354 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



advanced if the Crown proposed to sell the land, but the Crown 

 was under no obligation to do so, and in the meantime it could 

 rack-rent him out of existence. Finally, the Governor could, if he 

 chose, despite the advice of h's Crown law officers, fall back on 

 the all-embracing powers of Sec. 9, cap. 2, of the Order in Council, 

 which authorised the sale of lands, under squatting leases, for 

 specific purposes, " or for otherwise facilitating the improvement 

 and settlement of the colony ". 



These and a dozen other suggestions were scattered broadcast 

 day by day. The Governor was accused of driving capital and 

 desirable settlers out of the colony, and he was menaced with a 

 warning of the consequences of provoking an open revolt against 

 his mal-administration. In July, 1852, the Council re-assembled, 

 and on the 28th a motion was submitted for an address to the 

 Governor, urging him to obtain an extension of the settled districts 

 so as to embrace the goldtields, the object being to reduce the 

 pastoral holdings therein to a yearly tenancy, and to enable sales 

 to be pushed. It failed to find acceptance, despite the fervid appeals 

 of Fawkner and the support of O'Shanassy. Mr. William Eutledge, 

 a squatting member, who already owned one of the large "special 

 surveys," moved in opposition a resolution that the leases be im- 

 mediately issued to the Crown tenants, which was carried by two 

 votes to one. The defeated minority were not convinced or silenced, 

 but seeing little hope of carrying then* views in ordinary course they 

 resorted to negotiation. Doubtless, too, the dominant faction wavered 

 a little under outside pressure and journalistic warnings. A few 

 weeks later a kind of truce had been patched up, and the Council 

 passed without a division an address to the Governor urging him 

 to withhold the granting of all lands to persons claiming under the 

 Order in Council, except for homesteads or such quantity of land 

 as to his Excellency might appear proper in each particular case, 

 until the matter should have been brought under the notice of Her 

 Majesty in Council The proposed delay was a vision of peace to 

 Mr. Latrobe, and he hastened to say that as a long time must elapse 

 before the leases could issue, he would submit the views of the 

 Council to the Home Government. He would meantime concede 

 to the squatters the privilege of purchasing their homestead sections, 



