48 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



the end of the same year he made a similar appointment at the 

 Bay of Islands, New Zealand. New Zealand was 1,500 miles 

 away, Otaheite no less than 5,000. Macquarie claimed that 

 both lay within the geographical limits of the territory of 

 New South Wales. * They were so far as their latitude was 

 concerned, but it is more than doubtful whether Otaheite could 

 be called " adjacent ". The appointments were passed over in 

 silence by the Colonial Office, and though these magistrates 

 kept Macquarie informed of events happening within their 

 districts, there is no sign of their ever having acted in a 

 magisterial capacity.- They did not materially improve the 

 disorderly ways of the traders. 



Over Van Diemen's Land, the Governor-in-Chief exercised 

 general supervisory powers. Before Macquarie's arrival there 

 had been two Lieutenant-Governors in the island, one at the 

 Derwent 3 in the south, the other at Port Dalrymple in the 

 north. 4 Both had previously been on an equal footing, and 

 neither strictly subordinate to New South Wales. But from 

 1810 their relations were placed on a definite basis. Port 

 Dalrymple lost its Lieutenant- Governor and received a com- 

 mandant under the orders of the Lieutenant-Governor at Hobart 

 Town in his place. The Lieutenant-Governor himself received 

 his orders, and conducted his correspondence with the Colonial 

 Office through the Governor at Sydney. The latter became his 

 responsible chief, and being " held accountable by His Majesty's 

 Ministers for the general control, improvements and expenses 

 of those settlements," 5 issued to the Lieutenant-Governor full and 

 particular instructions. Collins' successor, Major Davey, an 

 officer of Marines, who came out in 1813 bearing a bad reputa- 

 tion which his conduct in the Colony fully justified, received 

 very "pointed and strict" directions from Macquarie. 6 His 



1 R.O., D. i, i7th January, 1814. By a Proclamation issued on the 4th 

 December, 1813, Macquarie attempted to restrain the masters of trading vessels 

 from committing outrages on the South Sea natives. By its provisions only ships 

 of British or Indian Registry were to be cleared out for these parts in the ordinary 

 way. Masters of ships of the Plantation Registry were to enter into bonds \\ith 

 the naval officers in the sum of ^1,000 to refrain from molesting the natives. 

 There is no indication that the terms of the Proclamation were complied with, and 

 it is unlikely that the amount of the bond could have been recovered in any case. 



a See Chapter VI. On the High Seas, p. 167. 



3 Headquarters were at Hobart Town on the Denvent. 



4 Now Launceston. 6 D. i, 28th June, 1813. R.O., MS. 6 Ibid. 



