Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/121

 Although the suddenness of the withdrawal of large sums from circulation did, no doubt, cause a great shock to public credit, yet was it the extent to which speculation had been previously carried, particularly in the purchase of land, which was in my mind the real original evil. I can therefore by no means acquiesce in the proposition so broadly put forward by the committee on the sale of crown lands, and adopted by that on immigration, which I shall give in the no measured terms adopted by the former:—

I admit the general principle that capital and labour should exist in proportion to each other; but they should also exist in proportion to land. But when was the equilibrium first disturbed? Was it not when land to the amount of a million was purchased from the government? And that disturbance would have continued, if government had held the money in its own hands, or even applied it to general purposes, the only