Governor
"Bluff Jack Hindmarsh", as he came to be known, arrived in South Australia in 28 December 1836, with a fleet of ships carrying the first British settlers for the colony. The ships in the fleet included the Cygnet (carrying Colonel William Light's surveyors), Africaine, Tam O'Shanter, Rapid, and HMS Buffalo (carrying Hindmarsh). Initially they landed on Kangaroo Island, and sent out the team of surveyors led by Light to find a suitable place for the capital city of the new colony. Hindmarsh wanted it at Port Lincoln, instead of at the present site which had been selected by Light. Light eventually chose the site of Adelaide, and the fleet moved up Gulf St Vincent to Holdfast Bay, now known as Glenelg, South Australia. Hindmarsh's proclamation on 28 December 1836 announced the colonial government and stated that Aborigines were to be treated justly and were now British Subjects. Although most South Australians have been taught that Hindmarsh's proclamation created the colony, it did not. King William IV, having been empowered by an Act of Parliament in 1834, over a year later, in February 1836 in Letters Patent 'Erected and Established' the Province of South Australia. No governor had the power to create colonies.
There was some question as to the respective powers of the Governor and the Resident Commissioner, James Hurtle Fisher, and the two came into open conflict. Feeling ran high and when Hindmarsh went so far as to suspend Robert Gouger and other public officers, the commissioners brought the matter before the secretary of state for the colonies. Hindmarsh was then recalled to London in 1838. In 1840 he was made Lieutenant-Governor of Heligoland. Hindmarsh was knighted by Queen Victoria on 7 August 1851, attained the rank of rear-admiral in 1856 and retired in 1856 to the seaside town of Hove, England.
Read more about this topic: John Hindmarsh
Famous quotes containing the word governor:
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—Lillie Devereux Blake (1835–1913)
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—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)