awkesbury sent round
some grain, in part payment of the debts which were due from them to
government for the seed which had been lent them last year to crop their
grounds.

In consequence of complaints which were laid before the governor,
relative to some exorbitant demands made by the public bakers upon those
who had occasion to employ them, and of the impositions practised as well
in the quality as in the quantity of the bread returned in lieu of the
flour or grain delivered to them, the judge-advocate and two other
magistrates were directed to hold a meeting for the purpose of enquiring
into the business, as well as for examining and regulating the weights
and measures which were at present in use in the colony. An order was at
the same time issued, recommending to the settlers of every district,
that, as much pains had been taken to establish, agreeably to their
wishes, the rate of wages to be paid for all kinds of labour, they should
now attend strictly to this regulation, and no longer suffer themselves
to be imposed upon. There were strong reasons for suspecting that,
notwithstanding the bond which they had entered into, rigidly to adhere
to the regulations which had been established for their benefit, some
among them were so very deficient of even honest principles as to attempt
by various means to evade the regulation, to the great injury of other
more industrious and more deserving men. In order the more readily to
detect a practice so shameful and iniquitous, the governor judged it
requisite to hold out a reward to those who would come forward and give
such information as should be sufficient to prove the offence, by
offering one-third of the sum forfeited to the informer. The settlers were
also called upon to give information of any labouring man who, on
offering himself for hire, should refuse to accept the regulated wages.
As such person must be incapable of living in this country without work,
he was immediately to be apprehended as a vagrant, who, having no visible
means of providing honestly for his support, must have recourse to
robbery.

The natives at the Hawkesbury were at this time very troublesome, burning
a dwelling-house and a stack of wheat belonging to a settler there, after
having plundered him of all his other possessions.

On the 21st, as much wheat as the public granaries at Sydney, Parramatta,
and the Hawkesbury could contain, having been received, they were closed
until the month of A