New Panorama. A Startling interrogation
A fine impression of the coloured issue of this rare cartoon, satirising the colony which at this time was desperately trying to attract free immigration. The cashier taking money for the “New Panorama” (probably representing the Colosseum in Regents Park) is shown as if he is selling tickets for a voyage when he is actually selling entrance tickets to one of the fashionably realistic panoramas of exotic foreign places then exhibiting in London.
“Do you wish to go to Hell or Botany Bay? Sir” he asks, to which the prospective immigrant replies: “I wonts to go to Bottomy Bay”; a young girl exclaims to her enormously fat mother “La Mama I should like to see the Naughty Place better than any thing”.
William Heath (1795-1840), originally a career soldier, became well-known as a caricaturist and illustrator. His work reached a wide audience, even outside England: ‘on cite aussi de lui des caricatures pleines d’humour sur les moeurs anglaises, vers 1825’ (Bénézit Dictionnaire).
Separately issued transportation and immigration views are scarce, and this is a particularly charming and amusing example in fine condition. It may be the single caricature by Heath of an Australian subject, though his publisher, Thomas McLean, published material of Australian interest by other artists.
Reproduced (although not attributed, and misdated) by Jonathan King in ‘The Other Side of the Coin: A Cartoon History of Australia’, p. 23.