A Source Book of Australian History

by Unknown

The applicant may now expect to hear no more of the land for three or four months, when, if all goes on favourably, he will be informed that the District-Surveyor, having reported satisfactorily, has received from the Surveyor-General instructions to measure it. Now another wearying delay of several months' duration will in all probability occur, before the expiration of which, if the applicant is not a person possessed of considerable determination of character, he will abandon, in despair, all hope of ever becoming an Australian farmer, and help to swell one or other of our overgrown towns, by accepting employment there. If, however, he possess sufficient perseverance, he may visit the District-Surveyor, and probably learn from him that the land cannot then be measured, because the district under that officer is so very large, that it would be highly inconvenient for him to move from one portion of it to another to measure a single farm; that when several are applied for in the same vicinity, he will proceed there; in the meantime he has several months' work where he is, or the District-Surveyor may, after expressing sympathy with the applicant's loss from delay, candidly assure him that, in consequence of the great delay in receiving pay for his public work, he is absolutely necessitated to accept private employment in order to obtain sufficient cash to keep himself and party of four men on, until the Government make him his remittance, now three or four months due.

These and other preliminary difficulties the applicant must prepare to encounter; but even when all are surmounted and the land measured there will be two or three months' delay—in all probability eighteen months or two years from the date of his first application—before it is offered for sale. Then, at last, the applicant will obtain his land, if he be fortunate enough to escape the determined opposition of some wealthy person in the neighbourhood, or has money enough, and determination enough to purchase it, that opposition notwithstanding.

If it is a fact that the agricultural interests of the country are subjected to more climatic difficulties than are the pastoral interests, I take it that that circumstance cannot, properly, be brought forward as a reason why the agricultural interest should not, under our laws, have a fair field and no favour, as compared with the pastoral interest, in entering the market to borrow money in time of doubt and general want of confidence in monetary matters. If the agriculturist, in borrowing money to secure his crop, has to encounter a higher rate of interest than the grazier has to encounter, in consequence of the risk of damage to his crops from an unfavourable season being greater than the same in the case of the produce of the grazier, surely there is no reason why he should be compelled to submit to a still greater increase of interest, to compensate the capitalist for the additional risk of the borrower's insolvency before the crops are realised, especially when the grazier is, through the aid of "The lien on Wool Act" exempted from paying for such risk.

The effects of the policy of the Government, which I have described, may be found, on the one hand, in the fact that the number of persons who have been bred to agricultural pursuits, at present residing in the towns of the colony, is, beyond example, excessive, showing our social conditions in that regard to be in a most unsatisfactory state; and, on the other hand, in the other fact, that the wholesale price of flour in the colony is three times higher, per pound, than the wholesale price of animal food, of the very best description—a state of things not to be found in any other civilized country.

I am aware that the deficiency of agriculture, which is so remarkable in this country, is attributed to the aridity of the climate by many gentlemen whose experience entitles their opinions to respect; but, as I have during the eighteen years last past annually cultivated and sown with wheat a large quantity of land, in various parts of the Upper Hunter District—a district generally considered to be unfavourable for the purpose—and have, in that long period, only failed twice in obtaining crops, and have reaped two self-sown, which in a great measure compensated for even their loss. I can come to no other conclusion than that, whatever may be the disadvantages of the climate they are not sufficient to cause such neglect of agriculture as has occurred.

On the whole, I am confident that the difficulties placed in the way of agriculture by the climate are as nothing compared with the overwhelming obstacles furnished by the policy of the Legislature and Government of the Colony.

Before concluding this communication, I cannot resist the opportunity it affords to place on record my opinion, that even should all other means fail of providing the country with an ample supply of agricultural produce, a remedy may be found by allowing any person to enter upon and occupy 80 acres of waste land, without competition or delay, and pay for it at the upset price, four years thereafter; provided that he clears and cultivates 10 acres the first year, and 10 additional acres in each of the three succeeding years, and is at the end of the time residing on the spot.

JOHN ROBERTSON.

Yarrundi, Aug. 6th, 1855.

I also gave my general support to the Robertson Land Bill, which passed through a determined opposition, and became law eventually, after the violent expedient of "swamping the Upper House," which swamping, however, had no practical or immediate effect, as the old members, including the President, retired in a body when the new members attempted to take their seats. By the Constitution, the first Council was appointed for five years only, and the term was near its expiration when this historical incident occurred. So nothing could be done with the Bill, or anything else, until the next Council was appointed, whose term was for life.