THE TEANSITION TO RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 71 



moderate and simple tariff; and for the year in question there was 

 a surplus over expenditure of some 80,000. The depression of 1854 

 had been surmounted. Wages had declined from the top figures 

 of the gold-fever era, but they remained, in comparison with England, 

 attractively high ; work was abundant, food cheap, and artisan and 

 shopkeeper had alike cause for thankful contentment. 



And beyond all this substantially solvent state of things there 

 was the lordly domain of 56,000,000 acres of freehold land, of which 

 only some 4,000,000 acres had been alienated at that date. It had 

 the latent possibilities of almost incalculable wealth, both on and 

 below the surface, and it had been surrendered unconditionally by 

 the Crown to whomsoever the people should select to manage it. 

 That management involved prolonged and acrimonious discussion, 

 cost many changes of Ministry, led even to rioting in the streets of 

 Melbourne in the effort to coerce Parliament. Generally this grand 

 asset was a source of frequent political trouble until the bulk of the 

 most fertile areas had passed into private hands. Then it was dis- 

 covered that they had been parted with at a price infinitely below 

 their value, and that, despite all precautions, the sacrifice which was 

 ostensibly intended to benefit the typical " poor man " had, as usual 

 in the working of such laws, eventuated in substantial gain to the 

 capitalist. But these troubles were hidden in futurity, and the prob- 

 ability of their arising would doubtless have been scornfully rejected 

 by the elated band entering into possession in 1856. For such a 

 start in the national life of a community is almost unique in the 

 world's history. Had this noble heritage, these magnificent assets, 

 been handled with such forethought and prudence as a private owner 

 usually bestows on his property, Victoria might to-day be one of 

 the most prosperous countries in the world, maintaining her freedom 

 from debt, and even able to dispense with the operations of the tax 

 collector. Unhappily, the records have to tell a much more dis- 

 couraging tale. 



