The Argus at KellyGang 8/10/1866 (2)

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Allotments to meet the desires of the applicants are thus secured without competition; and in Pyalong especially, under it numbers of persons who could not otherwise have obtained lands, are now located on fields, which they hope to call their own. They sow oats and potatoes sufficient for their own wants, with hay for their horses. Wheat they do not attempt. That there is room for them is evident from the fact that in September hay was selling at from £9 to £10 per ton; potatoes at £6 per ton, and oats at 5s, to 6½, per bushel.

The area of Pyalong embraces the greater part of the station of Mr W Hamilton, by whom it was bought only a year ago for about £20,000, from Mr Mollison. The area was opened only in December last. It contains some magnificent grazing land, and every allotment was taken up. Serious as the sacrifice was to him, it is understood that no mediums were employed by Mr Hamilton who has no sympathy with the spirit which has induced others in the same situation to resort to the dummy system. It is satisfactory to know that he has another station adjacent, and plenty of land to feed 25,000 sheep. In all, some 14,000 acres changed occupants in Pyalong, those who took up the lands coming from nearly all parts of the country. They have paid in their own names the rents due, and not through agents, and this perhaps is as good a test as any of the bona fide occupation of the land by the selectors. The area was taken up, however, almost solely for grazing purposes, either with cattle or sheep, and not for farming purposes.

The small area of Tallarook, with those of Whanregarwen, Murrindindi, and a small part of Torrensdale, lie contiguous to each other on Hughes's Creek, close to Avenel. They are the most southern of the areas on the line of the Goulburn. They were offered at Yea in March of the present year. They embraced 11,000 acres, which were all taken up by forty five selectors. The mediums of Mr Hugh Glass, one of whose runs was affected, were very active in these selections, but they were badly organised, behaved stupidly, and made their true character so apparent, that they did not succeed in the purpose for which they were employed. The late period of the selections, however, takes these areas out of the list of those which I desired to examine. Northward, along the east bank of the Goulburn, lies the area of Torrensdale, on a run held by Mr Furlonge. The country it embraces is very pretty, Hughes's Creek assisting, the Goulburn to give value to portions of the area. As usual, the choice land lies along the banks of these streams, but all the allotments having a river frontage, excepting four, had been secured by the pastoral tenant under the Act of 1862.

One of these four was withdrawn from selection to save Mr Furlonge's home-stead, and six allotments were also withheld around his pre-emptive right. A few selections were made - 3,279 acres having been taken up by thirteen persons - on the day when the area was opened, by persons who propose to combine grazing with farming, and a thousand acres or so have since been applied for; but the greater portion of the area, consisting of belts of rocky soil, fit only for sheep, still remains open to the selector. Carrick-o'Shanassy lies north of Torrensdale, and was also opened in June of last year. It embraces land on Mr Fnrlonge's run, and on Mr Hugh Glass's Tabilk station. It lies on the bank of the Goulburn. Here also the best land is close to the river. In all about 6,000 acres of it had passed from the possession of the Crown on the system of deferred payments, and ten licences had been granted under the Brooke plan.

The great bulk of the land left for selection, therefore, consisted of back country, so badly situated as regards water that last season supplies had to be carted for two or three miles. Thirty-three selections were made on the day when the lots were drawn, and some 2,000 acres have since been leased. The land thus selected was good grass country, or of a nature adapted for orchards and vineyards. Numerous dummies were employed, some of them for the farmers already on the land, but only with a moderate amount of success. Of those who selected it may be said that those who were able to obtain access to water have set to work, and are ploughing, fencing, and otherwise improving; but where selectors were unable to obtain water they have abandoned their holdings.

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