312 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



is impracticable, will reveal the extent to which the 

 great pastoraUsts controlled the State system. 



His past deep offences forgiven and his eminent 

 ser%aces to the State at last duly recognised, John 

 McArthur was almost the first to be appointed to the 

 Council in 1824, when it was created. He held the 

 seat till he died, and his two civihan sons, James and 

 Wilham, succeeded him. All alike constantly pursued 

 (what may be called) squatting pohtics. One of his 

 colleagues was Alexander Berry, ex-doctor and ex- 

 navigator, reclaimer and dairy-king, and he retained 

 his seat through all the changes of constitution the 

 Council underwent— in 1828, 1843, 1851, and 1854, 

 till he resigned it at an advanced age in 1861. The 

 squatter-pohtician was, indeed, a conspicuous figure 

 after a measure of responsible government had been 

 granted to New South Wales, and the Legislative 

 Council had been made partly elective. Ebden, who 

 had first settled on the Upper Hume in 1836-8, and 

 next drove stock westwards to the Port Philhp country, 

 became a representative of the Port Phillip province 

 and fought for its separation from New South Wales. 

 He was afterwards Auditor-General in Victoria and 

 played an active part in Victorian pohtics. Henry 

 Mort, pioneer squatter in New South Wales and in 

 Queensland, sat for Queensland in the New South 

 Wales council. Then, when Queensland was severed 

 from the Mother-colony, he sat in the Legislative 

 Assembly as member for West Macquarie. From 

 1879 onwards he was a member of the Legislative 

 Council. Terence Aubrey Murray, born in 1810, was 

 at first a sheep-farmer on his father's land. From the 

 date of the reconstruction of the Legislative Council 

 in 1843 till his death he was closely connected with 

 public life. Squatter though he was, he was prominent 

 in all struggles for popular rights. He was rewarded 

 by being appointed Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. 

 From 1862, when Wentworth retired from his brief 

 tenure of the presidency of the Legislative Council, 



