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Was born at Greenock,
Scotland, on 24 or 25 August 1799, the son of William Lang and his wife,
Mary Dunmore. Both sides of the family came of farming stock. He was
educated at the parish school and entered Glasgow university while still
in his thirteenth year. He graduated M.A. in 1820, in the same year was
licensed to preach, and five years later received the degree of D.D. His
younger brother had emigrated to Australia in 1821, and his report of the
conditions stirred the imagination of the young clergyman who decided to
start a Presbyterian church in Australia. On 14 October 1822 he sailed for
Australia, paying all his own expenses, arrived at Sydney on 23 May 1823,
and very soon after gathered together a congregation and obtained the use
of a hall from the government. He also set to work to obtain subscriptions
to build a church, and the foundation-stone of Scots Church was laid on 1
July 1824. In August Lang voyaged to England and on his arrival
interviewed Earl Bathurst, the secretary of state for the colonies who
directed that one-third of the estimated cost of the church should be
advanced by the treasury and that Lang should be paid a salary of £300 a
year. The church was opened on 16 July 1826, and Lang continued to be its
minister until his death more than 50 years later. He was a born fighter,
and, having been refused a licence to solemnize marriages, put an
advertisement in the Sydney Gazette stating that he would solemnize
marriages by banns, and challenged anyone to show that such marriages were
against the law. The authorities came to their senses and Lang was given
his licence.
In 1830 Lang paid his
second visit to England. He had endeavoured before he left to found a
Presbyterian high school, but was unable to enlist the sympathies of the
governor, Sir Ralph Darling (q.v.). In England Lord Goderich, secretary of
state for the colonies, not only agreed to authorize an advance of £3500
for the establishment of the college, but also agreed that £1500 of this
sum might be used to convey a party of workmen and their families to
Sydney. In 1831 Lang returned to Australia with 140 emigrants, chiefly
Scotch mechanics and their families. The understanding was that the cost
of their passages would be repaid out of their earnings. On the voyage out
Lang married his cousin, Wilhelmina Mackie, at the Cape of Good Hope. The
experiment of bringing out the mechanics was a great success, but Lang
imprudently raised hostility by writing a letter to Lord Goderich
suggesting that the land granted to the Church of England authorities was
not being put to its proper use, and that it should be sold and the
proceeds devoted to the encouragement of emigration. Several people as a
consequence refused their assistance in building his college, and he had
to make personal sacrifices including the selling of his home to meet his
responsibilities. The school was opened in 1832 under the name of the
Australian College. Lang was appointed principal without salary, but the
school had a chequered existence until it was closed in 1854. Its scheme
was too ambitious for the circumstances of the time, and its rigid
sectarianism did not help it to attain complete success.
In 1833 Lang again went to
England and during the voyage wrote his An Historical and Statistical
Account of New South Wales, which was published in London in 1834 and
subsequently ran into four editions, the last of which appeared in 1875.
He returned to Sydney in 1834 and in the following year started a weekly
newspaper the Colonist. Lang was nothing if not outspoken and
fought more than one libel action with success, acting as his own
advocate. In the same year he opposed the appropriation of the land fund
for police and gaol establishments, and powerfully contended that the
money should be spent on encouraging immigration. In 1836 and 1839 he
again visited England and did valuable work in advocating the sending of
suitable colonists to Australia. In 1842 he was in conflict with the synod
of the Presbyterian Church in Australia, and was deposed from the
ministry, a deposition which was confirmed by the presbytery of Irvine in
Scotland. Lang again went to Great Britain and had the Church court
decisions rescinded, and returned to Sydney fully accredited as an
ordained minister of the Church of Scotland. In 1843 he was elected as a
representative for Port Phillip in the newly established legislative
council. The Port Phillip district was becoming prosperous, and though it
contributed much revenue to the government, the public expenditure was in
no way in proportion. Lang became a most active representative and in 1844
brought forward a motion for its separation from New South Wales. In spite
of his eloquent speech, his only supporters were the other representatives
of Port Phillip and Robert Lowe (q.v.). It took much agitation before
separation was finally achieved in 1851. He also with Lowe took a
prominent part in the education controversy. He had been strongly opposed
to Lord Stanley's Irish National System, but better acquaintance with its
working made a convert of him, and he moved the adoption of the report of
Lowe's select committee, which had recommended it. The motion was carried
but the governor, Sir George Gipps, (q.v.) vetoed it. In 1846 Lang again
went to Europe hoping to have emigration to Moreton Bay encouraged. He was
full of the idea that there were great possibilities in cotton-growing in
Queensland in addition to the production of sugar, and lectured
extensively on the subject in England. Excellent cotton has since been
grown in Australia, but it has never become a great industry. His work
drew much attention to colonization, and he also was able to give evidence
against the continuance of transportation. He spoke eloquently against it
after his return, and during the agitation in 1849 and 1850 was elected to
the council by a large majority over his pro-transportation opponent. When
the council met, Lang moved for a select committee to inquire into charges
made against him in connexion with his bringing emigrants to Australia
under the land order system. He had enemies in the council who took the
opportunity to pass a resolution condemning his conduct. Lang announced
his intention of resigning, but a largely attended public meeting passed
resolutions condemning the action of the council in passing its resolution
without going into the evidence, and Lang retained his seat. He retaliated
by publishing details of the careers of his opponents, and one of them
prosecuted him for criminal libel. He was found guilty, sentenced to four
months' imprisonment and fined £100. The amount of the fine was collected
by public subscriptions of one shilling each, and at the election of 1851
Lang was elected for Sydney at the head of the poll. He resigned soon
afterwards, paid his seventh visit to England, and returning to Australia
was elected for a Queensland constituency in 1854 and worked for
separation from New South Wales. In 1859 he was elected to the assembly at
the head of the poll for West Sydney, and held the seat until 1869 when he
retired. In December 1872 the jubilee of his ministry at Scots' church was
celebrated, and in 1873 he was elected moderator of the general assembly
of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales. In the same year he made
his ninth and last voyage to England, to see the fourth edition of his
Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales through the
press. He died on 8 August 1878 and was survived by his wife, a son and
two daughters. He was given a public funeral. There is a statue of him in
Wynyard Square, Sydney.
Dr Lang was over six feet
in height, burly, but suggesting great energy. He feared no one and by
word and deed made many enemies. He was a masterful man and difficult to
work with, but underlying everything was an immense enthusiasm and a
passion for action. At times he appeared to be narrow and bigoted,
especially in his views on the Roman Catholic Church, but even his own
church was not spared if he thought it in the wrong. In controversy his
strong feelings led to his being sometimes unjust, but in his private life
he was kindly and full of a practising benevolence. He was a fine orator
with the fault of spending too much time in the opening up of the subject,
but once fully launched his speaking was characterized by great power and
earnestness, and the quaintness and humour of his illustrations were often
found to be irresistible. In politics he was never in office, but his long
career was characterized by a consistent struggle for the establishment of
better educational facilities, and the general advancement of the people.
His greatest achievement was his immigration work, for which he made
voyage after voyage and worked and spoke with immense effect. It is true
that in his dealings with the English authorities he was not always
tactful or even prudent, but his bringing of artisans of good character to
Sydney supplied a real need and had a distinct effect on the development
of the colony. His fine intellect was fortified with much reading, and he
did an immense amount of literary work. His one volume of verse, Aurora
Australis, published in 1826 and reprinted with additions in 1873, is
largely religious verse not much better or worse than most work of this
kind. In his secular poems he occasionally touches the edge of poetry. His
most important book was his Historical and Statistical Account of New
South Wales, which has valuable qualities, marred too often by
personal bias. Among his other works are: View of the Origin and
Migrations of the Polynesian Nation, (1834, 2nd ed. enlarged 1877),
Transportation and Colonization (1837), New Zealand in 1839
(1839), Religion and Education in America (1840), Cooksland in
North-Eastern Australia (1847), Phillipsland (1847), Freedom
and Independence for the Golden Lands of Australia (1852), 2nd ed.
1857, Queensland Australia (1861), 2nd ed. 1864, The Coming
Event: or Freedom and Independence for the Seven United Provinces of
Australia (1870). |
