The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3872, 22 July 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1875.

In the Melbourne Legislative Assembly the amendment in favor of non-aliena-tion of land was lost in Committee by a majority of twenty-three. Although the subject was brought before the public and advocated by the Press more than fourteen years ago, it has slumbered until now, and is characterised as “Utopian” by its opponents. Replying te this, Mr Gbant, whose long experience in the administration of Crown Lands enables him to apeak with authority, said :

There were many other schames whiah were now law in this Colony which had also been held Utopian in their day, such, as those alluded by tha hou. member for Caatlemaine the other day—manhood suffrage, vote by ballot, the abolition of State churches, the abolition of primogeniture, passed at the instance of the bon. msraber for Last Bourk® Boroughs; and lastly, the system of free, secular, and compulsory education. These reforms were all thought Utopian at one time, and although this proposal might also be considered so now, hj» hoped yet to see it earned into effect. He thought it was the only scheme which could be a opted te secure the absolute rights of the individual holder, and at the same time to pub an end to monopoly. But the chief interest of his speech lay in the statement of facts by which he supported his arguments. They point to the conflicting interests between those of the pastoral tenants and the public. It i« the interest of the squatter to have the use of extended unoccupied country : it is the public interest thai every acre of land that will maintain population shall be settled upon. To foster settlement has been the professed object of our institutions. Our land reformers, our public works and immigration scheme, all seek to provide for this ; and unless they succeed in effecting settlement, our prosperity will be checked and our progress retarded. We may even expect retrogression if the experience of Victoria affords any clue to our own future. Mr Grant said :

If they looked at the actual condition of this country they would find that two-thirds at least of the beat agricultural lands of Victoria w f, ro owned by a few hundred individuals. (Hear, hear,) From Williamutown to Geelong, on both sides of the railway, the land was one raat aheepwalk, held only by two or three indiThen from Geelong to the Australian boundary and fro; a the Ballarat railway to the sea, the whole of the territory—and it was probably 250 mihw long by 100 wide —was also owned by a very few individuals. In the middle and ot’her parts of tl* Colony the country wfts of at more • broken

natwe, and therefore it Was not hIM in tbs u u 80 individuals as the other parts iir s P°k on of. because it was not so favor-, able for the aggregation of large estates. . Let any man take up a map of the cotaty of Bourke or county of Grant—the oldest settled, counties—and_ ape the large number Of indivi duals who originally purchased allotments of from 1001* 500 acres of land, and let him ascertain what was the state of the cisa with re* gard to those lands now. Ho would find tH*t. everyone of those small purohaeers who bought at auction had sold out through the offers of capitalists, or for some other reason. It was a straining of words to say that the land Acts to which he had referred were tesnstasibls for the accumulation of the large estatos. The tact was that they had been under a mistake in past times as to the length of tenure whieh a Rector should undergo. They had thought that a three years tenure was long enoigh, amt they had now found out that it was not. we . r * gaining by experience, and though It was dear bought experience, they were gaining it stop by step! ihe increase im the value of wooL whin since that period had reached a price not then ? pby any meDQ ber of the sommunifev, had had a great effect upon the seleetien under these acts. It had enabled the squatter*, who up to 1869 would not take up land per' acre, to buy out the selectors at a much higher pne* No human being could fear* fei#ieea the continuance of fine seasons and the great increase in the price of wool, and but tor these circumstances not one-hundredth part of the selectors would hare been bought eut os they had been. When he was administering the oon n rwf Cfc ot f ß6s ' there was an area of about 200.000 acres m a particular locality, not agricultural land, but classed as first-class pasture land, which was selected in bleaks e! about ®4O acres by a number of wealthy men from Ballarat, Clones, Creswiek, Ararat,land other places. The land was well settled, net with very small selectors 0 f eighty er 100 acres, whom, the squatters could easily hay out, with selectors holding blocks ef 1,000 or 2.000 acres, and who had expended several thousand pounds upon them. The town near was flourishing, owing to this settlement. Very recently ho passed through this district again, and he found that the comfortable farms had disappeared, the buildings were in mins, and the land was fast reverting to a state of na. turn. The squatters had botghfc oat the selectors—one squatter, it was stated, having bought out thirty families off hie run. Taking an average of five persons to a family, here were 150 persons cleared out of the distrtet. Ihe business ef the town was, of conns materially injured. Soma of these Selectors ebtamed as much as from £3,009 to 115,090 far their holdings. Such a state of things as this could not have been foreseen wham tile Acte of 1*65 and 1869 wore passed. The fame thine was taking place all over the Colony, and it was only reasonable to suppose that when the present seleetors obtained their CreWn grants the same result would occur. He believed there we*e comparatively few Sammies am the land now, especially after the energetic action taken by the Minister of Lands, for which he gave him the highest eredit. But hon. Members mffstf admit tint what had taken place in the past was very Ukely to take place in the future. (Hear, hear.) He should be happy te asrisfc any ntembe# in carf/ing the most stringent measure to prevent such a stale of things. He was not wedded to the leasing system but, if established, he would like to tee it applied to country lands, and woUM sell the town and suburban lands by auction. He believed there were millions of acres of country lands which would never be elienated from the Crown, but would be either leaned or licensed. He was not, at he had stated, wedded to the leasing system, but he was absolutely determined to deetroy those leree monopolisers of the public territory, (Hear hear.) This discussion derived itoimportance not so much from the measure before the House as from the larger question involved in it. As sensible men, and as public representatives, they were called open to prevent the whole of the territory being converted into one vast sheep-walk. The land wm passing into the hands of persona who were not likely to improve it. The position of thie country was in* finitely worse than that of England with regard to land. If the land there was owned by a few it was let to the many, and thousands of families and agricultural laborers derived th£r subsistence from it. But in this country the territory was converted into a sheep-walk, without a single inhabitant beyond a few shepherds. What has taken place in Tietoriala foreshadowed here. When it is proposed to buy up pastoral country at 10* an acre, and when such opposition to settlement as on the Heriot Hundred is manifested, the public must awake to their own interests.