338 THE PASTORAL AOE IN AUSTRALASIA 



Nor did the squatters suffer without alleviation. The 

 farmers settled in their neighbourhood rendered them 

 special services, and received them in return. The price 

 of wool was raised through the greater demand for the 

 articles made out of it, as also through the manufactures 

 locally initiated. 



How necessarily a pastoral district will be converted 

 into an agricultural district, according as it becomes 

 more remunerative to grow wheat than to breed cattle 

 or sheep, is shown by the fortunes of the second Land 

 Act in Queensland — the Button Act of 1884. The Act 

 was democratic in its intention, and its aim was to 

 break up the monopoly of the great squatters in the 

 interest of the small grazier and the agricultural settler. 

 The far-Northern and the far- Western divisions were 

 excluded from its scope as being on the outskirts of 

 settlement and still dedicated to pasture ; only the 

 more advanced Eastern and Southern divisions came 

 under its operation. In them the *' runs " were divided 

 by special commissioners into two equal parts. One of 

 these was " resumed " by the Government with the 

 object of setting it apart for agricultural settlement or 

 smaller pastoral occupation. The other was leased to 

 the actual runholder or Crown tenant for a period of 

 fifteen years, if it was situated in the unsettled districts, 

 or for ten years, if it lay within the more settled dis- 

 tricts. The tenant of the pastoral portion had, more- 

 over, the option of renting the resumed portion till the 

 advent of the free selector or farmer. As has been said, 

 it was optional ^vith the C^o^vn tenants in certain parts 

 of the Colony to bring their runs under the operation 

 of the Act. They showed no reluctance to do so. On 

 the contrary, we are told, the provision for breaking 

 up the runs was " all but universally accepted." * In 

 aU the Australasian colonies pastoralists have been 

 accused, sometimes with justice, of opposing the con- 

 version of pastoral into agricultural land ; here we find 



* P. R. Gordon (who livod through the period), in the Queens- 

 lander, August 7, 1909, p. 12. 



