CHAP. V LAND REGULATIONS OF 1831 37 approved character, on the land, should be deemed an essential condition of holding. Under these regulations, often modified by the colonial Governors, who conceived themselves warranted, by their superior knowledge of local circumstances, to alter the policy of the Home government, grants of land proceeded in New South Wales up till the year 1831. By that date upwards of three millions and a quarter acres had been disposed of since the year 1822,1 making a total of about four millions alienated under the old system. Lord Ripon's Regulations of 18312 laid down the great principle that thenceforth no lands would be disposed of otherwise than by public sale. Even in the case of military officers entitled to free grants, the lands selected were still to be open to public competition, the claimants being allowed to deduct certain sums, representing the value of their rights, from their purchase-money. All unappropriated lands in the colony were to be considered open for sale at a minimum or upset price of five shillings an acre, and applicants were to be allowed (subject to certain limits) to "select" such portions as they might prefer. But such selections would be advertised for sale for three months, and then put up to auction at the upset price, in lots averaging one square mile each. Upon payment of his purchase-money the purchaser would be entitled to a grant in fee-simple at a nominal quit-rent. The Crown reserved the right to effect public improvements, and also the rights to all mines of precious metals and coal. But These Regulations were enforced in the colony by Government Order of the 1st August 1831,3 which, however, put a curious construction on the term "limits "contained in the Regulations. The "limits" of selection contemplated by the Colonial Office appear to have been limits of quantity, not of locality. the limits prescribed by the Government Order are those of locality, not of quantity. Selection may only be made (except in special cases) from surveyed parishes, while it is expressly announced that "all free persons will be eligible as purchasers 6 1 Evidence of Mr. Kelsey (H. of C. Reports, vol. v. p. 699). 2 Copy in Votes and Proceedings (N. S. W.), 1847 (1), 635. 3 Votes and Proceedings 1847 (1), 636. 4 Cf. Regulations of 1831, Sections (1) (2) and (4). 5 5 Sections 1 and 2. "The limits of selection had been previously fixed by proclamation of 14th of land without any limitation as to quantity."1 At first no distinction was made between town and country lands, the difference in value being left to the natural effect of competition. But in the year 1833 an order was issued requiring the purchaser of each town allotment to give security to erect a permanent building, worth twenty pounds at least, within two years of his purchase.2 It was under these Regulations that the first lands in Port Phillip, which had been announced as open for settlement by the proclamation of the 9th September 1836, were disposed of. The first sale took place on the 1st June 1837 at Melbourne, when town allotments of half an acre each in Melbourne and Williamstown were put up. Another sale was held in the same place on the 1st November, and another at Geelong in February 1839.3 The details of these transactions do not belong to our purpose, but it is worth noting that, in announcing the Geelong sale, the Governor took the step of fixing the upset price at £5 an acre.1 But the question of land sales in Australia was attracting the attention of the Home government. Ever since the publication of the report of the committee of 1836, there had been a feeling that some definite policy ought to be adopted, not only with regard to the methods, but the proceeds of sale. The recommendations of the committee of 1836 had been that the whole of the arrangements connected with the sale of land should be placed in the hands of a central land board in London, having local boards as its agents in the different colonies, and that the proceeds of the sales should form an emigration fund, by means of which the colonists should be supplied with free labour.5 At the beginning of the year 1840, one half of these recommendations were carried into effect by the appointment of a Royal Commission of three October 1829. They comprised 19 counties (cf. Australian Almanack for 1833, p. 87). For the method of dividing a county into hundreds and parishes cf. Letters-Patent of 16th May 1835, in Votes and Proceedings, 1847 (1), p. 644. 1 Sect. 15, Gov. Order, 1st August 1831. 2 Votes and Proceedings, 1847 (1), p. 640. This regulation was rescinded on the 30th Nov. 1839 (ibid. p. 693). 3 On the 17th January 1839 the minimum price throughout the colony had been raised from 5s. to 12s. an acre (Votes and Proceedings, 1847 (1), 676). 4 Gov. Gazette, 28th November 1838. 5 Report. Pars. 6 and 7 (H. of C. Reports, 1836, vol. v. p. 502). CHAP. V LAND AND EMIGRATION COMMISSIONERS 1 39 well-known philanthropists as "The Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners," to supersede the old South Australian Commissioners and the Agent-General for Emigration. They were charged with the fourfold duty of (1) Diffusing information about the colonies. (2) Effecting sales of land in the colonies. (3) Assisting emigrants to proceed to the colonies. In regard to the second of these duties, the Instructions of the commission followed the recommendation of the committee of 1836, but with an important modification. They laid down the maxim that "the Crown lands in the colonies are held in trust, not merely for the existing colonists, but for the people of the British Empire collectively." But while they thus approved the policy of the committee, the Instructions. admitted that public local claims were the first charge on the Land revenue; the Imperial share, to be expended mainly in the assistance of high-class emigration, was to rank second.2 The actual grants of Crown lands, as theretofore, were to be made by the Governors, but the commissioners were to have joint power of contracting for sale. They were directed to inquire whether the system of sale at a fixed price, with priority for claims according to date, then followed in South Australia, or the system of auction at an upset price, then practised in New South Wales, was the best. Apparently, on this latter point, the commissioners decided that the South Australian system was to be preferred, for in the "Additional Instructions" of the 23d May 1840, which Lord John Russell, the Secretary of State, forwarded to Sir George Gipps (Sir Richard Bourke's successor in the Governorship of New South Wales), the Governor was directed to sell all lands in the Port Phillip District (directed by the In 1 Colonel Torrens, Mr. R. F. Elliott, and Mr. Edward Villiers. 2 The separation of the Land Fund from the general revenue, and its appropriation to the expenses of emigration, had been adopted, as a matter of practice, since 1832, in pursuance of a despatch of Lord Goderich (H. of C. Sess. Papers, 1840, vii. p. 561). 3 This power was soon seen to be unpracticable of exercise, and was exchanged for the power to grant certificates of receipt which could be treated as cash by the Colonial government. H. of C. Sess. Papers, 1840, vol. vii. p. 667. structions to be created) at a uniform rate, to be from time to time fixed by the Home government. The power of the commissioners in England to contract would be limited to the issue of certificates to persons who had actually paid money into the hands of the agent for the colony in England, which would simply be treated as bankers' receipts. The despatch, dated 31st May 1840,1 which accompanied these instructions provided for a division of the territory of New South Wales into three Districts, fixed the sale price of lands in the Port Phillip District at £1 an acre, but directed the continuance of the practice of sale by auction in those towns in which it had been already established, and also authorised very rare reservations for the sites of towns (" only the probable situations of considerable seaports") in other parts of the District, in which reservations the lands were to be sold at £100 an acre. Upon the receipt of these documents, the Government of New South Wales issued the very important Land Regulations of the 5th December 1840.2 These Regulations divided the territory of New South Wales, for all purposes connected with the disposal of land, into three Districts, to be known respectively as the "Northern" District, the "Middle" or "Sydney" District, and the "Southern" or "Port Phillip" District. The first of these Districts practically comprised all the lands north of latitude 32° south, but it was expressly noted that its northern limits were not yet fixed. The second comprised the nineteen counties before alluded to, being bounded on the north by the southern boundary of the first district, "and on the south by the southern boundaries of the counties of St. Vincent and Murray, and thence by the rivers Murrumbidgee and Murray to the eastern boundary of the province of South Australia." 3 The third, or Port Phillip District, included all the lands to the south of the southern boundary of the Sydney District. Following the lines laid down by the Instructions, the 1 H. of L. Sess. Papers, 1840, vii. p. 664. Gov. Gazette. (N. S. W.), 9th December 1840. 3 It will be observed that the present boundary of New South Wales comes a good deal south of these limits, including some twenty new counties. The names and boundaries of the Districts had, however, been definitely settled by the Instructions of the 31st May 1840, and represent the views of the Home government, not of Sir George Gipps. For the change cf. post. CHAP. V DIVISION OF THE MOTHER-COLONY 41 Regulations went on to provide that in Port Phillip District all country lands should be open for sale, after survey, at the uniform price of £1 an acre, that allotments in towns (especially including Melbourne, Williamstown, Geelong, and Portland) where the practice of auction sales had been established, should continue to be sold by auction, but that in newly laid out towns allotments should be sold at an uniform price, for the present £100 an acre. There was to be no reservation of minerals, except in rare cases.1 But the most important clause of all in the Regulations was the last, which announced that for the present no further sales of land near the four towns would take place. It was quite evident that Sir George Gipps did not approve of the policy of a fixed sale price. He But the Governor did more than merely abstain from applying the Regulations to the suburban lands. He remonstrated vigorously with the Home government, pointing out that the adoption of the fixed price of £1 an acre, within a five-mile circuit round Melbourne and Geelong alone, would entail a loss to the Crown of nearly a million sterling.2 could also point to a secondary result of the adoption of the fixed price system, in the "special surveys" which were occasionally demanded by immigrants who arrived with Land Orders to a large amount. The first case was that of a Mr. Henry Dendy, who had paid in London for eight square miles of Port Phillip land the fixed price of £1 an acre, and who claimed, on his arrival in the year 1841, to select his eight square miles, either from the unappropriated surveyed land as near to the towns as possible, or to have a block specially surveyed for him at his own selection. The Superintendent at Port Phillip could not refuse to honour the land certificate, but the practice threatened to be so serious that he declined to act upon it without special instructions from the Governor,4 and the latter took the responsibility of issuing Regulations for 1 Regulations for the sale of land at Port Phillip under the fixed price system were issued on the 21st January 1841. They merely prescribe details (Votes and Proceedings, 1847 (1), p. 698). 2 Letter of 19th December 1840 in Votes and Proceedings (N. S. W.), 1842, 3 Ibid. p. 34. p. 11. 4 Letter of La Trobe to Governor Gipps (Votes and Proceedings (N. S. W.), 1842, p. 33.) |