THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE. 9 



British flag. Indeed the popularity of these informal "club- 

 rooms " was such that Macquarie found it necessary, in the 

 interests of public business, to issue an order on the subject 

 wherein he expressed " a hope, after this Notice of the incon- 

 venience arising from such habit, that persons not having actual 

 business at the said stores and granaries, will desist from 

 lounging there in future." l 



When Macquarie came to the Colony there were only three 

 populated districts, Sydney, Paramatta and the Hawkesbury. 2 

 The first had a disproportionate share of the people ; for with an 

 acreage of 24,301, it had a population of 6,156 more than 

 half of the whole. The area of Paramatta was nearly double 

 that of Sydney, 3 but the population was only 1,807 and at the 

 Hawkesbury River settlement there were 2,389 inhabitants 

 occupying 28,704 acres. 



The difference in kind between town and country populations 

 was not so great as that in quantity. While the merchants and 

 traders, who were usually landholders as well, belonged almost 

 entirely to Sydney, in other respects the description of the 

 people of one district serves equally well for that of all. Thus 

 the classification given by Alexander Riley, a merchant of New 

 South Wales, of the society of Sydney is not only an accurate 

 account of that district, but well describes the whole settlement. 4 



In his first class, Riley placed the officers, civil and military, 

 and gentlemen. To say that such and such men were gentle- 

 men was easy enough to assign reasons for saying so was 

 more complex. Riley did not attempt to do it. Yet in so 

 small a community, and one which from its isolated position 

 was peculiarly self-centred, such distinctions counted for much 

 in the amenities of colonial life. Broadly speaking, profession 

 or birth formed the usual standard. But a merchant came 

 within the charmed circle, and so might a retail trader if his 



1 S.G., 7th August, 1813. Government Public Notice and Order. 



2 Far north of Sydney a small settlement had been established to work the 

 coal mines at Newcastle at the mouth of the Hunter River. There seventy 

 *' incorrigible " convicts worked under guard of a garrison of thirty. The labour 

 was more severe and the comfort less than in the southern settlements, and 

 Newcastle (called also " Coal River ") was used as a place to which the New 

 South Wales Courts might order the transportation of prisoners. 



3 42,627 acres. 



4 Evidence before C. on G., 1819. 



