CHAPTER II 



SQUATTERS AND STATIONS 



THE men who laid the foundations of the pas- 

 toral industry were trespassers in the eyes of 

 the law. They wanted the right to run their 

 stock on large areas of land, transferring them 

 from place to place as pasturage and water failed. 

 They could not by any possibility purchase so 

 much land as they required for this purpose, and 

 the terms on which they could obtain leasehold 

 rights were prohibitive. They therefore occupied 

 the land without possessing any authority to do 

 so, and thus obtained their name of ' ' squatters. ' ' 

 The importance to the new colony of the wool 

 they produced preserved them from interference, 

 and in time, their position was recognised by the 

 introduction of a system dividing the back coun- 

 try into " pastoral districts," which might be oc- 

 cupied on the payment of a reasonable yearly 

 rental. No fence marked the boundary of the 

 early squatter's run. The fixing of such a limit 

 was often a matter of arrangement with the 

 nearest neighbour, distant a long day's ride on 

 horseback. Just as often, the squatter was in 



