erection of a brick Court House
and police buildings, and the establishment of a town at Wagga. References (13) "Daily Advertiser"
March18, 1953, (14) 'Sydney Morning Herald,' August
16, 1847. (15) 'Sydney Morning Herald.' October
7, 1847. (16) letter
to the Colonial Secretary, dated August 24, 1852. (17) Same as (15). (18) R. J. E. Gormly in the 'Daily
Advertiser,' 1949. |