Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/142

 in THE DISPOSAL OF 1789 PrivUegea No encourage- mentto free settlors. Phillip, accordingly, was directed to issue grants to all soldiers who were willing ^to remain, as follows : — To married men« — Non-mmi8sioned officers, 150 acres; privates, 100 acres; and, in eadi case, .10 additional acres for every child. To single men. — Non-commissioned officers,. 130 acres ; privates, 80 acres. He was to allow them from the public store, clothes, provisions, seed-grain, tools, and implements, sufficient for one year, free of charge ; and ensign to them the services of any number of the convicts — " you may judge suffioientto answer their purpose'* — on condition of the grantee main- taining them in a satisfactory manner. If the marines preferred to enlist in the" relieving corps, they were to receive a bounty of £3 per man, and, at the end of five years' service, double the quantity of land.* The free settlers, about whom Phillip was so anxious, were practically shut out. If any of them found their way to the colony, he was instructed to give them every encouragement ^' without subjecting the public to expense." Grants of land could be given to them; but they must not exceed the area allowed to non-commissioned officers. The services of convicts were, if required, to be assigned to them ; but neither for themselves, nor for the convicts so assigned, were they to be allowed clothing or provisions, seeds or tools, from the public store. No inducement whatever was held out to them; and Phillip saw at once that unless this was done it was hopeless to expect that the colony would be anything more than a penal settlement for many years. This must have been a severe disappointment to him. Upon no point had he been so emphatic in his despatches to Whitehall as upon the necessity for placing free settlers upon the soil ; he had, from the first, been convinced that the prosperity of the settlement depended upon it, and the Beoords, yol. i, park 2, p. 256..
 * These Instructions 'will be .found printed at length in the Historioal