Wakefield, who was esteemed a high authority in such matters. His main idea was to allow Crown lands to be sold only in limited quantities, and to the favoured few. The mass of the population was to be kept strictly in the employ of the members of this artificial landed class, who, by settlement and high farming, were to be able (how, and by close recourse to what market, Mr Wakefield never troubled to explain) not only to pay good wages, but to keep themselves in civilised comforts. Nothing was so foreign to the ideas of this philosopher as to allow every man who landed in an unpeopled, untamed, and almost unlimited waste to make the best he could of its vast, though attenuated, resources. This, however, is precisely what the new settlers at once attempted, though they set about it in the least practical of ways, by trying, in effect, to make a living by taking in each other's washing. Neglecting to cultivate the soil, about the first thing they did was to start what is known by a term which is, like the thing itself, of American origin; namely a land boom. Here, said the colonists to themselves, is an enormous territory. We, the fortunate first-comers, have got possession of sites which must become extremely valuable when the colony becomes populated, which will speedily happen. So they set to work trafficking in allotments of land, which went up to fancy prices. Large fortunes were made, on paper; and all went swimmingly, until before long these wealthy owners of desirable building-sites found themselves on the brink of starvation. No one was producing anything. Had it not been for the timely arrival of a shipload of stores, the enterprise would have ended in a terrible disaster. But the danger brought the people to their senses, and they set to work in earnest. South Australia is now a great agricultural community, where it pays to harvest a crop of wheat of no more than
