86 THE RIVAL INTERESTS. twelve years of age did not amount to one half the number of free males of corresponding years, while among the convicts, the proportion of females was not one-tenth. That crimes of the most flagrant and horrible character should exist among a population so constituted, might have been predicted by the merest tyro in political economy; and the fact, that, even after the large influx of free immigrants during Sir Thomas Brisbane's government, the number of convicts amounted to two-fifths of the whole population of the colony, is of itself sufficient to account for the preponderance of the emancipist class, and to show the difficult task which MajorGeneral Bourke had to perform, in reconciling, or at least in preventing any undue clashing between the two great rival interests in the colony. There cannot be the least doubt that these considerations had great influence in inducing the imperial go-. vernment to adopt the measure which forms the chief feature in the history of the period now under review, viz., the abandonment of the system of alienating the Crown lands by grant, and the substitution of the system of sale at a minimum price; the proceeds, after certain deductions, to be appropriated to the encouragement of free immigration. Subordinate to this measure, another was subsequently introduced, with a view of preventing the occupation of the unalienated Crown lands by unauthorized and improper persons. This was the issuing of depasturing licenses, the holders of which, on payment of a fee of £10 per annum, became entitled to the use of the waste lands of the Crown, for the depasturing of as many sheep and cattle as they possessed. The sale and permissive occupancy of the Crown lands, form at present the grand topic of discussion among all circles interested in the affairs of the colony; and, as it is impossible to understand our political position aright, without an accurate knowledge of these important subjects, it is intended to exhibit them as fully as possible, and with that care and freedom from bias which questions of acknowledged difficulty demand. For the sake of convenience, these questions will be examined chronologically, and their history brought down to the present time (1844) before any others are discussed. The subjects of immigration, and the discontinuance of transportation, will be considered in succeeding sections. A section must also be reserved for a brief account of several minor measures introduced during the period under examination, and for a few remarks on the general character of Sir George Gipps' administration. This branch of our subject will conclude with a careful analysis of the first two sessions of the Representative Legislative Council. 88 SALE AND OCCUPATION SECTION II. SALE AND OCCUPATION OF CROWN LANDS. Previously to the year 1831, the disposal of land on behalf of the Crown appears to have been conducted in a manner sufficiently loose and irregular. The early Governors had followed the practice of granting sections of land to convicts on their emancipation to such, at least, as were willing to accept them a practice, which, though in some instances attended with good effects, was far from answering the benevolent expectations of those who recommended it.* If the mere possession of a section * The error consisted in investing men with the rights of property, who could not be supposed to know the value of real property, or to have any respect to the privileges which it conferred; in short, in giving land to men who were ignorant of those acts by which land is made valuable. It is but just to the memory of the humane and enlightened Governor Phillip, to state, that his views were not carried out by his successors. On this subject, the following remarks of Dr. Lang, are worthy of attention: "I am decidedly of opinion, that Governor Macquarie's procedure in discouraging free emigration to New South Wales was impolitic, and preposterous in the extreme; and I am equally confident, that if the British Government had steadily followed up the prudent suggestions of Governor Phillip, by encouraging the emigration of free persons of reputable character in the earlier times of the colony, and by doing every thing that was requisite to promote their comfortable settlement throughout the territory; not only would the colony of land could have operated as a Lethoean draught on the former habits and associations of the convict, and transmitted the leaden vices of the town into the golden virtues of the country-if, in short, to borrow the phrase of Governor Hunter, " pickpockets could have been made farmers" by a dash of the Colonial Secretary's pen, no possible scheme could have been devised better calculated to develop the principle on which the colony was originally founded, nor could any scheme of colonization have been pronounced more eminently successful. But, unfortunately, the government, in spite of their blunders, were at length compelled to see that these grants of land did not possess alchymical powers; and, instead of contemplating with satisfaction the result of their political experiments, they were at have raised grain sufficient for its own consumption at a much earlier period than it actually did, and thereby saved the enormous expense incurred by the frequent importations from India and Batavia, but flourishing agricultural settlements would have been gradually formed with the utmost facility, and at little or no expense to government, all over the territory: while the highly important process of converting the prison population into an agricultural population, would have gone on progressively and succesfully, and the British Government would have been saved the enormous expenditure incurred on the government and experimental farms of the colony-an expenditure which, I am fully persuaded, has proved of so little real benefit to the colony, as if the money had been thrown at once into the Pacific Ocean.". Historical Account of New South Wales, vol. I. Cap. 6. 90 SALE AND OCCUPATION length driven to adopt measures to counteract the evils which had their source in the rash and improvident policy which had previously been observed. It was found that the reformation of the emancipated convicts was, generally speaking, as far distant as ever; while large and valuable portions of the Crown lands had been irrecoverably alienated, and which, after having been sold for rum, or mortgaged for one-tenth of their value, had gradually become the property of publicans and usurers. To such a course, it was high time to put a stop; and the first attempt to do this was made under Sir Thomas Brisbane, by granting land to free British capitalists, on condition of their maintaining a proportionate number of assigned convict servants. The Colonial executive, in fact, was utterly unable to find employment for the large number of convicts whom they were obliged to maintain, and the mother country was exposed to an enormous expense, for which not the slightest return was made. Accordingly, when the influx of immigrants commenced in 1821, any respectable person who would pledge himself to government to maintain a certain number of convict servants, might obtain without further trouble a grant of one hundred acres of land for every convict servant he so undertook to maintain. The result of this experiment showed at once the defects of the policy which had been previously pursued respecting the convict population, and the |