CHAPTER V.
LAND, LABOUR AND COMMERCE.
Authorities.—Despatches, etc. (especially Appendix to Bigge's Reports). Record and Colonial Offices. Printed: Sydney Gazette. P.P., 1812, II.; 1816, XVIII.; 1819, VII.; 1822, XX.; 1823, X.
In 1820, 356,845 acres of land had been granted by the Crown in New South Wales.[1] Macquarie was responsible for grants amounting to 239,576 acres—the remaining 117,269 acres having been alienated by his predecessors. Thus in the twenty years before his arrival less than half as much land had been lost to the Crown as was granted by Macquarie in ten years. But the increase was fully justified by the growth of population from 10,452 in 1810 to 24,939 in 1820, and, according to the ideas of the time, he had shown great moderation. With regard to the distribution of the land the returns of 1819 are found to be more complete and more accurate than those of 1820. Referring, therefore, to the muster of 1819 it appears that 337,114 acres were then held by settlers in the Colony, of which 145,054 acres belonged to free emigrants or native-born, and 192,060 acres to those who had been convicts and had become free by pardon or servitude.[2] At this time[3] there were in the whole population 2,804 persons (excluding children) who had never been convicts, and 1,497 of these had been born in the Colony. The whole adult population reached 19,232, so that the number of men and women who had been transported and were still in New South Wales was 16,428. The free population, hardly a
- ↑ The figures are those in Appendix to Bigge's Reports, R.O., MS., reduced by one-twelfth in accordance with his statement as to their accuracy in Report III.
- ↑ The returns (Appendix, Bigge's Reports) give 1,502 free proprietors and 9,861 freed. But the wives and families of the proprietors appear to be counted—so that these figures are quite misleading. There were in 1819, 794 free men, and 4,002 freed. A few ticket-of-leave men held land.
- ↑ 1819.
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