Aug. 1805 Atkins, Marsden, and Harris adjudicated in a case at Parramatta. Atkins then conveyed to the Governor his "doubt whether working a private still could be taken up in any other way than a disobedience of colonial regulation."
In republishing Hunter's General Order against the "engines of destruction" King called (Sept. 1805) for "the aid of the officers civil and military, and particularly the magistracy," to assist in suppressing the evil.
In June 1806 he asked Atkins and the magistrates to explain their laxity in carrying out the law. On the 1st July Atkins, Major Johnston, Rev. S. Marsden, Thomas Jamison, Lieut. Abbott, Lieut. Houstoun, and Dr. Harris replied that they had at all times thought it their duty to enforce to the utmost of their power the orders which
"the executive power has issued for the public weal, but at the same time they do not think themselves vested with sufficient authority to send every free person out of the colony for any disobedience of a colonial order, which they conceive would be infringing the power of the Governor; and they further are of opinion that it is a matter of great delicacy for them to pass any judgment on orders issued by the executive authority; that the power of the magistrates extends no further than finding the culprit generally guilty of a breach of Governor Hunter's order of 28th Feb. 1799, and your Excelloncy's subsequent order of Sept. 1805, leaving it to the Governor to inflict the prescribed penalties.
"Thomas Anderson was brought before the Bench charged with disobedience of the orders (aforesaid), which they think is clearly proved, and that he has incurred the penalties prescribed by said orders."
The seven enumerated magistrates signed the report.
The fate of Anderson may be easily surmised. The compromise devised by the magistrates in order to leave the responsibility on the Governor was not one from which the man who had disarmed the military force at Norfolk Island in face of several hundred convicts was likely to shrink.
Many punishments were inflicted in 1806. The sorrows of Joseph Holt, the Irish rebel, previously sent from Sydney to Norfolk Island (for complicity in the rebellion in Sydney in 1804) and the amiable character of his wife, commended him to Mr. Marsden and Mr. Arndell, a brother magistrate.[1]
- ↑ The untrustworthiness of the "Memoirs of Holt" (ed. T. C. Croker, London, 1838) is shown by his narrative of this transaction. He says that Lt. Abbott was the magistrate who dealt with him, and makes other statements so incompatible with the facts that it would seem that having kept no accurate contemporary record, his memory was faulty when he compiled his memoirs.
