2dly, As to the expenditure of the stores which were forwarded to the colony, in the interval which elapsed from the departure of Governor Phillip, in December, 1792, to the arrival of Governor Hunter, in September, 1795.—­It has been subsequently ascertained, that in this lapse of two years and three-quarters, a sufficiency of stores had been received to supply the real wants of the settlement for a period nearly thrice as long; whereas the whole was expended, and the store-houses were found empty at the arrival of the latter governor from England.  In consequence of the profusion which had thus been practised, although it might at that time be deemed needful, his excellency Governor Hunter was reduced to the necessity of purchasing new stores at an expensive market, where every advantage was taken of the necessity which had induced the demand, and the most exorbitant prices were charged for each article.  I have understood from very good authority, that two pounds were paid for a pair of men’s shoes, and thirty shillings for women’s; tobacco was forty shillings per lb.; soap twelve shillings, and sugar eight shillings; a beaver hat and a coarse jacket, fetched five pounds each, and every other article in an equal proportion.  A great deal of time was also lost in endeavouring to make implements of husbandry, mechanical tools, and other requisites of a similar description.  The reduced state of the colony at this period was also rendered still more deplorable, by the neglect of the government in England to comply with the urgent requisitions of Governor Hunter for such supplies as were necessary.  The exhaustion of the stores of clothing and beds and blankets, assisted to fill the hospital with patients, and rendered the purchase of these articles absolutely indispensable at any price, and on any terms on which they might be procured.  I feel myself inclined to suppose, that the backwardness which displayed itself at this time in the government to dispatch the stores which were demanded, arose from a conviction that the supplies which had been previously sent in such abundance were sufficiently ample for all the immediate wants of the colony, and, consequently, that the pressure of necessity could not be so great as was represented; for it was not to be expected that those officers who administered the government of the colony, on the arrival of their successors, would depict the situation of the settlement, and the state of the stores, in any other than a favourable light, particularly to his Majesty’s ministers at home; a line of conduct which tended considerably to enhance the mischiefs which had been already showered upon the inhabitants, by the perhaps too liberal distribution which had been displayed in the issuing of the various necessaries during their administration.