knew nothing of all this, and in
1843 he raised the price of land still higher, ordering that, throughout
all Australia, no land should be sold for less than one pound an acre.

#4. Immigration.#--It is not to be imagined, however, that the English
Government ever took to itself any of this land revenue. Every penny was
used for the purpose of bringing immigrants into the colony. Agents in
Europe were appointed to select suitable persons, who received what were
called bounty orders. Any one who possessed an order of this kind
received a free passage to Sydney, all expenses being paid by the
Colonial Government with the money received from the sale of land. The
Governor had the power of giving these orders to persons in New South
Wales, who sent them home to their friends or relatives, or to servants
and labourers, whom they wished to bring to the colonies. Now, Governor
Gipps imagined that the land would continue to bring in as much revenue
every year as it did in 1840, and, in the course of that year and the
next, gave bounty orders to the extent of nearly one million pounds.
But in 1841 the land revenue fell to about one-twentieth of what it had
been in 1840; so that the colony must have become bankrupt had it not
been that more than half of those who received bounty orders, hearing of
the unsettled state of the colony, never made use of the permission
granted. Governor Gipps was blamed by the colonists, and received from
the Secretary of State a letter of sharp rebuke.

As for the immigrants who did arrive in New South Wales, their prospects
were not bright. For a long time many of them found it impossible to
obtain employment. Great numbers landed friendless and penniless in
Sydney, and in a few weeks found themselves obliged to sleep in the
parks, or in the streets, and, but for the friendly exertions of a
benevolent lady, Mrs. Chisholm, who obtained employment at different
times for about two thousand of them, their position would, indeed, have
been wretched.

Mrs. Chisholm founded a home for defenceless and friendless girls,
of whom nearly six hundred were at one time living in Sydney in
destitution, having been sent out from home with bounty orders, under
the impression that employment was certain whenever they might land at
Port Jackson.

Gradually the return of the colonists to habits of prudence and thrift
removed the financial distress which had been the primary cause of all
these troubles. Land cease