DAYS OF LONG AGO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 30 November 1933, Page 3

DAYS OF LONG AGO

SYDNEY BANQUET IN 17!)li GUESTS WITH OWN BREAD PRIVATIONS OK PIONEERS k Guests at a banquet at the New j South Wales Government House, in J 179() took their own bread. One officer j arrived with lialf-a-loaf on the point of bis sword. This departure from the. customary rules of hospitality was related by Mr Aubrey Ualloran at a. Rotary Club luncheon at Parramatta, New South Wales, recently. Mr lhilloran, whost address was associated with the “Back to Parramatta.” celebrations, drew an unpleasant picture, of the early days. There were, terrible sufferings on convict ships, lie said. Convicts were shipped under contract, and if any died, then the contractor made more profit. Records showed that on 17th July, 1790, Colonel Surgeon White reported that “of 939 males sent out, in the last ships, 261 died on board, and 50 have died since handing, ’flic number of sick this day is 450, and many who are not reckoned as sick have barely strength to attend to themselves.” There was starvation and many privations in tile early days of the settlement, Mr Hnlloran added. In 1790 rations were reduced to a weekly allowance, of 2Mb of rice, 2Mb flour, and 21b salt meat. People became so wea.k that all work was suspended. In 1803 as much as £2 14s was paid for a_ewe, cows were, £46 15s each, horses ■EIO each, and a, pair of boots cost £2. By a proclamation in 1806 a labourer was to accept 15s for breaking up an acre of ground, or be sent to the. stocks, ami then imprisoned for three months. A" employer, if he paid a higher wage, was to he fined £5. In 1786, Mr Ualloran went on, the Rev. Samuel Marsdeu established the first school near St. John’s Church. John 'I nil was the first master, and he received a salary of £lO a, year, which was paid by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. By 1820 1 the. salary had been raised to £6O. In those, far-off days a. knowledge of music 1 was the rarest of accomplishments as evidenced by the fact that when \ Surgeon Worgan departed for England ] in 1790 he left a, piano as a, present ( lor Mrs Maeartlnir, but it subsequently transpired that there was no one, in * tlio colony able to play the instrument. • “Tilings were bad in those days.” 1 Mr Ualloran concluded. “I would ‘like 1 to meet the man wfio says ho would like to live in ‘the, good oid days.’ ” s