The causes of hindrance or failure of
agriculture generally, and of the raising of wheat, in particular, I
take to be the first and greatest, that for many years the policy of the
Government of the colony, whatever may have been its object, has
unquestionably tended not only to check the formation of new agriculture
establishments, but to depress existing ones.
While the agriculturist has been absolutely excluded from leasing any
portion of the public land, and thwarted, harassed and dispirited at
every turn in his efforts to obtain the submittal of such lands to sale,
and subjected to public competition at auction before suffered even then
to purchase, the grazier has been allowed to use them under a system of
leases, affording him the greatest possible facility of possession, and
at the lowest imaginable rental, namely, at the rate of 10_s._ per annum
for 640 acres, with the right, in an overwhelming majority of cases, to
purchase choice spots therefrom, without the slightest delay or trouble
and at the lowest legal price, namely, 20_s.
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