Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/230

 mixture, and increased in number and improved in the quality of their wool. In a year or two after I had an opportunity of augmenting my flocks by the purchase from Colonel Foveaux of 1200 sheep of the common Cape breed."

Thus there was no element of accident which favoured Macarthur, except the fact that when he desired his friends to obtain "wool-bearing sheep," the unappreciated Escurial flock was thrown on the market at the Cape. Captains Kent and Waterhouse carried many more sheep to others than they took to Macarthur. But ignorant settlers would breed for no other purpose than for the meat market. Priceless animals were wasted, and—in Macarthur's language—"disappeared."

He having received his precious purchase in 1797, was able to carry with him to England three years afterwards such proof of success as to stir manufacturers as well as the government to aid him in his enterprise, on account of which his friends fondly called him the "father of the colony."

The Secretary of State (Dundas) had, in 1794, thrown his weight into the scale to encourage farming and pastoral pursuits. He wrote to Governor Hunter (who, however, did not arrive in the colony until 1795) that he was displeased at hearing that "the settlers had sold all the stock distributed among them by Governor Phillip."... "In order to avoid the dissipation of the animals, they should have been taken from the individuals (by Grose) the moment they evinced such a disposition, and should have been instantly added to the public stock, the conditions under which they were given not being complied with" by the settlers.

Mr. Dundas had in 1793 written to Grose—"In consequence of Governor Phillip's last despatches, and of the personal communication I have had with him," grantees must reside on their land, otherwise the grants will be void. At the same time he limited the convicts to be assigned to officers, civil and military, as such, to two. This instruction neither Grose, Paterson, nor Hunter had resolution to enforce; nor an accompanying order that the clandestine sale of spirits should be "strictly prevented." If officers should desire to become settlers, Hunter was authorized (June 1794) by Dundas to grant one hundred acres to each, or even more to the "peculiarly well-deserving," reporting