Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/116



THE LIQUOR TRADE.

" great objects of attention," wrote Castlereagh to Macquarie on the 14th May, 1809, "are to improve the morals of the colonists, to encourage marriage, to provide for education, to prohibit the use of spirituous liquors, to increase the agriculture and stock so as to ensure the certainty of a full supply to the inhabitants under all circumstances."

Each of these was important in itself—but by far the most urgent was the question of the liquor trade, on which the whole progress of the Colony, agricultural and moral, in no small degree depended. To prohibit the importation and "use" of spirits altogether was a counsel of perfection which it would have been utterly impossible to carry out. Nor was it possible to prevent convicts being supplied with liquor, for there was no outward sign, no distinctive dress which marked them off as belonging to that class. Even if it had been made an offence for publicans to serve them, assigned servants might still have received liquor in lieu of wages from their masters.

Putting aside therefore any form of direct prohibition, three suggestions were made for regulating the liquor traffic. In the first place it was suggested that importation should be free—but subject to a high duty. In the second, that sale after importation should be by permit only. Thirdly, that all private barter of spirits for corn or necessaries should be strictly prohibited. (88)