He Had Twenty-One Hands To Assist Him, Who Performed
Every Thing; Cut Wood, Dug Clay, Etc.
This continued (during the days
of distress excepted, when they did what they could) until June last.
From June,
With one brick and two tile stools he has been tasked to make
40000 bricks and tiles monthly (as many of each sort as may be), having
twenty-two men and two boys to assist him, on the same terms of procuring
materials as before. They fetch the clay of which tiles are made,
two hundred yards; that for bricks is close at hand. He says that the bricks
are such as would be called in England, moderately good, and he judges
they would have fetched about 24 shillings per thousand at Kingston-upon-Thames
(where he resided) in the year 1784. Their greatest fault is being
too brittle. The tiles he thinks not so good as those made about London.
The stuff has a rotten quality, and besides wants the advantage
of being ground, in lieu of which they tread it.
King (another master bricklayer) last year, with the assistance of sixteen men
and two boys, made 11,000 bricks weekly, with two stools. During short
allowance did what he could. Resumed his old task when put again
on full allowance and had his number of assistants augmented to twenty men
and two boys, on account of the increased distance of carrying wood
for the kilns. He worked at Hammersmith, for Mr. Scot, of that place.
He thinks the bricks made here as good as those made near London, and says that
in the year 1784, they would have sold for a guinea per thousand and to have
picked the kiln at thirty shillings.'
Such is my Sydney detail dated the 12th of November, 1790. Four days
after I went to Rose Hill, and wrote there the subjoined remarks.
November 16th. Got to Rose Hill in the evening. Next morning walked round
the whole of the cleared and cultivated land, with the Rev. Mr. Johnson,
who is the best farmer in the country. Edward Dod, one of the governor's
household, who conducts everything here in the agricultural line,
accompanied us part of the way, and afforded all the information he could.
He estimates the quantity of cleared and cultivated land at 200 acres.
Of these fifty-five are in wheat, barley, and a little oats, thirty in maize,
and the remainder is either just cleared of wood, or is occupied by buildings,
gardens, etc. Four enclosures of twenty acres each, are planned for
the reception of cattle, which may arrive in the colony, and two of these
are already fenced in. In the centre of them is to be erected a house,
for a person who will be fixed upon to take care of the cattle. All these
enclosures are supplied with water; and only a part of the trees which grew in
them being cut down, gives to them a very park-like and beautiful appearance.
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