John Hutt
John Hutt ( born July 24, 1795 in London, † April 9, 1880 in Chelsea) was the second Governor of Western Australia from 1839 to 1846.
Early years
John Hutt was the oldest of 13 children of Richard Hutt and his wife Gilly. He was educated at Christ's Hospital in Ryde, Isle of Wight and in 1815 he inherited Appley House, Ryde, Isle of Wight. To 1813, he worked as a clerk in the East India Company during the Präsidialperiode of Madras, Nellore and in 1818-1821 he was a registrar in one of the four provincial courts in Chittoor in the former Indian North Arcot district. From there he returned in 1826 to England.
Australia
Like his brother William Hutt John Hutt was heavily involved in establishing the colony of South Australia. There he was superintendent of immigration to the South Australian Colonization Commission.
He was the successor of Sir James Stirling, took up his duties as governor of Western Australia on 1 January 1839 and held this office until 18 February 1846. Politically, he was a liberal and one of his first actions as governor was the number of membership of the Western Australian legislative Council to increase four non- official members. He oversaw the settlement and regulation of the country, in particular the authorization and allocation of land.
The Hutts attitude to the Aborigines of Western Australia differed entirely from the Stirlings and most settlers. The relations between settlers and Aborigines had deteriorated sharply in recent years, the Government of Stirling, the Aborigines fought with spears, stole from stores and occasionally they murdered settlers. The answer of Stirling was the attempt to suppress the Aborigines by severe punishment. In contrast, the policy of Hutt included a protection of Aborigines and even training for it was made possible. This treatment made him very unpopular among the settlers who lived on the borders with the Aborigines and assumptions that they needed more protection than the Aborigines. Hutt developed a personal interest in the language and culture of the Aborigines. He supported the financing of a dictionary of George Fletcher, one of the first attempts to describe the language of the natives.
Hutt was a " ... radical idealist, hey what singularly Capable of learning by experience". ( German: radical idealist and he was able to learn through experimentation). Towards the end of his work in 1846, he had a lot more popular for its politics than before and the Swan River News wrote that he was a good governor, " ... a combination of judicious firmness and candor " " ( German: ... , a combination of legal strength and boldness ).
After he finished the governorship earlier than planned, Hutt went back to England, where he received an apparently more money. For a time he lived in the Royal Hospital Chelsea. He died, unmarried, in the house of his brother on 9 April 1880.