198 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



1837, while Sir Eichard Bourke was in Melbourne, he drew up a 

 memorial to the Colonial Secretary, for transmission through the 

 Governor, in which he set out his claims to consideration, and asked 

 for a free grant of the twenty acres "on which he had built and 

 cultivated, and which was not in the township now laid out ". 

 Glenelg, in reply, regretted that he could not comply with the 

 prayer of the memorial, but he confirmed the Governor's permission 

 to Batman to continue his occupation of the house and garden 

 until further notice, if he abstained from erecting any additional 

 buildings or enclosures. 



A year later Batman again addressed the Colonial Secretary, 

 this time in the light of the experience gained by the first land sale. 

 He urged that having already expended 1,500 in improvements on 

 the land, it would be ruinous to his family to compel him to compete 

 under the authorised conditions. He quoted from correspondence 

 between the Colonial Office and the Association, in which the 

 Minister was alleged to have expressed himself as considering it 

 " unreasonable " that improvements should be the object of general 

 competition, and pleaded as the first occupant of the country, and 

 the one through whose means a friendly intercourse had been 

 established with the natives, that he should be allowed to purchase 

 the land direct at a moderate price. Lord Glenelg's reply to the 

 Governor of New South Wales, dated 25th August, 1838, expresses 

 an opinion that in the purchase of the land on which his house is 

 built, and any adjacent land actually cultivated as a garden, Batman 

 should be allowed the full value of his improvements. It took Sir 

 George Gipps some months to consider how the recommendation 

 was to be acted on, and in April, 1839, he addressed a series of 

 inquiries to Captain Lonsdale as to the value of the improvements, 

 the estimated value of the land if sold by auction, and generally as 

 to the validity of Batman's claim to any further consideration 

 beyond what had already been accorded to the Association. Cap- 

 tain Lonsdale's reply on the 6th of May was generally adverse to any 

 special recognition. He valued the improvements at only 400 ; 

 he estimated the land as worth an upset price of 150 per acre, and 

 that part could not be claimed by him, because it formed a portion 

 of the town of Melbourne. But the letter concluded with an inti- 



