1843. Rev. W. Pridden, `Australia Its History and Present Condition,' pp. 332-3:
"The <i>squatters</i>, as they are called, are men who occupy with their cattle, or their habitations, those spots on the confines of a colony or estate which have not yet become any person's private property. By the natural increase of their flocks and herds, many of these squatters have enriched themselves; and having been allowed to enjoy the advantages of as much pasture as they wanted in the bush, without paying any rent for it to the government, they have removed elsewhere when the spot was sold, and have not unfrequently gained enough to purchase that or some other property. Thus . . . the squatter has been converted into a respectable settler. But this is too bright a picture to form an average specimen. . . . Unfortunately, many of these squatters have been persons originally of depraved and lawless habits, and they have made their residence at the very outskirts of civilization a means of carrying on all manner of mischief. Or sometimes they choose spots of waste land near a high road . . . there the squatters knock up what is called a `hut.' In such places stolen goods are easily disposed of, spirits and tobacco are procured in return."
Ibid. p. 334:
"The rich proprietors have a great aversion to the class of squatters, and not unreasonably, yet they are thus, many of them, squatters themselves, only on a much larger scale. . ."
1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. c. ix. p. 260:
"This capital of Australia Felix had for a long time been known to some squatters from Tasmania."
1846. T. H. Braim, `History of New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 235:
"A set of men who were to be found upon the borders of every large estate, and who were known by the name of squatters. These were ticket-of-leave holders, or freedmen who erected a but on waste land near a great public road, or on the outskirts of an estate."
1897. Australian Steam Navigation Company, `Guide Book,' p. 29:
"Nowaday squatters may be interested and possibly shocked on learning that in March, 1836, a petition was being largely signed for the prevention of `squatting, through which so much crime was daily occurring,' inasmuch as `squatting' was but another term for sly grog selling, receiving stolen property, and harbouring bushrangers and assigned servants. The term `squatter,' as applied to the class it now designates—without which where would Australia now be?—was not in vogue till 1842."