FL14425140

3
Rev. Samuel Marsden (Chaplain in New South Wales) To W. Wilberforce, Esq.

Parramatta, 1799.

Honoured Sir,
Though I have nothing of any importance to mention. I could not let this opportunity pass without giving you a line.
I have the pleasure to inform you that, after repeated application and much difficulty a church is begun at Parramatta, which I hope, in time, to see completed. There is no immediate prospect of my colleague having one built at Sydney, too many difficulties are thrown in his way, which he has neither the strength nor spirits to encounter. The governor himself has many embarrassments to contend with: his situation has been, and continues to be, as distressing as either Mr Johnson's or mine. The evils under which the colony groans have increased to such a magnitude that : Government alone has power to redress them.
Monopolies, and the price of every article of consumption, have gradually increased to this very day, in proportion as to the trading officers have advanced towards independence.

It is truly a painful reflection that the morals of the lower ranks of inhabitants should be sacrificed to the avarice of a few individuals, as well as the temporal prospects of the colony, which is the case at present. The soil and climate are as good and perhaps, superior to any in the known world. Nothing can exceed the prospect we have of a most plentiful crop of wheat this season from the richness of the soil on [indecipherable]