Читать книгу Australian History For Dummies - Alex McDermott - Страница 78

The Evangelical reverends in NSW were aghast at the lack of morality in the new colony, and all this righteous anger was reported back to William Wilberforce, who was the chief exponent of the Evangelical movement. The reports soon spread, with the Duke of Portland in Whitehall claiming, ‘Great evils have arisen from the unrestrained importation of spiritous liquors into our said settlement … whereby both the settlers and convicts have been induced to barter and exchange their live stock and other necessary articles for the said spirits to their particular loss and detriment’. In response, the next governor, John Hunter, arrived in NSW in 1795 with clear instructions from the Duke: Clean the place up.

Yet on his arrival in the settlement, Hunter — himself a deeply religious Christian and sympathetic to the Evangelicals — raved about the place. Having been in NSW with Governor Phillip at the beginning of white settlement, he was staggered that so much progress had been made in so little time.

Hunter wrote to the Duke of Portland in London describing the ‘very great success’ that individual farmers had had in growing grain and breeding livestock. True, Hunter conceded a little reluctantly, it was self-interest rather than the public good that motivated everyone. Yet ‘it certainly succeeds better with them than in the hands of Government’. And he also approved of the rum incentive payments — initially, at least. ‘Much work will be done by labourers, artificers and others for a small reward in this article, and (without any injury to health) which money could not purchase.’

But Hunter was pretty lazy when it came to governing this newly productive colony. During his time as governor, Hunter failed to

 Manage the emerging trade and import market in the new colony

 Ensure the newly established government store was restocked after initial supplies sold out

 Control the distribution of land according to a well thought out plan — or any plan

However, Hunter’s lack of attention to detail actually had some positive effects for the colony.