MR. LATROBE AS SUPERINTENDENT 251 



exorbitant profit. Many of the newly arrived immigrants, anxious 

 to get on the land, conceded the demands of the middleman rather 

 than face the uncertainty of Government offerings. Others waited, 

 and in* June, 1840, the most important land sale yet held came off. 

 The excitement of expectation had been worked up to fever heat, 

 and the town was full of eager buyers from Sydney and Hobart 

 and prosperous squatters from the confines of civilisation. The 

 rude building that served for a Lands Office had been besieged for 

 a week by anxious inquirers seeking plans and other information, 

 and the result, from the Colonial Treasurer's point of view, was an 

 astounding success. The competition for the suburban lands, which 

 a year before had been sold at an average of 7 per acre, ran them 

 up to from 25 to 40, according to position, and over 100,000 

 passed into the custody of Captain Lonsdale, who had been ap- 

 pointed treasurer on Mr. Latrobe's arrival. It must be admitted 

 that most of the purchases passed into the hands of the speculators. 

 The new-comers stood aghast at the competition which they had 

 to face, and Eichard Howitt, who purchased his own farm on 

 the Yarra, near Kew, at this sale, says that out of 20,000 intended 

 to be invested by his shipmates, only some 600 was then so 

 disbursed. 



Mr. Latrobe had received permission from the Sydney authori- 

 ties to select a site for his own residence, subject to its being put 

 up to auction. This placed him at the mercy of the speculators, 

 but the local feeling in his favour was so strong that when he 

 offered the upset price for a fine allotment of twenty acres, close to 

 the eastern end of Flinders Street, embracing a picturesque emi- 

 nence overlooking the Yarra, no one opposed him. On this spot, 

 which his young Swiss wife named " Jolimont," he erected the 

 pretty, but unpretending wooden chalet which he had brought with 

 him from Europe, and in this modest abode he continued to live 

 until his departure from the colony. After his departure the land 

 was subdivided and sold, so that to-day the district called Jolimont 

 contains over a hundred houses within the corporation limits of 

 the City of Melbourne. 



The sale of the 10th of June was the last of the great struggles 

 for land in the pre-goldfield era. The prices paid and the extent 



