tched
five pounds each, and every other article in an equal proportion.
A great deal of time was also lost in endeavouring to make
implements of husbandry, mechanical tools, and other requisites
of a similar description. The reduced state of the colony at this
period was also rendered still more deplorable, by the neglect of
the government in England to comply with the urgent requisitions
of Governor Hunter for such supplies as were necessary. The
exhaustion of the stores of clothing and beds and blankets,
assisted to fill the hospital with patients, and rendered the
purchase of these articles absolutely indispensable at any price,
and on any terms on which they might be procured. I feel myself
inclined to suppose, that the backwardness which displayed itself
at this time in the government to dispatch the stores which were
demanded, arose from a conviction that the supplies which had
been previously sent in such abundance were sufficiently ample
for all the immediate wants of the colony, and, consequently,
that the pressure of necessity could not be so great as was
represented; for it was not to be expected that those officers
who administered the government of the colony, on the arrival of
their successors, would depict the situation of the settlement,
and the state of the stores, in any other than a favourable
light, particularly to his Majesty's ministers at home; a line of
conduct which tended considerably to enhance the mischiefs which
had been already showered upon the inhabitants, by the perhaps
too liberal distribution which had been displayed in the issuing
of the various necessaries during their administration.

3dly, As to the custom of allowing to settlers a certain
number of convicts, for years, to assist in the tillage, and
continuing to victual those servants out of the public stores.--I
am clearly of opinion, that much evil has arisen from the
unrestrained issue of this indulgence. The original object of
this grant was, to enable the young farmer to clear the tract
which was assigned to him, and to bring it into a condition which
would enable it to produce a maintenance for its possessor; then
he was required to take the convicts which he thought it
necessary to retain, entirely off the public stores, and to
victual and clothe them at his own cost. The abuse of this
indulgence, however, has arisen from the extension of its
advantages to an unlimitted term; so that the farmer is
interested in retardin