[146] See 28th Report of Finance Committee, page 17.
[147] See the Examination of the Author before the Select Committee of the House of Commons.
[148] Norfolk Island is a small fertile spot, containing about 14,000 acres of land, situated about 1200 miles distant from Sydney Cove in New South Wales, where the seat of Government is fixed.
[149] In 21 months after the arrival of the first Convicts in May 1788, there were 77 deaths and 87 births in the whole Settlement.
[150] An account of the Live Stock in the possession of, and Land in cultivation by, Government, and the Officers civil and military, 1st September 1796, extracted from page 123, of the above Report of the Select Committee on Finance.
| Government. | Civil and Military Officers. | Settlers. | Total. | |
| Mares and Horses | 14 | 43 | 0 | 57 |
| Cows and Cow Calves | 67 | 34 | 0 | 101 |
| Bulls and Bull Calves | 37 | 37 | 0 | 74 |
| Oxen | 46 | 6 | 0 | 52 |
| Sheep | 191 | 1310 | 30 | 1531 |
| Goats | 111 | 1176 | 140 | 1427 |
| Hogs | 59 | 889 | 921 | 1869 |
| 525 | 3495 | 1091 | [E]5111 |
| Land in cultivation, viz:— | Acres. |
| Government | 1700 |
| Civil and Military Officers | 1172 |
| Settlers | 2547 |
| 5419 |
The above 1700 acres were unemployed in 1796, on account of the want of public labourers, and the many buildings required—about 4-5th parts of the 1172 acres were sown with wheat—much timber cut, but not burnt off, on the 2547 acres belonging to the settlers.
[E] In addition to the above Stock 61 head of Cattle were discovered in the year 1795, about 50 miles S.W. of the town of Sydney, which must have been produced from three Cows which strayed from the Settlement in 1788. This proves that at least one of the Cows at the time must have been big with a Bull Calf, and also gives the data for calculating the rate of the increase.