Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/511

limited in some degree by King, and Macquarie's passion for public works demanded so many workmen that he could not supply the settlers. His plea that the settlers could not take them Bigge found to be incorrect. At one time lots were drawn by applicants, but the system settled down. into assignment by the superintendent of convicts, who was, of course, directly amenable to Macquarie. Favouritism prevailed. It is creditable to the shrewdness of King and his advisers, among whom Marsden was conspicuous, that the quantity which they fixed upon as a day's labour for convicts, in various employments, was so well adjusted that it was adhered to till the end of Macquarie's government. It left a margin of time which a hard-working man could profitably employ, and many men were paid for extra work done for their masters, or, by permission of their masters, for others. An ex-convict to whom a convict had been assigned, found it more profitable sometimes to hire out his skilled servant than to employ him at home. This source of gain to himself and his master was lost to the convict retained in government control. Convicts concealed their accomplishments, in order to be assigned to private masters. Convict overseers vied with the impostors in sharpness, and even when a skilled workman had evaded the watch, he was, if detected in his handicraft, taken back and put into the government "gang," by which term roadway and other large parties of convicts were known. The clank of the fetters of the "ironed-gang" passing on the road, jarred strangely on the unaccustomed ear of the immigrant. The corruption which was engendered by the system was notorious, and the demoralization of some masters was inevitable. A Parliamentary Committee (1812) denounced the assignment of convicts to masters who traded in their skill, many of the masters being "overseers and themselves convicts." "The selection of the assigned convicts being left principally to the overseer, it is made with reference to the means of payment possessed by them, and not to their characters or conduct." Hence skilful guilt purchased advantages which clumsy criminals could only hope to obtain by long servitude. Convict overseers connived at the evasion of taskwork by those who could buy indulgence.