Experience has shown that the system of free grants, which was the first adopted in Western Australia, is decidedly injurious to the prosperity of a settlement, from the facility it affords to persons possessed of comparatively little capital to acquire extensive tracts of land, the greater part of which, for want of means, they cannot use for agricultural or pastoral purposes. It also occasions the too wide dispersion of the settlers; thus necessarily increasing the expense of Government, and, at the same time, producing serious inconvenience to the farmer.
WAKEFIELD'S SCHEME OF COLONIZATION
Source.—A Letter from Sydney. E.G. Wakefield (Gouger, 1829), Appendix
The failure of the first attempt to settle Western Australia gave rise to much thought upon the theory of colonization. The ideas most generally accepted were those of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who summarized his theory as follows:
OUTLINE OF A SYSTEM OF COLONIZATION
It is suggested:
Article I.
THAT a payment in money of—— per acre, be required for all future grants of land without exception.
Article II.