[Norfolk Island, ^ave loyal assis^tance, and stringent orders were necessary to compel cont'ormity with the General Orders issued hy King- Brief extracts from despatches from King to Piper, the conitnanding officer at Norfolk ^Island, will show the control which was exercised.
- ' I am much concerned to know that, uotwithat^^tiding Lt -Gov, FuveJiux'**
^conduct in aeTidiiig sjhips awny that carried spirits from hence to Norfolk Island wliioii flid nut proihice leltt;iH front nie ami niv directions to him, you permitted Boston, the au|>crcargu of fcliti Union (American )♦ to dinpoae of the spirits he was Tint allowtid to sell here. ... It is therefore my positive order that, when any vessel toncliesat Norfolk Island from hence, no intercourse whatever, otherwise t liati relieving their distresses, lie had with such ship or vessel unless tlic ma.^ter producer letters from the I Governor of this settlement/' This was in Jan. 1805. Four months afterwards, when I more facts were known, Piper was again censured for havmg allowed Mr. Boston to exact nineteen shillings a gallon, though for what he had heeii permitted to sell in Sydney he had heea satisiied with nine. King repitb- lished his general orders for prohibition or control of f spirit-traffic and sent them to Piper. If the power of the Governor was great, so was his I respoiisibihty ; and King, like Phillip, was doomed to feel quam arduum <.juam siil>jecttim fortunLP, regendi ciuicta onus. One of King's early acts proved that he would not shrink from asserting the control of the law in New Houth Wales. He superseded Htmter on the 28th Sept* 1800, and on the
- 2nd Oct. a general order referring to convicts directed
employers to bring before the magistrates all cases of misconduct by then' assigned servants. J3ut the privilege of striking a servant was not willingly abandoned. On the 26th Nov. 1800 a general order announced that it had been represented to the Governor that
- it has lieen a custom for those to ^ hom the labour of convicts has hccii
assigned to chastisp them by horsewhipping and bca-ting them for real or supposed offences; that lie felt caLkul u[»on to put an inimedi^tte stop to these practices by refei-ring to the 4len*^ral Order of :ind Oct. ; aurl as the iioveriior will not admit of any imHvidiuil pr^-iuming to inflict that punishment which nntst l>e openly awarded by a magistrate, he strictly forbids all officers antl every person^ l>ond or free, from striking or ill- using any other person in this colony on pain of being proceeded agjiinsfc according to law, or such other uotiie taken of the offence as the case may require/'
