Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/511

 limited in aome degree by King, and Macquarie^a passion for public works demanded ho many workmen that he could not BUpply the settlers. ?Iis plea that the settlers could not take them Big^e found ti> be incorrect. At one time lots were drawn hy applicant &s, but the system settled down into assignment by the superintendent of convicts, who was, of course, directly amenable to Macqaarie. Favouritism prevailed. It is creditable to the shrewdness of King and his advisers, among wliom Marsden was conspicuous, that the quantity which they fixed upon as a day*6 labour for convicts, in various employments, was so well adjusted that it was adhered to till the end of Macquarie*s goverinnent. It left a margin of time which a hard-working man could profitably employ, and many men were paid for extra work done for their masters, or, by permission of their masters, for others* An ex-convict to whom a convict had been assigued, found it more profitable sometimes to hire out his skilled servant than to employ him at home. This source of gain to himself and his master was lost to the convict retained in government control. Convicts concealed their accompUshments, in order to be assigned to private masters. Convict overseers vied with the impostors in sharpness, and even when a skilled workman had evaded the watch, he was, if detected in his handicraft, taken back and put into the government ** gang,'* by which term roadway and other large parties of convicts were known. The clank of the fetters of the '* ironed- gang** passing on the road, jarred strangely on the nnaccustomed ear of the immigrant. The corruption which was engendered by the system was notorious, and the demoralixation of some masters was inevitable. A Parlia-f mentary Conmiittee (1812) denoiuiced the assignment ofi convicts to masters wlio traded in their skill, many of the masters being *' overseers and themselves convicts." *- The selection of the assigned convicts being left principally to the overseer, it is made with reference to the means of payment possessed by them, and not to their characters or conduct.*' Hence skilful guilt purchased advantages which clumsy criminals could only hope to obtain by long servi- tude. Convict overseers connived at the evasion of task- work l>y those who could buy indulgence. PF 2