208 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



though it may appear insignificant to-day, was, in view of their un- 

 certain tenure, as much as could be reasonably expected, or, indeed, 

 as was demanded of them. 



Unlike the early military and civil officials, who had acquired 

 large estates from careless administrators, there was here no pretence 

 of favouritism. The race was truly to the swift, and "first come 

 first served " was the motto. As each successive contingent of 

 pioneers arrived, they pushed on through the intermediate districts 

 already occupied into the unsettled wilds beyond. Up to the Mur- 

 ray on the north, and out over the western plains to the borders of 

 South Australia, they took up their unsurveyed holdings, and with 

 their lives at the mercy of the lurking savage formed their rough 

 homesteads, and settled down to the cultivation of the golden fleece. 

 Their monotonous and solitary labour, their hard fare and undaunted 

 courage, brought to many of them in due time its appropriate reward, 

 and their prosperity meant the prosperity of the community. The 

 material advancement which the colony looked for was based upon 

 the export of wool, and had not some reasonable encouragement 

 been given to its producers, the prosperity of the Port Phillip district 

 could hardly have been built on any other foundation. It could 

 not live upon agriculture, it had no manufactures, and its mineral 

 products, that were to revolutionise the world's commerce, lay dor- 

 mant and unknown. 



At a later stage in the colony's history, as will be seen, there 

 came a time when the claims of the squatters were in conflict with 

 a denser and more profitable form of settlement ; but up to the time 

 of the promulgation of the famous Orders in Council they were 

 undoubtedly entitled to all they got from the Government. 1 



Leaving for the present the vexed question of squatting tenure, 

 a glance may be taken at the methods adopted in the disposal of 

 land in the towns and settled districts of the province. The arrival 

 of Sir Eichard Bourke on a visit to the settlement in March, 1837, 



1 The student desirous of fuller information on the important bearing of 

 the Land Laws on the development of the country is recommended to study 

 Professor Jenks's valuable book The Qovemment of Victoria (London : Mac- 

 millan, 1891), and to consult the Land Systems of Australasia, by Win. Eppa 

 (London ; Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1894). 



