produced, the year before the gold discovery, upwards of forty thousand a year, and which—although less equitably worked than Sir Richard Bourke intended, or would have permitted had he remained long enough to adapt the details to the circumstances of the colony—had, doubtless, a great effect in stimulating the growth of the pastoral resources of Australia.
Sir Richard Bourke divided the wild land or bush, beyond the boundaries of the settled districts, into "squatting districts," each under the charge of a "Commissioner of Crown Lands." An annual licensing fee was charged to each squatter for his occupation, and a poll-tax on his stock. Advantages of pre-emption were, by custom, conceded to the discoverers of new pastures. In arranging this system, it seems Sir Richard Bourke did not expect to obtain a greater revenue than would defray the expenses of the machinery which superseded club law by magistrates and police. Thus it will be observed that under Governor Bourke, the means of obtaining either the absolute possession of land in fee-simple, or the use for pastoral purposes, were systematised and simplified. It ceased to be a matter of favour, of complicated form, or of bribery to subordinates; and what was still more important, and directly reverse to the policy of his successor, the administration was conducted on the principle that the possession of land could not be made too easy to those who were disposed to occupy or cultivate it.
Sir Richard believed that he was best serving the interest of his sovereign by promoting the prosperity of colonists of all classes, by permitting them to follow their pursuits in their own way, so long as they did not injure each other. He did not think a few acres, more or less, were of the least consequence to the crown; he thought capital would be better employed in the hands of the colonists than in the treasury of the colony; therefore he never attempted like his successor to extract the uttermost farthing by haggling at land sales, or dreamed of treating worthless, limitless forests as if they were plantations of English oaks, or of laying claim to such waifs as "Australian guano." In fact he believed that he was serving the crown by administering the colony for the benefit of the colonists; he did not pretend, like Cyrus, to force upon them a garment they did not like, or to teach them how to transact their own business.
But while these reforms were being so wisely carried out, and cultivation among small proprietors and sheep-feeding among the rich was daily adding wealth and stability to the colony, the Home Government, worked upon by the parliamentary evidence, the literary agitation, and
