4^ British Settlement at [Jan* 



either evaded or disregarded. One commercial, regulation ap- 

 pears however to be still in full force, which, in the opinion of 

 your committee, ought immediately to be rescinded; it is that 

 by which no ship is allowed to dispose of any merchandise in 

 Van Diemen's Land, unless it shnli have previously touched at 

 Fort Jackson. By this restrictioii all mercantile enterprise is at 

 once put an end to in the dependent settlements ; and supplies, 

 absolutely essential to the support of its inhabitants, may in their 

 greatest necessity be delayed to them. The impolicy and injus- 

 tice of this regulation are so apparent,' that your committee trust 

 it will not long remain in existence. 



The greatest difficulties to which the government has been 

 su])ject, have arisen in its attempts to regulate the supply of 

 spirituous liquors. Their importation used to be limited by 

 licences granted by the Governor: on the arrival of a cargo, he 

 fixed the price at which it vv^as to be sold, and distributed it at 

 this price, which was generally very low, to the persons highest 

 In authority in the settlement. The liquors were afterwards 

 paid away by them as vv^ages to their labourers, or retailed at a 

 very advanced rate to such of the inhabitants as wished to become 

 purchasers; and the eagerness for spirituous liquors has been so 

 great in the colony, that the gains made in this traftic have been 

 enormous. The temptations too to smuggling and illicit distil- 

 lation are so great, and their facilities in that thinly inhabited 

 country so numerous, that all attempts to check a clandestine 

 supply have proved in vain ; and the qualities of the liquor thus 

 obtained are generally infinitely worse and more unwholesome 

 than of that which is legally imported. Governor Macquarie ^ 

 states in his dispatch, dated April SO, 1810, that the various 

 measures that have been hitherto taken to check the importation 

 and regulate the sale of spirits have invariably failed ; and as it 

 is impossible totally so suppress the use of them, a certain quan- 

 tity being essentially necessary for the accommodation of the in- 

 habitants, it appears to him that it would be good and sound 

 policy to sanction the free importation of good spirits, under a 

 high duty of not less than three or four shillings per gallon. He 

 expects, from this m.easure, to put an end to all further attempts 

 at monopoly, and bartering spirits for corn and necessaries, and 

 to private stills, which, in defiance of every precaution, are still 

 very numerous in the colony; and he is persuaded that this 

 measure, instead of promoting drunkenness and idleness, will 

 tend rather to lessen both. Governor Macquarie's suggestion 

 met with the approbation of the government of this country, and 

 orders were sent out to permit the free importation of spirits, 

 under a duty of not less than four shillings per gallon. Upon 

 this subject your committee entirely agree with Governor 

 Macquarie in opinion, that a less limited supply of spirituous 



