THE QUACK AND THE LAND. 33 



popularized by Mr. Henry George), was on the 

 whole better than might have been expected. 

 The free grants made to ex-convicts, ex-soldiers, 

 and Government officials had been its greatest 

 evil, for these grants, often of areas which were 

 subsequently to be the environs of great cities, 

 were sometimes inspired by very little meri- 

 torious service. They founded many of the 

 larger fortunes of Australia. But there had 

 been some check on the creation of too large 

 estates, and a finger had been pointed in the 

 right direction by the classification system of 

 1847. Most important of all for the new com- 

 munity, only a small fraction of the land had 

 been alienated. By 1859, which was four years 

 after responsible government, the total area of 

 land sold or granted was only 6,846,773 acres 

 out of 198,638,080 acres. The young democracy 

 had thus over 190,000,000 acres to deal with, 

 of which to-day all but 20,462,600 acres are 

 occupied. 



The era having now closed (1859) of land 

 legislation which was necessarily the work of 

 people not altogether competent to deal with 

 Australian conditions, and in the administration 



