Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/647

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LORD GODERICH ABOLISHES FREE GRANTS OF LAND. 61 Oflfice was at its wit's end. But the new prophet, Gibbon Wakefield, was ready with his racy periods and sagacious insight. Lord Goderich could not comprehend the heart of the matter, but he could play with its outside. Hrerebat in cortice. He issued new regulations abolishing free grants, and fixing an upset price of 5s. an acre. All lands were to be sold by auction.^^ There was a reservation of the precious metals and of some minor rights, by the Crown. Although these regulations reached the colonies before Darling's retirement, the consideration of their working must be deferred. Before his departure he discontinue<l the penal establishment at Port Macquarie, and allowed settlers to proceed thither. Amongst the principal events during his rule may be reckoned the construction, by Mr. Busby, of a tunnel to convey water from the Botany Bay Swamps, and supersede the use of the reservoirs called tanks used in earlier days to hoard the water which crept to the bay near Pitt Street. The mountain road from the Hawkesbury (at Wiseman's Ferry) to the Hunter was completed. A season of depression followed the excitement of immi- gration and free settlement under Brisbane, and a severe drought in 1828-9 brought about a financial crisis. Prices fell. Live stock purchased three or four years before were sacrificed at less than a tithe of their original cost. Free immigration was arrested, and from 1828 to 1830 not more than 2000 souls, including children, arrived. A scarcity of grain compelled the government to reduce the rations pre- scribed for assigned servants, and made the name of Darling odious to convicts. Eain came to drop fatness into the earth, and the crops of 1830 demanded more reapers than the government could afford to aid the settlers. A revival of immigration and good seasons restored all languishing interests. The condition of the legal profession was considered by the judges in 1829. It was formally divided by a rule made ■' It is perhaps worth mentioning that, in 1826, Lord Bathurst directed (Tovemor Darling to grant 10,000 acres of land to the late Governor (Brisbane) *'in addition to a primary grant of the same amount." The original grant was not selected by agents until 1833, and was soon sold. Governor Gipps in 38 objected to the issue of the additional grant.