The dignity and independence based on landed wealth, is ever the chief
allurement of the emigrant. Whatever his rank, he dreams of the day when
he shall dwell in a mansion planned by himself; survey a wide and
verdant landscape called after his name; and sit beneath the vineyard
his own hands planted. To this common ambition the crown directed its
appeals: acres, by hundreds and thousands, were offered for acceptance.
The imagination of English readers overleaped a tedious interval of
labor and disappointment. The generous impulse silenced the voice of
fear and distrust: they took a last look at the sepulchres of their
fathers, and came forth to establish their children among the founders
of nations.
The distribution of waste lands, a most important function of colonial
governors, has been a source of incessant perplexity and discontent.
Sometimes they have been granted with ridiculous parsimony, and at
others with scandalous profusion. Every minister has proposed some
novelty: the regulations of one year have been abandoned the next, and
the emigrant who loitered on his way found the system changed, which had
induced him to set forth.
The stewardship of the royal domain has been liable to difficulties
peculiar to itself, beside the full average of official injustice and
corruption.
The endowment of emancipists with land, an American practice,[161] was
unsuccessfully revived in New Holland, and continued until the close of
Macquarie's administration, when Commissioner Bigge recommended that no
grant should be less than 320 acres.
Instructions under the sign manual, given to the Governor of New South
Wales, dated April, 1787, were amplified by others in 1789. To detain
the convict population, and to provide them a future home, were the
chief ends proposed. The governor was empowered to shorten their
sentences, and convey to each man, if single, 30 acres; if married, 50;
and 10 for every child. The marines who accompanied the first expedition
were encouraged to settle. The non-commissioned officers received 130;
if married, 150; and 10 acres for each child. Private soldiers 100, or
130 acres. These grants were subject to 2s. per 100 acres, deferred for
five years. The minister, anxious to raise the value of crown land,
directed reserves to be made between the allotments, of equal extent;
but the settlers persuaded the governor, or the secretary of state, that
the intervals favored the assaults of the natives, and the scheme was
defeated.
The king's instructions made no reference to the superior officers; but
it was deemed absurd to grant the "greatest gifts of the crown to
persons who had forfeited their lives," and deny them to gentlemen
bearing commissions in the army.[162] Ensign Cummings accordingly
received 25 acres! The subsequent donations of governors compensated for
this modest beginning, and the officers obtained large and valuable
portions. One governor conferred a considerable grant on his expected
successor, and was rewarded, when he surrendered the government, with a
similar boon.[163] Macquarie gave Lieutenant-colonel O'Connel and his
lady 4,555 acres; to John Blaxland, 6,700 acres.[164] Sir Thomas
Brisbane obtained 20,000 acres: 15,000 were given to Mr. Hart Davis.
These were exceptions to the general rule. Official holders of land were
interested in preventing extravagant grants, which lessened the
marketable value of their own.
The survey department, always in arrear, neglected to measure off the
land, and an order, verbal or written, was deemed a sufficient title.
Not unfrequently, the applicant changed his choice, and migrated from
one spot to another. The governor often permitted the issue of rations
and implements a second time, to enable indolent or insolvent settlers
to till a second heritage.[165] Trade was, however, more agreeable to
many emancipists than agriculture. The officers located near them were
willing to purchase their petty farms: thus the small holdings were
bought up,[166] and the estates of the greater landholders were cleared
of "lurchers," who preyed on their flocks.[167]
The small grants of land were productive of much real mischief and
little benefit. They fell chiefly into the hands of spirit dealers, and
the government permitted the purchasers to consolidate all such
acquisitions into one large grant.[168]
In 1814, Macquarie issued an order threatening the resumption of grants
for non-residence or alienation. These notices were rather a protest
than an interdict, and were so understood.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 161: _Eden's Discourse on Banishment._]
[Footnote 162: _Collins_, vol. i. p. 257.]
[Footnote 163: _Commons Report_, 1812.]
[Footnote 164: _Bigge's Report._]
[Footnote 165: Ibid.]
[Footnote 166: "A small farm of 30 acres was now offered to me by Bryan:
I recommended Mr. Cox (of New South Wales) to buy it, which he did for
£40; half money and half property. I also purchased for him two others;
one of 25 acres, and another of 50 acres, from Mr. Hume, for £45;
another of 30 acres from Thomas Higgins, for £35; and another farm, of
100 acres, I also purchased for Mr. Cox for £50 and ten gallons of rum.
I likewise bought another farm of 100 acres from Captain Campbell for
£100; and of Dr. Thompson, a farm of 100 acres, with twenty-five sheep,
an old mare, two fillies and a colt, a cow, and a young ox, for £500:
the stock, when valued, was worth more than the purchase money. Next
year (1801) I bought John Ramsay's farm of 75 acres, for £40; and then
Michael Fitzgerald's, with eight large pigs and eighty bushels of maize,
for £100. I let this farm, ten days after, for £40 per year. I then
purchased Barrington's (the celebrated pickpocket), 25 acres, an old
brood mare with a colt at her foot, for £100, and sold the mare a few
days after for £85. I then bought 50 acres from Edward Elliot, for £100,
and by these means squared the estate."--_Holt's Memoirs_, vol. ii. p.
137.]
[Footnote 167: "A lurcher is the lowest order of thieves."--_Holt._]
[Footnote 168: _Bigge's Report._]