Having, therefore, pointed out to the best of my ability what I consider the greatest drawback to the advancement of this fair colony, viz., the wasteful expenditure of 6,000,000 of money annually for Victoria alone, I will return to consider at greater length the object for which this sketch was mainly written. The Settlement of the Lands. Husbandry is the source of all true wealth, and the back-bone of every country. I regret to say the farming interest in Victoria has been heavily handicapped by the protective duties, to sustain the interests of the manufacturers and importers. The crisis came upon the farmers first, as soon as they had to compete in the world's market, and it will come upon the manufacturers just in the same way, when they have over-produced for the home market. It is just now upon the turning point. Can they compete with the world with men's present wages, and eight hours' labor? I very much doubt it. If not, what will they do with their surplus goods. Farmers' sons have had to rush the cities for employment, and there is a vast population just growing into manhood--sons of artisans, which our football matches testify. Can these be absorbed into the various trades? I don't like taking a gloomy view of things, but I think the subject should have very serious thought. It is very easy to boast about the eight hours' movement, and wages to be fixed, and "strikes" ordered by a Trades' Hall Council. But will they provide an outlet for the working man's commodities at colonial prices? But to return to the land. In the first place, I may say as regards Victoria, the open selection of Crown land has ceased. Even the grazing blocks, under the new Act, 1884, which nearly covers all the inferior or waste land, I think are all pretty well taken up, and the only hope now is the breaking up or sub-division of the large estates, and they comprise, luckily, the very finest runs of land, on 100 acres of which, a family could live better than on 320 of ordinary land. Of course, to get this good land requires some capital, but the return lies surely in the soil, and it only requires labor--the poor man's capital--with strict economy, to recover the first expenditure. The breaking up of these large estates will be the making of Victoria. Or the cutting up into tenant blocks would be even better for the owners, and better for men of limited means. A ten years' lease on prime land should make him independent. I don't mean make his fortune, but should place him in a position to go ahead. This is the only land that will bear a dense population, or bear intense cultivation, and is, in fact, the only hope for the colony. This want of land for the rising generation is the cause of so many of our young men--farmers' sons--seeking employment in Melbourne, their parents' holdings not being sufficient to maintain the whole of the family, and many are marrying, and desire to have homes of their own. I trust the large