at my recoiimi^^imlation the name of Basa's Sti*aits. This was no more than a just tribute l/O niv worthy frit^od a-tnl companion for the extreme dangers aiul fatigue he lia<( mirlergone in the lii'st entering it in a whale-boat, and to the eorrect judgment he had formed from varioua indications of the existence of a wide opening between Van Diemen's Land and New Sonth Wales." There is so little to praise in Hunter's career that it is grateful to chronicle his patronage of Flinders antl Bass. He was called upon to interfere in the economy of the settlers in a manner which drew upon him the lash of Sydney Smith in the '* Edinburgh Eeview/' Iq March 1797 he notitied that at the particular wish
- of settlers in every part of the colony who have long
suffered themselves to be most shamefully imposed npon by such people as they have had occasion to hire/* he had thought proper, *' in order to deliver them from a practice so injin'iotis to their industry/* to obtain information fi*om the settlers as to the advisable rate of wages. He had accordingly fixed *^ 3, mean rate which he (Conceived to be fail' and et|uitahle 1 yet ween the farmer and the labourer/' The rates per acre for ** falling timber/* for clearing, burning off, ** breaking up new ground" (£1 4s.) chipping in wheat (7s.), planting Indian corn, * nulling** it, reaping (10s, per acre), sawing timber, were severally tixed. Ploughs were iu>t in use,^ and the hoe was the subduer of the earth. Yearly wages were fixed at £10; a day's wages with board at Is., without board at 2s. 6d, The jmces of axes, hoes (Is. Od.), sickles, and the rate for hiring a boat to carry gi'ain, were established by order. In spite of such interfej^ence, cultivation increased in a land where starvation had l>een familiar, and settlers were provided with forced labour. The guverjunent, not callous to the taunts thrown out in the House of Commons as to the enormous cost of feeding a colony at the antipodes, urged successive governors to promote agriculture and grazing. Under these circumstances cidtivation of the soil was ostensibly encouraged during Hunter's reign. He still allowed to the farming officers ten convicts for agriculture and three for domestic puri>oses, although he knew that such an allowance was forbidden. To some settlers who arrived by the tSifrprise (Oct, 1794) he allowed five convict ' Vhk infra y Jfjhn Maeartlinr, Chtip. 4.
