On the 5th, the court of civil judicature was held at Parramatta. Several writs were issued, and prosecutions for debt entered; and on the 7th the court adjourned until the 19th. On that day it met, and continued sitting until the 24th, when all the business before them was concluded. This consisted chiefly of litigation about debts contracted between the retail dealers and the settlers. As a proof to what a height this business had reached, it need only be mentioned, that an appeal was made to the governor in one prosecution for a debt of £868 16s 10d; which appeal was however withdrawn, the defendant consenting to pay the debt. The governor, having received from the settlers in each district, through the medium of the two gentlemen whom he sent amongst them for that purpose (the Rev. Mr. Marsden, and Mr. Arndell), a clear and correct statement of their grievances and distresses, informed them, that it was with real concern he beheld the effects of the meeting of each civil court, which, for the public accommodation, he from time to time had occasion to assemble. The vast load of debt with which they so frequently felt themselves burdened, through the imposition and extortion of the multitude of petty dealers by whom the colony was so much troubled, with the difficulties under which the industrious man laboured for want of some other mode of providing the necessaries which he required, were grievances of which he was determined to get the better; and, as far as his situation would authorise him, he would adopt every means in his power to afford them relief. To this end he found it absolutely necessary to suppress many of those licensed public houses which, when first permitted, were designed as a convenience to the labouring people; but which he now saw were the principal cause whence many had candidly confessed their ruin to have sprung. He wished it were possible to dissuade them from heaping such heavy debts upon themselves by the enjoyment of articles which they could do without, or by throwing away their money in purchasing, at every public auction, rags and trifles for which such exorbitant sums were exacted. He urged them, with a paternal anxiety, to consider, that their folly involved their whole families in ruin and misfortune, and conjured them to wait with patience the result of some representations which he had made to government, as well in their behalf, as in behalf of the settlers upon Norfolk Island; by which he hoped that ere long they would have an opportunity of purchasing every European article that they might want at such a reasonable and moderate price as they, by their industry, would be very well able to afford from the produce of their labour.