1390 



AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRA TED. 



interior of the country was to be rewarded with long-delayed success. The chief difficulty 

 of which the early squatters complained, arose from the insecurity of their tenure, and 



* 



the unfavourable eye with which their undertakings were viewed by the Government. 

 The spirit that led them so far afield was incomprehensible to the official mind of early 



authority, and we find even 

 Governor Bourke complaining 

 in his time of the tendency 

 of the squatters to " wander off 

 beyond the limits of location," 

 while Gipps later on echoed his 

 opposition, whimsically enough as 

 it now seems, " to the people 

 living in bark huts beyond the 

 boundaries." It is not very 

 wonderful that the Government 

 of the day like that which ruled 

 at the outburst of the gold-mining 

 industry was perplexed and 

 alarmed at what seemed to be 

 the danger of letting people 

 roam wildly over the whole 

 country. One great difficulty of 

 Government was to keep order, 

 and the great danger was law- 

 lessness. There was a large con- 

 vict population to manage, 

 amongst whom disturbances and 

 little insurrections had been fre- 

 quent. Great severity had been 

 AN AUSTRALIAN BOUNDARY RIDER. us ed to manage them, even within 



the legalized limits of a settle- 

 ment ; and how were they to be controlled if they were scattered far and wide ? This official 

 anxiety and timidity took ho account of the fact that men are much easier to govern when 

 they are engaged in steady industry, and when they are prosperous. The Botany Bay settle- 

 ment at that epoch was, in truth, pining for a broader life, and when it came, and that, too, 

 in spite of the wish of the Authorities to grant it, the task of Administration became more 

 easy instead of more difficult. All that Government really had to do was to follow the new 

 industry with suitable regulations, and here as afterwards with the gold the mistake of 

 the Government was over-regulation. The convicts w r ho went out as servants on the 

 pastoral lands, so far from proving more troublesome, were really more amenable than 

 when confined to the smaller limits of the early settlements. They enjoyed the freer 

 life, they made light of its hardships, and became, for the most part, invaluable helps 

 to the sheep-farmers who employed them. So far from proving adverse to the cause of 

 law, their industry really laid the basis for a new and better social order. The scatter- 



