CHAPTER XVII 



THE squatters' VICTORY 



The squatters en masse, with such great leaders and 

 such powerful allies, had defeated the Anti-Squatting 

 Governor. They were not therefore satisfied. The 

 concessions that had been made to them had only 

 whetted their appetite. They were now organized 

 and grown conscious of the unity of their interests and 

 the menace of their strength. 



Circumstances favoured them. Their neglect to seek 

 the annual renewal of the license, and the failure to 

 demand payment of the annual fee, laid the foundations 

 of their subsequent claims. They began to look upon 

 their runs as their own. The permission to sell them — 

 that is, to sell their grazing rights in them — confirmed 

 this feehng of ownership. Wh&t a man can sell belongs 

 to him. With every improvement made — the building 

 of a house, the equipment of a stockyard, the stocking 

 of the run — the sense of proprietorship was strengthened. 

 They " formed " the station, it was said. Was a station 

 taken up and abandoned without being formed ? It 

 was no-man's-land and lay open to all-comers. 



The mood of the squatters was well expressed in some 

 doggrel lines of the time. Wlien A. Boyd was supposed 

 to be asked by Earl Grey whether the squatters would 

 accept leases of their runs, he mimicked the famous 

 rhyming despatch of Canning, and replied : — 



•' My lord, 

 It sounds more clever, 

 ' To me and to my heirs for ever ! ' " 



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