356 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



a steady and substantial increase of population. With a growing 

 local demand for their products, and the possibility which a revival 

 of immigration would give of a reliable supply of steady labour, 

 the production of cereal crops alone could be more than doubled 

 without the Government selling another acre of land, or forcibly 

 interfering with the uses to which other freeholders find it most 

 profitable to put their estates. Victoria has great advantages over 

 the other Colonies in geographical position, in equability of climate 

 and in compactness. To utilise these advantages to the full, and to 

 develop its many unexplored resources, it ought to carry at least 

 four times its present population. There are far too many people 

 congregated in its Metropolis, living by their wits rather than by 

 their labour. But 5,000,000 persons fairly distributed over the 

 country should result in a development that would make Victoria 

 the ideal State of Australia, a home of plenty to her own children, 

 and a pleasant trysting-place for visitors from all parts of the world. 

 And with the attainment of that material prosperity so generally 

 characterising races of the Anglo-Saxon stock, there will assuredly 

 come a more pronounced development of the intellectual side of 

 life than has hitherto been practicable, which will leave a worthy 

 impress on future years. There are indications of latent forces 

 in literature, in art, in music and even in science, that justify the 

 expectation of strong and original work being done by the coming 

 Victorian when the necessary environment of higher culture and 

 wider leisure shall have been permanently secured. 



