Nothing, it appears to me, can be more convincing in proof of the real
anxiety of Earl Grey for the well being of the Australian provinces than
the late regulations for the occupation of crown lands.
I believe I am right in stating that every word of those regulations was
penned by Earl Grey himself, and certainly, apart from local prejudices,
I am sure a disinterested person would admit the care and thought they
evince, and how calculated they are to promote the best interests of the
squatters, and the future social and moral improvement of the people
under their influence. There seems to me to run throughout the whole of
these regulations an earnest desire to place the stockholder on a sure
footing, and to remove all causes of anxiety arising from the precarious
tenure upon which they formerly held property.
There is another division of the population of South Australia I have
hitherto omitted to mention, I mean the German emigrants. They now number
more than 2000, and therefore form no inconsiderable portion of the
population of the province. These people have spread over various
districts, but still live in communities, having built five or six
villages.
The Germans of South Australia are quiet and inoffensive, frugal and
industrious. They mix very little with the settlers, and, regarded as a
portion of the community, are perhaps too exclusive, as not taking a due
share in the common labour, or rendering their assistance on occasions
when the united strength of the working classes is required to secure a
general good--as the gathering in of the harvest, or such similar
occasions.
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