a homestead and home paddocks, and the new law enabled the Minister of Lands to give each of them under certain conditions a second pre-emptive right, and he was also authorised to reserve any portion of a run, the withdrawal of which would seriously injure the industry.
I would have declined to support a Government which undertook to settle the land question with a squatter at the head of it but that five out of the nine new Ministers personally promised me that they would not consent to the Land Bill becoming law if the ten years' tenure to the squatters were continued in it. On this promise I gave them a warm support at their election and for a time in Parliament; and this promise in the end was not kept. Two of those who promised lost their seats and were removed from the place where they could have given it effect; one continued faithful to his promise, and spoke and voted contrary to the bulk of his colleagues to the end, and the other two simply violated their engagement. As respects Mr. McPherson himself, when his Government was defeated, he deserted his colleagues and accepted office in the new Administration under McCulloch, where he was rewarded by the post of Minister of Public Lands. It was alleged that he had deserted not merely his party but his principles; at any rate he employed to an inordinate extent the power of making reserves on "runs" where selection and settlement were forbidden, and it was at last whispered about that the numerous runs of the Chief Secretary were especially favoured.
From the foundation of the colony immigration had been a frequent cause of suspicion and anger, and now the difficulty arose again. At the beginning the colony remitted large sums to an Imperial Board to pay the passage of suitable emigrants. In Ireland the selection of these persons was entrusted exclusively to parsons and squires, and it was said they selected protégés devoted to their side in politics, or, worse, persons whom it was an advantage to get rid of, and that they were sowing for a future nation with rotten seed. But the requisite number could not be made up without admitting many Irish Catholics, who were the chief emigrating section, and an ingenious device was adopted to check a
