secretary of state's office, of the number of tickets of leave issued in the year, with a statement of the grounds upon which each was granted.

No difficulty appears to exist amongst the major part of the men who do not wish to remain in the colony, of finding means to return to this country. All but the aged and infirm easily find employment on board the ships visiting New South Wales, and are allowed to work their passage home; but such facility is not afforded to the women: they have no possible method of leaving the colony but by prostituting themselves on board the ships whose masters may choose to receive them. They who are sent to New South Wales, that their former habits may be relinquished, cannot obtain a return to this country, but by relapsing into that mode of life, which with many has been the first cause of all their crimes and misfortunes. To those who shrink from these means, or are unable even thus to obtain a passage for themselves, transportation for seven years is converted into a banishment for life, and the just and humane provisions of the law, by which different periods of transportation are apportioned to different degrees of crime, are rendered entirely null: To see this defect in

the punishment remedied, is the anxious wish of your committee; and they trust that means may be devised to facilitate the return of such women as have passed their time of servitude, and are unwilling to remain in the colony, either by affording them a sufficient sum of money, or by some stipulation in their favour with the masters of vessels touching at the settlement.

It will be seen by the accounts laid before your committee, that the expenses of the colony are considerable. The bills drawn in the year 1810, amounted to 72,600l. being a great increase upon any preceding year, and the expenditure of the year 1811 promised to be still greater; in addition to these, a great annual expenditure is incurred in the transmission of stores and merchandize, and in the freight of transports. Your committee trust that when the buildings absolutely necessary for the public service shall be completed, as the commerce of the colony shall prosper, the duties become more productive, and, from agricultural improvement, the supply of stores to its present amount shall be discontinued, that this expense will be materially diminished; and it is their opinion, that it might even now be considerably reduced by the removal of part

of the military force in the colony, which appears to them to be unnecessarily large. The whole population does not amount to 11,000, and of these, 1,100 are soldiers.

It

Such is the view taken by your committee of the colony of New South Wales; and it is, in their opinion, in a train entirely to answer the ends proposed by its establishment. appears latterly to have attracted a greater share of the attention of government than it did for many years after its foundation; and when the several beneficial orders lately sent out from this country, and the liberal views of the present governor, shall have had time to operate, the best effects are to be expected. The permission of distillation within the colony, and the reform of the courts of justice, are two measures which your committee, above all others, recommend as most necessary to stimulate agricultural industry, and to give the inhabitants that confidence and legal security which can alone render them contented with the government under which they are placed.

July 10, 1812.

CHAPTER XXXI.

New Regulations.-Courts.

THE attention of His Majesty's ministers, was at this time directed to the completion of several important reforms, particularly some which had been pointed out by the Committee; such as that of the maximum which had at various times been enforced in the prices of grain, meat and merchandize, the traffic in spirituous liquors by civil and military officers, the commercial regulation by which every vessel was compelled to touch at Port Jackson, previous to the discharging any part of its cargo in Van Dieman's Land, with several others. Great alterations were also adopted with respect to the Courts. On this topic, the plans of government will be found best explained in the following extracts, from Earl Bathurst's dispatch to Governor Macquarie, dated the 23rd of November, 1812.

"In order to obviate the embarrassment arising from the number of causes, it will be

expedient to divide the labour. It is therefore intended that there should be established two courts in the settlement; one, the supreme court; the other, the governor's court; to be constituted as hereafter will be stated."

"In the governor's court, the judge-advocate shall preside. The court shall be constituted as the civil court of judicature now appears to be; but it is not to take cognizance of any suits, the amount of which shall be above the value of 50l. From the decision of this court no appeal is to be allowed; causes of this description will, generally speaking, be more satisfactorily decided by a summary and final proceeding. The judge-advocate will be called upon to establish such regulations respecting its proceedings as may to him appear requisite, and they shall be published as the rules of the court. It is further intended that a court of the same description shall be established at Van Dieman's Land, to which a deputy judge-advocate will be regularly attached: this will relieve those settlements from the embarrassments under which they labour, by not having any court of judicature established within themselves. There must, however, be the same limitations as to the amount of the actions which this court is to try, and all above