But the British Government must, and will yield, for they will find it will be to their interest, as well as their duty to grant the reasonable request of the Australian Colonies. (Cheers.) Three cheers were then given for the Chairman, and three more for the Queen, and the meeting terminated. THE LAND QUESTION The adjustment of the English land laws to Australian requirements was a difficult task. The question was discussed in New South Wales in 1855, but South Australia, under the leadership of Torrens, was the first to effect reform (1859). LAND QUESTION IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA +Source.+--Speeches on the Reform of the Law of Real Property (Torrens, 1858), pp. 5-6, 8-11 Extract from an address to the Electors of the City of Adelaide delivered in the Theatre on 31st January, 1857. (From the South Australian Register of February 2nd, 1857). The next topic which I have put down to address you upon, is one with respect to which I should have wished to have had time to arrange my thoughts--it is the cheapening of the law of Conveyancing of real property. (Applause.) Next to affording fair facilities for obtaining possession of the waste lands of the Crown, and converting them into cornfields and homesteads of independent yeomanry, it is the duty of the State to afford a cheap and at the same time a secure mode of conveying that property from man to man. (Hear, hear.) I have for years felt that the law of England in that respect, which we brought with us, required amendment. In looking also to the laws of other countries with respect to the transfer, mortgage, or encumbrance of real property, I have come to the conclusion that the law of England is inferior to most of them with regard to cost and security of title. The old Conservative feeling of England adheres with a sort of veneration to laws and usages respecting title which originated under the feudal system, and is loath to abandon them for a system adapted to the requirements of modern civilization. I would illustrate my views by observing that, in ancient times, before the Wars of the Roses, a baron, or even a yeoman, would surround his residence with a moat to be crossed only by a drawbridge, and instead of the convenient door of modern times, he would have a portcullis, which he would raise or let fall to admit a friend, or exclude a foe. A visitor, too, would have instead of gaining immediate access, to sound a horn at an outer gate, and hold parley with a warder upon a lofty tower, before he could gain admission. There could be no doubt that all these ceremonies and parleyings were necessary in those days, but it does not follow that we should carry them out in our times. Were any person now, to surround his residence with a deep and broad ditch, and observe those ceremonies when a visitor called upon him, we would call him insane; yet, that is precisely what we do with regard to the transfer of real estate, observing still the tortuous roundabout