Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/323

 IK SPIRITS. 275 corroborative reports from the Rev. Richard Johnson, the ^^ Rev. Samuel Marsden, and Mr. Surgeon Arndell. Hunter admitted the existence of the evils complained of ^jj^^' by Macarthur ; but attributed them to the policy pursued by Grose in giving so much power to the military officers, and in allowing the establishment of a system of trade in spirits. Conscious that his statements would lose force by the fact that he had not any personal knowledge of the colony during Grose's administration. Hunter called upon the Chaplains and Surgeon, who had been eye-witnesses. Aooounts o« If the reports of these gentlemen are to be credited, the witneasos. state of affairs was shocking even for a convict settlement. The people were given up to drunkenness, gambling, and licentiousness ; disorder and riot prevailed ; robberies and crimes of a still more serious nature were common ; the people had no respect for either God or man; and so little control was kept over the criminal population that it was not safe, according to Mr. Arndell, for a civilian to pass The from one part of the town to the other. vSSoo?' Johnson and his coadjutor employed equally strong The 1 Chaplain's. language. It must not be overlooked that the reports are ex parte. They were written nearly four years after Grose left the colony, and there is nothing to show that they were brought under his notice ; at all events, no reply from him has been found in the Records. The reports must, therefore, be taken as a statement of the case from one point of view only. They are, however, conJBrmed in many important points by Collins, whose pages contain numerous allusions to the drunkenness, gambling, profligacy, and crime which pre* vailed in the years 1793-1795.