In 1884 a notable change of land policy was adopted. The 1869 leases were expiring, and it was recognised that the big squattages could not longer be allowed to monopolise the country. Room was required for smaller holdings. All available country was already occupied under the 1869 leases, and, although under another Act 5,120 acres could be acquired with conditions of improvement and residence, there was no way of getting an area capable of carrying 10,000 sheep. There did not exist a small squatting class. The Minister for Lands, Mr. C. B. Dutton--himself a large squatter--recognised the desirability of creating such a class, which would stand in the same relation to the "squattocracy" that the yeomen of Britain do to the large landowners. In granting a new lease to the original lessee, Dutton's Act required him to surrender a portion of his run, from a half to a quarter according to the length of time his lease had been running. A Land Board independent of Ministerial control was appointed to arrange an equitable division of the runs and to fix the rent of the new lease, which was for fifteen years. Two years later this was increased to twenty-one years, on condition of the lessee surrendering another quarter of his area at the end of the fifteenth year. The portions resumed from the old squattages were surveyed into areas up to 20,000 acres and thrown open to selection. The old lessee--who regarded any area under 400 square miles as a paltry holding and counted his crop of calves by thousands and his yearly lambing increase by tens of thousands--ridiculed the new departure, maintaining that any man must starve on such an absurdly inadequate area as 20,000 acres. But these sinister predictions did not deter selectors from testing the question. At first grazing farms were only very gradually applied for, but a few years' experience justified Mr. Dutton's expectations, and a great demand set in, till now, as soon as opened to selection, there is a keen competition for them. The difficulty is to survey them fast enough to provide for requirements. The maximum area has since been increased so that now as much as 60,000 acres can be held by an individual, provided the total rent does not exceed L200. It is not unusual for three or four grazing farmers to combine and manage the combined leasehold as a co-partnership, which, although not provided for in the Act, is sanctioned by the Land Court. [Illustration: HORSES AT GOWRIE, DARLING DOWNS] [Illustration: SHEEP AT GOWRIE, DARLING DOWNS] [Illustration: HORSES, WESTERN QUEENSLAND] [Illustration: FAT CATTLE, BURRANDILLA, CHARLEVILLE]