EMIGRATION. 
261 
price just five times as much as it is in America! with a 
chance of being twice as much more, for when he has selected 
his land, and waited three or four months, at great expense, 
for the Government approval, and notice of sale, the land is 
then put up to auction, and some of the sharpers, ever present, 
manage to run the unfortunate emigrant up far beyond the 
original sum. Many have thus dissipated their means, without 
obtaining an inch of ground. 
This is the present state in the Australian Colonies ;—little 
or no land is sold, and before the gold fields were discovered, 
there was no emigration worth speaking of. Up to 1838, land 
was put up at 5s., and though it often realized £1, still the 
chance of obtaining it for 5s. induced many to emigrate, and 
the amount of the land fund was very considerable; but 
immediately a less liberal policy was adopted, and £1 became 
the minimum price, because the founders of Adelaide thought 
fit to make it theirs, and had influence enough to carry the 
point in Parliament,—no sooner was this done, than the tide 
of emigration totally stopped, no land was sold at all, none 
could be found who would run the chance of getting it for 
£1; and it was from the time of raising the minimum price in 
Australia, that the emigration to America increased in the 
same ratio that it decreased there. It is well known, that the 
greater part of New South Wales is barren, which makes the 
folly of high prices more apparent, as there is no difference 
made in favor of poor ground. 
But this is not all. When settlers could not afford to buy 
land at such a price, they obtained licences to squat; and thus 
for the amount of about £10 a year, they acquired an almost 
unlimited run for their flocks ; and as this licence became 
renewable, it gave them a certain hold on the land, and kept 
them from becoming proprietors; it filled the country with a 
scattered and lawless population, and impeded its real 
advancement. 
With the discovery of the gold fields, came again a flow 
of emigration. At the very time gold was discovered, sixty 
vessels were reported as being laid on for California; all were 
stopped. Multitudes flocked to the diggings; some acquired 
