THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEM. 85 



and their treatment were often quite unsuitable to a place of 

 worship. 1 



It was natural that under this despotic Government, and 

 in a Colony peopled for the most part by outlaws, criticism of 

 those in authority should not be allowed. Petitions, Public 

 Meetings, Associations were all hedged round by restrictions. 

 But in that era of Tory reaction and the Six Acts, the colonial 

 population had remarkably little to complain of. They could 

 not complain, for example, when King in 1 803 refused to allow 

 Sir Henry Brown Hayes, a convict who had been " in the line 

 of a gentleman," to hold a Free Masons' Lodge and initiate 

 new members. Nor was it surprising that when in spite of his 

 prohibition a meeting was held, he passed an " exemplary sen- 

 tence" on Hayes of hard labour at the settlement then just 

 about to be formed at Van Diemen's Land. 2 Two years after- 

 wards King conducted a curious campaign against petitions. 

 He prohibited the landing of a cargo of spirits. Thereupon 

 some settlers presented a petition praying that the prohibition 

 be removed. King refused the prayer of the petitioners and 

 summoned the magistrates to consider whether the signatures 

 had been properly obtained. The magistrates recommended 

 the " discharge of the delinquents " and quoted the Bill of 

 Rights. The petition they said had perhaps been irregular in 

 form but that was the result of ignorance only. King then 

 drew up regulations of the manner in which future petitions to 

 the Governor were to be presented. 3 Three magistrates were to 

 give their consent to the promotion. When the petition had 

 been signed by one person, its purport was to be submitted 

 to the Governor. He might then allow more signatures to be 

 obtained, and when the petition was finally presented would 

 "consider and decide on its propriety". His object was to 

 prevent " seditious and ill-disposed persons going about getting 

 up petitions signed by the credulous and unwary for the most 



1 See Marsden to Bathurst, 1818. R.O., MS. The Orders often referred to 

 public-house licenses, price of spirituous liquors, the carrying of waddies by the 

 natives, etc. See Vale to Bathurst, i6th April, 1818. R.O., MS. 



2 See S.G., G.G.O., lyth May, 1803. It is surprising that later in the year 

 Hayes was still in Sydney and that so far as appears he never did go to Van Die- 

 men's Land. A Masonic Lodge was afterwards formed in New South Wales, but 

 not by the convicts. 



3 See for this episode Rusden, History of Australia, vol. i., p. 250. 



