ANNUAL ADDRESS. IX. 



have been set at naught. The new rulers allowed their followers 

 and others to build close to the stream, to keep pigs, and generally 

 to pollute the water supply of the settlement. 



On Governor Hunter assuming command in 1795, he restored 

 the Civil Government, and in October had the fences repaired ; 

 he also abolished the pig-styes and the direct paths to the water. 

 Orders were issued that people dipping from the stream, and not 

 going to the Tanks, would be punished by having their houses 

 pulled down, and such orders were repeated up to 1799, when 

 the Governor pointed out that many deaths had resulted from the 

 pollution of the waters. He then appointed a special constable 

 to report daily on the fences and gardens which abutted on the 

 stream. 



Governor King, between 1800 and 1806, like his predecessors, 

 was horrified to find persons cleansing fish and washing clothes, 

 besides keeping pigs, on the borders of the stream. He appears 

 to have been a quick-tempered gentleman, for he punished some 

 offenders by pulling down their houses, others were fined £5, while 

 old offenders were flogged and sent on to the roads. 



Governor Bligh was also very determined about the preserva- 

 tion of this water supply, and his action in this matter may have 

 hastened his deposition by the offending military officers before 

 referred to. With the Governor got rid of, the military power 

 was again uppermost, and all sorts of irregularities were apparently 

 resumed, for on Governor Macquarie's arrival he found many 

 evidences of civilisation (1) upon the watershed. These included 

 a, brewery, a distillery, a tannery, and a dye-works, all of which 

 had been erected within a short distance of the banks of the 

 stream which supplied the town. In 1810 he issued an order 

 that no such industries, and no slaughter-houses, should be erected 

 on or near this stream, and that those already there should be 

 suppressed. 



Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane was Governor from 1821 

 to 1825, and during his reign the pollution of the stream still 



