Douglas was anti-squatter
but pro-selector. Like many liberals, he
believed that agriculture represented an advance on pastoralism.[2] Moreover, liberals believed, in the words of
Charles Lilley, that:
the state is not a merchant selling land, but a
trustee holding it for equitable distribution among the people, so that it may
be occupied and cultivated.[3]
Douglas’s electorate was
situated on the Darling Downs, where the conflict between squatter and selector
was especially intense. Ranged against
the squatter government of Mackenzie, and on the side of the selectors was a
group of parliamentarians including Douglas, and the ‘town liberals,’ an
anti-squatter group who endorsed agriculture by advocating closer settlement
throughout the colony.[4] These town liberals used the expansion of
agriculture to political advantage in gaining urban anti-squatter support.[5]
Now in opposition, Douglas
was free to focus his undivided attention on ‘the land question.’ Land, especially how to distribute and use
it, was the dominant issue in Queensland as pastoral settlement spread rapidly
in the country.[6] During the colonial period, there was ongoing
tension between liberals and conservatives over what the ideal land settlement
for Queensland should be. Squatters
wanted their pastoral holdings protected and extended, while liberals and
townspeople wanted agricultural development through closer settlement.
Mackenzie moved swiftly on
behalf of the squatters. During the
parliamentary recess, only one day after coming to power,[7]
he instructed the surveyor-general, Augustus Charles Gregory,[8]
to issue new regulations permitting unsurveyed portions of agricultural
reserves to be opened up.[9] While making this land available was similar
to what Douglas had advocated, the intent could not have been more different
for it resulted in a decrease rather than an increase in the number of
selectors[10]
and further encouraged ‘dummying’[11]
on a spectacular scale. The Queenslander
called land purchased in this way as fit only for “sheepwalks,”[12]
and observed that the regulations were designed to assist the squatters
consolidate their land holdings.[13]
The pioneer squatters on the
Darling Downs regarded selectors as intruders and were determined to lock them
out of any land ostensibly released for agricultural purposes. Squatters were able to overcome restrictions
preventing the purchase of such land by dummying their runs. They lodged land claims using the name of a
family member or employee to purchase vital reserves and prime agricultural
lands. In so doing, they thwarted both
selectors and the opposition’s plan for closer settlement in the colony.
Douglas opposed this
unscrupulous practice because he considered it illegal, immoral and inimical to
the colony’s progress. He believed that a
“deteriorating effect on the public mind morally” would occur if laws were
circumvented or flouted.[14] Douglas’s attack on dummying was
calculated. Aided by his first-hand
knowledge of pastoralism and supported by the Warwick Argus, he
initiated the first serious attempt to check the squatting monopoly on the
Darling Downs.[15] He forced parliament to table all
instructions given to the land agents,[16]
presented a petition from his electorate,[17]
and successfully demanded a select committee to investigate dummying.[18] Douglas insisted that the limited surveying
of agricultural land was the major cause of dummying and supplied specific
examples, including a transaction involving 24,000 acres of land on the Eastern
Downs.[19]
He
chaired the
Select Committee on Selections in
Agricultural Reserves under the Notification of 17th August Last, derided
by its opponents as the “Mare’s Nest Committee”.[20] However, only one of the 17 witnesses was
prepared to admit that he had prima facie
been involved in dummying and claimed to have only done so following legal
advice.[21] The concerns of Douglas’s petitioners were
discounted, because they had apparently erred by applying for land already
selected.[22] It was hardly surprising therefore that the
committee was unable to find much evidence of dummying. Nevertheless, it observed that land was being
purchased for speculative reasons rather than with “the intention of bona fide settlement,” and recommended
that it be sold only through auction or leased for pastoral purposes.[23]
The findings of the
committee were sufficiently disappointing for Douglas that he, despite beings
its chair, dissented from its findings.[24] It had been his sustained attack on the
practice of dummying that led to the establishment of the committee in the
first place. Unable to substantiate the
allegations, Douglas then took the extraordinary step, as its chairman, of
dissociating himself from its findings and recommendations.[25] He considered the findings especially
galling, as he, along with everyone else, knew the practice of dummying to be
rife. Nevertheless, he had the
satisfaction of knowing that he had attempted to curb it on behalf of his constituents,
and the government subsequently acted on the committee’s recommendations and
introduced some measures to address the problem.
Douglas was frustrated by
the government’s indifference to the needs of selectors, selectors that he
represented. At an electorate meeting in
Warwick, Douglas castigated the ‘Pure Merino’ government for their
failings. “Free selection before survey”
was the instrument he used to bludgeon them, describing those engaged in dummying
as “robbers of the public estate.”[26]
Douglas was consistent in
his opposition to free selection before survey, because throughout his
political career he advocated closer settlement to encourage the development of
agriculture. For this he received
widespread support from those affected by the pro squatter provisions of the
legislation then in place. Douglas, the
aristocrat and former Darling Downs squatter, was seen as a champion of the
common man.
[1] Wilson
[2] Fitzgerald, p. 189; Wilson (1978), pp. 65-66
[3] McQueen (1970), pp. 171-72
[4] Fitzgerald, p. 189
[5] Wilson
[6] Fitzgerald, p. 133
[7] Mr. Douglas. “Selections in
Agricultural Reserves,” Queensland
Parliamentary Debates, vol 5, 1867, p. 453
[8] Augustus Charles Gregory was born in 1819 in England and arrived in Western Australia Queensland Brisbane 25 June 1905 .
[9] Mason, p. 97. These
regulations were published in the press on 17 August 1867 .
[10] “Mr. Douglas at Warwick 1 June 1867 , p.
7. In his election address at Warwick , Douglas had
promised not to “step back one inch” in his endeavour to open up land for
agriculture and increase the number of selectors.
[11] Dummying is defined as an “Agent of squatter buying best part of
run to forestall free selectors.” (Australian Concise Oxford Oxford University
[12] Queenslander, 7 September 1867
[13] Waterson (1968), p. 40
[14] Mr. Douglas. “Selections in
Agricultural Reserves.” Queensland Parliamentary Debates, vol 5,
1867, p. 467
[15] Denis Cryle. The Press in
Colonial Queensland University of Queensland
[16] Mason, p. 98
[17] Ibid., p. 98. In this
petition, members of Douglas electorate were,
“alleging their rights by priority of selection to certain lands in the
neighbourhood of Warwick
[18] Mr. Douglas. “Selections in
Agricultural Reserves.” Queensland Parliamentary Debates, vol 5,
1867, pp. 453-54. Douglas ,
in advocating a select committee, strongly attacked the government for issuing
these regulations during the recess, claiming it was unscrupulous and acting in
an illegal and unconstitutional manner.
[19] Mr. Douglas. “Selections in
Agricultural Reserves.” Queensland Parliamentary Debates, vol 5,
1867, pp. 453-54
[20] Secretary for Public Lands.
“Selections in Agricultural Reserves.”
Queensland Parliamentary Debates,
vol 5, 1867, p. 467; Mason, p. 101.
Mare’s nest was a term first used in 1619 in a phrase “to have found a
mare’s nest,” meaning “to imagine that one has discovered something wonderful.” (Shorter
Oxford Oxford
[21] “Report from the Select Committee on Selections in Agricultural
Reserves under the Notification of 17th August Last; Together With Minutes of
Evidence and the Proceedings of the Committee.”
Queensland Votes and Proceedings
1867, vol 2, p. 910
[22] Ibid., p. 909
[23] Ibid., p. 910
[24] Ibid. Douglas
signed as “J. Douglas [dissentient], Chairman.”
[25] Morrison (1961), p. 567
[26] “Mr. Douglas at Warwick Brisbane 17 July 1868 , p. 3
