extinguished these aspiring hopes, he sought, by showing them the precarious nature of their tenure, by exacting arbitrary tribute, more objectionable in its nature than in its amount, and by withholding from them all the machinery of government, for the use of which they were taxed, to check this encroaching spirit. This injudicious harshness had precisely the contrary effect. It united in favour of the squatters all the liberal and constitutional men in the community. Advantage was taken of this indignation to divert public attention from the real cause of the evil—the high price of land—which alone had made the squatting question of importance, and to fix it on the plausible palliation of leases and pre-emption.
"It is needless to dwell upon the vacillating and contradictory schemes of the home and local government during the years 1845 and 1846, in which they seem to have considered every expedient for settling the question, except the only effectual one, the reduction of the price of land. At last the Act 9 and 10 Victoria, chap. 104, was passed. By this Act, Parliament delegated the powers which it withheld from the Legislative Council of New South Wales, to the Privy Council of England. The Privy Council has transmitted a set of proposed rules to the colony, not for the purpose of obtaining the opinion of the colonists, (for what right have they to an opinion about their own affairs?) but to prepare the local government for the exercise of the powers which the Privy Council—the delegate of Parliament—has delegated to it. These rules are in substance—that the governor shall divide the lands of the colony into three districts, to be called the "settled," "intermediate," and "unsettled." The settled lands are to be sold by auction at £1 an acre, upset price, and the unsold parts are to be leased for not more than one year, by auction. In the unsettled lands, every holder of a licence is entitled to demand a lease for fourteen years. His rent is to be £2 10s. for every thousand sheep or 640 cattle which the run will carry. During the fourteen years nobody else can buy the run, but the' lessee can buy any portion, not less than 160 acres, at £l an acre, without competition. At the end of the lease, the lessee is entitled to a renewal for another fourteen years, unless at least one-fourth of the run be sold at auction, when the upset price will consist of £1 an acre, and the value of the improvements. In the intermediate districts the lease is to be for eight years only, and the land is liable to be sold at the end of every year. ******* "Once grant these leases, and beyond the settled districts there will be no land to be sold—the lessees will have a right to hold their lands until some one will give £1 an acre for them.
"These leases cannot be sold, mortgaged, or sublet. Be the capabilities of these lands what they may, they are to be a sheep walk for ever. The home government which raised the price of land to enforce concentration, is now in the sequel of its policy compelling dispersion.
"The squatter may make sure of his run at the end of his lease by buying up, in the exercise of his pre-emptive right, all the water and all the water frontage; thus rendering the run valueless to any one except himself.
"The price he is to pay for these privileges is, counting three sheep to an acre, one-fifth of a penny per acre. Thus does a government which is so niggard of its land that it will not part with the fee-simple of the most barren rock for less than £1 an acre, while that £1 an acre law remains in force, alienate millions of acres
