NEW SOUTH WALES AND PARLIAMENT. 319 



continue the specially severe police regulations which had been 

 required to control the convict population ? 



As to the Colony's trade, " it will ... be for you to report 

 to me whether the market may not be freed either gradually or 

 all at once from such restrictions, whether the competition of 

 traders will not here as elsewhere produce the most beneficial 

 effects, and whether the Government stores may not be supplied 

 (as in other Colonies) by public tender, with equal advantage 

 both to the public and to the individual cultivator ". " There is 

 one other point also," Lord Bathurst added, " which I cannot 

 avoid recommending to your consideration 1 , though I fear there 

 is not much prospect of your being able to reconcile that differ- 

 ence of opinion which has prevailed in the Colony. I allude to 

 the propriety of admitting into society persons who originally 

 came to the settlement as convicts. The opinion entertained 

 by the Governor, and sanctioned by the Prince Regent, has 

 certainly been, with some few exceptions, in favour of their re- 

 ception at the expiration of their several sentences, upon terms 

 of perfect equality with the free settlers." Lord Bathurst felt, 

 however, that as the measures taken in this direction had cer- 

 tainly roused hostility in the Colony, it was important to inquire 

 fully into the merits of the system. 



The task entrusted to Bigge was indeed a heavy one, and 

 his inquiries l kept him in the Colony for over a year. Four 

 months of the time he devoted to Van Diemen's Land, and the 

 remainder he spent in exploring New South Wales and collecting 

 an invaluable mass of documents and evidence. He returned 

 to England on 3rd July, 1821, and within a year the Colonial 

 Office was put in possession of his first report, though it was 

 not until 1823 that this was followed by the second and third. 



The reports were exceedingly voluminous, containing many 

 detailed accounts of what now seem trivial events. The cause, 

 however, of their extreme length and minuteness was due to 

 two facts, one that the Colonial Office were anxious for full reports 

 on many disputes which had been communicated to them by in- 

 terested parties only, and the other that it was deemed inadvis- 

 able to print the minutes of evidence on which Bigge's conclusions 



1 For exact titles of the reports, see Appendix. 



