ISSUE 34 : May/Jun - 1982 - Australian Defence Force Journal

AUSTRALIA'S ARMY RESERVES: 1788-1854 53
by which they probably meant that it would
never do to put arms into the hands of the
convict-tainted hoi polloi of Sydney. However,
without additional taxation the costs of a
Yeomanry could not be met in the present
state of the finances.' 4
Needless to say, Grey could hardly agree
with the remarks passed regarding New Zealand
— New South Wales was deluding itself
if it believed that it had any further claim to
a larger military force maintained by England."
By the end of 1849 the New South Wales
Executive Council had found Grey's suggestion
for a Volunteer Artillery Corps impracticable.
There was no body of men employed on public
works, as in England. Doubtless there were a
considerable number of respectable tradesmen
in Sydney who might be enrolled and trained,
and relied on to maintain order and good
government. Nevertheless the long shadow of
exclusives and emancipists was still discernible,
and was reinforced by the manning of barricades
in European capitals in 1848. The Council
believed it inexpedient to enrol a Militia
'considering the composition of the population,
and the probability that those persons on
whom the duty of serving in the Militia would
practically devolve, would belong principally
to a class of the inhabitants whom it would
not be desirable to embody in an armed corps'.
Thus, to the long standing distaste with which
a large section of the population viewed any
law enforcement agency, was added the fears
of the property conscious. 16
It was the gold discovery which made the
internal security problem more acute. The
'excitement', Fitzroy informed Grey, had
spread to the police, and unless an effective
police force could be maintained the most
deplorable results were likely to occur from
'the bad character of a portion of the persons
likely to arrive' in Sydney. Confident that the
Legislative Council would approve, he asked
for an entire regiment, and a warship, to be
stationed in the Colony. Knowing that an
answer was nine to ten months away, he
eagerly grasped at an offer by Mr. Pettingell,
'a respectable inhabitant of Sydney', to convert
the Sydney Rifle Club, formed on a permanent
basis in 1843, and in the habit of practising
behind Victoria Barracks, into a Volunteer
Rifle Company. This proposal was also
referred to Grey because arms and accoutrements
were not available, although such equipment
deficiencies could have been easily corrected
from local sources. If Grey agreed, he
requested sufficient equipment for 200 ranks
and file, to which number it would be just as
well to limit the company in the first instance."
Referring to Grey's confidential dispatch
three years earlier he stated that those joining
the proposed company were quite willing to
forego the power to elect their own officers.
From the same dispatch it appeared that the
only expense to the colony would be pay and
uniforms, and he asked if this would apply in
this case He foresaw no difficulty in raising,
in addition, a Volunteer Corps of Yeomanry
Cavalry, which would be useful in the vicinity
of Sydney, assisting and maintaining order in
case of emergency, and in encouraging loyalty
and patriotism among that class of the community
which could afford to join it.
After discussion between the Colonial
Office, Treasury, and the Board of Ordnance,
it was expected that arms and equipment for
200 riflemen and 250 Yeomanry, together with
twelve months' ammunition, would be shipped
to New South Wales early in 1852, free of
cost, although further supplies would have to
be financed from colonial revenue. 38
Grey, however, was taking no chances, either
with any unseemly behaviour by the lower
classes, which had been a feature of many
European capitals during the past few years,
or any delusions of grandeur which might be
entertained by the bunyip aristocracy. It was
to be distinctly understood that the unit could
only be embodied by the Governor; when
called out it was to be under command of the
officer commanding Her Majesty's troops; the
appointment of officers was to remain in the
Governor's hands, and commissions were only
to be granted to 'gentlemen of the most
unexceptionable character'. It was by those
means, Grey believed, that 'the reputation of
the respective corps can be preserved, their
efficiency maintained, their popularity secured,
and a solid foundation be laid for extending
them hereafter to the extent to which the
colony may deem expedient . . . .'"
Some slight impetus was given in mid-1852
to the defence problem by the publication in
Brisbane of a pamphlet on 'The Military
Defences' by Captain Maurice Charles
O'Connell, erstwhile ADC to his father commanding
the Australia Command, but for
present purposes 'Brigadier General . . . Knight