158 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



plaints. These delays were due to the system of " detainers " 

 and the manner of mustering the ship's crew. 



The system of detainers was an old one in the Colony, and 

 except for the period of Johnston's and Foveaux's administra- 

 tion had been always in force. Macquarie had reimposed it 

 immediately on his arrival and made no alterations in the 

 system from that time. 1 In accordance with his regulations 

 any person about to leave the Colony must give notice of his 

 intending departure in the Sydney Gazette at least ten days be- 

 fore sailing. This notice had to be inserted in two successive 

 issues. At least eight days subsequent to the first notice the 

 person about to depart had to procure from the Judge-Advo- 

 cate's office a certificate stating that no detainer had been 

 lodged against him. Until 1817 any one might lodge a detainer 

 without even swearing to the debt therein alleged, but Wylde 

 insisted on this being done. The total number of detainers 

 lodged between 1 8 1 6 and 1 820 was 67 1, and in 1 820 they showed 

 a distinct falling off.- Wylde stated that under his administra- 

 tion the number had decreased, but no record has been kept of 

 those in previous years. When the Supreme Cfourt of Civil 

 Judicature was closed, from 1815 to 1816, the only way in which 

 to secure payment was to lodge a detainer and so prevent the 

 debtor from leaving the country, 3 and detainers for as much as 

 .3,000 were lodged. They could at any time be made the means 

 of fraud. A man who had arranged all his affairs for departure 

 could be hurried into giving security even for a debt which he 

 did not owe, and might in the end have to pay it. Those upon 

 whom the regulation fell most hardly were the masters of ships 

 frequenting the ports. When Wylde became Judge-Advocate 

 he found that the greater number of detainers were lodged by 

 publicans against men of the ships' crews. The masters, im- 

 patient to weigh anchor, would either have to pay the debts or 

 leave the men behind. At Wylde's suggestion Macquarie in- 

 cluded in the Port Regulations issued in 1819 a clause which 



1 Government Public Notice, loth February, 1810. 



s Wylde's Evidence and Return in Appendix, Reports. R.O., MS. 



3 Moore's Evidence, Appendix, Reports. R.O., MS. 



