Austral English Part 243

"The squatters, as they are called, are men who occupy with their cattle, or their habitations, those spots on the confines of a colony or estate which have not yet become any person's private property. By the natural increase of their flocks and herds, many of these squatters have enriched themselves; and having been allowed to enjoy the advantages of as much pasture as they wanted in the bush, without paying any rent for it to the government, they have removed elsewhere when the spot was sold, and have not unfrequently gained enough to purchase that or some other property. Thus ... the squatter has been converted into a respectable settler. But this is too bright a picture to form an average specimen... .

Unfortunately, many of these squatters have been persons originally of depraved and lawless habits, and they have made their residence at the very outskirts of civilization a means of carrying on all manner of mischief. Or sometimes they choose spots of waste land near a high road ... there the squatters knock up what is called a `hut.' In such places stolen goods are easily disposed of, spirits and tobacco are procured in return."

Ibid. p. 334:

"The rich proprietors have a great aversion to the cla.s.s of squatters, and not unreasonably, yet they are thus, many of them, squatters themselves, only on a much larger scale..."

1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,'

vol. i. c. ix. p. 260:

"This capital of Australia Felix had for a long time been known to some squatters from Tasmania."

1846. T. H. Braim, `History of New South Wales,'

vol. i. p. 235:

"A set of men who were to be found upon the borders of every large estate, and who were known by the name of squatters.

These were ticket-of-leave holders, or freedmen who erected a but on waste land near a great public road, or on the outskirts of an estate."

1897. Australian Steam Navigation Company, `Guide Book,'

p. 29:

"Nowaday squatters may be interested and possibly shocked on learning that in March, 1836, a pet.i.tion was being largely signed for the prevention of `squatting, through which so much crime was daily occurring,' inasmuch as `squatting' was but another term for sly grog selling, receiving stolen property, and harbouring bushrangers and a.s.signed servants. The term `squatter,' as applied to the cla.s.s it now designates--without which where would Australia now be?--was not in vogue till 1842."

(2) A pastoral tenant of the Crown, often renting from the Crown vast tracts of land for pasturage at an almost nominal sum. The term is still frequently, but incorrectly, used for a man rearing and running stock on freehold land.

Pastoralist is now the more favoured term.

1840. F. P. Labillicre, `Early History of the Colony of Victoria' (edition 1878), vol. ii. p. 189:

"In a memorandum of December 19th, 1840, `on the disposal of Lands in the Australian Provinces,' Sir George Gipps informs the Secretary of State on the subject, and states that,--'A very large proportion of the land which is to form the new district of Port Phillip is already in the licensed occupation of the Squatters of New South Wales, a cla.s.s of persons whom it would be wrong to confound with those who bear the same name in America, and who are generally persons of mean repute and of small means, who have taken unauthorized possession of patches of land. Among the Squatters of New South Wales are the wealthiest of the land, occupying, with the permission of the Government, thousands and tens of thousands of acres. Young men of good families and connexions in England, officers of the army and navy, graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, are also in no small number amongst them.'"

1844. `Port Phillip Patriot,' July 8, p. 3, col. 3:

"The pet.i.tioner has already consigned the whole country to the cla.s.s squatter in perpetuity."

1845. R. Howitt, `Australia,' p. 165:

"The squatters of Australia Felix will meet on horseback, upon Batman's Hill, on the 1st of June, for the purpose of forming a Mutual Protection Society. From the Murray to the sea-beach, from the Snowy Mountains to the Glenelg, let no squatter be absent."

1846. C. P. Hodgson, `Reminiscences of Australia,' p. 366:

"`Squatters.' A word not to be found in `Johnson's Dictionary'; of Canadian extraction, literally to sit on the haunches: in Australia a term applied to the sheep farmers generally; from their being obliged frequently to adopt that position."

1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition' (Introd.), p. 15:

"We were received with the greatest kindness by my friends the `squatters,' a cla.s.s princ.i.p.ally composed of young men of good education, gentlemanly habits, and high principles."

1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix,' p. 168:

"The Port Phillip squatters, as occupants of the territory of New South Wales, were afterwards required to take out an annual depasturing licence in terms of a Colonial Act pa.s.sed at Sydney."

(p. 246): "The modern squatters, the aristocratic portion of the colonial community."

1851. `Australasian,' p. 298:

"In 1840 the migratory flockmaster had become a settled squatter. A wretched slab but is now his home; for furniture he has a rough bush-made table, and two or three uncouth stools."

1861. T. McCombie, Australian Sketches,' p. 128:

"The term squatter was applied in the first instance to signify, as in America, such as erected huts on unsold land.

It thus came to be applied to all who did not live on their own land, to whom the original and more expressive name of settler continued to be applied. When the owners of stock became influential from their education and wealth, it was thought due to them to change this term for one more suitable to their circ.u.mstances, as they now included in their order nearly every man of mark or wealth in Australia. The Government suggested the term `tenants of the Crown,' the press hinted at `licensed graziers,' and both terms were in partial use, but such is the prejudice in favour of what is already established, that both were soon disused, and the original term finally adopted."

1862. G. T. Lloyd, `Thirty-three Years in Tasmania and Victoria,' p. 478:

"The term `squatter' ... is thus derived:--A flock-master settling in Australia could drive his stock to, and occupy, any tract of country, which, from its extent and pastoral capabilities, might meet his comprehensive views; always provided, that such lands had not been already appropriated.

... Early flock-masters were always confirmed in their selection of lands, according to the quant.i.ty of stock they possessed... . The Victorian Squatter who can number but five or six thousand sheep is held to be a man of no account.

... Those only, who can command the shearing of from ten to forty thousand fleeces annually, are estimated as worthy of any note."

1866. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand,' p. 47:

"The squatters (as owners of sheepstations are called)."

1868. J. Bonwick, `John Batman, Founder of Victoria,' p. 94:

"In the language of the times, Messrs. Evans, Lancey, and subsequently J. P. Fawkner, were squatters. That term is somewhat singular as applied to the latter, who a.s.serts that he founded the colony to prevent its getting into the hands of the squatters. The term was then applied to all who placed themselves upon public lands without licence."

1873. A. Trollope, `Australia and New Zealand,'

vol. i. p. 265:

"It is not too much to say that all the early success of Australia was due to the squatters of New South Wales, who followed the steps of Captain McArthur."

1878. `The Australian,' vol. i. p. 532:

"I have been a super, a small freeholder, and a middling-sized squatter, at different times."

1889. Rev. J. H. Zillmann, `Australian Life,' p. 165:

"The Squatters are the large leaseholders and landed proprietors of the colony, whose cry has always been that the country was unfit for agricultural settlement, and only adapted for the pastoral pursuits in which they were engaged... .

It is true the old squatter has been well-nigh exterminated."

1893. J. F. Hogan, `Robert Lowe,' p. 36:

"The pastoral enterprise of the adventurous squatters.

Originally unrecognized trespa.s.sers on Crown lands... ."

(3) Applied as a nickname to a kind of Bronze-wing Pigeon (q.v.).

1872. C. H. Eden, `My Wife and I in Queensland,' p. 122:

"On the plains you find different kinds of pigeons, the squatters being most common--plump, dust-coloured little fellows, crouching down to the ground quite motionless as you pa.s.s. I have frequently killed them with my stock-whip."