March.] OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 289
weather had, unfortunately for the maize now ripe, been uncommonly
bad for three weeks, the wind blowing a heavy gale, accompanied
with torrents- o f rain that very foon fwelled the river
Hawkefbury, and the creeks in George’s river, beyond their
banks; laying all the adjacent flat country, with the corn oil it,
under water. Much damage, o f courfe, followed the defolation -
which this ill-timed flood fpread over the cultivated grounds ; and,
although fewer than could- have been expedited, fome lives were
loft;
The profpedt o f an abundant maize' harveft was wholly de--
ftroyed, and every other work was fufpended for a while, to pre-:
pare the: ground a fecond time thib feafon for wheat. The fettle-
ment was yet too young to be able to withftand: fuch a fuccellion
o f ill-fortune without its being felt, in fome degree, an inconvenience
and expence to the mother country. Had the fettlers them- -
felves in generahbeenr o f a more induftrious turn, they- would have
been better prepared for fuch accidents; and it was much to be
lamented, that, in eftabliftiing them on the banks-of the HawkeC.
bury, they had not with more attention confidered the manifeft figns
of the floods to which the river appeared to the firft difcoverers to-
be liable, and eredled their dwellings uppn the higher grounds; or.
that the inundations which had lately happened had not occurred at
an earlier period, when there were but few fettlers- Thefe indeed
had been fuch as formerly no one had any conception of, and
exceeded in horror and deftru&ion any thing that could have been,
imagined.
That the ground might with all poifible expedition be prepared
for wheat, all defcriptions o f perfons were called opon to give their
afliftance ; and there being at this, as at-every other time, a number
of idle perfons wandering about the colony, who refufed to labour
unlefs they were paid exorbitant wages, thefe were again di-
redted to be taken up, and, i f found to prefer living by extortion
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