LAND, LABOUR AND COMMERCE. 145 



reserve 500 acres for the Crown adjacent to every 1,000 acres 

 allotted to settlers. 1 In 1815 Lord Bathurst called his attention 

 to the neglect of these Instructions and directed his compliance 

 therewith. 2 Macquarie consulted Oxley, and they agreed in 

 opposing this policy. It had not been done in other colonies, and 

 the Crown, Oxley said, had not suffered from its neglect, and in 

 New South Wales it had been wisely disregarded from the first. 

 Lord Bathurst admitted the first part of the statement and the 

 second so far as to agree that the Colony's progress had been 

 ameliorated by these means. 3 But he went on to say : " I see no 

 reason why in future the reserves on behalf of the Crown should 

 not be in such situations as to ensure the rapid augmentation of 

 their value from the cultivation of the adjoining allotments. It 

 may, indeed, in some cases expose settlers to temporary incon- 

 venience to have their respective establishments separated by an 

 uncultivated reserve, but it must be recollected that this incon- 

 venience is in general the only price paid for the land they culti- 

 vate, and it is not therefore just that the Crown should lose 

 the only benefit which it derives from its liberality to them. 

 I must therefore leave it to your discretion in future to make 

 these reserves in such a manner as may give to the Crown every 

 fair advantage without materially interrupting the comfort and 

 safety of the inhabitants." 4 



Macquarie, relying upon his discretion, therefore made no 

 change in his previous practice, reserving pieces of land here and 

 there for the Crown as he thought fit. 



The next omission was in the collection of the quit-rents. 

 In 1814 Lord Bathurst proposed to raise them is. an acre on 

 the land of free settlers. Macquarie, with the advice of the 

 Surveyor-General, demurred. 5 Macquarie proposed a rate of 2d. 

 an acre for emancipists and is. for fifty acres for free settlers. 

 Oxley suggested that there should be a diminution in the rate 

 for grants of 500 and over, but Macquarie pointed out that the 

 larger the grant was the more easily could the owner pay the 



1 Par. 17, H.R., VII. See above. See also Chapter I. 



a D. 57, 3rd December, 1815, C.O., MS., and D. 18, 4th April, 1817, R.O., MS. 



3 D. 16, 24th August, 1818. R.O., MS. See quotations from Oxley in this 

 despatch. 



4 See D. n, 7th October, 1814. R.O., MS. 

 8 Ibid. 



10 



