THE SQUATTER IN POLITICS 309 



ment could not be other than temporary. It was revived 

 in 1824, when Lord Bathurst requested that the names 

 of ten principal merchants and pastoralists should be 

 submitted to him. Three were selected, of whom two 

 were pastoralists, and when the Council was reconsti- 

 tuted in 1828, almost all the unofficial nominees were 

 pastoralists, as it was also from among pastoralists that 

 vacancies were filled. This close corporation was in 

 1843 liberalised by the substitution of a larger elective 

 element. These new members, elected by large con- 

 stituencies, such as the district of Port PhilHp, the 

 future Victoria, were, as we know from their names, 

 commonly great landholders, and, so far as their counsels 

 could sway the proceedings and their votes determine 

 the result, the Colony was then largely governed by 

 the squatting fraternity. But the presence and influence 

 of the permanent high officials, together with the pre- 

 ponderance of the Governor, almost invariably decided 

 the complexion of the legislation. In the forties, when 

 Governor Sir George Gipps ruled the Colony with a firm 

 hand, the squatting power could by no means have 

 things always its own way. When Wentworth endea- 

 voured to gain possession of a whole island, almost as 

 large as England, it was the Legislative Council, led by 

 Gipps, who was supported by the permanent members, 

 that thwarted the nefarious design. It was otherwise 

 a few years later. Dr. Lang's charge against Governor 

 Sir Charles Fitzroy is that he was governed by Went- 

 worth. During his Governorship, if Lang be right, the 

 Colony was governed in the interest of the squatters. 

 Wentworth was then, according to Lang, the virtual 

 dictator of the Colony. 



The Legislative Council was, in 1851, made purely 

 elective, and the granting of the franchise was accom- 

 panied with such a distribution of seats as practically 

 threw a large part of the representation into the hands 

 of the squatters. A property quahfication of £2,000 was 

 required of a member of the Legislative Council, Ex- 

 aggerating the rule that assigns a larger number of 



