This month's highlight is a government order stating road tolls are to be paid by everyone The order was put into effect after a high ranking officer refused to pay a toll. Macquarie believed that all persons were subject to the law and that all, regardless of rank, should pay the toll. Jeffery Hart Bent had refused to pay toll on turnpike road. Macquarie's insistence that he pay the toll created an enemy of Bent who would then use his influence to undermine Macquarie.

» Lachlan Macquarie Gallery

TRANSCRIPT:

134 Government and General Orders Civil Department Government House, Sydney Saturday September 9th 1815

The Governor has been officially informed, with much surprise and Regret, that an officer of very high Rank in the Civil Service of this Colony has refused to pay the toll ordered in the Proclamation under Date the 30th of March 1811, to be levied on all Persons trav- elling on Horseback or in Carriages on the Turn pike Road, established by that Proclamation and subsequently approved of by His Majesty’s Ministers. Whiles the Governor laments that any Person should be found in the Colony so want- ing in public spirit as to wish to evade contri- buting his mite towards the support of so useful and beneficial an Establishment for the Country and the Community at large, he cannot allow any person whatsoever, however high his Rank may be, to break through or set at Defiance the established Regulations of the Colony, and he thus publicly declares, that no Persons whatsoever can or shall be exempted from paying the Tolls in Question, excepting those few already specified in the Government Orders. The Farmers of the several Tolls through- out the Colony are hereby accordingly authorised to instruct and direct their respective Toll-Gate Keepers to enforce the Orders and Regulations contained in the Proclamation herein alluded to, under Date the 30th of March 1811, on the subject of Tolls, and not to permit any Horse or Carriage to pass through them without the Owners or Riders paying the Dues therein prescribed. And in the Event of any Person or Persons attempting to use Fow or Piolinu (?) to evade paying such Tolls or Dues, the Toll-gate Keepers are 135 [1815] are hereby directed to call for assistance from the Police to enforce the established Regulations of the Colony in this particular Instance.

The Police Magistrate at Sydney, and also the several District Magistrates in the Interior, when or so called upon, are accordingly hereby author ised and directed to afford the necessary Aid of Peace Officers, to assist the said Toll Gate Keepers in enforcing the established Regulations of Government in the manner prescribed by the said Proclamation, bearing Date the 30th of March 1811, as well as to preserve the Public Peace from being violated and the Government from being in- sulted in the just Exercise of its Authority.

Although the Governor forbears, from Motive of Delicacy, and out of Respect for the high Office he holds, to name the Officer herein alluded to, he cannot help expressing thus publicly his Astonishment and Regret, that he should be the first and only Person in this Colony who has openly and a- vowedly attempted to break through and counter act the Regulations the Governor had deemed it necessary to establish for the Benefit and improvement of the country. From a person at the Head of so high an Office, the Governor had just Reason to hope and expect every De- gree of reasonable support, instead of Oppositi- on and violent Resistance to his public measures.

By Command of His Excellency The Governor (signed) J T Campbell