This was fixed by the act at 100 sheep or 20 head of cattle to the square mile; the rent to be appraised after four years for the second and third remaining periods of five years each, at the commencement of each period. As to the runs tendered for and still unstocked, the provisions were extended, but lessees were compelled to stock their land to one-fourth of the extent fixed by the act. The tide of speculation in unoccupied land was stayed, there arose a great demand for stock of all kinds, and those pastoralists in the south, who had flocks and herds to dispose of, realised great prices. Afterwards the colony passed through some troublesome years, and a Relief Act was required; and as a vast area of the young colony had still to be occupied, encouragement was held out to settlers to take up runs. The Pastoral Leases Act of 1869, gave another impetus to the settlement of outside districts, and acted as a relief to many who had taken up runs under the previous acts. The new leases were to be for a term of 21 years, and the new Act also dealt with leases under existing acts. Where new country was applied for, a license had to be taken out, and a declaration made that the country was stocked to one-fourth of its grazing capabilities, the rent being 5s. per square mile for the first 7 years; 10s. for the second term, and 15s. for the third term. Every succeeding Government tried a new Land Bill, some dealing with selection, land orders to new arrivals being part of the system; but the tendency of all succeeding land legislation down to the present day has been to allow more liberal terms to the prospective selector. The conditions were made so restrictive in the first days as to lead one to conclude that land selection was almost a crime; whereas the genuine selector in remote districts has enough to contend with in opening his land for some kind of cultivation and facing the seasons, etc., without being forced to make improvements he will not require. The grazing selector is a coming power in the land; a grade between the old squatter and the small selector. The discovery of artesian water will be a factor of the utmost importance to him as tending to assure his position from loss by drought. The grazing selector is spreading over the interior rapidly; and before the expiration of the leases now in existence, more land legislation is sure to be introduced to liberalise the terms and initiate a system for obtaining the freehold of parts of these large grazing farms. The history of our land laws shows them to have been simply experimental at every stage, hence the need for repeated alterations. It would have been a good thing for Queensland, I might say for Australia, if a similar policy to that of the United States of America had been followed, namely the throwing open of the public estate on the most liberal terms and the encouragement of private enterprise in railways. CHAPTER II. THE NAVIGATORS.