Review of Reviewt. tO/i/OS. 



Land Monopoly in Tasmania. 



357 



Another similar case is that of Ringarooma, in the 

 north, a pretty native name which is borne by a 

 township, a river, and a bay. The township is a 

 very important centre, situated at tlie junction of 

 roads leading down to the fields of Belmont, Mounts 

 Victoria and Maurice, with plenty of rich farming 

 land all round, but the bulk, of it is held by about 

 three landowners, and not an acre was obtainable at 

 anything like reasonable rates till very recently, when 

 one of the estates was sub-divided and sold. As an 

 instance of the extraordinary fertility of the soil, Mr. 

 Counsel s.iid he had seen forty-five potatoes grow 

 from a single root, while ordinary patches went 

 29 tons to the acre. As 5! tons per acre was the 

 aver:ige yield throughout the island for the year 

 1903-4, the singular richness of the Ringarooma 

 soil may be inferred. Some of it was sold thirty 

 >ears ago for ^^17 an acre, but since then progress 

 has been practically arre.sted by land monopoly, and 

 there are probably no more people here now than 

 there were at that distant date, although it is about 

 the richest farming country in the- island. But 

 Ringarooma is only one instance out of many. Cam- 

 pania is another. This little township is situated 

 near the capital, on the main line of railway, be- 

 tween Hobart and Launceston. It is surrounded by 

 the Campania estate, also held by the Brocks, the 

 land teing used for fattening stock, and not an acre 

 is available for the extension of the town, except at 

 exorbitant mtes. \ little further off is the pretty 

 little township of Kempton, on the other side of the 

 fertile vallev of Bagdad. I visited it last year at 

 the time of the Agricultural Show, and was informed 

 that the place was prevented from expanding be- 

 cause the adjacent land was all privately owned. 

 But perhaps the most striking instance of the kind 

 is the township of Burnie, at the entrance to Emu 

 Bay, which is in the grip of the V.D.L., not a foot 

 to be obtained except at a ruinous price. To show 

 the a\ariciousness of this Company: I am told, on 

 the best authority, that when the Governor of the 

 Board of Directors was asked what the Company 

 would take for the three acres resumed by the 

 Crown, which are the subject of the notorious law- 

 suit before the Privv Council, he put the value per 

 acre at _;£io,ooo ! 



THE SYSTEM OF FREE GRANTS. 



Now, these lands have been acquired in various 

 ways — good, bad and indifferent — the same as in 

 other parts of the world, for which I am not blam- 

 ing the land-owners themselves, who have, as a rule, 

 merely profited hv a system which existed long be- 

 fore they were born, and will probably continue long 

 after they are dead. In the early days, before land 

 had any value, and when it was of the utmost im- 

 portance — as, indeed, it still is — to promote settle- 

 ment, lands were given away, either for nothing or 

 for a mere song, and estates in the richest parts of 

 the island were handed 'over to the friends of those 

 in power, sometin-es for the gratification of a pass- 



ing whim. What William the Conqueror did with 

 the lands of England the former Governors did with 

 the lands of Tasmania, and the practice was pur- 

 sued in every other colony as well. It is still the 

 policy in Western Australia and Canada, and would 

 !« here still only there is scarcely any land left 

 worth giving away. The system of free grants did 

 an incalculable amount of harm to the colony. It 

 fostered growth of large pastoral estates, practically 

 closed up the grass-covered hills and open plains 

 to the agriculturist, and did more than anything 

 else to discourage settlement, pre\'ent immigration, 

 and stifle natural development of the island. 



WTIERE PRIVATE OWNERSHIP IS N'OT FOUND. 



Out of a score or so of counties in Tasmania there 

 are only three — Franklin, Montgomery and Arthur 

 — which still belong to the Crown, and the only 

 reason why they have not been largely alienated 

 like the rest is simply because they are situated in 

 the wildest region of the island, between Macquarie 

 Harbour and Port Davey, on the south-eastern coast, 

 and the inter\ening country is covered with moun- 

 tains, forests, poor, and sometimes inaccessible, land, 

 and large patches of impenetrable scrub. Hell's 

 Gate is the significant title given to the spot at the 

 end of the splendid inlet, which the explorer Kelly 

 discovered in 1815, and named Port Davey, after 

 the Lieutenant-Governor, as he named its eastern 

 arm after Lord Bathurst, then Secretary of State for 

 the Colonies, and Macquarie Harbour, which he dis- 

 covered shortly afterwards, after the then Governor- 

 General. There is apparently another Hell's Gate at 

 the latter place — fit name for the scene of desolation 

 where the convicts were first sent in 1821, before 

 they were consigned to Port Arthur, where their 

 treatment, terrible as it was, seems to have been 

 mild compared with the outrageous cruelty meted 

 out to them at the former spot. It is described by 

 the historian as a region lurid with tempests, with 

 a cruel and humid climate, and a stunted vegetation, 

 with impenetrable forest inland ; on the further side 

 enormous mountains, covered with snow, rising to 

 the clouds, like walls of adamant, every object 

 wearing an air of rigor, ferocity and sadness. No 

 wonder that this scene of desolation is the only one 

 in the island where land m.onopoly has not thought 

 it worth while to rear its baneful head. 



now THE LANDS WERE OBTAINED. 



Various have been the reasons for the granting of 

 Crown lands. Lieut. -Colonel Davey, for instance, 

 who is generally acknowledged to have been one of 

 the most incompetent Governors Tasmania ever had. 

 received a grant of 3000 acres as an indemnification 

 for the capture of his luggage by the Americans, with 

 whom we were at war; George Augustus Robinson, 

 friend of the aborigines, and several of his assis- 

 tants, were rewarded by large grants of land for 

 the wonderful work they did in inducing the natives 

 to give themselves up ; James Smith, the discoverer 



