Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/187

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the administratioii of the law, Yere such as only a raan of ability, tact, and resolution could be expected to oveiTome. Lord Sydney wrote to Sh* Evan Nepean (Dec, 171)0), as to the situution of our fi*ieiid Phillip." Mr. Grenville wrote earnestly to Phillip (Feb, 1791) to express his hope that he would arrange to go%^ern *' for a short time longer/' Mr. Dumlaa showed similar conliJence in 1792. He congratulated Philiipon his excellent services, and entrusted ^him with uncontrolled discretion as to f^'antiiig lands and assigning convict servants. But Phillip did not think himself lit to govern i>roperty. A few days before he sailed he wrote to his friend King : — *' My ill state of health obhges me to return to England/* Afti^r his return a disintdiuation to part with his services is shown by a letter from himself to Mr, Dundas (iiHrd Jul}^ 1793), representing that on the ground of ill-heaUh he was compelled to ask to be per- mitted to resign the government of New Soutli Wales." To the last Dundas ** lamented the ill-health which deprived the Crown of Phillip's services* Others sought for the appomtment. In Oct. 1793, Captain Hunter, late of H.M.S. Siriiu, applied, and Lord Howe on the following day recommended him for it. When Phillip was consulted, the suggested (2lUh Oct.) his old comrade P. G. King as the f person most likely to answer the intentions of the Govern- ment in the present state of thtj colony.'* But Hunter's intiuential supporters prevailed. Before Phillip sailed for England he sent thither an accm*ate account of the land in cultivation, and it is proper to present a summary of it. At Parramatta the Crown had ^16} acres cultivated, 308 of them in maize. At Toongabbe the Crown had 696^, of wliii^h ^^)ll were in mai^e. In I private hands there were ti90| acres ui cultivation, mostly ' in maize ; of the total of 1703 acres cultivated, there being 110 less than 11864 in maize, and 2081 in wheat. The farms were at and near Parramatta, Prospect, the Ponds, the Field of Mars, and the Eastern Farms, all of which places were situated near Parramatta, or on a way leading to it from Sydnej'. It is interesting to observe tljat Phillip had planted in his Parramatta garden three acres of vines. The number of settlers was sixty-seven, hut of these orvl^ one (James Paxse) began to cultivate on Vv^ o^'iti ^^^oxxjo^