Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/173

 reserve 500 acres for the Crown adjacent to every 1,000 acres allotted to settlers. In 1815 Lord Bathurst called his attention to the neglect of these Instructions and directed his compliance therewith. Macquarie consulted Oxley, and they agreed in opposing this policy. It had not been done in other colonies, and the Crown, Oxley said, had not suffered from its neglect, and in New South Wales it had been wisely disregarded from the first. Lord Bathurst admitted the first part of the statement and the second so far as to agree that the Colony's progress had been ameliorated by these means. But he went on to say: "I see no reason why in future the reserves on behalf of the Crown should not be in such situations as to ensure the rapid augmentation of their value from the cultivation of the adjoining allotments. It may, indeed, in some cases expose settlers to temporary inconvenience to have their respective establishments separated by an uncultivated reserve, but it must be recollected that this inconvenience is in general the only price paid for the land they cultivate, and it is not therefore just that the Crown should lose the only benefit which it derives from its liberality to them. I must therefore leave it to your discretion in future to make these reserves in such a manner as may give to the Crown every fair advantage without materially interrupting the comfort and safety of the inhabitants."

Macquarie, relying upon his discretion, therefore made no change in his previous practice, reserving pieces of land here and there for the Crown as he thought fit.

The next omission was in the collection of the quit-rents. In 1814 Lord Bathurst proposed to raise them 1s. an acre on the land of free settlers. Macquarie, with the advice of the Surveyor-General, demurred. Macquarie proposed a rate of 2d. an acre for emancipists and 1s. for fifty acres for free settlers. Oxley suggested that there should be a diminution in the rate for grants of 500 and over, but Macquarie pointed out that the larger the grant was the more easily could the owner pay the