Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/45

 THE FAMINE OF 1789-90. 29 Five days after this order came into force, the Supply ^^^ returned to Sydney with tidings of the wreck of the Sirius ^J^^**' on Norfolk Island. No lives had been lost ; but at the time when the Supply sailed from the island it was uncertain whether the provisions on board the Sirius would be saved. So serious was the situation that Phillip called together the whole of the oflSlcers, civil and military. The result of their Further ^, . reduction deliberations was that the ration was still further reduced <>' ^^^^ to:— Two pounds and a half of flour, Two pounds of pork, and Two pounds of rice, for seven people for one day. All were to be treated alike, with the exception of children under eighteen months of age, whose ration of pork was to be one pound only. Both at Sydney and Botany Bay, fishing-boats were em- Efforte ployed on the public account ; more stringent efforts were fresh food. made to prevent the gardens of the industrious being looted at night ;* parties were told off to range the woods for game, and every effort was made to save a pound of salt provisions. Even with so severe a reduction in the allowance,t the provi- it was announced that upon conTiction of the culprit, the informer would receive sixty pounds of flour — " more tempting/' remarked Tench, ** than the ore of Peru or Potosi." — Tench, Complete Account, p. 43. t As seTeral articles had to be dropped out of the di&^arj scale, the allow- ance, according to the view taken by the people, was not more than one- third of the oinilnary ration. Collins puts the matter thus : — *' On the 20th of the month [Apnl] the following was the ration issued from the public store to each man for seTen days, or to seven people for one day — flour, two and a half pounds ; rice, two pounds ; pork, two pounds. The pease were all expended. Was this a ration for a labouring man ? The two pounds of pork, when boiled, shrank away to nothing, and when divided among seven people for their day's allowance barely afforded three or four morsels to each.*'^ — CoUins, vol. i, p. 109. On this point Tench has the following : — ** When the age of this provision is recollected, its inadequacy will more strikingly appear. . Qlie pork and rice were brought with us from JEnsland ; the pork had been salted between three and four years, and every grain of rice was a moving body, from the inhabitants lodged within it. We soon left off boiling the pork, as it had become so old and dry, that it shrunk one-half in its dimensions when 80 dressed. Our usual method of cooking it was to cut off the daily
 * The ordinary rewards for the apprehension of thieyes being inadequate,