Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/42

 the cultivated sections, made the regulation unpopular with surveyors and Governors, and it was almost totally disregarded.

The whole of the town of Sydney had been proclaimed by Phillip a Government reserve and thus brought under leasehold regulations. Governor King had further restricted the leases of town lots to a period of five years. This short time of certain occupation (for renewal was always problematical and there was no compensation for improvements) undoubtedly discouraged substantial building enterprises. In Sydney the houses were for the most part built of wood, with light flat roofs, varied occasionally by a stone building of similar shape and equally devoid of decoration. The town had rather the appearance of a cluster of sheds, and doubtless inspired by contrast in Macquarie that dream of architectural beauty which brought him later into much trouble and difficulty.

Notwithstanding the intentions of the Government there was in 1810 anything rather than a regime of peasant holdings. In the General Muster only 808 persons were returned as proprietors though 95,937 acres were given as "settled," and the stock, exclusive of Government herds, which amounted to a few thousand head, was estimated at 49,587 head. For a few years the practice of giving extensive grants to civil and military officers had been pursued, and in many cases these had been joined into single estates by private sale. Several members of the New South Wales corps had retired from the army before 1810 in order to devote themselves to their farms, and some who went with the regiment to England in that year returned to the Colony to live on the estates they had previously purchased or been granted. Occasionally also the Secretary of State had sent "gentlemen-settlers" to New South Wales with promises