This made the fifth circumstance of the kind which had occurred within the last twelve months; and so excessively abandoned were the people, that it was scarcely possible to obtain sufficient proof to convict the offenders.  Strong presumptive proof, indeed, was frequently adduced; but the kind of evidence necessary to establish the offence was almost constantly withheld.

About this time, some dissatisfaction appearing among the Irish convicts who were ordered to labour, and some threats having been made use of by them, the governor thought it necessary to inform the inhabitants of the colony in general, that, after having pointed out a number of people who had, by false pretences, and various impositions, obtained certificates of discharge from the commissary’s books, he did not expect so soon to have occasion to enter again upon the same subject.  He then, taking notice of those who had not hesitated to hold a language which implied a determination to resist all authority, declared, that if any officer, civil or military, any settler, or other person within the colony, should, after Monday, the 7th of November, retain in his or their service any one or more of the persons described in a former order, such persons should be considered as encouraging a set of lawless and seditious people, to the total subversion of all order and government, and to the weakening of His Majesty’s authority in the settlement.  He next informed the people whose conduct had occasioned this order, that if they were of opinion, that to threaten would be the best means of obtaining what they desired, they might repent that opinion when too late.  That there would not be any difficulty found in furnishing them with a situation in the colony, or in some of its dependencies, where they would not be able to disturb the peace of their neighbours; and that if they were troublesome here, they should certainly be placed in that situation very soon.  He concluded this order by informing all the inhabitants of the colony, whether in a civil or a military capacity, that he expected, as they valued His Majesty’s authority, or the peace and civil government of the settlement, that they would exert every effort to preserve good order; and, to that end, that they should aid and assist the civil power when and wherever it might be necessary, and report all such persons as they might know to be in any way acting in opposition to this order.

It was hoped by the governor, that this order would convince the people particularly styled defenders, that, if they continued to be troublesome, they would not very readily escape from the punishment to which their turbulent and restless conduct might entitle them.

From the accession of numbers to the public gangs, the different works in hand at Sydney and Parramatta went rapidly on.  At the former of these places the erection of a granary, 72 feet in length and 22 in breadth, was begun on the west side of the main street, there not being a building for the reception of grain yet prepared in that township.