Among other public works in hand were, the railing the walls of
the new gaol, laying the upper floor of the wind-mill, and ere£l-
ing the churches at Sydney and Parramatta. Mod o f thefe buildings
did not advance fo rapidly as the neceflity for them required,
owing to the weaknefs o f the public gangs; and indeed fcarcely
had there ever been a thorough day’s labour, fuch as is performed
by a labouring man in England, obtained from them. They never
felt themfelves interefted in the efleft o f their work, knowing
that the ration from the flore, whatever it might be, would-be if-
fued to them, whether they earned it or not; unlike the labouring
man whofe fuhfiftence, and that o f his family, depends upon
his exertions. For the individual who would pay them for their
fervices with fpirits, they would labour while they had ftrength to
lift the hoe or the axe ; but when government required the production
of that ftrength, it was not forthcoming; and it was more to
be wondered, that under fuch.difadvantages fo much, rather than
that fo little, had been done. The convidts whofe fervices belonged
to the crown were for the moft part a wretched, worthlefs,
diffipated fet, who never thought beyond the prefent moment ; and
they were for ever employed in rendering that moment as eafy to
themfelves as their invention could enable them.
Of the fettlers and their difpofition much has been already faid.
The affiftance and encouragement which from time to time were
given them, they were not found to deferve. The greater part
had originally been cdnviits ; and it is not to be fuppofed, that
while they continued in that ftate their habits were much improved.
With thefe habits, then, they became freemen and fettlers;
the effeâ: o f which was, to render them infolent and prefuming ;
and moft of them continued a dead weight upon the government,
without reducing the expences o f the colony.
Thefe expences were certainly great, and had been cónfiderably
increafed. The feulement was at this time much in want o f many
neceflary articles of life ; and when thefe were brought by fpeculators
tors and traders who occafionally touched there, they demanded
more than five hundred per cent, above what the fame articles could
have been fent out for from England, with every addition o f freight,
infurance, &c. They faw the wants o f the colony, and availed themfelves
of its neceflities.
April.] On the firft o f this month the criminal court fat for
the trial o f a foldier belonging to the regiment, who had a few
days before ftabbefd a feaman o f the Reliance,' who infulted him
when centinel at one o f the wharfs at Sydney. The man died of
the wound; the foldier, being called upon to anfwer for his death,
proved to the fatisfadtiou o f the court, that it had been oceafioned by
the intemperance o f the feaman, and he was accordingly found to
have committed a juftifiable homicide.
This accident was the effect o f intoxication, to which a few days
after another vidtim was added, in the perfon o f a female, who was
either the wife or companion o f Simon Taylor, a man who had
been confidered as one o f the few induftrious fettlers which
the colony could boaft of. They had both been drinking together
to a great excefs; and in that ftate they quarrelled, when the unhappy
man, in a fit o f madnefs and defperation, put an untimely
end to her exiftence. He was immediately taken into cuftody, and
referved for trial.
To this pernicious practice of drinking to excefs, more o f the
crimes which difgraced the. colony were to be afcribed than to any
other caufe; and more lives were loft through this than through
any other circumftance; for the fettlement had ever been free from
epidemical or fatal difeafes. How much then was the importation o f
fpirits to be lamented ! How much was it to be regretted, that it
had become the intereft of any fet o f people to vend them !
Several robberies which at this time had been committed were to
be imputed to the fame fource.
A new enemy to agriculture made its appearance in this month.
A deftruftive grub-worm was difcovered in feveral parts o f the
d d. a culti