Charles Mann sees South Australian democracy eroded as resident commissioner role taken by governor

Second governor George Gawler (left) and the colony's crown solicitor Charles Mann, who favoured the colonisation commission over the governors as representing the democratic founding principles of South Australia.
Images courtesy state Library of South Australia

Charles Mann, South Australia’s first advocate-general and crown solicitor, was outspoken in defending the democratic principles of the colony’s founding. This made him an enemy of the first governor John Hindmarsh, whom he believed was undermining those principles, and the appointment of second governor George Gawler to take on the extra role of resident commissioner – also against the wishes of colony’s founders.

Mann was a solicitor in the King's Bench Division with a London practice, when he joined the South Australian colonising movement. In 1835, his paper to a South Australian Literary and Scientific Association meeting answered Westminster Review attacks on Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s The New British Province and other works on the colony.

At the request of the colony’s first governor Hindmarsh and supported by Lord de Saumarez, Mann was appointed South Australian advocate-general. He sailed in the Coromandel, arriving at Holdfast Bay in January 1837. A Whig, Mann was a strong believer in the democratic spirit.

At the crucial meeting in February 1837, Mann backed William Light’s choice of the site. This made him an enemy of Hindmarsh, whose attitude to the democratic principles of the colony’s foundation drew further protests in April.

Mann believed the colony’s success depended on preserving every power given to the colonisation commissioners. The colony’s land buyers relied on them for security and government stability. In disputes over the divided powers of governor Hindmarsh and resident commissioner James Hurtle Fisher, Mann advised Fisher, convinced that Hindmarsh was undermining the colony’s founding statutes. These views, spelt out in Hindmarsh’s council of government, led to Mann resigning from office on 1837.  

When governor Hindmarsh departed for Britain, Mann considered himself de jure acting governor, though he made no bid for office. In London, crown law officers decided Hindmarsh had acted unconstitutionally in suspending Mann.

James Hurtle Fisher stepped down as the South Australian resident commissioner in October 1838 when the colony’s second governor George Gawler arrived. When Gawler also took on the role of resident commissioner role, it was a radical departure from the colony’s founding principles.

Gawler found the colony had almost no public finances, underpaid officials and 4000 immigrants in makeshift housing and relying on supplies from other colonies. His priority was to fix survey delays holding up rural settlement and primary production. To do this, he allowed special surveys (with large land sales and speculation) and enticed Charles Sturt from New South Wales to head an improved land survey department whose inadequacies had brought down first surveyor general William Light.

Gawler increased and reorganised the police force, took part in exploration and improved Port Adelaide. He replaced most senior officers with professional administrators and increased civil servants’ salaries to boost morale and devotion to duty. He built a permanent government house (later the east wing) among his public works.

Gawler went beyond his allowed limit of £12,000 spending a year, with an extra £5,000 for emergencies. He spent £200,000 and the land fund, run by the colonisation commissioners, in London was exhausted. A £155,000 loan (later made a gift) was approved by the British parliament and Captain George Grey was sent to replace Gawler as governor, after Grey promised to “maintain the strictest economy”.