Public Estate.

38. Of the total area of Victoria, already stated to be 56,446,720 acres, the extent which at the end of 1879 had been granted, sold, and selected was 19,201,780 acres, leaving a residue of 37,244,940 acres. This embraces lands occupied byroads, the unsold portions of the sites of page 24 towns, the State forests, auriferous, pastoral, and timber reserves, and land which is at present useless, owing to its mountainous character or to its being covered with mallee scrub, lakes, or lagoons. Deducting these lands, amounting in the aggregate to 26,533,918 acres, from the extent unalienated and unselected, already stated to have been 37,244,940 acres, it will be found that the extent open for selection at the end of 1879 was 10,711,022 acres, or something less than a fifth of the area of the colony.