42 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



Acts of 1884 and 1889 did not succeed in 

 attaining the objects for which they were 

 designed ; settlement proceeded very 

 slowly, and the accumulation of land into 

 large estates continued. Parliament has 

 been led to introduce entirely new principles 

 into the agrarian legislation of the State, 

 embodied in the Crown Lands Acts, 1895 

 to 1905, and in the Closer Settlement 

 Acts, 1904 and 1906, which, while still 

 giving fixity of tenure to pastoral lessees, 

 retain the principle of free selection before 

 survey, and offer to bona-fide settlers special 

 inducements by the introduction of new 

 forms of tenure on easy terms and con- 

 ditions." 

 That gives the bare bones of the story. Any 

 one with a fair knowledge of New South Wales 

 conditions can put on the flesh, to show as 

 painful a picture as ever had to be painted as 

 the result of political quackery and ignorant 

 sentiment. The position in 1861, as I have 

 pointed out, called for the opening up of some 

 agricultural areas. If to secure that end the dis- 

 possession of a few pastoralists had been neces- 



