Charles Griffith

“ The first and most obvious result is, that persons of capital are either deterred from emigrating to a country where such a state of things prevails, or should they do so, they are discouraged from embarking in sheep farming, or from residing on their stations in case they purchase them. A man with a family, who is able to afford many of the comforts of life, does not like to go and live in a hut in the bush, nor is he willing to build a good house without having any tenure of the ground on which it stands. ”

“ Those who have managed to steer clear of debt will now do very well. But many bought their sheep originally on long credit, and at high prices, hoping to be able to sell them again at the same rate, so as to meet their bills, and to be able to retain the increase. All these men, I need scarcely say, are insolvent. Others purchased to the utmost of their means, and had to go in debt for stores to the merchant who supplied them, who was enabled to charge what he liked, and to take the wool in payment at his own valuation. ”

“ The squatting system has been the necessary though monstrous result of this injudicious attempt. According to the present system of colonization, government is placed in the position of an immense monopolist of land, and as land is the only thing from which a livelihood can be derived, they can impose what terms they please upon the colonists. ”

“ As the mode of deriving wealth from the land, pointed out by the peculiar circumstances of the colony, was through the medium of grazing, and as it was impossible to buy land for that purpose without paying at least £1 per acre—a price amounting to a prohibition—it followed, as logically as any conclusion in Euclid from its premises, that men, in order to prosper, must adopt some other mode of obtaining a tenure, and the squatting system was the result. ”

“ In a few instances, indeed, men have sunk wells near their homesteads, for the convenience of having a supply of water close at hand; but these are rare exceptions. There are thousands of square miles of country now perfectly useless, which would be available if this were extensively done; but it is the interest of a squatter to conceal a spring rather than to dig a well, and men's actions will in the main square with their interests.
I have spoken of the consequences of the squatting tenure only as they affect sheep farming, that being a subject with which I am practically acquainted ”

“ I do not mean to say that in practice injustice is actually done; in fact, I believe that in every case where the renewal of a license is refused, the governor requires from the commissioner of crown lands a full statement of his reasons for doing so, and gives the aggrieved person an opportunity of explanation; but, still, it is not pleasant to have one's property depending on the caprice of any man. ”

“ It is absurd to suppose that government can have any other object than the welfare of the colony, lind it is almost equally impossible to imagine that they can long shut their eyes to the importance of the export of wool, whether it is looked upon as a colonial export, or as contributing nearly a third of the imported raw material of one of the most important branches of British manufacture. The interests, therefore, of the class of men by whom this article is raised, namely, the squatters, cannot be a matter of indifference, and it cannot be disguised that they are placed in a false position. ”

“ Persons who know but little of the colony, and who have only heard that money matters have been in a state of great confusion, will be surprized to hear that sheep farming at present promises to be a more remunerating employment than it has been for the last four years, or, indeed, than it has ever been in the Port Phillip district. ”

“ It seems but fair that a man who has 8000 sheep should pay more for his license to depasture them, than he who has but 4000, and that if he has to pay £20, while the latter pays but £10, he is only taxed to the same amount. Probably the fairest and most satisfactory mode of proceeding would have been to have done away altogether with the ten-pound fee for the license, and to have increased the poll-tax to three half-pence on each sheep, and so in proportion for cattle. ”

“ The home market at Melbourne is so small, and so easily overstocked, that it would not be worth the while of any person who does things on a large scale to undertake to supply it, at least at present, a certain market being of greater consequence to a producer than an occasional high price. ”

“ If a man have a family, he might add another hundred a year for comforts, and for a man and a woman servant additional.
From the foregoing statement it would appear that less than £2,000 would suffice for the purchase and conducting of a station such as I have described; and perhaps it might, but it is by no means probable that sheep will long remain at their present low price; we must leave room also for some mismanagement and mistakes on the part of a new-comer. The expenses of living in Melbourne and other contingencies must be allowed for. ”

“ Even when the sheep are washed clean, it is impossible that they can be kept so during the process of shearing unless there be a proper shearing shed; nor can the wool when shorn be classed and sorted without a wool room. These are all expenditures which men should be encouraged to make. Many have done so at all risks, and in this respect there has been a decided improvement through the country within the last year or two; hut it will be hard if they are not allowed the enjoyment of them. ”

“ There is no natural obstacle to the growing of wool in that district fit to compete with most of the German wools. In no part of the world can sheep thrive better, and the fleece is admitted to be remarkably soft and healthy. There is an excellent breed of sheep, fine woolled enough for most purposes of manufacture, and which can be brought to almost any required degree of fineness, by crossing with the pure Saxon merino, several flocks of which exist in the country. ”

“ It is to be remembered that, although it is a grievance to be forced, through the conduct of a monopolist, to hold land on a bad tenure, it would be a still greater to be turned out of possession altogether—such a circumstance exposing you to almost certain ruin. It is not to be forgotten either, that something is due to the squatters ”

“ Selling wool at Melbourne is very unsatisfactory. If sent home, it goes into a market where there is a fair competition, and it fetches pretty nearly its value, whether this be much or little; but in Melbourne, where there are but few buyers, a man is never sure of this. ”

“ That this is a practical evil, exercising at this moment an extensive influence on the welfare of the colony, no man will deny who has seen the imperfect mode in which too many of the sheep in the Port Phillip district are washed, or the wretched huts in which the operation of shearing is sometimes performed; nor can any one who looks at the returns of the London wool sales fail to recognize its injurious effects in the comparatively low prices of Port Phillip wools. ”

“ That a modification of the act of parliament, fixing the minimum price of land at twenty shillings an acre, must be one of the first steps, is an opinion about which there exists a perfect unanimity amongst all classes in New South Wales ”

“ I say established for a time, for I should be unwilling to do any man who has reflected on the subject the injustice of supposing that he wishes the system to be permanent. If, however, they are to be got rid of, much of the prosperity of the country will depend on the way in which this is done. ”

“ But it is a curious illustration of the maxim that extremes meet, that an experiment, founded upon a vaunted scheme of an enlightened political economy, has resulted in establishing, at least for a time, over a large portion of the Australian continent, the servile tenures of the middle ages unmitigated by the intervention of judicial authority. ”

“ But the greatest improvement which has taken place in the management of sheep, has been in the extent to which scab has been eradicated. This is the greatest enemy of the sheep farmer. Sheep when scabby, must be run in small flocks, and constant trouble and great expense gone to in dressing them. Many men have in this way spent more on their sheep than they would now fetch. ”

“ It must also be remembered that the full amount of the price of the wool is not received for nearly a year after shearing; while wages, stores, &c. are expenses out of pocket, and that a man is in a far better position who can go with his money in his hand to buy his stores than one who deals on credit. The present system, too, of taking a large advance on wool when shipped is one which had better be avoided. ”

“ He cannot purchase that land because it is not surveyed; and if he should succeed in getting government to survey the homestead and put it up to auction, he will have to pay, even at the minimum price, £640 for as many acres, worth probably about 5s. each, and run the risk also of losing his improvements, water, and homestead, in case any person should, for the sake of those improvements and advantages, choose to outbid him. ”

“ I do not like at present to say much on the prospects of the cattle holder, because until salting, boiling down, or preserving meat in tin cases hermetically closed, or some of these modes of turning stock into cash is carried out on a good system, the profit likely to be derived from cattle cannot be calculated on with any degree of certainty. ”

“ They know that they have sprung into their present importance without the aid, and they believe in despite of the discountenance of government, and they fear that their interests, and through them, the interests of the colony, may be sacrificed to some hankering after the exploded Wakefield system. ”

“ Men cannot at once forget their previous tastes and habits; and the consequence has been that many men, particularly those who are married, have laid out considerable sums upon their stations in spite of every discouragement ”

“ There is, however, so little expense and risk attendant on rearing them, and they can be purchased so cheap, (I have known some to be sold so low as 13s. a head,) that whichever of these modes or whatever combination of them be found most advantageous, I have no doubt that stock of this kind will yield a fair return. Making cheese and butter may, I think, turn out profitable ”