86 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



upon it as the reverse of an advantage. He regarded the disper- 

 sion of population as a most objectionable feature in a new country, 

 and blamed these troublesome people for having forced him to 

 incur unnecessary expense in the formation of a new establishment, 

 the laying out of a town, where he apparently assumed one was 

 not wanted, and the organising of a police force for such an out- 

 lying district. It is a remarkable feature of early Australian 

 history that the official mind has always been incapable of recog- 

 nising the true principles of colonisation, and has nearly always 

 been found in hostile array against them. It is to be regretted 

 that even Lord John Russell entirely concurred in the remarks 

 of Sir George Gipps, and baldly declined to entertain the petitions 

 of the brothers. 



The land sale therefore had to go on, and the Messrs. Henty 

 had to compete at extraordinarily high prices for the property to 

 which value had been given only by their own industry and ex- 

 penditure. The sale took place in Melbourne on 15th October, 

 1840. Twenty acres of building sites in the town realised at the 

 rate of 551 per acre. Fifty acres of suburban areas in small lots 

 produced 64 per acre; and 267 acres within two miles of the 

 town, fit for agriculture, sold for 11 7s. per acre. Seeing that 

 the whole population of the town was under 100, of whom about 

 half were in the employ of the Messrs. Henty, and that the nearest 

 Government township was 150 miles distant, these prices are 

 astounding. They were mostly paid by Melbourne speculators, 

 who within a year or two afterwards could not have realised one 

 quarter of their cost ; but the Government secured the handsome 

 sum of 17,245 from the first sale of a portion of the district, 

 which Sir George Gipps had a few months before been denouncing 

 as a source of unnecessary and annoying expense. Eighteen 

 months after the sale the Government commenced active pro- 

 ceedings to eject the Messrs. Henty from some of their holdings 

 in the town, but through the intervention of Mr. Latrobe a 

 cessation of hostilities was agreed to while the interminable process 

 of petition and memorial was resumed ; and this time the seed fell, 

 if not upon fruitful soil, at least upon less stony ground than it had 

 hitherto reached. Lord Stanley was then in power, and in May, 



