Secondary Towns Association, formed for the purchasing of One or More Special Survey or Surveys of Land in South Australia, for Sites for Secondary Towns
London, Printed by J.C. Hailes, 1843.
Octavo, 30, [9] pages plus a folding map ('Plan of part of South Australia, 1843', 216 × 171 mm) and 2 folding survey plans ('Plan of the Two Special Surveys on the River Light, 1843', 341 × 185 mm, and 'Plan of the Special Survey on the River Murray, 1843', 245 × 193 mm).
Original blind-stamped cloth lettered in gilt on the front panel (with the title later added in white ink along the spine); cloth a little sunned on the spine, with light wear to the extremities; endpaper hinges cracked; residual paste along a strip at the top of the front free endpaper; occasional trifling spots of foxing; maps a little offset; nevertheless, an excellent copy of an extremely rare publication relating to the early land surveys in South Australia.
The first section comprises a 'Statement of the Proceedings of the Directors for the Information of the Proprietors', with the final unpaginated section consisting of a statement of accounts for the surveys of the River Light and the River Murray. This copy has the ownership signature (dated 1855) of London corn factor John Burrows, and contains noteworthy annotations and additional manuscript material relating to his family's land speculations in South Australia and New Zealand. John has neatly annotated both of the survey plans with details of the selections on the River Light and the River Murray owned by him and his mother Jane. These appear to have been inherited from his father Thomas and subsequently expanded in the 1860s. The rear endpapers contain detailed notes in another hand summarising the family's colonial landholdings and giving details of their agents in Adelaide and Wellington (we suggest in the 1870s). A clipping from another document mounted on the rear pastedown gives similar information. Additional material comprises: 1. An autograph letter addressed to John Burrows from his Adelaide agent James Walsh, dated 1872, regarding the lease of two blocks in the abortive township of Victoria, 85 km north of Adelaide (octavo; 2 pages of a bifolium, affixed with sealing wax to the verso of the final page). The meagre rents received are demonstrative of Victoria's failure (it is located approximately 12 km north of Kapunda, and was soon eclipsed by that town after the discovery there of copper ore in 1842). A leaf from a later letter is similarly mounted inside the bifolium. 2. A loosely-inserted autograph letter addressed to Thomas Burrows from his agent Daniel Riddiford in Wellington, dated 24 January 1841, regarding his selections in New Zealand (quarto, 1 page of a bifolium, folded to form the cover, stamped 'Ship Letter"; complete with the address panel, postmark, and wax seal). Riddiford was himself a pioneering runholder in Wairarapa and Hutt River. 3. A manuscript document outlining lands on the River Light and River Murray owned by C.J. Heath, another absentee landowner and corn factor. We are unsure of the nature of his connection to John Burrows, but they shared an Adelaide agent, Joel Roberts (see 'The South Australian Advertiser' for 27 May 1873). 4. A newspaper clipping with content relevant to the subject of the book, with its source (the South Australian 'Advertiser', 13 June 1878) written in ink in the margin by James Walsh. Provenance: John Burrows (as above); possibly James Walsh (see above); later, Charles R.J. Glover, with his armorial bookplate on the pastedown. Charles Richmond John Glover (1870-1936), the first lord mayor of Adelaide, public benefactor, businessman and book collector; some 2787 lots of his books were sold by auction over five days in late 1970 (and we know from long and unhappy experience that he is responsible for the lettering in white ink on the spine). His bookplate is mounted in the bottom left-hand corner of the front pastedown, and the top right-hand corner of the plate was not glued down, as it partially covers an earlier coat of arms, possibly hand-drawn in black ink. It features Britannia extending a hand in greeting to an Indigenous man holding a spear, with a rocky cliff and a kangaroo in the background. This image is based on the design of the emblem used on the South Australian flag between 1876 and 1904. Ferguson 3706 (citing a lengthy 1934 William Dawson and Sons Limited catalogue record for this particular copy).
Item #133575
Price (AUD):
$3,000.00