Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/44

 28 THE FAMINE OF 178d-90. 1790 The convicts at Sydney, under the pressure of hunger, Swm' robbed the private gardens. Wlien a thief was caught he was severely punished, but the dread of the lash did not have much effect. The depredations were continued in spite of the rigorous measures adopted by the authorities. Even the Governor's garden was frequently robbed. This was ingratitude of the basest kind, for Phillip did not keep the produce of his ground for himself or his friends, but caused a considerable portion of it to be distributed among the convicts.* Under the circumstances, however, it is not surprising that robberies were common. It was noticed at Sydney that the convicts at Eose Hill "conducted themselves with much greater propriety, not a theft nor any act of ill- behaviour having been for some time past heard of among them.^t How it came about that the convicts in one of the settlements were behaving so well, while in the other they were pillaging the gardens right and left, would pro- bably have remained an insoluble mystery to the readers of Collins's book, but for the statement made in a footnote that the convicts at Rose Hill had ^'vegetables in great abundance." Those at Sydney had scarcely any. Smfmih Shortly after the departure of convicts and marines for reduced. Norfolk Island, Phillip directed a further reduction to be made in the ration. On November Ist, 1789, the whole of the settlement, as stated on a previous page,t was placed on two-thirds allowance. On the 27th March, 1790, the Governor directed that on and after the 1st of the following month the weekly ration " to be issued to every person in the settlement without distinction " was to be : — Four pounds of flour, Two pounds and a half of pork, and One pound and a half of rice. Hours It was also directed that the hours of labour for the convicts shortened, should cease at 1 p.m., and that provisions should be served from the store daily instead of semi-weekly. • Collins, ▼ol. i, p. 111. f I^., p. 112. J Ante, p. 17.