Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/53

 THE FAMINE OF 1789-90. 37 The Home Department was lamentably ignorant of the WW-W tme condition of the settlement, which was expected to be self-snpporting almost from the first. Accident had some- thing to do with the wretched plight in which the people Exgmatdon found themselves in 1789-90, but on many occasions during dati-eBB. the next ten years the colony was on the brink of starvation, because of the eagerness of the Government to send out convicts, and its remissness in forwarding the necessary supplies.* If Phillip, and those who immediately succeeded him, had represented the case more forcibly, the British Government might possibly have realised sooner than it did its duties and responsibilities in connection with a colony so far distant from regular food supplies. selreB to the moet desponding reflections, and adopted the most extxaTagant conjectures." — Tench, Complete Account, p. 37. That the position -vras one of actual famine is shown by Tench in another passage : — "Three or four instances of persons who perished from want have been related to me. One only, howerer, fell within my own observation — I was passing the provision store, when a man, with a wild haggard countenance, who had just received his daily pittance to carry home, came out. His faltering gait, and eager devouring eye, led me to watch him : and he had not proceeded ten steps before he fell. I ordered him to be carried to the hospital, where, when he arrived, he was found dead. On opeuing the body^ the cause of death was pronounced to be inanition." — lb., p. 43 (note), llie late Dr. Lang wrote : — •* A wealthy and respectable inhabitant of Sydney, who arrived in the colony as a iree person during the government of Governor Phillip, has told me that his ration for a long period was merely a cob or single head of Indian com a day, and that for three years he had lived in the colony in the constant belief that he should one day perish of hunger." — Historical and Statistical Account of New South Wales, 1834 edition, vol. i, p. 5». This statement lacks authority. A "ration" consisting of a cob of Indian corn per day was certainly never issued during Phillip's Governorship, nor probably at any other time. • In March, 1792, Phillip wrote to Nepean, stating that he was anxiously awaiting supplies ; that the settlement had been on a reduced ration since 1789 ; and that the people were suffering from hunger, and were becoming alarmed. — Historical Becords, vol. i, part 2, pp. 610>612. In Apri^ 1794, when the William arrived, all the provisions, according to lieutenant- Qovemor G-rose, had been issued from the store six hours before she appeared in sight. The flour sent from England had been expended some months before. — Historical Records, vol. ii, pp. 207, 208. On 2l6t December, 1795, Governor Hunter wrote to the Duke of Portland on behalf of "a people neariy naked" (lb., p. 346), and, two months later, the Governor received a memorial from the free settlers stating that as " the late reduced ration " had compelled them to kill the greater part of their live st-ock, they could not sup- port their men with animal food, nor find them clothing, and asking to be allowed to draw animsl food and clothing from the store. The despatches of Governor King in the years 1800, 1801, and 1802 show that the ration was frequently reduced because of the shortness of supplies.