126 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



he considered himself unable to add to his flocks, which then 

 amounted to 7,000 head. He occupied by permission 1,000 acres 

 besides his own estate in the Cow Pastures, and was anxious to 

 have it granted him outright so that he need have no fear of 

 suddenly being deprived thereof. 1 



Bigge was altogether in favour of large grants and of foster- 

 ing by every possible means the wool-trade of the Colony. A 

 proposal submitted to Macquarie in 1820 with this purpose in 

 view met with his approval. The promoters proposed to form 

 a joint-stock company for the growth of fine wool and " pe- 

 cuniary assistance was requested by advances from the Police 

 Fund ; the assignment of agricultural labourers as they arrived 

 from England ; an unlimited range for flocks of sheep in the 

 interior, not approaching nearer to the settled estates than five 

 miles, and an importation of sheep of the pure Merino breed at 

 the expense of Government, the cost of which was to be repaid 

 at a future period, and in the meantime to be secured upon the 

 shares of the subscribers and the flocks of sheep as they might 

 be produced. 



" The objection made by Governor Macquarie to this pro- 

 posal appears to have arisen from an apprehension of the 

 consequences of placing so many convict labourers in remote 

 situations, under no better control than that of the individual 

 superintendent of the establishment whom it was proposed to 

 appoint. This circumstance forms certainly the essential ob- 

 jection to the extension of settlements in which convicts are 

 employed, or their removal to a great distance from the residence 

 of some individual clothed with authority to control and punish 

 them ; and as far as the proposal made to Governor Macquarie 

 limited the number of superintendents, I concur with him in 

 the objection he made. I am not aware that the proposal was 

 founded upon any general support from individuals in the 

 Colony ; I am disposed to believe that, from the indisposition 

 already adverted to in the proprietors of stock to leave their 

 establishments in the settled districts and to repair to those 

 more remote for the purpose of devoting themselves more 

 exclusively to the growth of fine wool, they would gladly have 



1 Macarthur to Bigge, i8th October, 1821, Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., 

 MS. He held 7,000 acres by grant or permission and 2,600 by purchase. 



