ney was to remain for a time, not limited
by date, at 5% interest. It is no figure of speech to say that this law
unlocked the lands to the industrious settler, and notwithstanding the
abuses which too widely grew up, it was the means of bringing into
existence hundreds of comfortable homes in all parts of the colony where
the name of its author is held in grateful remembrance. It will have
been seen in a previous chapter what a network of difficulties
surrounded the man of small means who tried to obtain a rural home in
former years; and perhaps the highest tribute to the memory of Sir John
Robertson is that, after all the amendments which have been carried, the
chief principles of his Act are still imbedded in the law of the
country.

QUEENSLAND

+Source.+--Sessional Papers of the House of Lords, 1861, Vol. XI

The Moreton Bay district was first colonised from Sydney as a penal
settlement for doubly convicted criminals. But so soon as
transportation to New South Wales ceased, remarkable progress was
made in exploiting the vast natural resources of the colony of
Queensland.

COPY OF A DESPATCH FROM GOVERNOR SIR W. DENISON, K.C.B., TO HIS GRACE
THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.

Government House, Sydney. _Dec. 5, 1859._ (Received _Feb. 9, 1860._)

My Lord Duke,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Grace's Despatch,
No. 11, dated 18th August last, enclosing copies of the warrant
establishing Queensland as a colony separate from New South Wales, and
appointing Sir George Ferguson Bowen, K.C.M.G., Governor of the same;
also of the instructions issued to Sir George Bowen, and of the
Order-in-Council empowering him to make laws and to provide for the
administration of justice in the said colony.

Sir George Bowen arrived here by the mail steamer on the 15th ult.; he
remained with me at Sydney, making arrangements for the establishment of
the various departments of his Government, in which I gave him every
assistance in my power, and he sailed for Moreton Bay in Her Majesty's
ship "Cordelia" on the 3rd instant.

I enclose copies of the proclamation issued by me notifying the
separation of the two colonies. The Proclamation Sir George has taken
with him to Brisbane, and by its publication there the fact of its
separation will be made known to the inhabitants of Queensland, which
will from the date of that Proclamation, that is, 1st December, be in
every respect freed from