Page:The three colonies of Australia.djvu/136

 In the same year Lord Stanley's despatch, accompanying the act of Parliament which gave legislative fixity to the land system, arrived in the colony, and damped the expectations of those who had hoped that the failure of the £1 an acre panacea for promoting concentration, regulating wages, and encouraging cultivation, would induce the home government to consult a little more the wishes and interests of actual colonists.

Under these circumstances, the first of six committees of the Legislative Council which have examined and reported on this question—viz., two committees in 1843, one in 1844, one in 1845, and two in 1847—was appointed, held its sittings, examined witnesses, and made its report.

The committee of 1843 on "the crown land sales" examined, amongst others, the surveyor-general, Sir Thomas Mitchell, one of the M'Arthurs, and several landed and pastoral proprietors. They reported that "the act of Parliament under their consideration cannot but be injurious in its operation—that it is calculated to prevent emigration (of small capitalists), to withdraw capital, and to prevent the permanent occupancy of the soil."

In the same year the select committee on immigration also reported by its chairman, Dr. Nicholson (since elected speaker of the Council, and knighted), "that the measure of her Majesty's government for raising the upset price of land from 5s. to 12s., and subsequently to 20s. an acre, had completely annihilated the land fund, which, in six years previous to the change, had produced one million sterling;" and they recommended, in a series of resolutions, one for "rescinding the present land regulations and effecting a return of the old system of sales by auction, at an upset rate not exceeding 5s. an acre for pastoral land."

In 1844 a "select committee on grievances connected with land in the colony" examined twenty-six witnesses, and received answers to a printed circular of questions from one hundred and twenty-two justices of the peace. The attention of the committee was directed, among other subjects, to the minimum price of land, and to the attempts to harass the squatter, not being a purchaser of land, by rendering his tenure of crown lands as uncertain and onerous as possible.

All the witnesses who were asked the question (except Mr. Deas Thompson, the Colonial Secretary, who declined, on the ground of his official character, to give an answer), and all the replies to the circulars, except three, expressed decided opinions against the measure which raised the minimum price of crown land from 5s. to £1; all justly taking it for granted that at £1 an acre the purchase of pastoral lands