to 17s. 6d. per acre—the decision between two or more persons for the same lot of land to be by auction. This plan much simplifies the matter, and I hope will be adopted. I urged upon Lefevre the necessity of coming to an early decision—the commission having now been gazetted a month, and no public step having been taken. He concurred in the necessity of getting at once into operation, and said he would be ready by Tuesday next to lay before the Board his perfected plan. Speaking of Captain Hindmarsh, he says he has seen Sir P. Malcolm, who gives the very best character of the captain, both publicly and privately. He is very distinguished as a naval officer, having been engaged in every naval combat since Lord Howe's of the first of June, 1794, and particularly noticed by Lord Nelson. He has a wife and four children, three of whom are daughters above 15 and under 22 years of age.
"Rowland Hill has to-day received a long letter from Edward Wakefield, still urging the old topic (£2 an acre for land) and speaking of me as his mere delegate in the previous committees! This gentleman will not let me get away without a downright quarrel with him, and Hill himself thinks he wishes to quarrel with him. I have to-day sent the following letter to him in answer to his of the 25th May:—
"Dear Wakefield,
"I think you have unnecessarily taken alarm about the price intended to be asked for land in South Australia, and I fancy by the style of your letter of the 25th that you have been misinformed as to my declaration upon that subject. I am now, as much as ever, an advocate for what is commonly called a high price of land—that is, such a price as will, by combination of labour, enable the purchaser to cultivate his land advantageously. What that price is, you, as well as I, maintain must be left to experience to determine; in the
