| On November the 15th, 1808, Thomas Kent, merchant, speculator, and ex-druggist arrived in Sydney with a recomendation from Edward Thornton, a director of the bank of England, and an order addressed to governor Blight for 600 acres and 6 convict servants. Kent formed a partnership with J.C. Burton, a Bengal merchant with whom he proposed to take up land and seek government aid in importing coolies and machinery for growing and manufacturing hemp.
In July 1809, they requested to be allowed to "introduce a number of natives from India and China aquainted with the hemp and preparing it and making rope, cordage and canvas and bringing them with the implements required for the branch of manufacture". Lt. Governor Patterson gave Burton 500 acres near Toongabbie and kept 1230 acres near Cobbity. The partnership between Kent and Burton came to naught and Kent transferred his allegiance to a far grander scheme proposed by Simeon Lord and Alexander Riley.
In 1810, Lord, Riley and Kent proposed an ambitious scheme to the new governor Maquarie to grow hemp in Australia, and form a settlement in New Zealand for growing flax.
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"A most material point would be accomplished...if the natural advantages of this climate could be embraced by producing of a quantity of hemp and flax sufficient for the demands of the colony itself, and to enable us to send to England a considerable supply for the British navy in compliance with the wishes and invitation of His Majesties Ministers."
Accordingly the merchants wrote to England and India for seeds and "workman accustomed to the manufacture of the raw material into cordage and canvas" and approached Maquarie for a grant of land in New Zealand to pursue cultivation of both European and New Zealand hemp.
Maquarie approved of their plan to the colonial office and offered to make Kent a Justice of the peace for New Zealand but, when news of the Boyd massacre reached Sydney in March, Kent and Riley withdrew from the project. Lord continued. In 1814 he built a factory at Botany and he was making shoes, hats, harness and textiles. In 1815, he was employing 60 convicts and milling and dressing cloth for the government. In 1820, he showed samples of his textiles which impressed the commisioner sufficiently for him to estimate that they posed a threat to British manufacturers and were not to be encouraged. |
