CHAPTER IV. 



THE LIQUOR TRADE. 



AUTHORITIES. Despatches, etc., in Record and Colonial Offices. Sydney 

 Gazette. P.P., 1812, II. ; 1819, VII. ; 1822, XX. ; 1822, X. Report of Trial 

 of Lieut.-Colonel Johnston. 



" THE great objects of attention," wrote Castlereagh to 

 Macquarieon the I4th May, iSog, 1 "are to improve the morals 

 of the colonists, to encourage marriage, to provide for education, 

 to prohibit the use of spirituous liquors, to increase the agricul- 

 ture and stock so as to ensure the certainty of a full supply to 

 the inhabitants under all circumstances." 



Each of these was important in itself but by far the most 

 urgent was the question of the liquor trade, on which the whole 

 progress of the Colony, agricultural and moral, in no small 

 degree depended. 2 To prohibit the importation and " use " of 

 spirits altogether was a counsel of perfection which it would 

 have been utterly impossible to carry out. 3 Nor was it possible 

 to prevent convicts being supplied with liquor, for there was no 

 outward sign, no distinctive dress which marked them off as 

 belonging to that class. Even if it had been made an offence 

 for publicans to serve them, assigned servants might still have 

 received liquor in lieu of wages from their masters. 4 



Putting aside therefore any form of direct prohibition, three 

 suggestions were made for regulating the liquor traffic. 5 In 

 the first place it was suggested that importation should be free 

 but subject to a high duty. In the second, that sale after impor- 

 tation should be by permit only. Thirdly, that all private barter 

 of spirits for corn or necessaries should be strictly prohibited. 



1 H.R., VII., p. 143. See Introduction, Chapter I. 



3 If the settlement had been made a " prohibition area" the garrison would 

 have become mutinous and discontented. 



4 See Wentworth's Evidence, Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. 

 'H.R., VII. See above. 



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