334 THE PASTORAL AGE IN AUSTRALASIA 



impetuous followers, officers or men : '" Don't force the 

 pace." One after another, all the colonial Governments 

 determined to force the pace. They would forcibl}'^ 

 overcome the resistance of the great landholders, and 

 they would, by legislation and proclamation, satisfy 

 the just demands of the agricultvirists. Four years after 

 Victoria and five after Xew South Wales, the new Colony 

 of Queensland trod in their foosteps. Large tracts of 

 pastoral land in the districts of Moreton Bay and the 

 DarUng Downs were resumed b}^ proclamation in 1866 

 Avith the object of setting them apart for agriculture, 

 and the first Land Act was passed, two years later, 

 making reserves for closer settlement to an extent of 

 thirty miles inland along the coast. The intention of 

 the Act w^as baffled i)i the same way as in New Zealand, 

 New South Wales, and Victoria. By unscrupulous 

 dummyism large estates were acquired under the Act, 

 and productive agricultural lands were reclaimed for 

 pastoral purposes. The legality of the procedure was 

 long contested in the courts of law, but historians admit 

 that the pastoral industry benefited by the aggrandise- 

 ment of estates. They were improved to a higher point 

 than smaller estates would have been ; breeding was 

 perfected through the introduction of superior stock ; 

 fencing, the conservation of the Mater-supply, and other 

 improvements Avere made ; and capitalists from the 

 southern colonies, equipped Avith modern methods and 

 taught by large experience, Mere induced to embark 

 on pastoral cultivation in Queensland.* 



Sir George Bo^en, the first Governor of Queensland, 

 guilelessly believed that the strife between pastoralist 

 and farmer, which raged before his eyes, had been 

 brought to an end by the early laws passed in Queens- 

 land, cutting off portions of the great pastoral tracts 

 in the interest of selectors. It was not brought to an 

 end then, and it has not been brought to an end since. 

 It will linger on till the last acre that is fit for cultivation 

 has been put under the plough. 



* P. R. GoBDON, in The Qucenslander, August 9, 1910. 



