sex Plains, 150,000 at the Surrey Hills, and
10,000 at the islands on the coast. The total actual cost, including
survey, was 1s. 6d. per acre.

The operations of the company were conducted on a liberal scale:
artizans were sent out. The proprietors were promised a remission of L16
for men, and L20 for women, on the quit-rent. This was the first
encouragement of free emigration to this quarter of the world. A road
was opened with Launceston, chiefly useful to absconders. The
importation of sheep and horses of great value, was beneficial to the
country. The sheep of the company cost L30,000 (1830), when they
exported wool to the value of L2,000. The servants of the company left
them on the expiration of their engagements: many before. The reports of
the proprietors eulogised the management of Mr. Curr, and affirmed that
the moral influence he had acquired rendered his government easy and his
people contented. They asserted that ardent spirits were excluded: there
were no police or prison, and none required. These statements varied
from fact. The company provided no religious teaching for its people;
and Mr. Curr, a Roman catholic, could not be expected to promote
heretical creeds.

The losses sustained by the company were great: the cold destroyed the
stock, and their crops often perished from moisture. On the Hampshire
Hills many hundred lambs died in a night. Sometimes the season never
afforded a chance to use the sickle: in the morning the crop was laden
with hoar frost, at noon it was drenched with the thaw, and in the
evening covered with dews; and thus rotted on the ground. The agent,
however, did not despair, and the company anticipated a dividend in
1834, at the latest!

The company provided a numerous staff; beside the agent, were a
commissioner, an agriculturist, an architect, and surveyors. Its local
affairs were confided to a council of three, Curr being the chairman;
but the divided sovereignty was impracticable, and the "Potentate of the
North," as he was sometimes called, soon reigned alone.

Servants engaged in Great Britain at low wages, on their arrival often
escaped from the farms, and exposed the agent to great vexation.
Sometimes they were pursued, and brought back by force: it was at last
agreed to cancel their indentures, on repayment of the cost of their
passage. In 1834, the population on the estate amounted to about 400
persons, of whom more than 200 were prisoners of the crown.

The New S