A still was seized on his premises- It was condemned, with its produce. Holt was compelled to tind security for future good conduct, himself for 1:200, and two sureties for 4;100 each. Several others were variously punished for the same offence. Holt luiving had many accomplices. By a General Order (11th May) lar^^e money rewards to freemen, ahsolute or conditional pardons to convicts, according to the case, were oifered for evidence convicting distillers. In July 1806 King told the Secretary of State that these meayiireSj with the exertions of the magistrates, had heen siicecssfuL **This practice, if not got the hotter of hy these means, would have involved the inhabitants in ruin and confusion. As I have detailed my suspicion in the above-cited General Orders, I shall forbear stating some of the Ivnown aggressors in those transactions, as their situation and office ought to have precluded them from encouraging audi practices." The manner in which the misstatements of one writer have been accepted by others has made it necessary to follow closely the real events, and by numerous citations of orders and despatches to establish the truth. It is necessary also to show that, though interested persons resisted the (Tovenior^s effnrts, he found some consolations. The Duke (»f Porthirid's approval in 1801 w'as echoed by Lord Hobart in subsequent years. In 180:3 the impro%*ement in the condition of the settlers iu the Parramatta and Hawkesbury districts was so manifest that the liev. S. Marsden and Mr, Arndell reported it in writing to the Governor, Marsden attributed it to
- ' the iJif>bil»itioii nf 80 f^reat a quantity of spirits us whu forineily dis-
persed itrnnjig iheiii^ and the great ndi'antage the settlers derive from pyreluLeiiiig from the (lovcrnnieiit stores with the produce of their farms. Crime hus diminished, the idle have beeoine induatriouH^ the drunkard 8olHii,atid the thi«f honest. ♦ . . I hftve ever observed that the hilwnring l>eople ill the settlement have not so great an aver^jion to indiiBtiy as they hav*^ a yiropeDaity to intoxicati^on. . . . The cause of their present state I conceive to he the prohibition of spirita, and the relief alforded them by lli» Majesty's stores from the cruel hand of extortion under which they were once so heavily oppressed/' The subject of spirit traffic in the deiientlencies of New South Wales may be dismissed m a sentence. Neither Collins at Hobart Town, nor the offit*ers in command at
