emigrants in that colony, to assist in controlling the convict population, in rendering their labour useful to the community, and in promoting their ultimate reformation, was a measure contemplated by the home government from the very first.
"Sydney Cove, 12th Feb., 1790.
Here I beg leave to observe to your Lordship, that if settlers are sent out, and the convicts divided amongst them, this settlement will very shortly maintain itself; but without which the country cannot be cultivated to advantage. * * * The labour of the convicts, employed in cultivation, has been very short of what might have been expected."
Sydney Cove, 13th Feb., 1790.
As the land, for several miles to the southward and twenty miles to the westward of Rose Hill (now Parramatta), that is, to the banks of the Hawkesbury, is as fine land for tillage as most in England, some few spots excepted, I propose that tract for the settlers who may be sent out. As the labour of clearing the ground of timber will be great, I think each settler should not have less than twenty men on his farm, which I suppose to be from five hundred to one thousand acres. It will be necessary to give that number
