60 A US TRALASIA ILL US TRA TED. 



ment, not only in making extravagant grants of land to the officers, but also in allowing 

 them an excessive supply of convict labour thirteen servants each, instead of two ; and 

 he permitted them to pay for labour with spirits instead of money, in order that they 

 might make enormous profits on the sale. Spirits were sold to the officers at the 

 Government stores at prime cost, and were retailed by them at any price they pleased. 

 It had always been Phillip's policy to prevent the convicts from obtaining spirits, knowing 

 that otherwise he could not hope to preserve discipline among them still less to reform 

 them. But no sooner had he left the colony than the military and civil officers of the 

 establishment eagerly seized the opportunity for making money by this traffic ; the result 

 being that habits of drunken debauchery spread throughout the settlement, everything 

 being sacrificed to an insane craving for drink. The officers made it their business to 

 import spirits and wine, not only from England, but from India, the Brazils and the 

 Cape of Good Hope. As 'soon as it became known abroad that a good trade could be 

 done in Sydney Cove with spirits, cargoes were shipped from all parts of the world. 

 Indian merchants, in particular, at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras, exerted themselves to 

 secure as much of the infamous traffic as possible ; just as in later years their country- 

 men and successors strove their utmost to extend the opium trade with China. The 

 opportunity of acquiring large areas of land was also too good to be neglected ; and 

 immense blocks, which were then of comparatively little value, passed into the hands of 

 men whose only claim to consideration was that of cleaving hard and fast to their 

 traditions, and upholding might as right. 



Under this system of misgovernment was thus laid the foundations of an Australian 

 landed aristocracy, and unscrupulous men were not slow in taking advantage of their 

 official positions, to the great detriment of the welfare and morals of the community. 

 Another item of public interest which characterized the military interregnum was the 

 arrival, in the month of January, 1/93, of the Bcllona, the first ship to bring out free 

 settlers. They were supplied with tools and two years' provisions by the Government, 

 also with a proportion of convict labour, and they settled on land at Liberty Plains, 

 which, however, they soon abandoned, and migrated to the banks of the Hawkesbury. 



GOVERNOR HUNTER. 



The difficulties occasioned by the military misrule inaugurated by Major Grose 

 severely taxed the energies of the three Governors who next succeeded. The Home 

 Government having become aware of the state of things in Sydney under Major Grose, and 

 latterly Captain Paterson who succeeded Grose as Lieutenant-Governor in December, 

 1 794 determined to remedy the mischief by suppressing the traffic in spirits altogether. 

 Captain John Hunter, formerly of the Sirins, was appointed Governor in 1/95, with express 

 instructions for that purpose, but although he honestly endeavoured to carry them out, 

 he was not strong enough to resist the official ring by which he was surrounded, and he 

 gradually allowed himself to sink under its influence. The result was that his feeble 

 efforts at reform ended in signal failure, and he was recalled in 1800. 



A year after the wreck of the Sirius at Norfolk Island, in March, 1790, Captain 

 Hunter had sailed from Sydney to Batavia in a Dutch vessel, which had been chartered 

 by Governor Phillip. From that port he sailed for England, where he arrived in the 



