s,
would play every possible trick to obtain their allowance from the
public stores, when they were not entitled, or to get more than their
allowances, when they had a certain claim. To put a check upon such
practices, the governor, in 1796, had a general muster of all
descriptions of people in every part of the colony at the same hour,
so that it would be no longer possible, as on former occasions, for
one person to manage to answer to his name in two different places,
and to draw provisions from both stores. Very shortly after this
general muster, the governor made a journey to the banks of the River
Hawkesbury, where there is some of the richest land in the colony, but
on his return, he had the mortification of seeing a stack of wheat
belonging to Government burnt, containing 800 bushels, and it was not
certain whether this fire was accidental, since the destruction thus
caused made room for as many bushels as were destroyed, which must be
purchased from the settlers who had wheat to sell. In reading of these
atrocious acts--for if _this_ fire was not intentional, _others_
undoubtedly were--the inhabitants of England must not plume themselves
upon their superiority to the outcasts of their country in New South
Wales. Unhappily, the word _incendiarism_ has become familiar to English
ears, and, ever since the evil spirits of agitation and rebellion have
been dallied with, they have made their deeds of darkness visible, from
time to time, by the awful midnight fires which they have kindled in the
land.

But it was not only in checking the outrages of the British inhabitants
of New South Wales, that the governor was actively employed; the natives
were also exceedingly troublesome, especially at the valuable farms on
the Hawkesbury. Vigorous efforts were made to prevent that disorder, and
disregard of private property, which seemed so prevailing; and certainly
Governor Hunter appears to have been an active and energetic, but, as
might be expected in a colony like that over which he was placed, not
altogether a _popular_ ruler. The vices of the lower classes were, in
too many instances, found profitable, more or less directly, to those
who are termed the upper classes in the settlement; and since both
classes became to a fearful degree sensual and covetous, the evil was
doubly aggravated by example and contagion. And when we consider, that,
at that time, the population of the colony might almost have been
divided into tho