MR MICHIE ON SQUATTING.

Southland Times, Issue 602, 10 December 1866, Page 2

MR MICHIE ON SQUATTING.

The Hon. Mr Michie, well known in Victoria as a clever and fluent speaker, lately delivered a lecture, entitled — "Eetrospects and Prospects of the Colony." It occupied upwards of 11 columns, small type, and appears in the Weekly Age, Nor. 23rd. The following amusing extract, as to the relation of squatter and banker, occurs : —" "What until very lately has operated to prevent, not merely miners, but all other classes, from so changing their occupations ? I answer, our entire land system bas thus steadily operated down to the time of the passing of the new Land Act now under administration, and which even yet is on its trial. Therefore, it was that a few moments back I glanced at our extraordinary society, composed, among other elements, of 80,000 miners, alongside, as it were, of some 1100 squatters. I have endeavored, in perfectly good faith, to give a rapid a rapid sketch of the too common condition of the digger ; let us, with equal good faith, now turn our attention to the squatter. It cannot be denied with truth that for many years our squatters have been a somewhat privileged class. They have had vast tracts of land at an almost nominal rent; some of them have grown very rich and powerful (that is, powerful in that kind of power which riches confer) in the enjoyment of these advantages. I believe that with many of them the beauideal of a great country is a country which begins by handing over the bulk of its territory to eleven

hundred persons, and ever thereafter rt- > spectfully buys its beef and mutton from these elevated eleven hundred. lam disposed to think that we iave a number of banks here which devoutly believe this to be a highly satisfactory arrangement. They have substantial reasons for so believing. Much of their business consists of advancing on squatting properties, and in renewing, and renewing, 1 or abruptly putting up, accord--1 ing to the position of the squatter ; whose position, in its turn, must depend upon times and seasons, as upon his own industry and prudence. There are no droughts in a banker's ledger. There interest grows all the year round, defiant of scab and foct-rot. The bright consummate dividend of twenty per-cent. is, ' in large measure, made what it is out of our Australian soil. It solaces the be- ; nevolent hearts of many absentee gentlemen, living in elegant mansions in the polite neighborhoods of Kensington and Tiburnia. We . are told that all flesh is grass, and if this be so I am yery certain that a large quantity of London flesh at this very moment is Australian grass. In short, the squatter, in many iustances, is the mere bailiff of the banker, and the banker is squatter in disguise. The Australian banker is frequently a wolf in sheep's clothing, without prejudice to his becoming, whenever necessary, good honest wolf. In so far as his banking personality does its direful arithmetic behind the bluff, smilling, pale-ale-cOnsum-ing, and only partially conscious squatter, the banker is genuine wolf, and his clothing is the sheepskin of his pastoral friend. But when things go wrongs and when drought- withered station on the one hand, and the ledger on the Other, will not balance, and the squatter has his credifr stopped, and tremblingly calis for hiS account, and has it smilingly handed to him and finds E.O.E. — venerated and cautious capitals — that his account is closed, and himself closed with it, then. the banker at once appears and the scene changes. Flocks and stations having gone down the maw *of banker, it is of course time for squatter and banker to part. Squatter pays his addresses to Mr Noel — banker to Kaye and Butchart. Kaye and Butchart announce that "they have the honor to be instructed, &c," and so the game goes on — with a sort of everlasting fee-fa-fo-fum, banker always smelling the blood of all sorts of Englishmen (without prejudice to other nationalities) who, be they alive, or be they dead, have their pastoral bones perennially ground to make the banker's bread. In the reference I have thus made to the relations between bankers and squatters, let it not be supposed for a moment that I am for encouraging any narrow jealousy of capital, or that I think English money of itself more injurious in this colony than any other money. But lam certainly under a strong impression that this squatter and banker relation involves some of the evils which existed in Ireland before the passing of the Incumbered Estates Act. A largely mortgaged estate has generally a sort of blight on it. A mortgagor cannot improve if he would ; a mortgagee i will not improve if he can. A mortgagor's solicitude about meeting " interest," confines his attention to fat stock, and he has hardly a thought for bipeds ; a banker mortgagee thinks only of the accounts in the ledger. Tou, therefore, see few indications of civilisation on an Australian squatting station.