rown, by any other than the favoured pastoral class,
may be stated thus: The person seeking to do so must first make his
selection--a matter not very easy of attainment, for persons holding
land in a neighbourhood, instead of helping with information, almost
invariably place every possible obstacle in the way of the newcomer. The
selection made, the next step to be taken is to apply by letter to the
Surveyor-General to have it measured. Shortly thereafter, that officer
will reply and inform the writer that his application has been received
and submitted to the District Surveyor for his report as to whether the
land is fit for agriculture, etc., etc. and that when it is received the
Surveyor-General will communicate the result, intimating at the same
time that, should the District-Surveyor consider the land suitable for
agriculture, and should there be no other difficulty, such as its being
held under a squatting lease, or any of several others, it will be
submitted to sale by auction.

The applicant may now expect to hear no more of the land for three or
four months, when, if all goes on favourably, he will be informed that
the District-Surveyor, having reported satisfactorily, has received from
the Surveyor-General instructions to measure it. Now another wearying
delay of several months' duration will in all probability occur, before
the expiration of which, if the applicant is not a person possessed of
considerable determination of character, he will abandon, in despair,
all hope of ever becoming an Australian farmer, and help to swell one or
other of our overgrown towns, by accepting employment there. If,
however, he possess sufficient perseverance, he may visit the
District-Surveyor, and probably learn from him that the land cannot then
be measured, because the district under that officer is so very large,
that it would be highly inconvenient for him to move from one portion of
it to another to measure a single farm; that when several are applied
for in the same vicinity, he will proceed there; in the meantime he has
several months' work where he is, or the District-Surveyor may, after
expressing sympathy with the applicant's loss from delay, candidly
assure him that, in consequence of the great delay in receiving pay for
his public work, he is absolutely necessitated to accept private
employment in order to obtain sufficient cash to keep himself and party
of four men on, until the Government make him his remittance,