It is justly remarked in the Report that the result of such premature pur chases " would be alike disastrous to the capitalist and to the labourer ; as the supply of labour for hire being thus di • minished, improvements requiring the co-operation of many hands would be suspended, and capital would waste and perish for want of means to use it ; and the labouring population becoming sepa rated upon small patches of land, each family would be obliged to perform every species of work for themselves; and the absence of all division of employment and combination of labour would so re duce the efficaey of their industry, that instead of advancing in wealth and civili zation, they would fall back to a semi barbarous state." Such a result has already been witnessed in numerous new settlements, and such a result must in evitably follow the dispersion of small capitalists and-labourers who aspire to be land-holders over a large uncultivated surface, however rich it may naturally be.
The mode in which unoccupied Land is disposed of in the colonies has, it will be seen, a most important influence on the condition and welfare of immigrants.
By the application of a general prin ciple of law the waste lands in the Bri tish colonies were considered to be vested in the Crown, and that every private title must rest upon a royal grant as its basis. But since 1831 another principle has been acknowledged and observed: that the Crown holds the lands in question in trust for the public good, and cannot, without a breach of that trust on the part of the responsible ministers of the government, be advised to make to any person a gra tuitous donation of any such property. It is held in trust, not merely for the existing colonists, but for the people of the British empire collectively. It must be appropriated to public uses and for the public benefit. (Instructions ad dressed by Lord John Russell when Se cretary of State for Colonial Affairs, 14th Jan. 1840.) The Land Sale Act for the Australian Colonies (5 & 6 Viet. c. 36) prohibits land being alienated by her Majesty, or by any one acting under her authority, except by sale, and in the man ner directed by the act.
Down to the year 1831 no regular or uniform system of selling land appears to have been adopted in the British colo nies. In place of such system conditions were attached to the occupation of land under the name of Quit-Rents, money payments, or the cultivation of the soil ; but these conditions were not effectually enforced, and in fact it was generally found impossible to enforce them. Land was profusely granted to individuals in large tracts, and as cultivation was not enforced, and no roads were made through these tracts, they interrupted the course of improvement Under the old system lands in the colony of the Cape of Good Hope, amounung to upwards of thirty-one million acres, have been disposed of for less than 46,000/. In Prince Edward's
Island the whole of the land was granted in one day to absentee proprietors upon terms which have never been fulfilled. The influence of these proprietors with the Home Government prevented such measures being adopted as were calcu lated to enforce the settlement of the grants, and consequently the greater part of them remained chiefly in a wild state. (Report of Mr. C. Buller, M.P., to the Earl of Durham, on Public Lands in British North America, 1838.) This Re port contains an account of the system of granting lands in each of the provinces of British North America ; and in all of them it appears to have been injurious to the public interests.
In 1831 the Earl of Ripon framed certain regulations which required that all land in the colonies should be dis posed of at a minimum upset price for ready money only. In 1842 an act was passed (5 & 6 Viet. c. 36), already noticed, " for regulating the sale of waste lands belonging to the Crown in the Australian colonies." The chief provisions of this statute are given in a subsequent part of this article under the head "Australian Colonies and New Zealand," to which islands the act also applies. The expense of making surveys, which are usually from 4d. to 44d. an acre, and other ex penses connected with the sale of the land, are, under this act, the primary charges on the land fund. The rest of the are applicable to the public service of the colony, after one-half at least has been appropriated to the pur poses of immigration.
The select committee of the House of Commons on the disposal of lands in the British colonies, which sat in 1836, re commended that the whole of the ar rangements connected with the sale of land, including both the price and the precise mode of sale, should be placed under the charge of a land board in Lon don.
In January, 1840, commissioners were appointed under the royal sign manual to act as a Land and Emigration Board. The sale of the waste lands of the Crown throughout the British colonies is re gulated by the commissioners, and they apply the proceeds of such sales towards the removal thither of emigrants from this country, when the land-fund is ap propriated to this object This board is a subordinate department of the Colonial Office.