120 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



and consequently the farmers were at the mercy of the Gover- 

 nor's regulations. In 1810 the Government had given 3,630 

 weekly rations, and in 1819 the number had increased to 7,292, 

 i.e., the Government which victualled 34 per cent of the popula- 

 tion in 1810, victualled 28 per cent, in 1819. In the latter year 

 the ration consisted of seven pounds of meat and seven pounds 

 of wheat a week, a slight increase in the ration of earlier years. 1 



The Government did not go into the market and buy wheat 

 at a competitive price, nor did it call for tenders. It simply 

 fixed a price per bushel and opened the Government stores at 

 certain times and allowed the settlers to bring in their wheat in 

 the amount required. In 1 8 1 3 the price fixed by Macquarie was 

 eight shillings a bushel, which he considered would " repay the 

 expense of labour and allow a reasonable profit ".' 2 In 1814 he 

 raised it to ten shillings per bushel. " The principal farmers," 

 he wrote, "all acknowledge that ten shillings per bushel for 

 wheat is a fair liberal price and that it allows them a handsome 

 profit. Yet in scarce and unfavourable seasons these same 

 persons will not sell their wheat to the Government under fifteen 

 or sixteen shillings, and they have repeatedly 3 even raised the 

 price on Government to twenty shillings per bushel ". 4 



This puts the real ground of the farmer's complaint in a 

 nutshell, and the Treasury suggested to Lord Bathurst in 1816 

 that the stores should be supplied by tender at a competitive 

 price. The Deputy-Commissary in New South Wales had 

 favoured this alteration, pointing out that the fixing of a low 

 price in times of scarcity made it impossible to get all the grain 

 required, while in years of plenty the Government paid too 

 much. 5 Macquarie, however, thought the fixed price necessary 

 to afford protection to the poorer settlers," and gave no oppor- 

 tunity or temptation to the rich to buy up and engross the corn. 

 On one occasion in 1 814 " there was an artificial scarcity created 



1 This was the ration for prisoners, and was less than the ration to Govern- 

 ment officials and gentlemen-settlers. 



8 D. i, 28th June, 1813. R.O., MS. 



3 This is a mere rhetorical flourish. It had happened twice only. 



4 'D. 40, I2th December, 1718. R.O., MS. 



8 Enclosure. Treasury to C.O. R.O., MS. 



8 D. 3, 3ist March, 1817. R.O., MS. Macquarie suggested that the system 

 of supplying by tender might be safely introduced by the end of 1818, but let the 

 matter rest and made no such change when the time arrived. 



