He  may  be  said  to  be  the  spokesman  of  the  rigid
views  of  an  earlier  school  of  thought,  and  by  his
brilliant  though  delusive  treatise  on  Colonisation,
and  the  Society  of  that  name  founded  by  him,  he
acquired  considerable  influence  over  the  men  of
light  and  leading  of  his  day.
The  prominent  feature  in  Wakefield 's  scheme  was
the  creation  of  a  fund  from  the  sale  of  land  at  a
fictitious  value,  by  which  labourers  were  to  be  brought
out  to  the  colonies  free  of  cost.  His  aim  was  to
start  the  three  grades  common  to  civilised  countries,
of  proprietor,  small  farmer,  and  labourer,  in  Australia.
This  method  (a  very  plausible  one  on  paper)  was
the  precise  opposite  of  that  employed  in  the  colonisa-
tion of  Western  Australia,  which  accordingly,  in  the
opinion  of  the  convinced  followers  of  Wakefield,  was
a  colossal  instance  of  the  failure  resulting  from  the
absence  of  all  system  or  policy.  Undoubtedly  the
Wakefieldian  was  right  in  ascribing  as  a  main  cause
to  the  slow  progress  between  the  years  1845  to  1865
of  the  Australian  colonies,  to  the  paralysing  effect  of
great  blocks  of  land  being  in  the  hands  of  a  few
owners,  and  the  want  of  systematic  colonisation,  as
exemplified  by  dearth  of  labour  and  discouragement
of  immigration.
Unfortunately  the  followers  of  Wakefield,  in  avoid-
ing these  pitfalls,  fell  into  others  in  South  Australia,
where  their  theories  were  given  full  play,  of  equal
magnitude  and  significance.  These  were  described  by
Wise  in  his  Commonwealth  of  Australia  1  as  follows  :

'  In  order  that  the  colony  should  be  self-support-
ing from  the  start,  the  Commissioners  entrusted  with
its  foundation  were  to  sell  £35,000  worth  of  land,
and  raise  a  guarantee  fund  of  £20,000.  The  land

XP.  117.
