Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/307

 GROSE AND THB LAND. 263 eminently a one-sided arrangement, from which the Grovem- ^"**^ ment received no benefit whatever. The point was seen clearly enough by the anthorities of the Home Department. Long before Grose could receive a reply to his despatch, in which he intimated that the arrangement he had made would go on until further instruc- tions were received, he had left the colony, and his com- munication was not answered until 10th June, 1795, when the Duke of Portland, commenting on the disproportion Decision of between the land cultivated by private individuals and ment. by Government, informed Hunter that the regulations which Grose had been directed to observe in regard to con- vict servants to be allowed to officers did not admit of any discretionary construction. The reasons which Grose had assigned for deferring the adoption of the regulations until further instructions arrived from England were declared to be ^^insufficient and erroneous."* No doubt the grantees of the land got more labour out of the convicts than the Govern- ment would have done ; but still, if the men given to the officers had been employed on the public land, the Govern- ment would, at least, have received some return. Instead of that, the Government paid everything, and received nothing. It was not likely that such a system would be tolerated. The point was again pressed on Hunter's attention in a despatch An emphatic from Whitehall, dated August, 1796 : — " It is not reasonable that the publick should feed those convicts whose labour it gives to individuals, and should afterwards purchase the produce of that labour. . . . The more convicts that can be made over to individuals, and taken off the store, the greater will be the advantage ; but it must be understood that those individuals, of whatever description, and in whatever situation they may happen to be, who take the convicts, must support them at their own ex- pence, and must not be suffered to receive the produce of the labour of the convicts at the cost of the Crown." When Hunter received this despatch he had been admin- istering the Government for about eighteen months, but he
 * HiBtorical Becords, toL ii, p. 808.