Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/72

 greater portion will become so. It thus happens that the squatters holding their stations only on leases of short duration, without the power of cultivation for traffic, have not, for the most part, considered them as home, but as birds of passage contented to live on them, enduring discomfort and privation, accumulating wealth with the intention of either returning to dear fatherland, or purchasing property elsewhere. It is, therefore, more politic for the Legislature to hold out every inducement possible to make them proprietors as well as lessees. The life consequent upon such a system, and with such objects in view, does not tend to the advantage of society, or the proper colonization of the country. The stations are generally far apart, the intercourse little and uncertain, the mode of life semi-savage, or too much retired for the growth and benefit of civilization. A visit to one of them may not be inappropriate.

After many incidents during a tour through a northern district, some of which will be found elsewhere, we drew near a station where it was our intention to stay a few days; the author, therefore, chooses, as this is a good one, to describe a specimen of the major part,—although, indeed, Blenheim had an attraction that many cannot boast of, in being under the domestic sway of a lady, and that too, of one sufficient in herself to ameliorate the hardships of a residence in far Bushland. A long ride over some rocky hills, covered with the stunted