Proclamations issued by the Government of New South Wales to give further effect to the "orders," authorised an assessment on stock pastured beyond the settled districts, which was levied at the rate of a halfpenny for each sheep, three halfpence for every head of cattle, and threepence for every horse; and returns were directed to be made by every pastoral lessee under severe penalties. Under these several acts and orders, the Executive and the squatters came into collision, and disputes arose as to the meaning of many clauses in the various Land Acts; but no material alteration had been made at the time when Queensland was separated from New South Wales, although the Constitution Act of New South Wales, July, 1855, vested in the local legislature the entire management and control of the waste lands of the colony. In 1859, when the Colony of Queensland was separated from New South Wales, the pastoral interest was in the ascendant, and this is considered to have been made evident by the first land legislation of the new colony. The first consideration of the new Government was legislation for leasing and selling the land. A very large number of tenders for Crown Lands had been accepted by the New South Wales Government, or had been applied for and were in abeyance, and until a decision was given on these applications, the land was lying idle and waste. One-fourth of the entire unoccupied territory had been applied for, the result of the energy of pioneering pastoralists, and the prospects opening up for new pastoral settlements. The first bill presented to the new Parliament on 11th July, 1860, was introduced by the Colonial Treasurer, an old squatter, Mr.--afterwards Sir R. R.--Mackenzie. Some of the provisions of the old orders in Council were followed; they accepted the unsettled districts as declared in them. The intermediate were abolished. Applications for licenses for a year were to be accompanied by a clear description of runs, to be not less than 25 nor more than 100 square miles, with a fee of 10s. per square mile. These entitled the lessee to a lease of 14 years. The land to be stocked at the time of application to be one-fourth of its grazing capabilities.