THE SQUATTER IN POLITICS 321 



Asiatic steppe, or a mere commercial emporium, like 

 some small city of the Middle Ages." He considered 

 that there was in Australia an ample field to which the 

 starving thousands of the IMother-Country could be 

 removed. He could not ask the skilled British artizan 

 to come to a country where the necessaries of life were 

 dear [was not butcher-meat " dirt cheap," Sir James, 

 and the loaf of bread no dearer ?], and the articles he 

 manufactured imported at a price with which he could 

 not compete. There was a limit to the number of 

 shepherds and bullock-drivers, porters, "warehousemen, 

 and clerks, and the other workers concerned in the 

 pastoral industry, that -were required, and there Mere 

 many other occupations equally desirable and ennobling. 

 He knew that the greatness of England arose from her 

 manufactures as well as from her agriculture. Aided 

 by A\ise legislation [\vere they not hindered and some- 

 times throttled by it, Sir James ?], those small islands 

 became the abode of the greatest and most opulent 

 people on earth. Yet the metals, the wool, and the 

 soil that formed the foundation of England's greatness 

 lay here, too, and in larger measure. But while the 

 British Islands supported thirty millions of a population, 

 New Zealand maintained only four hundred thousand. 

 By its pastures and its petty commerce with the South 

 Sea Islands alone it might become a kind of Antipodean 

 Venice, but could never reproduce a manly, vigorous, or 

 numerous population. Only by the creation of manu- 

 factures could it hope to be peopled with such a popukx- 

 tion. Only in this way would there be scope for everyman 

 to raise himself. Only thus could everyone be comfort- 

 able rather than a few be rich. It was a noble appeal, 

 but it was made to deaf ears. The bill or motion was 

 rejected by the Legislative Council, always attached to 

 free trade, and at the ensuing general elections the 

 Protectionist Ministry was defeated. A Ministry with 

 a squatter-Premier came into office and passed a bill 

 imposing ad valorem duties. New South Wales was still 

 strongly anti-Protectionist. The squatters have ever 



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