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CHAPTER V.
GOVERNOR KING.
Philip Gidley King, having successfully appealed against the abolition of the civil law at Norfolk Island, and having thanked the Duke of Portland for his "justice and goodness," obtained leave of absence on the ground of ill-health. In 1798 he applied for the establishment of a Civil Court of Judicature at Norfolk Island, and a friendly note from Sir Evan Nepean informed him in July that he was to have the rank of post-captain. He soon learned that he was selected to cope with the evils rampant in New South Wales. To lighten to Hunter the blow of his removal, King was in the first instance constituted Governor of New South Wales in ease of the absence or death of Hunter.
The territory extended from Cape York (S. lat. 10.37) to 48.39 south; was bounded to the west by the 185th degree of longitude, including thus a great part of the modern colony of South Australia, and comprised "all the islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean within the latitudes aforesaid."
Before leaving England, King addressed himself to the task of extricating the community from the extortions of importers. He proposed (as Hunter had suggested in 1796) that a government store should be formed in the colony, and that supplies, to be sold at a rate which would recoup the coat to the government, should he sent from England. Private extortion was to he restrained by the power of the Governor to fix the prices at which goods might be sob! from ships casually arriving. King fixed it
