THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 15 



of grants of three, four or five thousand acres in chosen localities. 

 These great estates lay chiefly in the Sydney and Paramatta dis- 

 tricts. In these, 66,938 acres were occupied, of which 56,939 

 were given over to pasture and less than a tenth to crops. At 

 the Hawkesbury more than a third of the area occupied was 

 under crop or lying fallow, and only 18,000 acres were used for 

 pasture. In this district small holdings were the general rule. 



As early as 1805 Governor King spoke of the scarcity and 

 " exorbitant " cost of labour. 1 He attributed it to the common 

 practice pursued by the colonists of obtaining larger grants than 

 they could afford to cultivate themselves and then letting out 

 the surplus. It was a bad system, and was one cause of the 

 growing jealousy felt by Government against large estates. It 

 created a wholly unnecessary class of middlemen, and by in- 

 creasing the amount of land on the market weakened one of 

 the incentives to good conduct for the convict, making it less im- 

 portant for him to earn his grant during the period of servitude. 

 The need for labour, however, was not likely to be great so long 

 as pastoral farming held first place, for climate and natural 

 grasses favoured even careless breeding. While a few men of 

 enterprise and foresight were occupied in improving fleeces with 

 a view to exporting wool, both sheep and cattle brought large 

 profits to those who bred for slaughter only. But the amount 

 of stock in the Colony was not yet sufficient to guarantee a 

 constant supply and salted meat was still sent from England. 

 To check wasteful destruction of cattle and also cattle-stealing, 

 Government officials supervised all slaughtering and received a 

 fee for so doing. 



There was, indeed, no freedom of trade, internal or external. 

 The two staple products, meat and wheat, found their chief 

 market with the Government, and were bought at a set price 

 approved by the Governor. Following the English custom, 

 the retail bakers sold their loaves at a cost fixed each week by 

 the Sydney bench of magistrates, who based their decision on 

 the price of corn in the market. The bakers were also ordered 

 by the same authorities to make their bread of a certain fine- 

 ness, or in times of scarcity of a certain coarseness of grain. 



1 H.R., VI., p. 39, King to Earl Camden, ifth March, 1805. 



