t the presence of females
puts a restraint on the most vicious, and that wherever they are,
especially in a responsible character, they must do good. I do not know
anything, indeed, that would more conduce to the moral improvement of the
settlers, and people around them, than that squatters should permanently
fix themselves, and embrace that state in which they can alone expect
their homes to have real attractions. That they will ultimately settle
down to this state there cannot, I think, be a doubt, and however
repugnant it may be to them at the present moment to rent lands, on the
occupation of which any conditions of purchase is imposed, I feel assured
that many of the squatters will hereafter have cause to thank the
Secretary of State for having anticipated their future wants, and enabled
them to secure permanent and valuable interests on such easy terms.
Nothing, it appears to me, can be more convincing in proof of the real
anxiety of Earl Grey for the well being of the Australian provinces than
the late regulations for the occupation of crown lands.

I believe I am right in stating that every word of those regulations was
penned by Earl Grey himself, and certainly, apart from local prejudices,
I am sure a disinterested person would admit the care and thought they
evince, and how calculated they are to promote the best interests of the
squatters, and the future social and moral improvement of the people
under their influence. There seems to me to run throughout the whole of
these regulations an earnest desire to place the stockholder on a sure
footing, and to remove all causes of anxiety arising from the precarious
tenure upon which they formerly held property.

There is another division of the population of South Australia I have
hitherto omitted to mention, I mean the German emigrants. They now number
more than 2000, and therefore form no inconsiderable portion of the
population of the province. These people have spread over various
districts, but still live in communities, having built five or six
villages.

The Germans of South Australia are quiet and inoffensive, frugal and
industrious. They mix very little with the settlers, and, regarded as a
portion of the community, are perhaps too exclusive, as not taking a due
share in the common labour, or rendering their assistance on occasions
when the united strength of the working classes is required to secure a
general good--as the gathering in of the harvest, or