Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/45

 THE SQUATTING SYSTEM AND ITS TENDENCIES—PRESENT PROSPECTS OF SHEEP-FARMERS AND CATTLE-HOLDERS.

a consideration of the statements in the foregoing chapter, the importance of the pastoral interest to the welfare of the colony will be evident, and one would naturally have supposed that it would have been the object of our rulers to encourage those engaged in this pursuit, and to put it in their power to obtain such an interest in the land which they occupy, as would render it safe for them to erect the buildings necessary for carrying on their business in the best manner; to build for themselves, their families, and servants comfortable dwellings; by degrees to gather round them the comforts and conveniences of civilized life; and, in the beautiful metaphor of Scripture, "to make the wilderness to blossom as the rose." But if their intention had been the very reverse of all this, they could scarcely have hit upon a more effectual mode of carrying that intention into effect than by the course which they have adopted with respect to the sale of land; which has