THE LIQUOR TRADE. 93 



there is too much reason to apprehend the consequences which 

 may result from the reduced price of an article, the injurious 

 effect of which upon the morals and health of the inhabitants 

 is only equalled by the avidity with which it is required." He 

 concluded by asking the Governor to express an opinion on the 

 subject, a somewhat farcical request, since it was upon the 

 Governor's opinion that the Committee had founded their 

 proposal which he was thus invited to criticise. 



Macquarie reiterated his previous arguments, but it was not 

 until 1819 that the Colonial Office gave way. Even then they 

 had misgivings. Commissioner Bigge, who went to New South 

 Wales in that year, was instructed to inquire whether "distill- 

 ation in the Colony could be so checked and controlled as to 

 prevent the indiscriminate and unrestrained dissemination of 

 ardent spirits throughout a population too much inclined already 

 to immoderate use of them, and too likely to be excited by the 

 use of them to acts of lawless violence. " l 



There was no doubt in Bigge's mind as to the economic ad- 

 vantages to be expected from permission to distil, and in 1822 

 distilleries were established under very stringent regulations. 2 



The hospital contract expired on the 3ist December, 1814, 

 and the building was completed shortly afterwards. Macquarie 

 always held that the contract had been very advantageous to 

 the Government, who had gained much and lost nothing by its 

 means. The contractors had paid duty on the spirits they im- 

 ported, and laying stress on this, and on the fact that there was 

 now a hospital of an imposing description to beautify the town 

 of Sydney, Macquarie neglected all other sides to the matter. 

 He overlooked, for example, the fact that the hospital was much 

 larger than was necessary, so much larger indeed that for some 

 years half of it was set aside and used as a court-house. Its 

 architecture, too, was of so ornate a description and so far beyond 

 the skill of the workmen that the building was already falling 

 into decay in 1 82O. 3 However, the rum hospital, erected " by such 

 a sacrifice of public morals and expediency," 4 still forms part of 

 the Parliament House of New South Wales at the present day. 5 



1 Instructions to Bigge. P.P., XIV., 1823. 2 See Chapter V. 



3 See Bigge's Report, III. Also despatch to Bathurst, D. 9, 24th August, 1820, 

 R.O., MS. 



4 Ibid. s i.e., the columns and portico. 



