SQUATTERS ON CROWN-LANDS. 385 



of the most extensive wards of the island there exists an extent of 

 several miles of uncultivated land, almost the whole of which is 

 Crown property. In 1852, there were in this ward 280 registered 

 and assessed holdings : of these, ten were estates ; about sixty were 

 lots purchased from the Crown, or from private individuals ; and 

 the remainder, 210 tenements, formed by squatters. The assess- 

 ment rate for that year, on these holdings, amounted to 2,800 

 dollars. Of this amount, the estates were charged 1,500 dol- 

 lars ; the small proprietors under legal tenure 160 dollars; unau- 

 thorised holdings 1,140 dollars. Total 2,000 dollars. 



In the course of the following year, a portion of the lands occu- 

 pied by the squatters having been ascertained, under survey, to 

 belong to the estates of the ward, a considerable number of those 

 illegal occupants were dispossessed, though not without resistance 

 on their part. As, however, the lands in question were not in 

 request by the proprietors, it was left to the option of these free- 

 men of the soil to continue their possession on payment of a trifling 

 rent ; but, to a man, they quitted their occupations, and retired 

 into the interior of the immense tract of forest-land which lay open 

 to them, and their casual services were thus lost to the estates. 

 Shortly afterwards, claims were preferred to another tract, which 

 had theretofore been considered as Crown-land : legal proceedings 

 were instituted, and a similar result ensued. Now, the ground- 

 provisions produced by these squatters supplied, at a very mode- 

 rate rate, the wants of the ward, and even left a considerable sur- 

 plus for the accommodation and consumption of the neighbouring 

 district. In the year 1854, plantains, corn, and other provisions were 

 imported to supply the deficiency, and the revenue of the ward de- 

 creased from 2,800 dollars to 2,000 dollars ; so that the immediate 

 result of the removal of those squatters was a diminution, both in 

 the growth of provisions and in the revenue of the ward. Neither 

 did they seek employment on estates, as some would have antici- 

 pated, but were scattered over a greater extent of country, in a 

 condition near akin to nomadic, whilst the district was minus their 

 previous industrial exertions ; for, the warning from the Govern- 

 ment agents, as to the illegality of their holdings, and the fear of 

 other disturbances in their haunts, created a feeling of insecurity, 

 which led to more partial and slovenly cultivation, realisable 

 within short periods, or to some desultory occupation, more par- 

 ticularly the preparation of charcoal. Had these people been 



