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Selling Queensland: Richard Daintree as Agent-General for Emigration, 1872–76

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Kenneth Morgan
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Abstract

This article analyses the work of Richard Daintree as Agent-General for Emigration from the United Kingdom to Queensland when he held that role between 1872 and 1876. Daintree designed exhibitions in London to attract emigrants, placed advertisements in newspapers, wrote a guide to Queensland’s resources, liaised with shipping companies for passenger berths, lectured in the provinces to potential emigrants, and cooperated with emigration sub-agents provided by Queensland’s government for Scotland and Ireland. Daintree contended with two main problems during his period as Agent-General. One involved a serious case of fraud discovered in his London office, but he was not responsible for its occurrence. The other was that a change of Queensland premier from Arthur Hunter Palmer, with whom he had worked cordially, to Arthur Macalister, with whom he had fraught relations, adversely affected his work. Overall, however, the article shows that Daintree was successful in increasing net migration to Queensland during his incumbency as Agent-General.

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Articles
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Queensland Review , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , December 2020 , pp. 137 - 153
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© The Author(s) 2020

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References

Notes

1 G. C. Bolton, ‘Daintree, Richard (1832–1878)’, in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian dictionary of biography: 1851–1890 (hereafter ADB), iv (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1972), pp. 1–2; A. Mozley, ‘Richard Daintree, First Government Geologist of Northern Queensland’, Queensland Heritage, 1(2) (1965), 11–16; G. C. Bolton, Richard Daintree: A photographic memoir (Brisbane: Jacaranda, 1965); Ian G. Sanker, Queensland in the 1860s: The photography of Richard Daintree (Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1977); Peter Quartermaine, ‘International exhibitions and emigration: The photographic enterprise of Richard Daintree, Agent-General for Queensland 1872–76’, Journal of Australian Studies, 7(13) (1983), 40–55; Jenny Carew, ‘Richard Daintree: Photographs as history’, History of Photography, 23(2) (2015), 157–62.

2 Judith Mackay, Showing off: Queensland at World Expositions 1862 to 1988 (Brisbane: CQU Press and Queensland Museum, 2004), p. 21.

3 Wayne O’Donohue, ‘First Agents-General: Development of the office in London, 1860–1876’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland (hereafter JRHSQ), 11(3) (1982), 67; Bolton, ‘Daintree, Richard’, pp. 1–2. For an illustration of the Queensland Annexe, see ‘The Queensland Annexe at the London International Exhibition’, Australasian Sketcher, 15 April 1873, 8.

4 Barbara R. Penny, ‘Establishing a nineteenth-century government office, the Australian Agencies General’, Public Administration, 22(2) (1963), 178–98 at 178.

5 Joanne Scott, Ross Laurie, Bronwyn Stevens and Patrick Weller, The engine room of government: The Queensland Premier’s Department 1859–1901 (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 2001), p. 58; Bolton, Richard Daintree, pp. 23–4.

6 Report from the Agent-General for Emigration for the Year 1872, Votes and Proceedings of the Queensland Parliament (hereafter QVP) (1873), p. 997. For further details of the Act, see ‘The Queensland Immigration Act of 1872’, Evening News (Sydney), 14 February 1873, 3.

7 This is shown in the histograms presented in J. C. R. Camm, ‘The origins of Assisted British migrants to Queensland 1871–1892’, Australian Geographical Studies, 23 (1985), Fig. 1, 89.

8 This is shown in the line graph presented in Camm, ‘The origins of Assisted British migrants’, Fig. 2, 91. For annual figures on immigration to colonial Queensland, see Helen R. Woolcock, ‘Healthcare on Queensland immigrant vessels 1860–1900’, PhD thesis, University of London (1983), Table 4, p. 527.

9 Raymond Evans, A history of Queensland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 85; Bill Thorpe, Colonial Queensland: Perspectives on a frontier society (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1996), p. 125.

10 Camm, ‘The origins of assisted British migrants’, 88.

11 Penny, ‘Establishing a nineteenth century government office’, 178–98; M. J. Ryman, ‘Genesis of a Colonial Secretary’s office: The Queensland Colonial Secretary’s office and its records, 1859–1898’, Archives and Manuscripts, 4(2) (1970), 17–30; O’Donohue, ‘First Agents-General’, 59–74.

12 W. Ross Johnston, ‘The selling of Queensland: Henry Jordan and Welsh emigration’, JRHSQ, 14(10) (1992), 379–92; Jennifer Harrison, ‘My mission in Ireland: Henry Jordan and Queensland immigration’, Queensland History Journal, 23(3) (2016), 158–74; Jeremy Hodes, ‘John Douglas, Agent-General for Emigration to Queensland, 1869–1871’, JRHSQ, 17(12) (2001), 529–44.

13 For previous considerations of Daintree’s emigration work, see O’Donohue, ‘First Agents-General’, 67–70; Clem Lack, ‘Colonial representation in the nineteenth century. Part II. Some Queensland and other Australian Agents-General’, JRHSQ, 8(1) (1966), 89–92; and Bolton, Richard Daintree, pp. 26–39.

14 Bolton, Richard Daintree, p. 24.

15 Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney (hereafter ML), Daintree to William Branwhite Clarke, 16 March 1872, William Branwhite Clarke Papers, MS 139/36x.

16 Queensland State Archives, Runcorn, (hereafter QSA), Colonial Secretary (hereafter CS) to Daintree, 1 March 1875, Agent-General for Queensland: Indexes to letterbooks, series ID 11934 item ID 6896.

17 Mackay, Showing off, p. 22.

18 Mozley, ‘Richard Daintree’, 14. Appreciative reviews of the exhibits, praising Daintree’s enterprise, appeared in the London Evening Standard, 9 June 1873, 4, and the London Graphic, 11 October 1873.

19 O’Donohue, ‘First Agents-General’, 68; Bolton, Richard Daintree, p. 25; ‘Report from the Agent-General’, Rockhampton Bulletin, 31 July 1873, 2.

20 Mackay, Showing off, p. 24.

21 Mackay, Showing off, p. 23.

22 Gael Newton, Shades of light: Photography and Australia, 1839–1988 (Canberra: Australia National Gallery, 1988), pp. 46–8.

23 Bolton, Richard Daintree, p. 24; Daintree to the Minister for Works, 17 March 1872, QVP (1872), p. 1500 (quotation).

24 Sanker, Queensland in the 1860s, p. 70.

25 O’Donohue, ‘First Agents-General’, 67–8; Richard Daintree, Queensland, Australia: Its territory, climate and products, agricultural, pastoral and mineral etc., with emigration regulations: illustrated with maps and plates (London: Street, 1873).

26 Daintree, Queensland, p. 92.

27 For example, Hampshire Advertiser (Southampton), 29 March 1873, 1; Central Somerset Gazette (Glastonbury), 6 April 1872, 1; Western Gazette (Yeovil), 12 March 1875, 6; ‘Free emigration to Queensland’, Belfast News-Letter, 25 November 1876, 1.

28 For example, London Evening Standard, 27 February 1872, 1.

29 Shields Daily News, 17 March 1876, 1.

30 ‘Queensland’, Glasgow Herald, 29 October 1872, 2; ‘Emigration’, Worcestershire Chronicle, 24 July 1875, 7; ‘Emigration’, Supplement to the Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette, 24 July 1875, 10.

31 ML, Daintree to Clarke, 18 March 1873, William Branwhite Clarke Papers.

32 QSA, Annual Report of the Agent-General for Emigration, Queensland, 1874, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860786.

33 ‘Our Agent-General for Emigration’, Brisbane Courier (hereafter BC), 23 December 1872, 2.

34 Daintree to the CS, 4 September 1874, QVP (1875), p. 628.

35 ‘Mr Wight in Scotland’, Week (Brisbane), 15 January 1876, 2.

36 ML, Daintree to Clarke, 18 Mar. 1873, William Branwhite Clarke Papers.

37 QSA, Annual Report of the Agent-General for Emigration, Queensland, 1874, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860786.

38 O’Donohue, ‘First Agents-General’, 67.

39 ML, Daintree to Clarke, 29 July 1872, William Branwhite Clarke Papers.

40 QSA, Daintree to the CS, 15 April 1874, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860783.

41 Daintree to the CS, 8 June 1874, QVP (1875), p. 625.

42 Rosemary Lawson, ‘Immigration into Queensland, 1870–1890’, BA thesis, University of Queensland (1963), p. 48.

43 Pamela Horn, ‘Agricultural trade unionism and emigration, 1872–1881’, The Historical Journal, 15(1) (1972), 87–102.

44 ML, Daintree to Clarke, 18 March 1873, William Branwhite Clarke Papers.

45 ‘Mr Daintree at Work’, Queenslander, 30 November 1872, 3. For similar details about lectures given by Daintree in Glasgow, 22 October 1872, Aylesbury, 14 December 1872 and Blandford, 21 September 1872, see ‘Our Agent-General for Emigration’, BC, 23 December 1872, 2; Bucks Herald (Aylesbury), 21 December 1872, 6; and ‘Free Emigration’, Grantham Journal, 28 September 1872, 7.

46 Guy Featherstone, ‘Bonwick, James (1817–1906)’, in Pike (ed.), ADB, iii, pp. 190–2.

47 QSA, Annual Report of the Agent-General for Emigration, Queensland, 1874, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860786.

48 Daintree to the CS, 26 June 1874, QVP (1875), p. 631.

49 James Bonwick to Daintree, 1 August 1874, ibid. (1875), pp. 632–3.

50 QSA, CS to Daintree, 2 November 1874, Agent-General for Queensland: Indexes to letterbooks of letters to the Agent-General in London, series ID 11934 item ID 6896.

51 Daintree to the CS, 6 January 1875, QVP (1875), p. 634. It is worth noting that Bonwick was reappointed to a similar position by the Queensland government in 1882–83: see Featherstone, ‘Bonwick’, pp. 190–2.

52 CS to the Agent-General, 27 June 1874, QVP (1875), p. 627.

53 Under CS to the Agent-General, 8 Dec. 1874, and Copy of Minute of Proceedings of the Executive Council on 18 November 1874; CS to the Agent-General, 27 June 1874, QVP (1875), p. 597.

54 Under CS to Daintree, 21 July 1874, ibid. (1875), p. 630.

55 QSA, Daintree to the CS, 4 Mar. 1875, Agent-General letterbooks, series ID 10742 item ID 40.

56 Under CS to Mr E. O’D. MacDevitt and to George Wight, 8 December 1874, QVP (1875), p. 598. Wight had a detailed knowledge of Queensland, and was the author of Queensland, the field for British labour and enterprise and the source of England’s cotton supply, 2nd edn. (London: Street, 1862).

57 H. J. Gibbney, ‘MacDevitt, Edward O’Donnell (1845–1898)’, in Bede Nairn, Geoffrey Serle and Russel Ward (eds), ADB (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1974), v, p. 144; Anne McLay, James Quinn: First Catholic Bishop of Brisbane (Toowoomba: Church Archivists’ Society, 1989), p. 179.

58 G. L. Lockley, ‘Wight, George (1817–1900)’, in Serle and Ward (eds.), ADB (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), vi, p. 398; Denis Cryle, The Press in Colonial Queensland 1845–1875 (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1989), p. 72.

59 Under CS to the CS, 30 March 1875, QVP (1875), p. 599.

60 QSA, Daintree to the CS, 15 Apr. 1874, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860783.

61 Daintree to the CS, 2 October 1874, QVP (1875), p. 631.

62 Agent-General to the CS, 4 March 1875; Daintree to the CS, 2 October 1874, QVP (1875), p. 599.

63 QSA, Daintree to the CS, 29 January 1875 and Thomas Smith to Daintree, 26 Nov. 1874, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860785.

64 Lockley, ‘Wight, George’, p. 398. See also ‘Mr Wight at Home’, Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser, 26 June 1875, 3.

65 QSA, Wight to Daintree, 15 June 1875, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860786. Another agent, based in Elgin, agreed with this conclusion: see Daintree to the CS, 10 December 1874, QVP (1875), p. 643.

66 ‘Scotch emigration (first annual report – from March, 1875, to March, 1876,’) QVP (1876), pp. 1057–8.

67 ‘The Scottish Emigration Agent’, BC, 21 June 1875, 3; ‘Lecture on Queensland’, Forres Elgin and Nairn Gazette, Northern Review and Advertiser (Forres), 3 November 1875, 2; ‘Queensland as a field for emigration’, Edinburgh Evening News, 30 April 1875, 2.

68 ‘Queensland as a field for emigration’, Portadown News, 5 June 1875, 3; Irish Times, 22 December 1875, 5.

69 Daintree to Arthur Macalister, 5 August 1875, QVP (1876), p. 1061.

70 Daintree to the CS, 30 December 1875, and Daintree to P. H. Nind, 19 December 1875; Daintree to Arthur Macalister, 5 August 1875, QVP (1876), p. 1061.

71 QSA, Nind to Daintree, 3 March 1876, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860787.

72 ‘The Immigration Bill of 1872’, Rockhampton Bulletin, 27 July 1872, 4.

73 Robin F. Haines, ‘Nineteenth-century government assisted immigrants from the United Kingdom to Australia: Schemes, regulations and arrivals 1831–1900 and some vital statistics 1834–60’, Flinders University Occasional Papers in Economic History 3 (1995), 28.

74 O’Donohue, ‘First Agents-General’, 68.

75 QSA, Daintree to the CS, 15 April 1874, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860783.

76 Report from the Agent-General for Emigration for this year 1872, QVP (1873), pp. 997–1000.

77 QSA, Annual report of the Agent-General for Emigration, Queensland, 1874, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860786.

78 QSA, Daintree to the CS, 2 January 1873, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860782.

79 QSA, Daintree to the CS, 29 January 1875, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860785; J. P. D. Dunbabin, Rural discontent in nineteenth-century Britain (London: Faber and Faber, 1974), pp. 130–1. Data and analysis on rising agricultural labourers’ wages in late nineteenth-century Scotland can be found in E. H. Hunt, ‘Industrialization and regional inequality: Wages in Britain, 1760–1914’, Journal of Economic History, 46(4) (1986), 946, 966.

80 QSA, Annual Report of the Agent-General for Emigration, Queensland, 1874, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860786. Daintree’s comments on the metal industries reflected the heavy unemployment in that sector of the British economy in 1873: see A. E. Musson, ‘The Great Depression in Britain, 1873–1896’, Journal of Economic History, 19(2) (1959), 202.

81 QSA, Daintree to the CS, 16 April 1875, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860785.

82 Bolton, Richard Daintree, p. 35.

83 Daintree to the CS, 8 June 1874, QVP (1875), p. 625.

84 QSA, Daintree to Macalister, 5 Aug. 1875, Despatches written by the Agent-General, London, series ID 5321 item ID 860786.

85 Daintree to the CS, 16 April 1873, QVP (1873), p. 997.

86 Helen R. Woolcock, Rights of passage: Emigration to Australia in the nineteenth century (London: Tavistock, 1986), p. 72.

87 Daintree to the CS, 16 April 1873, QVP, p. 997.

88 Woolcock, Rights of Passage, p. 72.

89 Woolcock, Rights of Passage, pp. 72, 349.

90 Daintree to the CS, 20 March 1874, QVP, p. 611.

91 Bolton, Richard Daintree, pp. 32–3.

92 Daintree to the CS, 20 March 1874, QVP, p. 611; Bolton, Richard Daintree, p. 31.

93 Woolcock, Rights of Passage, p. 73.

94 These are printed in QVP, 1875, pp. 583–7.

95 Woolcock, Rights of Passage, pp. 73, 336.

96 O’Donohue, ‘First Agents-General’, 69–70; Lack, ‘Colonial representation’, 90–2; Bolton, Richard Daintree, p. 39.

97 Bolton, Richard Daintree, p. 34.