BY JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKER. 231 



were excellent, the salt beef and pork being better than 

 any he had seen in New South Wales. But with 

 respect to the other stores he has one long complaint 

 to make. The tools were bad ; the axes so soft that the 

 commonest wood would turn their edges ; of the gimlets 

 scarce one in a dozen would stand boring twice. The 

 materials for clothing were of poor quality, and the 

 thread rotten. The shoes were made of inferior leather, 

 and were all of one size. The sui-gical instruments were 

 of an obsolete pattern, and many of them worn out. The 

 iron was rolled and not wrought, while neither glue, 

 borax, rosin, nor bar steel had been thought of, so that 

 the carpenters and smiths were in difficulties. The 

 ordnance that had been given him for defence was in- 

 complete, the guns of different sizes and patterns, while 

 the ammunition was all of one sort. The seed corn brought 

 from England would not vegetate, and if it had not been 

 for some good seed which he obtained at the Cape, and 

 some more which Governor King sent him, he could 

 not have raised a crop of wheat. Except the provisions, 

 the printing press was the only item of which he could 

 speak with satisfaction, but for this they had not given 

 him a sufficient supply of type or of paper. Of course, 

 when the contractors were communicated with they all pro- 

 tested that the goods were carefully selected, of a quality 

 supei'ior to the pattern, and quite equal to those which 

 the convicts had had heretofore. Perhaps this last state- 

 ment was correct. 



In spite of these minor difficulties, the work of settle- 

 ment and improvement was pushed on with an energy 

 and system presenting a strong contrast to the inaction 

 and disorder of the Port Phillip camp. When the land- 

 ing jetty at Hunter's Island was completed, all the 

 strength that could be spared from the work of clear- 

 ing was bent to the building of a Government House. 

 He had 178 men in all, but when the necessary deductions 

 were made for overseers, servants, cooks, boats' crews, 

 labourers clearing away scrub or employed in other 

 necessary work, and for the sick — always a large item, 

 owing to the prevalence of scurvy and other ailments 

 induced by the exclusive use of salt provisions — it will 

 be seen that no large number would be left for the actual 

 work of building.* It is most probable that the Governor 

 selected and brought with him in the first detachment 

 all the skilled workmen, leaving the most useless at 



* See Appendix : Return of Employments. 



