The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-09-27 00:00:00

NEW-SOCITH WALE& '

EXTRACT PROM THE REPORT OF TIM CoMMIS•
SIONER OF I NQUIRT INTO THR STAVE OP THE
COLONY OP NEW SOUTH WALES.

(Continued front err Paper of yesterday.)

The petty constables receive sit allowance of a ra-
tion and is half for themselves, mid sometimes for
their families, and double snits of slops, but lOU pay.
The district constables in the country were, until
the month of April, 1820, appointed by the
magistrates of the rliff.-rent districts ; but they
are now recommended to the Governor, and he ap-
points them ; they are generally selected from the
class of settlers who had become free by service or
pardon, and at Sydney a few of them had 'been
formerly soldiers of the 102 d and 73d regiments.
The duties of the district constables consist of re-
porting and giving information to the chid constable
and magistrates of all occurrences in their districts,
■ud attending the bench of magistrates will►
prisoners for extuninsiimi, and taking the musters
on Sundays. Time petty constables in the towns act
as watchmen at night, and call the hour as they go
their rounds ; and in the day-time are required to
be in readiness to convey letters or orders : this
duty has of late very much increased, and hiss Ih►ru
allowed to interfere ton much with the perforinence
of others, of a more local and important kind.
From the inconsiderable allowances that the
petty constables receive, a great difficulty has bees,
found in prevailing upon men of good charucter to
accept the situation. Many of them hold tickets
of leave, sod some are convicts, selected on ac-
count of their character, to all of these selections
numerous disappointment occur, for constables have
been frequently di-missed, either for drunkenness
or inattention to their duty, ■ud unwillingness to
pelting) it, though not for positive connivance in
crime.

On the 20th May. 1820, the names sod districts
of the constable. of every description in the colony
of New South Wales, were published by order of
the Governor, in the Sydow, Gazelle ; sad it 910-
peered flirt at Sydney there was one chief constable,
six district constables, with 95 assigned to them,
13 town constables, right to the gaol, three as.
signed to the Judge Advocate. and one as an office-
keeper, and one to Mr. J. Field ; one comitable
was also assigned to the establishment at Grose
Farm, and one for the protection of the lumber-
yard ■t Sydney. It has silvery& been customary to
assign constables for the nightly protection of the
government-house. and residences at Sydney,
Pitmans, and Windsor ; and also to certain of
the civil officers at Sydney.. A constable was itt.
tithed to my own residence in the town of Sydney.
although it had also the protection of ■ military
sentinel towards the street ; but it wits not comtidered
safe, unless it was protected on both sides. At the
liter periods of my residence at Sydney, a constable
was appointed to act as • messenger, whom I was
under the necessity of disiniseiog. for gram
neglect and intoxication. in the performance of
■ duty of some importance, with which he had
been specially charged. The assignment of three
calabsh's to the Judge Advocate, and one as an
office-keeper. which wa. only made at a late period,
appears to exceed that of any other civil °Meer on
the establishment, and may admit or reduction to
two. But lam not aware that the number of the
constables in the whole establishment at Sydney
can be reduced, until their efficiency in point of
character is increased.
The estsblialuneut it Pantsuits consisted of one
chief constable and 17 town constables ; that et
Windsor, of one chief constable and IS town con-
stables ; and that of Liverpool, of one chief con►ta-
ble and three town constables. In the districts of
New South Wales. there were 41 district constables,
who were also pound-keepers. Three petty constables
in the district of A i rds, and three in thereof Bringelly
and Cooke. These are necessarily attached to the
service of the different Magistrates. Previous to
my departure I did not fail to call Governor Mac-
qvarrie's attention to the obvioue expediency of
paying ill the constable with more regularity thin
had hitherto been observed; and he promised to at-
tend to that suggestions
The meaner of thstnbuting the convicts in Van
Dietnntr's Lend to the settlers, end the numbers so
distributed, hive already been observed.
Until the end of the year 1819 they continued
to be in demand both at Port Dalrymple and
Hobart Town. The regulations respecting their
labour and their food, payment of wages and
clothing, are the same as those that prevail its New
South Wales; but the convicts generally partook
more largely of animal food in Van Diernair's
Land, and received larger and more frequent ra-
tions of mutton, and less of pork. Their clothing.
on the other hand, was neither so good in kind, nor
had been so regularly supplied ; and the prices
were considerably higher than those at Sydney.
The cost of a sinner and summer suit of clothing
for a convict is estimated at 61 7s. 7d.; his stile.
'Potence at 111. 25. ; and these, with his wages, of
71. make an annual charge of 241,95. 7d. to a set-
tler for every convict assigned to lino.

The estimate is framed upon the regulated ration.
consisting of seven pounds of fresh meat, and right
pounds of wheat per week ; but as this quantity is
generally incrwased by the settlers to ten ;annls of
meat and one peek of wheat per week, the coat of
maintenance is mud to IV. 17s. 6tl. per man, mak-
ing, with his wages and clothing, an annual charge
of 311.55.

I observed that a rest many of the convicts in
Van Memo'. Land wore jAckeis ■ud trousers of
the kangaroo kin. and sometimes caps of the same
material, which they obtain from the stock-keepers
Mho life employed in the interior of the country.
The labotar of several of them differ., in this sespect.
from that of the convicts in New South Wales. and
is hither pastoral than ogricultstal ; perwissi,m
having been given, for the last five vests to the
settlers to avail themselves of the ranges of open
plains and wallies that lie on either side of the road
leading from Austin's Ferry to Launceston. a ths.
mice of 140 miles, their flocks and herds have been
committed to the care of convict shepherd. mid
stock-keepers, who are sent to these cattle range.,
diatom sometimes 90 or 40 miles from their me-
tres estates.

The boundaries of these tracts are described in
the tickets of occupation by which, they are livid,

_i .

ina nliCh sr* made 'renewable every year,ln 'Pty.
anent .f a fee to the Lieutenant-Governor's clerk.
One or mo►e convicts are itarioned on them, to at.
tend to the flocks and cattle, and are supplied with
*hest, Sr., mid anger, at the Monthly trails Or the
owner. They are allowed the use of a musket NMI
a few cartridges to deftrill thentielvei tigsinst the
natives ; and they have also dogs, with which they
leant the kangaroos, whose flesh they Mr, mid dis-
pose of their "kin. to persons passing from Hoblrt
Toter to Lanticeston, fu exchange rot tea sod
sugar. They thus obtain • plentiful supply of feed;
nod sometimes succeed in cultivating a few ergs
tables. Their habitations are mode of turf and
thatched, at the balk of the dwarf eucalypti'', op
gum tree of the plains, and the interior, in Van
Diernsn's Land, is udt of sufficient expanse to ferns
covering or shelter.

The regulations that have been adopted fo, tha
control of the convicts in Van Dieduiii's Laud, a,
stated at length in the evide.ice of Mt. Hamphr.•i:,
the police magistrate at Hobart Town, to whom
much credit is doe for the diligence and correctnesi
with which he has carried into effect the several or-
ders of Lieutenant-Governor Sarre-11. Upon his as-
sumption of the cormsaud in Van Diru►sn'a Lind,
on the gth of April I b 17, be (aloud both the settle-
sweats at Hobart Town, and at Port Dalrymple, as
well as all the intermediate and neighbouring dis-
tricts of the island, in a state of alarming subjection
to the parties of bush-rangers, who had for three
years preceding bid defiance to all efforts of she
local government to subdue them.

Mr. Humphreys has traced their origin to the
necessities of the settlement, mid the scarcity of
lood with which it had to contend, at its lint esta-
blishment under Lieut-Col. Calh•.. The convicts
assigned to the military officers, according to the
custom and necessities of that day, were obliged to
furnish to their master, and to procure for them-
selves • certain quantity of kangaroo fle-h; and
having first gone into the woods for these temporary
supplies of food, they graclutlly acquired a know-
ledge of the country, and of the means of support-
ing themselves in it. To this at length they wery
driver' ; and the predatory habits of these men,
who hare since remitted the common amid.-
tiou of busli.rangers, have continued from tar
year 1805, with more or less of violruce and
rapacity, until the mouth of October in the
year 1818. The relaxed state of discipline in
which the convicts were kept under the commands
of Major Murray. Colonel Geils, end Lieutenant-
Colonel Davey ; the little co-operation ■ud con.
fidence that these officers were enabled to inspire
in the settlers ; the waist of a criminal court to try
offenders; and lastly, the effects of • measure re.
sorted to by Governor Macqu•rrie, have all had as
influence its giving permanence to the destructive
successes of the bush-rangers.
All tho nature and effects of this measure of Go.
veruor Macquarrie have been much relied upon by
Lieuternint-Colonel Davey, in certain represent*.
lions that he laid before ote, and which he inform-
ed me had been transmitted through the Earl of
Herrrowby to your Lordship, and as I found se-
veral well-informed persons in Yon Dietuan's Laud
had imputed to the same measure the prel•nged
contiousnce of the mischief that it intended to sup.
press, I think it necessary to nuke sore mention
of it.

The excesses of the bush.rangers in the neigh-
hourhood of Port Dalrymple, and likewise near Ho-
bart Town, had @named their utmost height, sad
most sanguinary chancier, at the bitter end of the
year 1813. They had been joined by two persons
who had held subordinate stations in the coosissa.
net deportment, named Peter Mills sod George
Williams; and continued a system of violent de-
predation upon the houses and property of indivi-
duals of every description. So great was the int,-
mnialion produced by their combined efforts, that
the initalleasses of sevend districts abandoned their
dwellings and removed for safety to the towns.
Colonel Davey had issued a proelanntion offering
rewards for the apprehension of a party of nine,
whose depradations had been marked with great
atrocity and cruelty; and a further reward to soy
person who should give information of the as-
sistance that it was well known they received.

(To be eontiotiet)

BIRTHS.

no iVednesasy Pao. at Aqualase Flatt, the seat of Sit J. F.
Roorhey, WO. M. P. fur the tummy Of Rioffued, Lady
%mew!, of a atrr.

Toesday, the 94th instant, •t lVe.t Cotter, Somerset.
iie Lads of Edward St. John Msldmay, Esq. of a .on.
At Chtstritk, tom Tuesday last, the Lady of Liswt..Coloael
H. F. Cafremlisis. of a ion.

At Solon Pork, Be4forthhire. oes Teeedsy hist, she I.ady
of H. It swell, Esq. of a doesbier.