Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/476
June 1816, as is told in carving on the rock. The traveller at Athens gazes on the Pnyx and Mars Hill, rugged now and natural as they were in the days of Pericles, and feels with a thrill of pleasure that the rascal Turks have in these instances committed no desecration; and it may be hoped that Nature's work may be left unmarred in the public pleasure-ground in Sydney.
Macquarie desired to create a new order in society. King had said it was hard to make farmers out of pickpockets, and Macquarie essayed the harder task of making gentlemen out of convicts. He thought their society good enough for himself. His efforts were as futile as they were offensive to the gentlemen of the colony, and were the main cause of an inquiry into his government, and an unfavourable report. He governed, however, for nearly twelve years, and extended the bounds of occupation largely.
It may be convenient to record, in juxtaposition to the census of 1810, the last census made by Macquarie (Oct. 1821). Though individuals had been ruined, the material progress of the colony had not been arrested by floods or by civil convulsions. An official statement made by Governor Macquarie shows a census in March—
| 1810. | With V. D. Land—1821. | |
| Population (including the 73rd and 102nd Regiments) | 11,590 | 38,778 |
| Horned cattle | 12,442 | 102,939 |
| Sheep | 25,888 | 290,158 |
| Pigs | 9,554 | 33,906 |
| Horses | 1,134 | 4,564 |
| Acres cleared and in tillage under various crops | 7,615 | 32,267 |
Agriculture had not been extended after King's departure, but the genial climate, and winters in which live stock required no housing, and browsed at their leisure on pastures ignorant of snow, had largely increased the flocks and herds of the colonists. Scarcity was not unknown amidst the gradual increase, and the magistrates regularly held an "assize of bread." In 1814 they fixed the price of thirteen pence and a half-penny for the two-pound loaf. Macquarie commented in