CHAPTER 4
MANAGEMENT AND SALE OF LANDS.
Thus we see that the proper business of the commissioners is to superintend the management of the Emigration Fund, to see that it is devoted to its prescribed object, and so to regulate the tide of emigration as to secure a constant supply of labour without overstocking the market.
But, first of all, they had to commence their labour by borrowing £20,000 on the security of the revenue of a colony not yet in existence, and were compelled to raise £35,000 by the sale of land.
These operations were in themselves sufficiently difficult, and the difficulty was increased by the want of funds with which to defray preliminary expenses.
To induce the public to purchase lands in the projected colony, or to lend money on the security of its future revenues, it was necessary to give extensive publicity to the principles upon which it was to be founded, and to the circumstances favourable to success; and, in order to make the plan and prospects of the colony thus known to the public, it was necessary to employ clerks and agents, to print, to advertise, and to carry on an extensive correspondence throughout the country.
No provision was made for enabling the commissioners to defray the expenses of these preliminary operations; and they could not, with the slender and apparently inadequate means at their disposal, have succeeded in carrying the most difficult and important provisions of the act of parliament into effect, had it not been that the inherent excellence of the plan of colonization therein embodied worked out its own success.
As the proceeds of the sale of land were to be sacredly employed in conveying labourers to the colony, it followed that such a price must be obtained as was necessary to secure a sufficient supply of labour, to raise from the land and other sources, the greatest quantity of produce in proportion to the hands employed. It was evident to the commissioners, that the wealth of the colony must be augmented by a combination of labour producing this result; and that it must be the interest of the purchaser to pay whatever price might be requisite to secure such a combination. But they had also to consider whether it would be practicable to obtain this price for the wastes of a remote region, in which no settlement had as yet been formed.
Yielding to the influence of this consideration on the one hand, but feeling it on the other to be their duty to attempt to realise a higher price than the minimum of 12s. per acre, named in the act of parliament, they resolved, in the first instance, upon demanding 20s. per acre.
In June, 1835, accordingly, they issued their first regulations for the sale of land. The sole condition of purchase, was the payment of money at the rate of £l per acre; and it was signified that "nothing, whether above or below the surface of the land, would be reserved by the crown."
Each order was to be for one lot of land, and each lot to consist of a country section of eighty acres, and a town section of one acre. The price of an order for a lot, consisting of a country and a town section, was therefore £81.
The holders of the first 437 orders sold in this country were to be entitled to priority of choice, with respect both to town and to country sections. To these and other minor proposals, extensive publicity was given, by agents appointed in every part of the kingdom, to whom a commission of five per cent. was allowed on all sales effected.
The commissioners had an important object in view in fixing the price of land at £l per acre. Experience has proved that new colonies, planted in extensive countries, are liable to suffer from a want of hired labourers. In many cases this want has been partially supplied by slaves or convicts; but these are now agreed to be the greater evil of the two.
The want in question has chiefly arisen from the facility with which labouring emigrants could obtain land in other colonies. Those who paid the passage of the emigrant labourers, did so on condition of their working for them during a specified time; but such engagements have seldom been respected by the labourer. Severe laws for enforcing contracts have proved wholly ineffectual. A few months' hire has enabled the hired labourer to set up for himself; and, being able to get land for nothing, or next to nothing, he has yielded to the desire of becoming independent.
But such independence, being a solitary independence, has soon ended in a total wreck. A dependent labourer, he has then returned to his former master asking for employment; but by that time the master’s capital has perished for want of labourers to use it, and at length all classes have been reduced to a state of privation and misery.
Warned by this, the common fate of new colonies, the South Australian commissioners determined to put such a price upon the lands as should ensure the observance of contracts between capitalists and labourers; presuming that, if no land were attainable for less than £l per acre, labourers taken out cost free would work for hire until others should arrive to take their places ; and, with colonial wages, it seems probable that in three years, every industrious workman will be able to save enough to buy land of his own.
Should £l per acre prove sufficient to maintain a regular supply of labour, the result must be as beneficial to the labourer as to the capitalist. In colonies where there are neither slaves nor convicts, and where land may be had for a mere nothing, the labourer has small chance of becoming a master; whereas, in South Australia, as soon as he has saved some capital, he will obtain servants of his own, who in their turn will become landholders and masters. is very much superior to that by which land is held in the other Australian colonies.
In them the crown reserves to itself the right of mining, of cutting timber or stone for public works, and of making roads across any estate it chooses; while in South Australia the land is sold in unconditional and absolute fee, without any reserve to the crown for any purpose. This is the more important, as it has been satisfactorily ascertained that in some districts there may be obtained limestone, iron, slate, granite, &c. A prospect like this is infinitely preferable to that of becoming, though in less time, a solitary landowner, without help from any one, or any hope of obtaining wealth or leisure. This plan equally tends to the advancement of the general prosperity of the colony. With a constant supply of hired labour, but certainly not without, capitalists will be able to pursue those modes of production which require the constant employment of many hands at the same time and in the same place.
Now, the produce from picked land will be great in proportion to the capital and labour employed; and such a produce, while sufficient in quantity to afford both high wages and high profits, may yet be sold so low as to bear the expense of distant carriage, whereby to obtain for all, in exchange, the enjoyments of civilised life.
In such circumstances, all private land must soon become worth more than has been paid for it, and must maintain such higher value; while some portions of it, as the sites of towns, the neighbourhood of towns, or of roads leading to a market, cannot but acquire a very high value when compared with the original price. Such, in brief, is the commissioners’ statement of the motives with which they adopted £1 per acre, rather than any lower price.
It soon became apparent, however, that the price was thought too high; for, two months after the commencement of the sales, considerably more than half the quantity of land required to be disposed of, in order to commence operations, still remained unsold. At this time, the South Australian Company was formed, with a large capital, to be employed in the improvement of the colony. The directors at once proposed to purchase the remaining lots of land, if the commissioners would reduce the price to 12s. per acre. There being no probability of speedily completing the sales at the higher price, and as important advantages were likely to result from the formation of the company, they determined to accept the proposal, equitably extending the reduction to the previous purchasers, by a proportionate increase of their lots of land.
The following "modified regulations for the disposal of land," were thereupon issued :—
South Australian Colonial Office,
Adelphi Terrace,
Oct. 1, 1835.
The colonization commissioners for South Australia having received an application for the purchase of a considerable quantity of land from parties who are desirous of employing a large capital in the colony, provided the price of land be for a time reduced to 12s. per acre, and being desirous of completing the preliminary sales without delay, and of obtaining for the colony the important advantages which must arise from the co-operation of men of large capital, have determined as follows :-
1. That the price of the land orders included in the preliminary sales be reduced to 12s. per acre.
2. That this reduction of price shall be effected by increasing the rural section from 80 to 134 acres, the town section remaining one acre, and the price of the lot £81 as before. The holders of the 437 orders still to have priority of choice over all others, the only alteration being the increased extent of their rural sections.
3. That the commissioners reserve to themselves the power of extending the preliminary sales in this country, at the price of l2s. per acre, to purchasers who may be able to satisfy the commissioners that they are prepared to take out adequate capital to be employed in the improvement of the colony, such purchasers to select their land next after the holders of the first 437 land orders. These additional sales will not include any part of the site of the first town.
4. That after the arrival of the governor in the colony, the price of land be 20s. [£1] per acre, according to article 6, of the "Regulations for the Disposal of Land in the Colony."
5. That any one who shall pay in advance to the proper officer, either in England or in the colony, the price of 4000 acres of land or up- wards, shall have a right, for every 4000 acres thus paid for, to call on the colonial commissioner to survey any compact district within the colony, of an extent not exceeding 15,000 acres, and within a reasonable time after such survey to select his land from any part of such district before any other applicant.
6. That the privilege of selecting servants and labourers for a free passage be allowed to all purchasers in this country, at the rate of one person for every £16 expended in land, the selection to be made in conformity with the "Regulations for the Emigration of Labourers," and the persons so selected being hired by those who select them for at least one year from their arrival in the colony.
7. That, after the completion of the sales in this country, the same privilege be allowed to any one who shall invest money in the hands of the commissioners, to be employed in the purchase of land on his arrival in the colony.
8. That leases of pasturage shall be granted on the conditions stated in the 8th article of the "Regulations for the Disposal of Land in the Colony," to those only who are proprietors of land in the colony, and at a rate not exceeding two square miles of pasturage for every eighty acres. Non-proprietors to pay a rental of £2 sterling, instead of l0s., per square mile per annum. The purchasers of the first 437 land orders to have the first choice of pasturage.
By order of the Commissioners,
' (Signed) ROWLAND HILL, Secretary.
By this arrangement with the company, the required investment was secured by 437 lots of land being disposed of at 12s. per acre, consisting each of a country section of 134 acres, and a town section of one acre, called "Preliminary Sections."
At the same price, twenty country lots, consisting of eighty acres each, were also sold, over and above the amount required by the act.
The commissioners continued, until the end of February, 1836, to sell land at 12s. an acre to all who were able to satisfy them that they should take out adequate capital to be employed in the improvement of the colony. Lands purchased under this regulation were to be selected in the order of application in the colony; cases of equality being decided by priority in the dates of purchase. These sales, however, were not to include any part of the site of the first town.
On the 1st of March, 1836, the commissioners determined to raise the price to 20s.[£1] per acre again; at the same time ordering that the sales should take place in the colony.
Investments, however, for the purchase of land, conferring a right to select labourers for a free passage, were still to be received in this country.
It was further resolved, that, should this price be found sufficient to secure an adequate supply of funds, the colonial commissioners might, at any time during the first year from the governor’s landing, raise the price from £1 to any price notiexceeding £2 In taking this step, they were actuated by the same prudential considerations that influenced them in first fixing the price at ll. Foreseeing that, on the arrival of the governor, there would be a great demand for labourers with high wages, they dreaded the possibility of mechanics being induced to purchase small freeholds, and ceasing to work for wages, in order to become isolated cultivators on their own account.
Had this happened, improvements requiring the co-operation of many hands would have been suspended, and capital would have wasted and perished for want of means to use it; and the labouring population becoming separated upon small patches of land, each family would have been obliged to perform every species of work for themselves, and the absence of all division of employment and combination of labour would have so reduced the efficacy of their industry, that, instead of advancing in wealth and civilisation, they would have fallen back into a semi-barbarous state.
To avert this evil, the commissioners gave the colonial commissioner the authority abovementioned, anticipating, as they said, that, at a very early period after the arrival of the governor, no difficulty would be experienced in realising any price which it might be desirable to demand. This calculation was founded upon the facts, that, in the adjoining colonies, well situated land bore a considerable price, and that in Van Diemen’s Land well-situated pasturage was already becoming scarce; while in New South Wales the multiplying flocks had created a demand for pasturage some hundreds of miles in the direction of the new province.
Under such circumstances, they thought it could scarcely be doubted that an active competition would immediately arise for the lands situated in the vicinity of the ports of South Australia.
The commissioners, however, soon found that it was important to the interests of the colony, that they should be enabled to make absolute sales of land in this country. The obstacle to such an arrangement hitherto had been the power vested in the resident commissioner in South Australia to raise the price of land in the colony, coupled with the necessity imposed by the act of parliament of having but one price at the same time for all the lands. The commissioners there fore determined to withdraw the power hitherto vested in the colonial commissioner, and to reserve it for the future to be exercised by themselves alone ; and they instructed him, in case he should have advanced the price of land, immediately to reduce it to 20s.[£1] per acre, returning to the purchasers whatever they had paid above that amount.
The "Regulations for the Sale of Land in this Country" which ensued, may be briefly stated as follows :— ,
1. The commissioners continue to sell land in this country on the same terms as in the colony; viz., at £l per acre, in sections (only) of 80 acres each; and the parties making such purchases are allowed the privilege of selecting servants and labourers for a free passage, at the rate of one person for every £20 expended in land, provided that the selection be made within a reasonable time, and that such emigrant labourers be married, or selected with a due regard to an equality of sexes, and in conformity, in other respects, with the existing regulations for the selection of labouring emigrants. Thus the money nominally paid for land is actually paid for the passage of labouring servants, without whom the land would be useless; and, besides the freehold land for tillage, an extensive pasturage may also be obtained at a merely nominal rent.
2, Lands purchased in this country, to be selected in the order of application in the colony; cases of equality in the order of application being decided by the order of the dates of purchase in this country.
The following are the "Regulations for the Disposal of Land in the Colony" :-
1. That all regulations for the disposal in the colony of public lands, except as regards sales made previous to the date hereof, be revoked.
2. The surveys of public land shall, as far as possible, be carried so much in advance of settled districts, that there shall at all times be an extent of land surveyed, and open to purchase, exceeding the wants of the colonists.
3. Surveyed lands shall be divided as nearly as may be into sections of eighty acres each, and maps of the surveyed lands, accompanied b the best practicable description of them, shall be constantly exhibited in the land-office.
4. One month's public notice shall be given of the time when any portion of public lands will first become open to purchase.
5. On some fixed day of every week, and at some fixed hour, the land-office shall he opened for the purpose of deciding upon applications for land : all applications must be made by sealed tender, by filling up a printed form, which will be supplied at the land-office: each tender must specify, by reference to the map, the section or sections for which the intending purchaser applies: all sections included in the same tender must adjoin each other: all tenders will be opened in public, and those received on the same day will be opened at the same time: such tenders as do not comprise any section, included in any other tender, shall be first disposed of: when the same section or sections shall be named in two or more tenders, that tender shall be preferred which comprises the greatest quantity of land : when one or more sections shall be named in two or more tenders comprising equal quantities of land, then the tender to be preferred shall be decided by lot.
6. The sole condition of purchase shall be the payment of money at the rate of £l sterling per acre, and nothing, whether above or below the surface of the land, will be reserved by the crown. five per cent. on the amount of the purchase-money shall be deposited at the time of making the tender, and the remainder shall be paid within one week of the sale. If the remainder of the purchase-money be not paid within the time specified, the land shall be again open to purchase, and the deposit shall be forfeited.
7. The commissioners will sell land in England on the same terms as in the colony. Lands purchased under this regulation to be selected in the order of application in the colony ; cases of equality in the order of application being decided by the order of the dates of purchase in England.
8. Leases of the pasturage of unsold lands shall be granted on the following conditions, among others :- The term to be three years, the tenant having a right of renewal in preference to any other applicant. Cultivation of the soil, and the felling of timber, to be disallowed. The land or any portion of it to be liable to sale; and, if sold, the lease to terminate on a notice of two months, the tenant having a right of renewal to unsold portions. The yearly rent to be 40s.[£2] sterling per square mile; but this regulation not to apply to proprietors of land contracted to be purchased before the 31st of August, 1836. No lease to contain any fractional part of a square mile of pasturage.
9. Any one who shall hereafter pay in advance to the proper officer, either in England or in the colony, the price of 4000 acres of land or upwards, shall have a right, for every 4000 acres thus paid for, to call on the colonial commissioner to direct the survey of any compact district within the colony of an extent not exceeding 15,000 acres, and, within fourteen days after the publication of such surveys at the land office, to select his land from any part of such district before any other applicant. If two parties should apply at the same time for the same survey, the decision between them shall be according to rule 5.
10. An accurate statement of all purchases of land made and leases of pasturage granted, specifying the quantity and situation in each case, and the name of the purchaser or tenant, shall be published from time to time in the Colonial Gazette.
The total of the sums received for the sale of land from the commencement, on the 15th July, 1835, to Dec. 7, 1837 (the date of the commissioners’ last report), amounted to £43,221 9s. Of this sum £36,427 5s. were received before the date of the first annual report of the commissioners; and, subsequently to that report, £3200 have been paid for land in this country, and £3594 4s. in the colony, on account of the 563 town sections sold by auction, after the first 437 town sections had been appropriated to the original purchasers of land orders in this country. The whole of the sales of land effected to Dec. 7, 1837, are thus stated by the commissioners :-
| Acres | £ | s. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Four hundred and thirty-seven land orders included in the preliminary sales, each order being for 135 acres | 58,995 | 35,397 | 0 | |
| One deposit forfeited | 20 | 5 | ||
| Land orders, exclusive of the preliminary sales, each for 80 acres, at 12s. per acre | 1,600 | 960 | 0 | |
| Ditto, at 20s. per acre | 3,200 | 3,200 | 0 | |
| Investment for the purchase of land in the colony | 50 | 0 | ||
| Amount received by the commissioner in the
colony for sale of town sections by auction, not included in the 437 preliminary orders | 563 | 3,594 | 4 | |
| Total | 64,358 | 43,221 | 9 |
* The following extract from a despatch of the secretary to the commission to the colonial commissioner, relates to this part of the regulations :— "The commissioners have it under contemplation to raise the rent of pasturage, on the renewal of the leases; you will, therefore, take care that in the form of leases, every thing is avoided which could possibly interfere with such an arrangement. You will distinctly understand that the altered regulation (dated the 22d August, 1836,) with reference to the leases of pasturage, enclosed in my letter of the 30th August, is, as stated in the regulation itself, not intended to apply to proprietors of land contracted.
The following statement of land sold in this country during the present year is not official, but is, nevertheless, correct :-
| Acres | Acres | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 320 | June | 5,920 |
| February | 400 | July | 4,480 |
| March | 880 | August | 4,640 |
| April | 1,200 | September | 4,480 |
| May | 1,200 | ||
Thus it will be seen that the number of acres sold this year up to September, inclusive, is 23,520 ; clearly indicating, that, as the principles of the colony become better and more widely understood, and as practical success in the application of those principles is still more forcibly confirmed by every fresh account from the colony, the avidity of purchasers increases. The colony has barely been founded when its selfsupplying-labour principle begins to afford unequivocal promises of future wealth ; and, be it remembered, these acres are paid for in hard cash, at the rate of £l per acre.
As the impossibility of obtaining land without purchase, restricts the purchaser from appropriating more than he has capital to cultivate efficiently, from the money laid out in land one may judge of the amount which must be vested in the colony in other ways.
- In their first report to the colonial secretary,the commissioners made a strong representation on the subject of the disposal of waste lands in Australia, the tendency of which was to show, that, unless the plan adopted in South Australia were made universal in the island, the self-supporting principle of the new colony would be defeated , through the ability of those who had paid little or no money for their land to outbid the landholders of South Australia in the labour market.
"To this very serious danger," say they, "the province of South Australia will be exposed, should the extensive district stretching from Portland Bay to the eastern coast of New Holland be either appropriated to settlers at the low price of 5s. per acre, or left to the occupancy of squatters.
Already extensive tracts of pasture have been seized, and unauthorised settlements have been formed in the neighbourhood of Portland Bay and Port Philip; and it is greatly to be feared, that, if a timely check be not put to the progress of this extra-legal colonisation, the colonists of the province of South Australia will be deprived of that suffcient supply of labour for hire, for the sake of securing which they have paid in the price required for the land they have respectively purchased."
In unison with these views, and to provide for the demand for free labour, which will be consequent upon the gradual relinquishment of the present system of transportation, orders have been sent to the governors of the other colonies in Australia, and to the governor of Van Diemens Land, to increase the price of land, but to what amount has not transpired; it is stated, however, that the waste lands are to be leased out at 40s.[£2] per square mile.