made generous land grants to his officers and provided them with convict labour, fed and clothed at Government expense. Food produced on their farms could be sold profitably to the Government Stores. Under Phillip rationing had applied to everyone, including the Governor. After a poor harvest in 1793, Grose decreased food rations for the convicts but not for the military. Phillip had not permitted the military to import spirits or goods to trade. Neither Grose nor William Paterson, who succeeded him in December 1794, imposed these restrictions. Groups of officers chartered ships to deliver alcohol and tradeable goods to the Colony, the scarce coinage was replaced by rum, that became the Colony’s currency, used to pay for labour, food and other necessities. The New South Wales Corps became known as the Rum Corps. When Hunter arrived in late 1795, he found the Colony completely altered, rife with drunkenness and crime. The populace, subject to the whims of the Rum Corps, was riven with divisions and hostilities. The Rum Corps officers controlled the prices of all imported commodities, and their monopoly over trading reaped enormous profits. Emancipated convicts, those who had served their time, no longer on Government rations, were unable to pay for necessities. If they provided labour to officers or wealthy settlers, they were exploited for negligible reward. Many went into debt or bankruptcy, abandoned their land grants or sold them cheaply to the officers and crowded back into Sydney Town to live or to await an opportunity to join a ship going home. Governor Hunter gave D’Arcy Wentworth permission to leave Norfolk Island, and he arrived back in Sydney on 5 March 1796. He had worked without a break for six years on the island. He received £40 a year as Superintendent of Convicts, but had not been paid for his work as Assistant Surgeon. His applications for leave and requests for his position to be regularised had been ignored. In London, Earl Fitzwilliam pursued the matter of payment for his service as Assistant Surgeon, and in 1798, as a result of his efforts, Wentworth was paid arrears of £160, for six years work. Soon after Wentworth’s return, Governor Hunter appointed him to Sydney Cove Hospital as an Assistant Surgeon, replacing Samuel Leeds, who had disqualified himself though drunkenness. In Sydney, Hunter allowed several people, including Wentworth, to act as traders, in an attempt to break the power