million acres still held by the company. This land would now come 

 back to the Government, together with the 83,129 acres which had 

 been sold by the company on deferred payment. Besides this, there 

 was a large amount of property held by the company in the town of 

 Albany. "I have no doubt/' Sir John Forrest went on to say, "that 

 if the Government possess themselves of this property, as we ask the 

 House to authorise us to do, the settlement of the country along this 

 railway will largely increase, and we will be able to throw open 

 these lands, with the advantages of the Homestead Act and the 

 Agricultural Bank Act applying to them, although they have not 

 applied to these lands hitherto. The people who live there now, 

 and those who may come there, will have all the advantages of the 

 Jfberal land laws of the colony, including the facilities afforded by 

 the Homesteads Act and the Agricultural Bank Act, and in which the 

 people settled along that line have hitherto had no part or interest 

 up to the present time, and were not able to avail themselves of these 

 advantages and facilities. All along the line at the various towns we 

 shall have many more land sales than the company have had in 

 recent years, and the land revenues from this source will be con- 

 siderable. I see no reason why the whole of the lands could not be 

 thrown open to pastoral settlement, in those portions which are not 

 required for agricultural." When the motion for the purchase of 

 the line, having been agreed to in the Legislative Assembly, 

 \vas considered by the Legislative Council, the Hon. C. A. Piesse, 

 the member for the south-east province, felicitated the country upon 

 the purchase, which would remove a blight from the district which 

 he represented, owing to it having been vain to try and settle the 

 country under the conditions laid down by the railway company. 

 He proceeded : a The old settlers who held only small holdings for 

 the purpose of sheep farming, suffered most severely, because the 

 company took it for granted that, having made their selection in the 

 early days, they had got the best land available, and the company, 

 thereupon, selected all around them, and deprived them of their 

 runs. Fortunately, the Government are to get this land back, and 

 I may tell hon. members that some choice spots will now be 

 available for selection. There are some beautiful pools on the 

 Williams which are never dry, and the land around them is only 

 waiting for people to select. I should like to lay stress upon this 

 point, because a feeling has got abroad that all the eyes have been 

 picked out of the land. That is not so. In seven years working 

 the company have only secured live new settlers in ihe district lo 

 which I refer, and these do not hold more than 5000 acres of land." 

 The Houses having unanimously decided to buy the line and the 

 estate of the company, a bill was passed the same session to give 

 effect to that resolution, and hence there is to-day a very much 

 widened area over which the man who desires to obtain land on 

 easy terms may range, and cut his boundaries where he pleases, so 

 long as he observes the condition of lying north, south, east, or 



