Excerpt from The Pastoral Age in Australasia The local Government was alarmed by those ugly ducklings, who thus boldly took to the water. Urged by the Home Government to put down such unauthor ised squatters, it endeavoured to suppress them. The Character and the very existence of the Colony were at stake. It had to be determined whether those immi grant pastoralists should be hunted like wild animals and turned into Bedouins of the desert, or should be encouraged to grow up like the patriarchs Of old, nursing within themselves the germs of the future State. The English authorities hesitated long, seeing their plans for Australia on the point Of being completely overthrown by events they could never have foreseen. At first, the Imperial Government decided in favour of adhering to their original design, and instructions were issued to arrest the overflow of unauthorised squatting beyond the boundaries. It was too late; the colonial Canute who would have said to its waves thus far, and no further, would have been as impotent as Mrs. Parting ton with her mop. Two wise Governors endeavoured to regulate the inundation they could not dam, and by a series of ordinances they introduced law and order into the lawless doings Of the adventurers. In these they saw the promise Of opulence and the beginnings Of a mighty State. These sagacious men reported to that eflect to the authorities in England, and succeeded in persuading them of the justice of their views. Squat ting was legalised and regularised, and, giving an impetus to free colonisation, it lifted the community to a higher plane, and started it on a new career. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.