members of the police force, to whom convict servants on or off the stores were assigned as part of their remuneration. The only advantage to these employees from the possession of servants was the chance of hiring them out to others or permitting them, in return for their weekly rations and a payment of a few shillings, to work for themselves or, as it was called, "be on their own hands". The superintendent of convicts in 1819 reckoned that such a servant "on the store" was worth 10s. a week, and "off the store" was worth 5s. Thus the remuneration was equal to a salary of £13 to £26 a year. Indirectly it cost more than this to the Government, for these servants were the worst class of people in the Colony and it was almost impossible to control them. Macquarie made an attempt to improve the system in 1814. In order that these convicts should be known and their place of residence properly registered, all those masters (who were, many of them, convicts themselves) who hired out their servants "shall immediately send in to the principal superintendent a report in writing, and signed by them, of the names and present places of residence of their said Government men, and also the names of the persons by whom they are hired. On receiving this report the principal superintendent is to grant a certificate to each man so transferred, specifying to whom he belongs and how, where and by whom employed.
"The Government men thus disposed of, when possessed of the prescribed certificate … are not to quit the employ of the person or leave the district mentioned therein without applying to and obtaining the permission of the next District Magistrate, the person obtaining it is to obtain a fresh certificate from the principal superintendent … surrendering the certificate granted on the former occasion. …
"All such lists and changes are to be transmitted once in each month to the respective magistrates concerned therein."[1]
These regulations did not touch the evil of the servants who did odd jobs on their own account, or carried on iniquitous practices such as the receiving of stolen goods for their masters. Nor was it strictly enforced, and by 1819 had been completely forgotten. In 1817 Macquarie wished to abolish this mode of
- ↑ G.G.O., 1st October, 1814.
