318 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



Sir John Young in lending himself to so extreme a 

 measure, but his censure has not received the approval 

 of a later generation, while Sir John's appointment 

 as Governor-General of Canada, together with his 

 peerage (as Lord Lisgar), shows that the Colonial 

 Office wisely accepted the situation and tacitly approved 

 of the fait accompli. 



The struggle thus dramatically closed has been 

 repeated, in one form or another, on other legislative 

 arenas. In the seventies the Legislature of Victoria 

 was the scene of a prolonged conflict between the two 

 chambers. The issue was not ostensibly one between 

 the pastoralists and the agriculturists, but the bone of 

 contention was substantially the same. On the one 

 side were the squatters, who scorned, and on the other 

 sat the democrats, who claimed to receive a honorarium 

 as members. Only men who had the large leisure of 

 the pastoralists could afford, ■without remuneration, 

 to spend months at a time in the provincial metropolis, 

 attending Parliament ; if the democracy, or even the 

 harder-worked agriculturists, were to come by their 

 own, their representatives must be paid ; and again, 

 by " tacking " a bill for the purpose to a supply bill, 

 the new men eventually triumphed. 



A new policy arose with the ascendancy of a new 

 class. New avocations — the cultivation of cotton and 

 the growing of sugar-cane, besides the agriculture usual 

 in temperate countries — must be created to counter- 

 balance the influence of the stockowmers. This was 

 done almost single-handed by Dr. Lang, who flooded 

 Brisbane with free immigrants while the Home Govern- 

 ment was flooding it with convicts. The squatters now 

 saw themselves circumvented, and they fell back on 

 the proposal that immigrants and convicts should be 

 introduced in equal numbers. This concession was not 

 accepted. The anti-convictists grew and increased. On 

 no terms would they agree to the renewal of transporta- 

 tion. In order to strengthen their cause and assure the 

 success of their policy, and doubtless also for its own 



