A still was seized on his premises. It was condemned, with its produce. Holt was compelled to find security for future good conduct, himself for £200, and two sureties for £100 each. Several others were variously punished for the same offence, Holt having had many accomplices.
By a General Order (11th May) large money rewards to freemen, absolute or conditional pardons to convicts, according to the case, were offered for evidence convicting distillers.
In July 1806 King told the Secretary of State that these measures, with the exertions of the magistrates, had been successful. "This practice, if not got the better of by these means, would have involved the inhabitants in ruin and confusion. As I have detailed my suspicion in the above-cited General Orders, I shall forbear stating some of the known aggressors in those transactions, as their situation and office ought to have precluded them from encouraging such practices."
The manner in which the misstatements of one writer have been accepted by others has made it necessary to follow closely the real events, and by numerous citations of orders and despatches to establish the truth. It is necessary also to show that, though interested persons resisted the Governor's efforts, he found some consolations. The Duke of Portland's approval in 1801 was echoed by Lord Hobart in subsequent years.
In 1803 the improvement in the condition of the settlers in the Parramatta and Hawkesbury districts was so manifest that the Rev. S. Marsden and Mr. Arndell reported it in writing to the Governor. Marsden attributed it to
"the prohibition of so great a quantity of spirits as was formerly dispersed among them, and the great advantage the settlers derive from purchasing from the Government stores with the produce of their farms. Crime has diminished, the idle have become industrious, the drunkard sober, and the thief honest. . . . I have ever observed that the labouring people in the settlement have not so great an aversion to industry as they have a propensity to intoxication. . . . The cause of their present state I conceive to be the prohibition of spirits, and the relief afforded them by His Majesty's stores from the cruel hand of extortion under which they were once so heavily oppressed."
The subject of spirit traffic in the dependencies of New South Wales may be dismissed in a sentence. Neither Collins at Hobart Town, nor the officers in command at
