1839.] ENCOURAGEMENT OF IMMIGRATION. 257 



The establishment of the colony of New South Wales, was 

 neither easily nor cheaply effected. From 1788 to 1815, in- 

 clusive, the expenses of the colony were nearly three and a 

 half million .pounds sterling. The annual cost of maintain- 

 ing each convict, during the same period, was upwards of 

 thirty pounds, while his earnings did not exceed twenty. 

 The cost of transporting the convicts, from England to the 

 colony, was about thirty-seven pounds sterling per head, and 

 it was computed that nearly one-tenth died on the passage 

 out. Various propositions of reform in these particulars 

 were suggested ; and, after some delay, improvements were 

 introduced into the system, which secured the better health 

 of the convicts, and greater economy in the administration 

 of the fiscal affairs of the colonies. 



The increase of population, too, did not keep pace with 

 the expectations of English legislators, and vessels were 

 freighted with abandoned females, fresh from the purlieus of 

 St. Giles, designed as wives for the male convicts. Of course, 

 every cargo was taken up as soon as landed : all were 

 promptly secured, for better or worse, and pretty surely the 

 latter. It could hardly have been expected that a career of 

 lewdness and vice would have fitted them for being chaste 

 wives, and affectionate mothers ; inasmuch as personal vanity, 

 and the rum and gin shops of Sydney, were ready to allure 

 them back to their old habits. Doubts have, therefore, been 

 entertained, whether this step operated beneficially so far as 

 regards the morals of the colonists. Still there are as many 

 arguments on one side as the other. The convicts were, 

 no doubt, better contented ; and some of them, with their 

 wives, became thrifty and industrious, and made quite decent 

 members of society. 



Encouragement was also offered to the emigration of per- 

 sons of respectable character and standing. A large tract of 

 land was given, gratis, to every man going to New South 

 Wales with his family : after his arrival, he was allowed as 

 many servants as he might require, from among the convicts, 

 at a very low rate of wages ; and he and his family were 



