Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/316

 26B TSE PBOGvBSBB jOF '^^^ distilling— eyeryone was aHowed at {hat time to keep a stiH Private — ^and the Goyenunent could obtain from the settlers only a few hundred bushels.* Appeals were made to them with- out effect ; and as they continued to refuse to sell their com, although they were being supported from the Goyemment stores, sixty-three of them were struck off the provision list; a just punishment, Collins obseryes, for their selfishness. Agricultural The couditiou of the i^ricultural industry in 1794 fully justified the confident tone of the despatches which Grose wrote at that time. On the 10th December, a few days before he left the colony, he stated in a despatch to Dundas : — " Our wheat harvest is oyer:; the produce is considerable, and the Indian corn, at prefient, has the appearance of plenty."t In a letter which he left for Hunter, whose appointment to the Goyemorship had been announced, and reSaroB to '^'^^se arrival was daily expected, J he said. — ^^ The colony Engriand. jg ^t this time in so flourishing a state, and the officer I leave in command§ every way so capable of the duty of it, that no evil consequences can possibly attend my going away .^'11 This favourable account is borne out by Collins, who described the condition of the settlement several months before that as very flourishing indeed. The improvement ^iffiut which had taken place was not known in England, where, according to reports brought by the William and other vessels, the general impression seemed to be that the colony was a sterile waste, destitute of native vegetation, and which in general they might be said to hare gathered, gare no assistance to Government hy sending any into store. Some small quantity (about one hundred and sixty bushels) indeed had been reoeired ; but nothing equal either to the wants or expectations of GoTornment. They appeared to be most sedulously endeayounng to get rid of their grain in any way they could; Fome by brewing and distilling it ; some by baking it into bread, and indulg- ing their own propensities in eating ; others by paying debts contracted by gaming. Even the farms themselves were pledged and lost in this way; tDose very iarms which undoubtedly were capable of furnishing them with an honest comfortable maintenance for life." — Collins, vol. i, p. 338. t Historical Becords, vol. ii, p. 276. X Hunt«r did not arrive until September, 1796; § Captain Paterson. || lb., p. 274.
 * " It was found that the settlen, notwithstanding the plentiful crops