142 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



principle, but authorised Governor FitzRoy to sell land 

 that was required for public purposes, even though it 

 was within the boundaries of a run. But it was ap- 

 parently by annexing private conditions to the sale. 

 On the other hand, he was authorised to grant leases, 

 and for the maximum term, if the pastoral tenants were 

 content to receive them exempt from those conditions 

 which are at once injurious to the community and useless 

 for merely pastoral purposes." 



At this point, as far as New South Wales or Victoria 

 was concerned, the matter remained, and the outbreak 

 of the Crimean war drew the thoughts of Ministers in 

 England in a different direction. 



In South Australia there was never any collision 

 between the pastoralists and the agriculturalists, and 

 there the Orders-in-Council were successfully apphed. 



The judgments passed on the Orders-in-Council, 

 framed to give effect to the famous Waste Lands Act 

 of 1846, Avere various. That of Robert Lowe was the 

 most trenchant in expression. As against a fellow- 

 subject, he held, they gave the squatter " every muni- 

 ment that can give permanence to possession." As 

 against the Crown, they " left him defenceless." As a 

 sale was impracticable, the squatters' temporary occu- 

 pation was equivalent to permanent alienation. Their 

 terms, indeed, seem to leave no doubt on the subject. 

 According to cap. 2, sec. 6, the land in occupation by a 

 runholder could not be sold during the continuance of 

 the lease. They could still be sold to such lessee. But 

 the power given to a Governor to dispose of lands for 

 public purposes, implied the absolute dependence of 

 the squatter on the Government. A difference was 

 made according as the lands occupied M^ere in settled 

 or unsettled districts. A new local Order, permitting 

 the short leasing of lands in settled districts, also per- 

 mitted such lands to be sold, but in the unsettled dis- 

 tricts — that is to say, over the greater part of all the 

 colonies — land was held under leases that ran for four- 

 teen years, with a prior right to purchase inhering in 



