On the 27th of the month, the long-expected signal not having been displayed, it became necessary to put the colony upon a still shorter ration of provisions.  It was a painful but a necessary duty.  The governor directed that the provisions should in future be served daily; for which purpose the store was to be opened from one to three in the afternoon.  The ration for the week was to consist of four pounds of flour, two pounds and a half of pork, and one pound and a half of rice, and these were to be issued to every person in the settlement without distinction; but as the public labour must naturally be affected by this reduction, the working hours were in future to be from sunrise, with a small interval for breakfast, until one o’clock:  the afternoons were to be allowed the people to receive their provisions and work in their gardens.  These alterations in the ration and in the hours of labour, however, were not to commence until the 1st of the following month.

At Rose Hill similar regulations were made by the governor.  The garden ground was enlarged; those who were in bad huts were placed in better; and every thing was said that could stimulate them to be industrious.  This, with a few exceptions, appeared to be the principal labour both there and at Sydney; and the nightwatch were called upon by the common interest to be more than ever active and sedulous in their efforts to protect public and private property; for robberies of gardens and houses were daily and nightly committed.  Damage was also received from the little stock which remained alive; the owners, not having wherewith to feed them, were obliged to turn them loose to browse among the grass and shrubs, or turn up the ground for the fern-root; and as they wandered without any one to prevent their doing mischief, they but too often found an easy passage over fences and through barriers which were now grown weak and perishing.  It was however ordered, that the stock should be kept up during the night, and every damage that could be proved to have been received during that time was to be made good by the owners of the stock that might be caught trespassing; or the animals themselves were to be forfeited.

The carpenters were employed in preparing a roof for a new storehouse, those which were first erected being now decaying, and having been always insecure.  It was never expected to get up a building of one hundred feet in front, which this was designed to be, upon so reduced a ration as the present; but while the people did labour, it was proper to turn that little labour to the public account.

The working gangs being now so much reduced by the late embarkation, the hoy was employed in bringing the timber necessary for this building from the coves where it was cut down and deposited for that purpose.  This vessel, when unemployed for public services, was given to the officers, and by them sent down the harbour to procure cabbage-tree for their stock, in the preservation and maintenance of which every one felt an immediate and anxious concern.