Volume 66: Macarthur family correspondence relating to land, 1819-1881: No. 032
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[Page 32]
certainly desirable from their situation and quality, but I am informed that the greater part is only fitted for grazing ground, and cannot be more usefully employed.
I submit, therefore, to your Lordship, that whatever quantity, therefore shall be ultimately allotted to my father's establishments, will be used in the mode for which it is best adapted, and with greater probability of general advantage than can be expected from the prosecution of any other plan. Whilst adverting to this part of the subject, I trust it will not be considered irrelevant to state, as shewing how far Government are immediately benefitted by these pursuits, that he employed had in his service, during the last year, one hundred and twenty convicts, who were wholly fed and clothed at his own expense, and employed in these regular and laborious occupations which seem best calculated to restore them to correct and industrious habits. Calculating the charge of these men at Twenty three pounds each, pr annum, the lowest sum for which they can be supported by the public in the Colony your Lordship will see that the annual saving to Government will amount to Two Thousand seven hundred and sixty pounds.
I will, therefore, further, venture to assure your Lordship, that altho' Tracts of land of greater extent are possessed by several persons in the Colony, yet no one has hitherto relieved Government from the burthen of so many convicts, or employed a larger capital in
the