Sir John Robertson's Act did immense good. Its broad scope was to enable men to select land for themselves in blocks from 40 to 320 acres, at £1 per acre, without waiting for any surveyor or other Government official, but subject to the conditions of a deposit of 5s. an acre, actual residence and improvements to the value of £1 per acre in value. The balance of the purchase-money was to remain for a time, not limited by date, at 5% interest. It is no figure of speech to say that this law unlocked the lands to the industrious settler, and notwithstanding the abuses which too widely grew up, it was the means of bringing into existence hundreds of comfortable homes in all parts of the colony where the name of its author is held in grateful remembrance. It will have been seen in a previous chapter what a network of difficulties surrounded the man of small means who tried to obtain a rural home in former years; and perhaps the highest tribute to the memory of Sir John Robertson is that, after all the amendments which have been carried, the chief principles of his Act are still imbedded in the law of the country.
QUEENSLAND
Source.—Sessional Papers of the House of Lords, 1861, Vol. XI
The Moreton Bay district was first colonised from Sydney as a penal settlement for doubly convicted criminals. But so soon as transportation to New South Wales ceased, remarkable progress was made in exploiting the vast natural resources of the colony of Queensland.
COPY OF A DESPATCH FROM GOVERNOR SIR W. DENISON, K.C.B., TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.
Government House, Sydney.
Dec. 5, 1859.
(Received Feb. 9, 1860.)
My Lord Duke,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Grace's Despatch, No. 11, dated 18th August last, enclosing copies of the warrant establishing Queensland as a colony separate from New South Wales, and appointing Sir George Ferguson Bowen, K.C.M.G., Governor of the same; also of the instructions issued to Sir George Bowen, and of the Order-in-Council empowering him to make laws and to provide for the administration of justice in the said colony.
Sir George Bowen arrived here by the mail steamer on the 15th ult.; he remained with me at Sydney, making arrangements for the establishment of the various departments of his Government, in which I gave him every assistance in my power, and he sailed for Moreton Bay in Her Majesty's ship "Cordelia" on the 3rd instant.