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

Lieut. Bowen was actuated by no mercenary motive in delaying the transfer of his settlement to Collins, for he declined to accept any remuneration for his services in governing it. They were arduous. Food was not abundant, and attempts were made to rob the stores. Soldiers were implicated in them, and Bowen carried off a soldier culprit to Sydney in an American whaler, returning to his post in Feb. 1804. Lord Hobart was persistent in commanding King to keep down expenditure, and had vague ideas of a land where food was scant. He instructed Collins (Feb. 1803) "to procure such kinds of animal food as the place (Port Phillip) can supply, and to be particularly careful to cure whatever surplus of fish might be caught." The experience of New South Wales and Norfolk Island was useless to him. He had in 1802 gravely suggested that

"the causes which produced the dreadful and frequent devastations by the inundations of the Hawkesbury, might be brought to operate in favour of the cultivation of an article of food that would not be much less advantageous to the public, or the individuals, than that of bread-corn. . . . Rice would seem to be better adapted for the banks of the Hawkesbury than other corn. . . . It is perfectly well known that rice will only succeed on ground that is occasionally inundated."

King gravely regretted that though occasional floods occurred, yet in some years the rivers did not "rise above the ordinary level," which was at least twenty feet below the top of the lowest bank, and that, consequently, irrigation without more expense or labour than was at the command of the settlers was impracticable. He had, however, procured some seed rice from one of the French ships as an experiment, of "the result of which I shall inform your Lordship."

Though ship after ship carried convicts to the colony, and though settlement after settlement was being formed, and cultivation at each of them could prosper only after lapse of time, Lord Hobart informed the Governor that that there would be a sufficiency of meat and flour for all the wants of all the settlements until the end of 1804. Yet much of the salt meat received in 1802 and 1808 had been unfit for use. As it was a matter of life and death, the Governor, in spite of Lord Hobart's calculations, took upon himself the responsibility of contracting for the supply of