THE ANTI-SQUATTING GOVERNOR 157 



with the squatters was at its acutest phase, and during 

 it he was brought into colhsion with almost every leading 

 public man of the time. Before him pleaded once, and 

 pleaded successfully, the future land reformer. Sir John 

 Robertson — doubtless, on a squatting-question, re- 

 lating to quit-rents unpaid or overcharged — one day 

 to take Gipps's place as a chief enemy of the squatters. 

 A few years earlier he fought a battle to the death with 

 Wentworth over that brave monopolist's bold scheme 

 for the cheap and easy acquisition of the whole South 

 Island of New Zealand and some one hundred thousand 

 acres in the North Island. From that moment Went- 

 worth was the implacable enemy of Gipps. He let slip 

 never an opportunity of thwarting Gipps's policy in 

 return, and as his was a commanding voice in the re- 

 formed Legislative Council from 1843 onwards, he gained 

 many a petty victory. 



Gipps was not a natural enemy of the pastoralists. 

 He held that Australia was in general better fitted for 

 pastoral pursuits than for agriculture. Like Darwin, 

 he was struck with the poverty of its soil and the de- 

 structiveness of its droughts. He did not know that 

 750,000,000 acres of the island-continent enjoyed a 

 rainfall heavy enough to grow wheat. He was un- 

 acquainted with the rich wheatlands of Victoria, South 

 Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales, which 

 now stand represented by a trifle of five million acres. 

 He nevertheless believed that " the time would come 

 when the improvement of the land would be aimed at," 

 but he also believed that " it would be -wiser to let this 

 time arrive naturally than attempt to accelerate it 

 by any contrivances." By " improvements " he must 

 have meant agriculture. He was therefore no enemy 

 of the pastoralist regime. Why, then, did he so strongly 

 take ground against the squatters ? He was moved 

 solely by a spirit of justice, or of righteous indignation 

 at the arrogance of men Avho claimed possession of the 

 estates they had been granted on annual license, not 

 on lease for a term. He could perceive a haughty spirit 



