Source.—Fifty Years in the Making of Australian History (Sir Henry Parkes, 1892), pp. 70-71, 81-90, 148, 153
On July 3, 1855, I, (Sir Henry Parkes) moved for the "appointment of a Select Committee to enquire into the state of agriculture, with special reference to the raising of wheaten grain, and to the causes of hindrance or failure in that pursuit, whether arising from the habits of the people, the policy of the Government, or the physical character of the country." To understand the interest that fairly attached to my motion, we must review, or rather glance at, the state of the
colony. The colony still included the whole of Queensland, and embraced an area of 978,315 square miles. Men of leading positions with seats in the Legislature, described it for the most part, as incapable of tillage, and only fit for grazing sheep and cattle, and for "nomadic tribes." A population not numbering more than 277,579 souls imported largely its breadstuffs from South America and other foreign countries. It is now well known that in all divisions of the
colony—north, south, or west—there are as rich wheat lands as in any part of the world; but then the mass of the population were densely ignorant of the true character of the country, and those who knew better, were in too many instances personally interested in keeping them ignorant. The stories that were told of the fruitless endeavors of industrious men to obtain patches of land for a freehold home under the Order-in-Council seem, to the present generation, like cruel bits
of romance.
Appendix To Evidence Of Mr. J. Robertson
(before Select Committee.)
On entering upon the subject under enquiry by the Committee, it is my purpose to assume that the state of agriculture in general, and of wheat culture in particular in the colony, is exceedingly unsatisfactory, and, if not absolutely declining instead of progressing, is at least so with reference to population. The causes of hindrance or failure of agriculture generally, and of the raising of wheat, in particular, I take to be the first and greatest, that for many years the
policy of the Government of the colony, whatever may have been its object, has unquestionably tended not only to check the formation of new agriculture establishments, but to depress existing ones.
While the agriculturist has been absolutely excluded from leasing any portion of the public land, and thwarted, harassed and dispirited at every turn in his efforts to obtain the submittal of such lands to sale, and subjected to public competition at auction before suffered even then to purchase, the grazier has been allowed to use them under a system of leases, affording him the greatest possible facility of possession, and at the lowest imaginable rental, namely, at the
rate of 10s. per annum for 640 acres, with the right, in an overwhelming majority of cases, to purchase choice spots there from, without the slightest delay or trouble and at the lowest legal price, namely, 20s. per acre, and absolutely without competition.
Some of the difficulties above alluded to, as attending the purchase of a farm from the Crown, by any other than the favored pastoral class, may be stated thus: The person seeking to do so must first make his selection—a matter not very easy of attainment, for persons holding land in a neighbourhood, instead of helping with information, almost invariably place every possible obstacle in the way of the newcomer. The selection made, the next step to be taken is to apply by
letter to the Surveyor-General to have it measured. Shortly thereafter, that officer will reply and inform the writer that his application has been received and submitted to the District Surveyor for his report as to whether the land is fit for agriculture, etc., etc. and that when it is received the Surveyor-General will communicate the result, intimating at the same time that, should the District-Surveyor consider the land suitable for agriculture, and should there be no
other difficulty, such as its being held under a squatting lease, or any of several others, it will be submitted to sale by auction.
The applicant may now expect to hear no more of the land for three or four months, when, if all goes on favorably, he will be informed that the District-Surveyor, having reported satisfactorily, has received from the Surveyor-General instructions to measure it. Now another wearying delay of several months' duration will in all probability occur, before the expiration of which, if the applicant is not a person possessed of considerable determination of character, he will
abandon, in despair, all hope of ever becoming an Australian farmer, and help to swell one or other of our overgrown towns, by accepting employment there. If, however, he possess sufficient perseverance, he may visit the District-Surveyor, and probably learn from him that the land cannot then be measured, because the district under that officer is so very large, that it would be highly inconvenient for him to move from one portion of it to another to measure a single farm;
that when several are applied for in the same vicinity, he will proceed there; in the meantime he has several months' work where he is, or the District-Surveyor may, after expressing sympathy with the applicant's loss from delay, candidly assure him that, in consequence of the great delay in receiving pay for his public work, he is absolutely necessitated to accept private employment in order to obtain sufficient cash to keep himself and party of four men on, until the
Government make him his remittance, now three or four months due.
These and other preliminary difficulties the applicant must prepare to encounter; but even when all are surmounted and the land measured there will be two or three months' delay—in all probability eighteen months or two years from the date of his first application—before it is offered for sale. Then, at last, the applicant will obtain his land, if he be fortunate enough to escape the determined opposition of some wealthy person in the neighbourhood, or has money enough, and
determination enough to purchase it, that opposition notwithstanding.
If it is a fact that the agricultural interests of the country are subjected to more climatic difficulties than are the pastoral interests, I take it that that circumstance cannot, properly, be brought forward as a reason why the agricultural interest should not, under our laws, have a fair field and no favour, as compared with the pastoral interest, in entering the market to borrow money in time of doubt and general want of confidence in monetary matters. If the
agriculturist, in borrowing money to secure his crop, has to encounter a higher rate of interest than the grazier has to encounter, in consequence of the risk of damage to his crops from an unfavorable season being greater than the same in the case of the produce of the grazier, surely there is no reason why he should be compelled to submit to a still greater increase of interest, to compensate the capitalist for the additional risk of the borrower's insolvency before the
crops are realized, especially when the grazier is, through the aid of "The lien on Wool Act" exempted from paying for such risk.
The effects of the policy of the Government, which I have described, may be found, on the one hand, in the fact that the number of persons who have been bred to agricultural pursuits, at present residing in the towns of the colony, is, beyond example, excessive, showing our social conditions in that regard to be in a most unsatisfactory state; and, on the other hand, in the other fact, that the wholesale price of flour in the colony is three times higher, per pound, than the
wholesale price of animal food, of the very best description—a state of things not to be found in any other civilized country.
I am aware that the deficiency of agriculture, which is so remarkable in this country, is attributed to the aridity of the climate by many gentlemen whose experience entitles their opinions to respect; but, as I have during the eighteen years last past annually cultivated and sown with wheat a large quantity of land, in various parts of the Upper Hunter District—a district generally considered to be unfavorable for the purpose—and have, in that long period, only failed twice
in obtaining crops, and have reaped two self-sown, which in a great measure compensated for even their loss. I can come to no other conclusion than that, whatever may be the disadvantages of the climate they are not sufficient to cause such neglect of agriculture as has occurred.
On the whole, I am confident that the difficulties placed in the way of agriculture by the climate are as nothing compared with the overwhelming obstacles furnished by the policy of the Legislature and Government of the Colony.
Before concluding this communication, I cannot resist the opportunity it affords to place on record my opinion, that even should all other means fail of providing the country with an ample supply of agricultural produce, a remedy may be found by allowing any person to enter upon and occupy 80 acres of waste land, without competition or delay, and pay for it at the upset price, four years thereafter; provided that he clears and cultivates 10 acres the first year, and 10
additional acres in each of the three succeeding years, and is at the end of the time residing on the spot.
John Robertson.
Yarrundi, Aug. 6th, 1855.
I also gave my general support to the Robertson Land Bill, which passed through a determined opposition, and became law eventually, after the violent expedient of "swamping the Upper House," which swamping, however, had no practical or immediate effect, as the old members, including the President, retired in a body when the new members attempted to take their seats. By the Constitution, the first Council was appointed for five years only, and the term was near its expiration
when this historical incident occurred. So nothing could be done with the Bill, or anything else, until the next Council was appointed, whose term was for life.
Sir John Robertson's Act did immense good. Its broad scope was to enable men to select land for themselves in blocks from 40 to 320 acres, at £1 per acre, without waiting for any surveyor or other Government official, but subject to the conditions of a deposit of 5s. an acre, actual residence and improvements to the value of £1 per acre in value. The balance of the purchase-money was to remain for a time, not limited by date, at 5% interest. It is no figure of speech to say
that this law unlocked the lands to the industrious settler, and notwithstanding the abuses which too widely grew up, it was the means of bringing into existence hundreds of comfortable homes in all parts of the colony where the name of its author is held in grateful remembrance. It will have been seen in a previous chapter what a network of difficulties surrounded the man of small means who tried to obtain a rural home in former years; and perhaps the highest tribute to the
memory of Sir John Robertson is that, after all the amendments which have been carried, the chief principles of his Act are still imbedded in the law of the country.
A Source Book of Australian History, 1919 |
