THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIE HENRY BARKLY 89 



the mining population, "when it became unfit for that trying 

 pursuit, might become discontented and dangerous to the public 

 safety ". The way to avoid such unpleasant consequences was to 

 bribe them with a slice of the national estate, at one-fourth of its 

 market value, and to endeavour, by regulations and supervision, 

 to prevent them from pocketing their temporary profit and clearing 

 out. It would be tedious to record in detail the points on which 

 Mr. Duffy's measure differed from that of his predecessor. The 

 underlying theory of offering exceptional inducements to people 

 to become farmers was the same, and there was added the temp- 

 tation of credit, selectors being allowed eight years to pay for half 

 their holding, at 2s. 6d. per acre per annum, without interest. 

 Suffice it to say that the Bill, which was drawn by Professor 

 Hearn at a cost of 500 to the State, was a disastrous failure, 

 and that within a year of its enactment it was denounced by 

 almost the entire press of the colony. One of the Melbourne 

 journals went so far as to say of Mr. Duffy that " by his stupidity, 

 or rascality, or a compound of both, he has brought on the colony 

 a dire calamity ". 



The Bill proposed to reserve 10,000,000 acres of the best 

 agricultural land in the colony for farming purposes, of which 

 4,000,000 acres were to be surveyed, and open for selection within 

 three months of the passing of the Act. The conditions of selection 

 were hedged round with numerous provisions for improvements 

 and cultivation, and required statutory declarations of bond-fide in- 

 tentions. But they proved delusive, in consequence of the omission 

 to make these onerous conditions mandatory on the selector's 

 "assigns". As soon as a man could raise the 1 per acre he 

 acquired a freehold, which he could readily sell at 3 per acre to a 

 buyer who was not bound by any conditions of residence, fencing 

 or cultivation. Hence much of the land reverted, unimproved, to 

 those who could use it profitably for wool growing, even at the 

 enhanced price. For at the then ruling price of wool land that 

 would carry a sheep to the acre was well bought at 3. 



The widely expressed indignation at this squandering of the 

 public estate was mild, however, compared with the explosion of 

 anger which assailed the Minister in the House and in the press 



