LAND, LABOUR AND COMMERCE. 115 



and the like. 1 He thought an emigrant should have at least 

 ^"500, and so be able to take " six or eight male convicts off the 

 store" and reduce the expenses of the Colony. 



The stream of emigration, good and bad, was very slow. In 

 the four or five years before 1818 Riley could not remember that 

 more than twenty settlers had arrived. Many of these knew 

 nothing of farming, and if they stayed on their land had a hard 

 struggle to make a living after the six months for which they 

 were " on the stores" had elapsed. If there was any delay in 

 getting the land the six months' indulgence counted for nothing 

 at all. 2 There was an effort made to prevent this from occur- 

 ring in 1817, but it does not appear to have been enforced. 3 



In 1819, the Secretary of State began to advertise New 

 South Wales as a good place for emigration. 4 A short note in 

 the Gentleman s Magazine reported his intention to encourage 

 free settlement there, and stated that emigrants should be 

 persons " possessing considerable science, activity, integrity and 

 property". Such "alone could redeem the character of the 

 Colony and make it a fit residence for civilised man," and " en- 

 able it to become an assistance instead of a burden to the mother 

 country". 5 



The way in which emigration was encouraged was simply 

 by making it easier to obtain grants. But the increase in the 

 number of settlers in 1819 and 1820 was remarkable. A mer- 

 chant ship from Leith took out seventy passengers early in 1820, 

 and as many more were expected to leave the same port in 

 June. This sudden influx piled up great arrears of work in the 

 Surveyor's office, and Macquarie had much difficulty in finding 



1 D. 8, i6th May, 1818. R.O., MS. 



2 Riley and Jones, Evidence to C. on G., 1819. Riley probably refers only to 

 emigrants who had some property or standing, not to the many labourers and 

 artisans who were for the most part the husbands of convicts. 



3 Riley makes no mention of it. It was an Order of the 24th May, 1817. 

 " The public will take notice that persons seeking to be put on the stores and to 

 obtain other indulgences by virtue of their having obtained locations or promises 

 of grants of land will not be considered as having any claim thereto until they 

 shall have taken out their grant, cleared a portion of the lands assigned to them, 

 and built a dwelling-house thereon ; and none of the accustomed indulgences will 

 be extended in future unless where a full and complete compliance has been 

 rendered to the present rule on that head." See later in this chapter. 



4 It became a more frequent subject of reference in the English newspapers 

 generally at about this time. 



5 Gentleman's Magazine, February, 1819, p. 175. 



