OLD MANUSCRIPT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20669, 15 September 1930, Page 6

OLD MANUSCRIPT.

OVER 100 YEARS AGO* CONVICTS ON ROAD WORK, Mrs. M. A. Cox, of Cabramatta, say* a Sydney newspaper, in memory of her late husband, Mr. Sydney Thomas Cox, has presented to the trustees of the- Mitchell Library, Sydney, the journal of William Cox, of Clarendon, recording the progress of the construction of a road from Captain Woodriff'S farm, on the Nepean River, opposite Emu Plains, over the Blue Mountains, in 1814. Th« journal is about Bin. by sin., and comprises 70 pages of neat writing, forming a diary of each day's experiences.

The journal sets out that it was afe the express wish of Governor Macquari# that Mr. Cox undertook the management and**direction of making the road. A call was made on convicts to volunteer for the work, the inducement being held out of emancipation when the work was completed. In a fortnight he had gathered a party of 30 hardy men, who' had been some years in tho colony, were accustomed to field labour, such men being deemed to be better able to stanfl six or twelve months' hard work in the mountains than those who had been house servants or were accustomed to light labour. The superintendent and the guide wer# men who had previously crossed tha mountains with Surveyor Evans. Ejg» soldiers were allotted as a guard. Mr.Cox expresses himself, in one place, as being staggered at the immensity of nis task of making a road down what "h® terms "a Herculean mountain." and records difficulties caused by bullocks tna were too wild to be harnessed, or toO> lame or poverty-stricken to be. worked. On one occasion Mr. Cox issued to eac man a gill of spirits and on another sent three men to examine all the i;idg®. and gullies to the north-west, offering a reward if they found a better P down to the 'forest; then followed tna mournful entry, "returned unsuccessful. A kangaroo which tho party kill® weighed 1201b. . . Age has caused the black ink to ia to brown. The watermark on the pap . is "Budgen and Willmott, 1812, a " j- , the handwriting having been with a letter written by Mr. Cox S l> -M proof of the authenticity of the journal..-^