It may be interesting to record on what conditions the marines were
granted discharges. First they must have served three years (a superfluous
condition, seeing that the corps was not relieved until long after three
years' service had expired); there was then granted to every non-com. 100
acres and every private 50 acres for ten years, after which they were to
pay an annual quit rent of a shilling for every ten acres. A bounty of £3
and a double grant of land was allowed to all men who re-enlisted in the
New South Wales Corps, and they were also given the further privilege of a
year's clothes, provisions, and seed grain, and one or more assigned
convict servants, at the discretion of the governor. The only available
return shows that about 50 of the men, a year before the force left the
colony, had accepted the offer of discharge and settled at Parramatta and
Norfolk Island, then the two principal farming settlements.
The Home Government made no provisions for grants to officers, and as to
free emigrants, they were a class in those days so little contemplated
that the early governors' instructions merely provided that they were to
be given every encouragement short of "subjecting the public to expense."
Grants of land equal to that given to non-commissioned officers could be
made, and assigned servants allowed, but nothing else.
Any modern emigrant who has seen what a grant of uncleared land in
Australia means knows what a poor chance of success the most industrious
settler could have on these terms, and the early governors were in despair
of getting people settled, since they could not provide settlers with
seeds, tools, clothing, or anything else without disobeying the order not
to subject the public to expense.
Emancipated convicts, on the other hand, were allowed much the same
privileges as discharged marines. Phillip repeatedly wrote to England on
this subject, and he, on his own responsibility, on more than one
occasion, departed from his instructions, and gave privileges to _bonâ
fide_ selectors of all classes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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