358 



The Review of Heviews. 



April 10, lave. 



of the stanniferous deposits at Mt. Bischoff, the rich- 

 est tin mine in the world, was rewarded with two 

 sections of eighty acres each, which he shrewdly 

 selected from the top of the mount, where was the 

 great bulk of the tin ore. The two last are instances 

 where splendid services were splendidly rewarded, 

 but in the majority of cases the reason was not quite 

 so satisfactory. At one time, for example (in 1828), 

 immigrants were entitled to 640 acres for every ;^5oo 

 they brought with them, the same sum of money 

 often doing duty a great number of times ; army 

 captains were entitled to free grants, upwards of 

 500 exceeding 500 acres each being issued in four 

 years. That was the time when the Secretary of 

 State and the Governor were in the habit of con- 

 ferring grants at will upon no definite principle and 

 without any legal authority. Many military pen- 

 sioners were induced to come to the colony on the 

 promise of receiving small grants of land and four 

 years' payment in commutation of their pensions, the 

 pensioners frequently wasting the proceeds in riotous 

 living and doing nothing with the land. Land was 

 also granted to convicts who had served their time, 

 as well as to settlers who arrived free. It was not 

 till 1831 that the system of free grants absolutely 

 ceased. 



THE POLICY OF PRE-EMPTIVE EIGHTS. 



The next most important period from the stand- 

 point of land monopoly was in 1851, when Governor 

 Sir William Denison, just before the inauguration 

 of representative government, in the shape of a par- 

 tially-elected Council, issued a pre-emptive right 

 regulation, whereby large areas of Crown lands fell 



into the hands of speculators. Then followed the 

 gold discoveries in New Sout'h Wales and Victoria, 

 which drew large numbers from the island, and the 

 discovery of the first payable gold in the island it- 

 self in 1852, which attracted a few of them back. 

 This, combined with the abolition of the system of 

 transportation about the same time, opened up a new- 

 era of prosperity to the colony, and led to consider- 

 able speculation' in land. The pre-emptive right era 

 was closed in 1854, when the sale of Crown lands 

 was prohibited except by auction ; but not before 

 a large alienation of lands had taken place at an 

 enormous profit, in many cases, to the fortunate 

 speculators. Land taken under the pre-emptive 

 right regulation frequently changed hands at a profit 

 variously stated at from 200, 300, and even 400 per 

 cent, and that, too, before the original lessee had 

 paid for or had even seen the land. In 1855 a Par- 

 liament was granted to Tasmania, which was the fijst 

 colony in the group to receive the grant of free in- 

 stitutions, and the whole of the unalienated lands 

 that were left ])a^sed out of the hands of the Crown 

 and into the hands of Parliament, subject only to 

 the payment of the Civil List. One of the first re- 

 sults of this change was the passing of an Act in 

 1858 to enable settlers to purchase land on favour- 

 .able terms, but so much land was held for speculative 

 purposes under the pre-emptive right system estab- 

 lished by Governor Denison, that genuine settlement 

 was impeded at every point, purchasers having fre- 

 quentlv to go miles into the bush, past blocks of land 

 held unimproved and out of use, and then to hew 

 roads to the nearest port, with the chance of being 

 fined for trespassing on the speculators' reserves. 



(To be continued in our next issue.) 



[This article will be read by thousands in every State who see the same evils around them. I do 



not necessarily agree with all of Mr. Meggy's or any other contributor's views, but gladly give prominence 



tothis article as a contribution on a state of aififaus that requires remedying ind as containing a possible solu- 

 tion of them. — Editor.] 



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