HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW SOUTH 



97 



enfranchised population and the 

 old dominant part)-, to which, 

 under an enlarged suffrage, 

 there could be but one termina- 

 tion. The old party politics 

 of the colony from that time 

 disappeared, and the questions 

 which divided the people, and 

 divided them differently, were 

 such as related to the disposal 

 of the public lands, the con- 

 nection between Church and 

 State, public education, the 

 extension and distribution of 

 the suffrage, the incidence of 

 taxation, and the relative merits 

 of Free-trade and Protection- 

 some of which questions are 

 even now undergoing discussion. 

 The material progress made 

 by the colony under the system 

 of self-government exceeded all 

 its previous experience. Tele- 

 graphic communication was es- 

 tablished between Victoria and 

 South Australia by the com- 

 pletion of a line to Albury, 

 and the report of an alleged 

 discovery of rich gold-fields on 

 the Fit/roy River, at Keppel 

 Bay, was the cause of a con- 

 siderable " rush " from Sydney 

 and Melbourne. The separa- 

 tion of Moreton Bay from New 

 South Wales, and its erection 

 into a separate colony under 

 the name of Queensland, took 

 place in 1859. The pastoral 

 industry was still the country's 

 main-stay ; and stimulated by 

 large profits this form of 



commercial enterprise greatly expanded. The squatters pushed further and further into 

 the great western plains, and it was found that districts once despised as utterly useless 

 were very valuable for fattening sheep and cattle, as the salt-bush that grew in the 



