BIGGE, John Thomas

The series of three official reports into the state of New South Wales.

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1822- House of Commons, 1823. Three volumes, folio; fine copies with large margins, uncut in the original printed blue wrappers; a very good set bound into modern leather folders and boxed. A fine set of the full enquiry into Governor Macquarie's administration of New South Wales. Bligh's replacement as governor, Macquarie saw off his unpopular predecessor and set to work on building up the colony; although it was to be in many ways a golden era, it would be distracted by the same unrest that had characterised Bligh's reign. London was alarmed by the continuing disquiet in the colony, and by the governor's visions of grandeur, and sent out Bigge to have a look.

John Thomas Bigge (1780-1843) was appointed Royal Commissioner, with sweeping powers, by Lord Bathurst ostensibly to examine the transportation system, but 'it was clear that Macquarie's administration as much as the transportation system was under review. From the moment of his arrival in the colony in 1819 Bigge's relations with Macquarie were strained. As time wore on the tension turned to antipathy and Bigge found himself more in sympathy with the exclusives of the squattocracy than with the Governor. Bigge was assiduous in assembling evidence in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, but he was far from judicious and impartial in his methods of collecting it and in the prejudicial conclusions he drew. His series of reports was published in 1822 and 1823. By that time Macquarie had resigned...'.

Besides dealing with the question of Macquarie's competence, the three reports contain most important and detailed evidence about life and conditions in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land in the early nineteenth century, at that crucial point when the colony began to leave behind its penal past and look to the pioneer emigrant for its future. His reports were central to the political history of the period, and their influence can be seen in the later constitutional and political history of Australia.

The three reports are:

1. Report into the State of the Colony of New South Wales (Ferguson, 854; Wantrup 46n; amended House of Commons issue, 5 August 1822).

2. Report on the Judicial Establishments of New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land (Ferguson, 891; Wantrup, 47; House of Commons, i.e. first issue, 21 February 1823).

3. Report on the State of Agriculture and Trade in the Colony of New South Wales (Ferguson, 892; Wantrup, 48; House of Commons, i.e. first issue, 13 March 1823).

This is a well-associated set, inscribed by W. Archer at the start of one of the volumes "received these Reports from Lord Dacre through Mr. Fulwood in 1823. W. Archer". The set was later in the library of Rhodes House, Oxford, and has their cancelled library stamp in one volume.
Ferguson, 854, 891-2; Spence, 'Bligh', p.12; Wantrup, 46-8.

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• libraire: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)