Preface.

The following pages were written last year during the leisure hours of professional and parliamentary work. They are designed to place before the public a brief sketch of the History of Land Legislation in Victoria—showing the provisions and operations of our various Land Acts; the effect of these Acts in promoting or discouraging the settlement of people upon the soil; the causes of partial success and partial failure of our Land Policy; and the direction in which a sound principle of Land Reform must be looked for. At the present time, when a new Land Bill is before the country, proposing somewhat radical alterations in the existing law, it becomes convenient and appropriate to take a retrospect of past legislation. In the forthcoming political contest many young voters will be called upon to take part, for the first time, in the great and important work of moulding the destinies of their country. In that struggle there will be no question submitted for their consideration more important than the future disposal of the remaining acres of Victorian soil. These pages will enable them to take a bird's-eye view of previous Land Acts, and to become acquainted with the opinions of some of Victoria's greatest politicians in reference to the land question; in other words, they will here find materials out of which they can form opinions of their own, and vote accordingly. From the sentence which follows the reader will see what the present writer's views are. The wholesale alienation of the public lands, and their stealthy but rapid absorption into large estates, is a crime and a calamity, which can only be averted by the steady, intelligent and irresistible opposition of the people of Victoria to a policy at once demoralising and destructive.