THE STIRRING OF POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS. 269 



In Sydney the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 

 and Benevolence had given relief from funds raised by private 

 subscriptions, and the Government did not allow any one to 

 perish by actual starvation. But in 1817 Macquarie thought 

 that some scheme should be organised for relieving the poor, 

 and called a meeting of magistrates 1 and other principal 

 inhabitants, at which Wylde, who had, however, not been con- 

 sulted as to the objects of the meeting, presided. 2 



He proposed that a duty on tea and tobacco and an in- 

 creased duty on spirits should be levied, and the proceeds de- 

 voted to the relief of the poor, thus leaving the fund to be raised 

 and administered by the Government, and treating it as a 

 national (if the word can be used for the Colony) service be- 

 longing not to each locality but to the Central Government. 3 



Macquarie had expected the meeting to make arrangements 

 for raising a private fund, and though he laid the extra duty on 

 spirits and the new duty on tobacco, he did not utilise the pro- 

 ceeds as the meeting had suggested. His idea was that the 

 people of each district should " support their own free, poor and 

 decayed settlers". 4 



The meeting on the other hand thought that " all expenses 

 in regard to ticket-of-leave men and emancipated convicts 

 should be borne by the Crown, especially in those cases where 

 persons very far advanced in age were sent out under sentence 

 of transportation, and also in the cases of prisoners who had 

 been many years retained as mechanics by the Government ". 5 



Something of a compromise was finally reached by the 

 establishment of the Benevolent Society first mooted in April, 

 and founded at a public meeting on the 6th June, 1818. The 

 chief rules were that persons applying for relief must be recom- 

 mended by a subscriber, and that relief was so far as possible to 

 be given in kind and not in money. The objects of relief were 



1 S.G., 5th July, 1817. Notice does not say for what purpose the meeting is 

 called. 



2 Meeting took place on 13th August, 1817. 



3 The taxes suggested were 6d. a Ib. on tobacco, is. or as. a Ib. on tea, and 

 another 35. on spirits. See Wylde's Evidence, Appendix, Bigge's Reports. R.O., 

 MS. 



4 Macquarie, D. 20, 24th March, 1819. R.O., MS. In " free " he certainly in- 

 cluded emancipists and possibly ticket-of-leave men. 



5 Wylde, see above. 



