THE LIQUOR TRADE. 99 



who had been successfully prosecuted for unlicensed vending 

 four times in two years was permitted to take a license in the 

 third year. 1 It was obviously important that drinking should 

 not be encouraged by a multiplication of facilities, and that the 

 public houses should be decent and orderly. The issue of 

 licenses gave the Government considerable power in regulating 

 the number and conduct of these houses and it also brought in 

 a considerable revenue.- It is difficult to say what was under- 

 stood by an " orderly house ". Governor King forbade gambling 

 and drunkenness, probably with very little effect. Macquarie 

 laid stress on the house being "commodious" and fit for the 

 reception of travellers, and warned the publican not to allow 

 " low and profligate characters " to make it a resort or the centre 

 of disturbance. Nine o'clock was the closing hour for them all, 

 but on " The Rocks," at least, the police made few efforts to en- 

 force this rule. To distinguish licensed from unlicensed houses 

 the former were ordered to hang signt>oards before their doors 

 and a list of these was published in the Gazette? The tavern 

 company was often riotous and the inn parlour the place of 

 brawls. 4 The duty of the Government was to lessen these evils 

 by selecting suitable " housekeepers," and by keeping them 

 strictly to the conditions under which the licenses were granted. 

 By no means could it have been easy to find amongst the 

 population of Sydney, licensees of undoubted propriety. But 

 Macquarie's system had obvious faults. He reversed the former 

 custom by which the Governor granted licenses on the advice of 

 the magistrates, thus leaving the real power to them ; putting in 

 its place one by which the magistrates granted the licenses by 

 direction of the Governor. 5 " . . . I have always understood," 

 wrote Bent in 1815," that licenses to vend spirituous liquors has 



1 Evidence in Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. 



2 The revenue was from 1,400 to 2,000 annually. Macquarie laid great 

 stress on its importance. Thus in G.G.O., 7th August, 1813, in speaking of un- 

 licensed retailing, he said, " Magistrates and other peace officers are called on to 

 exert themselves in detecting and punishing all such frauds on the revenue ". 



3 The police often allowed dances to take place in the licensed houses, during 

 which there were scenes ot great disorder. 



4 See G.G.O.'s 1810 to 1817, passim. The public houses were probably not 

 so bad as those in England, and especially those in London. 



5 Bigge says Macquarie continued the old custom. See Report, II. This, 

 however, is a mistake. See G.G.O. of King in 1800 and the notices in Sydney 

 Gazette, which show that the system of 1800 continued until 1810. See also, 

 Bent's letter quoted below. 



