plaints. These delays were due to the system of "detainers" and the manner of mustering the ship's crew.
The system of detainers was an old one in the Colony, and except for the period of Johnston's and Foveaux's administration had been always in force. Macquarie had reimposed it immediately on his arrival and made no alterations in the system from that time.[1] In accordance with his regulations any person about to leave the Colony must give notice of his intending departure in the Sydney Gazette at least ten days before sailing. This notice had to be inserted in two successive issues. At least eight days subsequent to the first notice the person about to depart had to procure from the Judge-Advocate's office a certificate stating that no detainer had been lodged against him. Until 1817 any one might lodge a detainer without even swearing to the debt therein alleged, but Wylde insisted on this being done. The total number of detainers lodged between 1816 and 1820 was 671, and in 1820 they showed a distinct falling off.[2] Wylde stated that under his administration the number had decreased, but no record has been kept of those in previous years. When the Supreme Court of Civil Judicature was closed, from 1815 to 1816, the only way in which to secure payment was to lodge a detainer and so prevent the debtor from leaving the country,[3] and detainers for as much as £3,000 were lodged. They could at any time be made the means of fraud. A man who had arranged all his affairs for departure could be hurried into giving security even for a debt which he did not owe, and might in the end have to pay it. Those upon whom the regulation fell most hardly were the masters of ships frequenting the ports. When Wylde became Judge-Advocate he found that the greater number of detainers were lodged by publicans against men of the ships' crews. The masters, impatient to weigh anchor, would either have to pay the debts or leave the men behind. At Wylde's suggestion Macquarie included in the Port Regulations issued in 1819 a clause which
