250 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



in Hobson's Bay, and with such rapidity did they follow one another 

 that it was quite impossible to find house accommodation for the 

 arrivals, and from one to two thousand had to pitch their tents on 

 the south side of the Yarra until they could decide where they were 

 to go, or what they could do. The relatively rapid growth of the 

 population during these two years was never exceeded, even in the 

 height of the gold fever, though of course the actual numbers 

 attracted by that phase of excitement were larger. At the date 

 of Mr. Latrobe's arrival in October, 1839, the population was 

 estimated at 5,000- Fifteen months later, on 31st December, 1840, 

 it was officially returned at 10,291 ; and on 31st December, 1841, 

 it had reached 20,416, thus doubling itself in each of the two 

 periods. The original " Canvas Town," established in 1840, passed 

 away with the cessation of immigration two years later, but was 

 replaced on the same site by a much larger agglomeration of tents 

 and shanties in 1852, when the great rush of gold-seekers set in 

 from all parts of the world. 



Kichard Howitt in his Impressions of Australia Felix has 

 given a delightfully simple picture of his personal experience of the 

 earlier period, and of the characteristics of his neighbours, the 

 dwellers in tents. Many of them were possessed of moderate 

 capital, waiting until they could invest it in real estate. Others 

 were professional or business men seeking an opening ; for, as a 

 rule, the immigrant who was only a labourer was engaged before 

 he left the ship. A large number of the new arrivals, of whom 

 Kichard Howitt may be regarded as typical, were men who had 

 been attracted to the country by the reports published abroad of its 

 fertility and suitability for agriculture, and for the acquirement at 

 reasonable rates of a self-supporting estate. Most of them, like 

 Howitt himself, were doomed to disappointment. They arrived at 

 a time when a mania for land speculation was in full blast. It had 

 been developed by the enormous profits realised by the purchasers 

 of 1837-38 on the subdivision and resale of their original lots. It 

 was fostered by the reluctance with which the Government re- 

 sponded to the demand for land for genuine settlement, and also 

 by the fact that the bulk of what was sold fell into the hands of 

 Sydney speculators, who doled it out to the new-comers at an 



