consequence of this innovation was, the rapid clearing and
cultivation of such persons' estates, and the erection of
comfortable residences and the acquisition of further
accommodations, which they must otherwise have waited some time
to obtain; while the buildings which were required to be raised
for the security of the stores, and for other purposes of equal
necessity, were greatly retarded. I am confident also that this
conduct tended to relax the discipline which ought to have been
rigidly preserved amongst the convicts, and produced a general
carelessness of the general interest; and it was not without some
difficulty that Governor Hunter succeeded in the adoption of a
contrary line of behaviour. Habits of dissipation and indolence
resulted from this pernicious mode of bartering the public for
individual interest, which had taken such deep root, as to render
their complete eradication matter of the most extreme difficulty:
The encroachments on the hours of labour for the crown has,
however, been done away by Governor Hunter, and a a more regular
system has been adopted in the allowance of convicts and other
indulgences to settlers, etc. by order of the Secretary of
State, since his excellency's departure.

The custom of imprisoning for debt those persons who are
employed in the public service, constitutes the 5th article of
notice; and this practice had been carried to such a pitch, that
dealers would readily give credit to convicts, or any servants of
the crown, under the idea that they might sue the debtors for the
amount, and imprison them, or obtain the benefit of their labour
until the debt was liquidated. The necessities of the convicts
frequently compelled them to seek for credit, and thus to throw
themselves into the power of those iniquitous designers. In