last two or three years-but their just and proper price, according to situation and quality, when things are in a sober, healthy state, as is now becoming more and more the case daily. Nevertheless, I am of opinion that it is right and proper, that every possible encouragement should be given, that can be legitimately given, by the Government, to cultivation; and that it is a duty imperative on the Executive and on the Legislature to afford such; the power being in their hands, and only requiring to be exercised impartially, on a judicious and liberal system. The principle of such system has already been enunciated six weeks, by Horace Wills, Esq., the Honorable and useful, experienced and practical Member for Grant (b). Taking up the key-note which had been so ably and energetically harped by my friend; the influential assembly of gentlemen representing the important commercial interests of this great country (in every sense of the word "great"), have by their agitation and elaborate Report, and the able Reply which that document elicited from the well-practised pen of the father of their Chamber of Commerce, W. Westgarth, Esq. (c)—well known and deservedly celebrated as a statician and Australian author, as well as senator-brought the subject of land and cultivation, fairly and fully before the public, disclosing the disgraceful and even alarming neglect of cultivation prevalent throughout this colony, even amongst the owners and occupiers of Freehold Land; the very last of whose thoughts it seems to be, to make any other use of the same, than as a medium of speculation, with a view to immediate profit! To the admirable principle propounded by Mr. Wills-and which I, for one, contended for, when the sale of Land was first introduced in N. S. Wales-I think no reasonable objection can be made no tenable objection can be raised. But in order to meet the difficulties of the present extraordinary times - in order to afford still greater encouragement to the purchasers of Land to become bona fide "farmers;" and in order to insure the "cultivation" of the Land located to them; I venture with all respect to throw out the suggestion to the Government, and to the Honorable the Legislative Council, that whilst according undreamt-of advantages to the new locatee; conditions should also be required of him, so that the advantages bestowed on him by the Crown, may be sure of being reciprocated by the public! My plan would be this to ABOLISH THE AUCTION SYSTEM, the unfairness of which, in its actual operation, is so great and so notorious, as to render its exposure supererogatory; and to enable any and every free subject of the Queen to obtain land for spade or plough husbandry, under the following arrangement :—a block of, say 1000 acres, being marked out by the Government as open to selection, applicants to be supplied in rotation according to the priority of registered application, with any portion, from 10 to 100 acres, in such position as the Surveyor-General may sanction, in conformity, as nearly as may be practicable, with the wishes of the applicant―upon these terms and conditions—namely, that he shall pay for the same, the price according to a previous fair and moderate valuation, inclusive of the surveyor's fee for marking it out upon the ground, by a deposit of ten per cent., and nine annual payments of the same amount; the second payment to be made at the end of the fifth year, and the tenth payment, which will complete the purchase, at the end of fourteen years: thus allowing the purchaser the use of his entire capital (except the deposit) for the first five years, to enable him the better to provide himself with labour, and with bullocks and horses, ploughs and harrows, carts, etc. etc., and requiring of bim only the interest annually on his unpaid purchase-money, which becomes a virtual mortgage rental or capital lent to him, on the moderate interest of, say five, or not exceeding eight per cent, and payable by easy instalments. In return for these great and extraordinary advantages, the purchaser to guarantee that he and his family (or other person to whom he may transfer his land, with the consent of Government, and subject to the same conditions) shall reside upon and cultivate the same-not breaking up and bringing into culture less than a certain proportion each year; and shall not let off any part without consent in writing from the Government, nor enter into any trade or business independently of farming the Land in question. I would have no person who does not choose to subject himself to such restrictions, required or desired to do so; but such dissenter may purchase Land of the Crown by auction in the usual manner, or of any of the multitude of speculators and Landowners willing to accommodate him. The regulation I have thus dared to suggest, will, as it appears to me, be a just and liberal and equitable arrangement, and not a one-sided, partial scheme, which must be open to valid and strong objections. The Government will thus insure the sale of large quantities of Land, at fair and reasonble prices; it will have the very best of security, real property, increasing in value yearly and daily by cultivation, with moderate interest from the date of giving possession: it will at the same time confer substantial benefit on thousands of worthy men and families, and give rise to those best of classes, a respectable yeomanry, and a body of freeholders cultivating their own farms, throughout the colony; and further benefit the public at large, by gradually and effectually, and I opine with much rapidity, promoting the cultivation of the soil, and the growth of corn and wine, hay, fruit, and vegetables within our own territory, for the consumption of the people, giving them a large loaf and a cheap one. In offering these suggestions, I have not the weakness to expect to please everybody, or to desire to do more than satisfy reasonable persons, whether owners or occupiers of Land-whether growers or consumers only of its produce. I am aware that some will contend, that Waste Land ought to be "given away" to every one who will undertake to cultivate it: with such, it is my misfortune to differ in opinion, my reasons for which I have already explained; and I concur entirely in the doctrine laid down by Mr. Westgarth, in the admirable "Remarks" of that Gentleman, on the recent "Report" of the Com mittee of the Chamber of Commerce, on the Land Regulations at present in force" (which document is, nevertheless, itself admirable, and a disquisition of great importance)-that the "principle of giving for five shillings, what the buyer would immediately sell for five pounds, is wrong, and liable to be grossly abused." But in dissenting from so high an authority, with respect to the system of rack-selling, i. e., of obtaining the uttermost priee for Crown Land, by submitting each plot as it is selected by a person desirous of purchasing, cultivating and residing upon it-to the competition by auction of every man who may or may not have occasion for it, but who, as a speculator on the selector's judgment, or from having a longer purse, or from having his attention directed to a good selection which another has been at some trouble and expense to find out, and has set his heart on, is invited to outbid him and "run it up ;" I not only am supported by a strong opinion very decidedly expressed by the great majority of the intelligent members of the commercial community; but I have strong reasons for believing this to be the sentiment of the Landed-interest generally; (not of the speculators in Land, known as “Sharks,” and not inaptly named)-at all events, it is the conscientious sentiment of a disinterested and experienced Colonist, who is-so he believes-influenced by no worse or other motive than the desire to promote the public-weal of his adopted country, with a strong leaning, not against, but in favour of, that "Patriot, and intending Benefactor of his Fellow-Colonists,” the enterprising Agriculturist, who proposes to reclaim the wild bush from the comparatively barren state of nature, and by using his axe to clear primeval forests, and and putting his spade and his plough into the virgin soil of Victoria, not only to "produce two blades of grass where but one had grown before;" but to produce tons of fine oaten and clover hay per acre, instead of a few hundredweight of coarse bush grass; and 30, 40, or 50 bushels of good wheat per acre, perhaps more, or oats or barley, where not " one grain had before grown ;" and potatoes and garden-stuff, vines and fig-trees, turnips and mangold-wurtzel, lucerne, and all other valuable productions which may be reaped in this colony in abundance, if but sown! But I would not be understood to limit the location of Land to purchasers only. There will ever be—and I believe it is not undesirable, that there should be-a class of cultivators and producers, amongst the hardy, and I trust honest and virtuous poor, constituting a Yeomanry and Peasantry recognised by all Political Economists, as "their Country's pride," as well as a more opulent class of higher grade, “Gentlemen Farmers of their own estates:" and unless I could see any reason for supposing that the Crown (or "the Government," as we say in the colonies), would be a harder and a more undesirable Landlord, than a large Land-proprietor, who is not unfrequently a speculator in Land, bent only on making the greatest return possible on his investment, and who may therefore be likely to extort from his tenants a high rack-rent; I cannot refrain from recommending, that plots of ground, of size proportioned C to their means of employing such, should be LEASED by the Crown on very moderate terms to "Cottagers," who will guarantee that they will bona fide reside upon, and "cultivate" a certain proportion of the same. What that proportion should be-whether the rent might not be taken in grain-what proportion it may be reasonable to allow to remain untilled in natural grass for the cows and horses of the tenant (or purchaser, on the terms and conditions above proposed), I do not presume even to hint. These are details for the arrangement and decision of the Government, under the advice of its responsible and competent advisers. All that I, as one of the People, and a Colonist of twentyfive years' observation and experience, presume to bring under public consideration, is the "notions," as Brother Jonathan would say-to which, my lengthened experience, as a Government Surveyor in three Colonies, and an Editor in one of them, has given rise; and which,'as one of the oldest Colonists, and (until the other day), the Senior Officer in the Civil Service of the Crown in Victoria, I am not ashamed to avow and to advocate, in the belief that their introduction-especially at this critical period-will be productive of unmixed benefit to the Colony-of good to all, as a community (except, indeed, the very, very few but certain Land Sharks, who will be thereby defeated of their intended and expected thousand per cent. on their speculations-for whom I do not feel, and am not aware who can feel, any extraordinary degree of pity), and of immense benefit to thousands and tens of thousands of worthy and enterprising Immigrants and their families, of every grade-from the humble golddigger (snccessful or "unsuccessful digger," of course I mean-but it may be of good family), who has no other dependence than, under Providence, the exertion of his thews and muscles, and his energies, with indomitable resolution; to the capitalist—whether in pounds sterling, or in stalwart sons-desirous and competent to embark more largely in agricultural enterprise; and to the Colonist able and disposed to withdraw from the turmoil of mercantile or professional life in the city, and to enjoy in quiet amid rural scenery, the otium cum dignitate of "Retirement," not of unprofitable existence in the country, but as a cultivator of his own estate—or to his son the fortunate owner of paternal acres, so beautifully described by Virgil, and by our own pastoral poet, Cowper. "Hackneyed in business-wearied at that oar, Which thousands, once fast chained to, quit no more, Where, all his long anxieties forgot, And add a smile to what was sweet before, He may possess the joys he thinks he sees, Thus conscience pleads her cause within the breast, Another and most important subject, intimately connected with Land and its location and cultivation, is WATER. And with respect to this important and much needed element of comfort and success, in agricultural (or pastoral) pursuits in this hot and arid climate, in which the sad paucity of rivers and of fresh-water lakes or ponds, is the great and almost the only physical evil —the one serious drawback to set off against the advantages of a glorious country, possessing abundance of fertile soil, and the most salubrious climate and exhilarating atmosphere in the world-[of course excepting the limited localities of large and at present undrained towns; and the immediate lines of much worn high roads, which from the surface soil being converted into an impalpable powder, fill the lungs and the eyes with dust during the suffocating heat of the sirocco, too frequently experienced in Australia during the summer months]: with respect to this evil and its remedy, my friend the Honorable Member for Grant, is also the Man to have first mooted the subject in the Council, and to have moved for assistance to be afforded by the Government under authority of a vote of the Legislature, to enable the inhabitants of ill-watered and unwatered districts to construct Reservoirs, in situations adapted by nature to receive and retain large quantities of water from the ample winter rain, and from the occasional heavy thunder showers in the summer, for the use of the public; under judicious regulations, it is to be hoped, which remain to be formed, as does this valuable and most important measure to be initiated, with many other desirable undertakings under the new Constitution, being for the present in abeyance. (d) That it is most important and desirable that some such measure be introduced by legislative enactment, as that suggested by Mr. Wills, first specifically with respect to damming the mouth of the Barwon, (e) and converting Lake Counewarrè into a body of fresh water for the benefit of the inhabitants of some twenty or thirty miles of country-thereby metamorphosing one of the very worst, into one of the very best watered districts in the colony, (which I |