 The Morris and Ranken committee of inquiry, which reported in 1883, found that the number of homesteads established was a small percentage of the applications for selections under the Act, especially in areas of low rainfall such as the Riverina and the lower Darling River.The greater number of selections were made by squatters or their agents, or by selectors unable to establish themselves or who sought to gain by re-sale.The gaining of lands through agents—often old people who willed the land to the squatter—was known as dummying.