Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/346

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Lient. Bowmen was actuated by no mercenarr motiTe in ^ymg the traasfer of Ms Bettlement to Collins, for he led to accept any remuneration for his servifes in ^gOTemiDg it. They were ardnous. Food was not abm}- dant« and attempts were made to rob the stores. SoUim were implicated in them, and Bowen carried off a soldier culprit to Sydney in an American whaler^ retomin^ to his post in Feb. 1804. Lozd Hobart was pereisteni in com- manding King to keep down expenditure, and had Tagoe ideas of a lajad where food was aeant. Ha instnieiei Collins (Feb. 1808) '^ to procure such kinds of ^nimri food as the place (Port Phillip) can supply, and to be partien- larly careful to cure whatever siirj>lus of fish nn<dit be mght." The experience of New South Wales and Norfcrfk id was useless to him. He had in 1802 giavdy sag- that I wfakh prodiiced the dpea^tfol aad freqoent dtmuttmtiamB hy t^ I ol the Mkwkesbnij, mif^t be 1inMi|^ to opente m ia.mme of I caKiiviioii of aa «itiele of food that would doC be Bndi laai mkwwm- I !» the pablic, or the isdividiiKls, tbaa tbat of hiwil-cotm. « . . hM oeeoi to be beUer adftplod lor the beaks of the H^vtedbny Kereom. . . It is perfectly ^rall kaovn theft noe viQ e^ L OB groasd tbet is OCTmwmelly ifmadttted." King gravely regretted that thoo^ occasional floods occurred* yet in some years the rivests did not ** rise wibtpm ,the ordinary level/* which was at least twenty feet bekrn ^e top of the lowest bank, and that, eonaeqnently, iirilgi- Jtion without more expense or labour than was at tb6 P-command of the settlers was impracticable. He had, how- ever, procured some seed rioe from one of the French ships IM» an experiment, of the result of which I diall infoiSi >nr Ixwdship." Though ship after ship carried convicts to Hie and though settlement after settlement was being id cultivation at each of them eocdd prosper only Eipse of time. Lord Hobart informed the Governor tiiat [that there would be a sufficiency of meat and flour for att t wants of all the settlements until the end of 1904. Tat nuch of the salt meat received in 1802 and I90S had beai It for use. As it was a matter of life and death, tte '^Governor, in spite of Lord Hobart's calculations, took iqpoa iiimself the responsibility of contracting for the supply of I I