314 A HISTOKY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



The story of this settlement has been detailed in a previous chapter. 

 When it was found that the Messrs. Henty had a port at their 

 disposal, and were shipping thence both wool and whale oil, the 

 Government considered it necessary to lay out a town, and provide 

 officers of police and customs. Accordingly, in |May, 1839, Mr. 

 Foster Fyans was instructed to proceed thither and report upon its 

 suitability for a Government settlement. The response was such 

 enthusiastic praise of the district that Sir George Gipps ordered a 

 survey at once, and a sale was held in Melbourne on 15th October, 

 1840. The result must have indeed astonished the Governor, for 

 he hastens to advise Lord John Eussell in jubilant terms : 



" The sale included twenty acres of building land in the proposed 

 town, which sold at the rate of 551 6s. per acre ; fifty acres of 

 land in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, which produced 

 64 per acre ; and 267 acres of land fit for cultivation, within the 

 distance of two miles from the town, which sold for 11 7s. per 

 acre. When it is borne in mind that as yet only one house, that 

 of Mr. Henty's, exists in the place, and that the nearest Government 

 establishment is 150 miles distant, this result will, I doubt not, be 

 considered by your Lordship as highly satisfactory ; at any rate, I 

 trust it will be taken as a proof that the measures which I adopted 

 for opening the district were not premature. I cannot abstain from 

 remarking to your Lordship that, had Portland Bay been opened 

 on the South Australian principle, the produce of the sale of land 

 now reported would have been 337 instead of 17,245 10s. 5d." 



The immediate benefit to the Government revenue was no doubt 

 very palpable, but it would have been interesting to have heard the 

 opinion of Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield as to who were the ulti- 

 mate gainers by this insane competition. It is certain that after 

 more than half a century of occupation, with a port on which very 

 many thousands have been since spent, and with a railway to its 

 doors, most of these allotments, minus their buildings, would not 

 realise the half of what they cost when the wilderness was all around 

 them. 



But such a generous contribution to the revenue justified a local 

 official staff, and consequently a police magistrate and commissioner 

 of Crown lands for the district were promptly appointed. The 



