158 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



growing up in them that would brook no remonstrance. 

 He was resolved to retain for the Crown the lands that 

 belonged to the Empire and were held for its behoof. 

 He therefore stoutly resisted all attempts on the part 

 of the pastoralists to get rid of the paj^ment of quit- 

 rents, or of the annual license-fee, to mass their stations 

 into runs, and to acquire leases. Over all these con- 

 tentions the battle raged hotly through Gipps's ad- 

 ministration. 



Gipps was to furnish an occasion for the squatters 

 to triumph. In 1844 he called for reports by the Crown 

 surveyors on the state of the pastoral runs throughout 

 New South Wales. On the strength of these he took 

 it upon himself, in 1845, to issue regulations affecting 

 them. He called on all runholders to take out separate 

 licenses for each station ; he proposed to raise a con- 

 siderable sum for the necessities of the Government by 

 augmenting the amount payable for each station ; and 

 he notified all unlicensed persons as intruders. It was 

 a strong measure, and it delivered a deadly blow to the 

 squatters. These had come to look upon themselves 

 as life-tenants — nay, as inalienable proprietors of their 

 runs. The small license-fee of £10 per annum they had 

 doubtless paid once, believing that they paid it once for 

 all, and that they thus acquired proprietary rights over 

 their stations. With impunity they ran several runs 

 together, as a person ties several packages together 

 which he is leaving at the Left-Luggage Office, in order 

 that they may count as one. 



The Governor raised the whole Colony against himself 

 and his *' regulations." Men who had never before run 

 in the same harness now ran side by side or, perhaps, 

 tandem-wise. Wentworth, Lowe, and Lang, men who 

 differed on everything else, agreed on this. The patriots, 

 the lawyers, and the reformers banded themselves to- 

 gether in order to aid the squatters and JSght their battle 

 for them. Not that the Regulations were wrong in 

 themselves, but their form was infelicitous. They ap- 

 peared not only to the pastoralists, but to most colonists, 



