In a colony constituted like that of New South Wales, the proportion of crime must of course be great.

Yet it falls less under the notice of private families than one might at first sight have been led to suppose.
Drunkenness, as in the mother country, is the besetting sin; but it is confined chiefly to the large towns in consequence of the difficulty of procuring spirits in the country.

There are, no doubt, many incorrigible characters sent to settle in the interior, and it is an evil to have these men, even for a single day, to break the harmony of a previously well regulated establishment, or to injure its future prospects by the influence of evil example.

They are men who are sent upon trial, from on board a newly arrived ship, and they generally terminate their misconduct either on the roads or at a penal settlement, being thus happily removed from the mass of the prisoners.

Frequently, however, men remain for years under the same master.