IN AUSTRALIA 39 



lative Assembly of Victoria, Australia, to pass a series of "Closer 

 Settlement Acts" having for their aim the breaking up of the 

 larger holdings and the placing of the smaller farms in the hands 

 of actual owners. 



These acts furnish land to the settler on what was intended 

 to be liberal terms. The settler has thirty-one and one-half years 

 to pay for his land, his annual payment (principal and interest) 

 being 6 per cent. And when he makes improvements, the Govern- 

 ment advances him a loan to the value of sixty per cent oj: his 

 improvements; likewise he secures liberal advances for the purchase 

 of stock. The Government, in carrying out these Closer Settle- 

 ment Acts from 1904 to 1914, in the dry, irrigated area, bought 

 some 87 large estates, containing a total of 468, 188 acres. The 

 original payment for these lands was about $30.00 an acre, but 

 the additional " loading" on this cost, due to various expenses, 

 brings the cost price up to $35.00 an acre. These lands were 

 divided into some three thousand, three hundred and seventy-six 

 allotments for sale to settlers at cost, on the liberal terms named 

 above. To quote from the Government's Report on the adminis- 

 tration of these acts: 6 



"The whole design of the Closer Settlement Legislation as may be gath- 

 ered from its apparently liberal terms of repayment, is to enable men, experi- 

 enced and able in farming pursuits, but possessed of limited capital, to get 

 on to their own holdings, and stay there. The conditions imposed by such 

 legislation, however, often defeat its own purpose." 



The report exposes some very interesting conditions, the most 

 important of which may be profitably reviewed here. Wheat 

 growing is mainly relied upon by the settlers on these allotments. 

 And, oddly enough, the farms have proved too small for profitable 

 wheat growing. The average size of the wheat farm in certain 

 quarters is 300 acres, and the least area on which a satisfactory 

 living at wheat-growing can be made in this region is given as 

 six hundred acres by the settlers. Again, in carrying out the acts, 

 some unsuitable land was unloaded onto the State at a good price. 

 This land is known as dry-farming land, and hence suited only to 

 cereal growing and stock raising. During the investigation carried 

 on by the committee making this report, the chairman of the 

 Settlement Board was asked in effect, "Can a man live on three 

 hundred acres of land suitable only for wheat-growing (that is, 

 which does not permit of combined wheat growing and dairying 



5 Report from the Sub-Committee of the Cabinet on the Administration 

 of the Closer Settlement Acts. Victoria, Melbourne, Aus., Feb. 3, 1914. 



