THE KNELL OF THE SQUATTER 329 



grasp. Did the farmer seek to plant himself down in 

 the estate over which the squatter lorded it, although 

 ostensibly he held it only on lease ? He bought them 

 up, one after another, wherever he could. Only here 

 and there could the small man effect a lodgment. The 

 land could be purchased, because no titles could be 

 given, beyond the boundaries of settlement. The State 

 must step in, if the monopoly of the modern Goetz with 

 the Iron Hand was to be broken. Sir George Grey 

 in New Zealand was doubtless the first of the icono- 

 clasts. As Governor of New Zealand he was placed 

 in an unprecedented position — unprecedented, at least, 

 for a British colonial Governor. The Secretary of 

 State virtually handed over to him the whole of the 

 Crown Lands in the Colony, and clothed him with power 

 to legislate for and appropriate them as he deemed 

 best. He felt it to be a high, but by no means an 

 exorbitant, prerogative, and he was prepared to exercise 

 it in a manner that must have gone beyond the inten- 

 tions of the minister who entrusted him with it. Always 

 a democrat at heart, he resolved to make an end 

 of the monopoly of the land by the great pastorahsts 

 who had " barred the door against proletarian settle- 

 ment." On the eve of his departure from New Zealand 

 " he issued a proclamation embodying a plan of rural 

 administration and land settlement that . . . reveals 

 a clear conception of the end he had in view and a 

 firm grasp of the means by which it was to be gained. 

 There were to be three classes of lands ; limits 

 were to be set to the number of acres that could 

 be held ; and all were to be sold by auction. Above 

 all, lands that had hitherto been sold at £1, £2, and 

 £3 per acre were to be sold at ten shillings and five 

 shillings." 



We need not be surprised that the revolutionary 

 ordinance " roused a storm of disapprobation." The 

 large pastoralists were still all-powerful in New Zealand, 

 and if the Governor could issue autocratic ordinances, 

 the carrying of them out depended on the squatterocracy. 



