In a cross street stand nine houses
for unmarried women; and exclusive of all these are several small huts
Where convict families of good character are allowed to reside.
Of public buildings, besides the old wooden barrack and store, there is
a house of lath and plaster, forty-four feet long by sixteen wide,
for the governor, on a ground floor only, with excellent out-houses
and appurtenances attached to it. A new brick store house, covered with tiles,
100 feet long by twenty-four wide, is nearly completed, and a house
for the store-keeper. The first stone of a barrack, 100 feet long
by twenty-four wide, to which are intended to be added wings for the officers,
was laid to-day. The situation of the barrack is judicious, being close
to the store-house, and within a hundred and fifty yards of the wharf,
where all boats from Sydney unload. To what I have already enumerated,
must be added an excellent barn, a granary, an inclosed yard to rear stock in,
a commodious blacksmith's shop, and a most wretched hospital, totally destitute
of every conveniency. Luckily for the gentleman who superintends
this hospital, and still more luckily for those who are doomed in case
of sickness to enter it, the air of Rose Hill has hitherto been
generally healthy. A tendency to produce slight inflammatory disorders,
from the rapid changes* of the temperature of the air, is most to be dreaded.
[*In the close of the year 1788, when this settlement was established,
the thermometer has been known to stand at 50 degrees a little before sunrise,
and between one and two o' clock in the afternoon at above 100 degrees.]
'The hours of labour for the convicts are the same here as at Sydney.
On Saturdays after ten o'clock in the morning they are allowed to work
in their own gardens.
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