232 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



The mere opening up of vast tracts of land on all 

 sides, after the policy of keeping all the inhabitants 

 penned up within comparatively narrow boundaries was 

 abandoned, was a temptation too strong to be resisted. 

 As had happened when the granting of land was confined 

 to the pale, sanguine individuals took up an extent of 

 it beyond their means adequately to stock. What else 

 could they then do but apply to the banks and the 

 financial institutions to supply them Mith the means ? 

 Many such institutions, in order profitablj^ to invest their 

 capital, urged individuals to take up runs, and financed 

 them. Or they almost forced loans upon them, " The 

 Bank will be most happy to honour your drafts up to 

 £10,000. If you need more, you will be kind enough 

 to advise us," the manager of a great banking corporation 

 would write to a pastoral client. After a good clip, 

 said one such squatter, "I might have had 10,000 sove- 

 reigns to take away in my hat." Scarcely had a station 

 been discovered and stocked, when the owner was com- 

 pelled to seek financial aid. " Accommodation " was 

 then given at the rate of 10 per cent., brought up to 

 17 per cent., or much more, by commission, brokerage, 

 compound interest, and a hundred other charges.* 



The position of the pastoralists was apparently 

 strengthened, but was rathfer weakened, by the very 

 measures that were devised to aid him. The granting 

 of leases in 1846, and the legalising of the transfer of 

 titles to stations, gave them a strong hold on their 

 stations, but also induced them to embark on speculative 

 adventures. Even the Lien on Wool Act, which Went- 

 wortli promoted and Deas Thomson declared had been 

 productive of immeasurable benefits, led to a corre- 

 sponding development of banking in questionable forms. 

 When pastures and stocks were alike pledged as securi- 

 ties for the debts incurred, and thus converted into 

 assigned pledges, there was witnei::.^ed the novel phenom- 

 enon of agents who had no money negotiating large 

 transactions in paper with bank directors who had Uttle 

 • Lang, Account, ©tc, ii. 187. 



