Newspaper cutting found between the pages of Hindmarsh's diary.

South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register, Saturday 14 July 1838, page 1

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 ADDRESS TO HIS EXCELLENCY.

YESTERDAY, at twelve o'clock, a deputation of the most influential colonists assembled at Government House to present the address to his Excellency which had been so numerously and respectably signed.

The address was then read by C. C. Dutton, Esq., the Sheriff, as follows:—

To His Excellency Captain Hindmarsh, Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of South Australia. May it please your Excellency The recent intelligence that it has pleased Her Majesty to relieve you from the duties of your high office having been communicated to us, we hasten to offer our expressions of attachment to your person and respect for your character, which, at such a moment, may be more acceptable to your Excellency, as indicative of the sincerity in which they are conveyed.

With the immediate causes that have led to your Excellency's recall most of us are unacquainted. Knowing, however, that this Province and its Government are founded upon principles which boldly discard the system of colonization that has existed for so many centuries, we are conscious of the vast difficulties that have encompassed your Excellency, as the first Governor, in conducting such a novel experiment.

If, as alleged, your Excellency has failed in carrying out those principles to the full extent anticipated by the founders of this colony, it must be universally conceded that your capacity to fill other high stations of responsibility cannot be questioned. For persons the most conversant with the art of government, might in the onset have been unsuccessful in their exertions to work out so peculiar a constitution.

We have witnessed your Excellency's disinterested energy in the discharge of your responsible duties, and have admired the integrity that appears to have dictated all your actions. And in your private relations as the kind friend, affectionate husband, and indulgent father, you have always commanded our respect and attachment; and, when the period of your departure may arrive, we shall regret the loss of a colonist who has in so many instances set us a bright example of patent self-denial and energetic exercise of manly accomplishments.

Adelaide, June 20, 1838.

C. B. Newenham, H. P, ordnance department
Robert Bernard, barrister at law
J. Fletcher, merchant
R. S. Breeze, builder
John Hallett, merchant
A. H. Davis, merchant
Andrew Smith, commander Lord Goderich
Geo. M, Stephen, advocate general
H. P. Watts, late 47th regiment
John Newman, ship-agent
George A. Anstey, proprietor
J. Bishop, merchant
Y. B. Hutchinson, landholder
Matthew Smith, solicitor
Charles B. Howard, colonial chaplain
F. W. Allen, Southern Cross
Thomas Wilson, farmer
H. R. Wigley, resident magistrate
William Shepherd, merchant
John White, landholder
Thomas G. Stow, minister
William Nation, colonial secretary's office
Frederick Handcock, landholder
John Allen, merchant
Bernard Shaw, merchant
S. Fairlie, merchant
William Parcell, merchant
T. Wilson, timber merchant
Thomas Fewson, commander barque Hartley
Henry Jickling, judge
Robert Cock, land agent
C. C. Dutton, sheriff
John Bruce, landholder
J. C. Hawes, auctioneer
William Kingdom, clerk of court
Robert Thomas, government printer
Thomas Orsmond, merchant
John Richardson, land agent
William Edwards, law stationer
William Wilkinson, ship agent
Thomas Stephenson, master of ship
Hetty F. C. Hopkins, merchant
Charles Fenn, merchant
P. M. Richards, landholder
D. Mactavish, landholder
William McBean, landholder
Thomas Martin, landholder
Henry Osborn, merchant
John Stuckey, baker

R. Bradshaw, landholder
William Wyatt, protector of the aborigines
Thomas Shepherd, merchant
R. Adams, merchant
Andrew Birrell, chief constable
A. F. Lindsay, landholder
William Bradshaw, landholder
Samuel Chapman, merchant
John Tozer, watchmaker
Henry Hewitt, merchant
William Finke, ship agent
T. B. Strangways, colonial secretary
Osmond Gilles, colonial treasurer
G. H. Barnard, merchant
J. G. Nash, surgeon
Charles Calton, merchant
Anthony Lillyman, brewer
W. H. Gray, land proprietor
W. Anthony, merchant
T. Morris, commander brig Freeling
Henry Jones, merchant
George Stevenson, clerk of council
Henry Inman, Inspector of police
George Evans, custom-house
Edward Surflen, do.
D. Beatten, do.
Lindsay Craig, do.
Thomas Lipson, harbour master
Daniel Simpson, ship builder
Stephen Whettem. R.N.
T. W. Beare, South Australian Company
A. Jamieson, master ship Trusty
J. Mordaunt, master ship Canton
J. Walker, lieut. R.N.
John Warren, brewer
D. Nihill
S. Blunden, farmer
George North, farmer
William Cameron, farmer
William Kyffin Thomas, printer
Benjamin Portbury, printer
George Dehane, printer
James Halliday, printer
W. H. Nash
John Hill, proprietor
William Hanson
Henry Barnes
And about three hundred other colonists

His Excellency answered in the following terms:—

Gentlemen— I receive your expressions of attachment in the same sincerity of feeling with which I believe they are offered, and I assure you that the regret I feel deeply at this moment is influenced less by the political change to which you refer, or by the reflection that such change has been effected by unworthy means, than by the necessity I am under of leaving you for a time to vindicate my public conduct and justify in England any administration of the Government of the Province.

The share which a Governor of South Australia possesses in conducting the new experiment in colonization is so small that under no circumstances can he be justly responsible for its result. That responsibility rests with the Colonization Commissioners, to whom the charge of " working out so peculiar a constitution" is entrusted. The principle, though novel, is simple, as I believe it to be sound. Its successful practical application, however, depends not on the Colonial Government, but on the integrity and ability of the individuals entrusted by the Colonization Commissioners with its development, and it must be to a deficiency of these qualities alone that anything approaching to failure ought to be attributed.

Notwithstanding all that has taken place I do not anticipate such a calamity. Blessed as South Australia is with the finest climate and the most fertile soil yet discovered in this vast continent, its progress cannot be materially retarded either by political differences or by the more serious mismanagement of the parties entrusted with the disposal of the unappropriated land and with the distribution of the public monies.

If the colonists do themselves justice—if they respect the laws and attend to the observances of religion—if they continue the same habits of temperance and industry which have so happily prevailed, and which are rapidly raising the proprietors of the soil to wealth and the laborers to independence—South Australia must, in its abundance of all the sources of national wealth, realise the most ardent wishes of its friends and acquire in a few years a rank among the provinces of the British Crown unknown and without example in Colonial History.

In leaving you now I wish you individually and the colonists without exception every temporal happiness and spiritual blessing. Believe me, gentlemen, that in whatever position I may be ultimately placed I shall never forget either the support which you have afforded me through so many of the difficulties I have been forced to encounter in this Province nor the present expression of your kindness.

J. HINDMARSH.