at one-tenth of the rent which it received on its free grants. The system devised for the preservation of the waste lands will end in their confiscation.
"Deal liberally with the squatters—give them the most ample compensation—give them the land for nothing till it is wanted for purchase—comply with all their reasonable, nay more, with many of their unreasonable demands—their present views have been forced upon them by the folly of the home government—not originated by themselves; they are a great and growing interest, producing the main export of the colony, respectable for their numbers, their intelligence, and their wealth. But we ought never to forget, that if we give over to them their territory, we are giving away what is not our own—we are trustees for posterity. *******
"Our obvious duty therefore is, to press upon the home government the repeal of the £1 an acre Act, and the Act under which these orders were made—not because the first has dispersed our population, driven away capital and checked emigration, but because this Act, in addition to these minor grievances, is about to wrench from us for ever the possession of our own territory, and give it over to men who have no right to it whatever, and who will neither develop its resources nor enable others to do so."
This protest, supported as it was by the public opinion of the great majority of the colonists, had no effect on the official or home government. Earl Grey assigned to the three Land and Emigration Commissioners the task of replying to the report of a committee which had embodied the opinions of a large body of experienced and intelligent colonists, and these three young gentlemen, whose lives had been passed in the study and practice of official routine, "looking out on St. James's Park, settled to the entire satisfaction of themselves and their chief, and in direct contradiction to the opinions of the Colonial Legislative Council, how land was to be sold and grazed at the antipodes."
This was adding insult to injury. In 1848 a committee of the House of Lords on colonisation examined a number of Australian colonists. With one exception, a gentleman engaged in promoting a new land speculation in Western Australia, all the witnesses agreed on the impolicy of the land system which had been fastened on the Australian colonies.
For instance, Lieutenent-Colonel Sir Thomas Mitchell, surveyor general and member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, thus describes the course imposed on a colonist desirous of purchasing land:—
