It was this good-nature, this disinclination to fight his enemies to the bitter end, that ultimately had much to do with Hunter’s recall.  A certain Captain John MacArthur, of the New South Wales Corps, of whom we shall presently hear very much, was, when Hunter arrived, filling the civil post of Inspector of Public Works.  He was also a settler in the full meaning of the word, owning many acres and requiring many assigned servants to work them and to look after his flocks and herds, and from some cause connected with these civil occupations he came into collision with the governor.  This presently led to much correspondence between the Home Office, the governor, and MacArthur.  In these letters Hunter and his subordinate say very unkind things of each other, which nowadays may well be forgotten.  The settlement was so small, the life was such an uneventful one, that it would be wonderful indeed if men did not quarrel, and these two men were naturally antagonistic to each other.

Hunter was an old-fashioned naval officer, sixty years of age, and fifty of those years had been spent in disinterested service to his country, “a pleasant, sensible old man,” says a young ship’s officer, writing home to his father; and in another letter, published in a newspaper of 1798, we are told that “much may be expected from Captain Hunter, whose virtue and integrity is as conspicuous as his merit.”

MacArthur was a comparatively young man, who had come to the colony less with the intention of soldiering than of making himself a home.  He was an excellent colonist and a perfectly honourable man, but he was the very worst kind of a subordinate that a man with Hunter’s lack of strong personality could have under him.  MacArthur wanted to develop the resources of the colony and improve his farm at the same time, and that he had it in him to do these things is proved by after-events.  The name of MacArthur, the father of the merino wool industry, is the best-remembered name in Australia to-day; but poor old Hunter could not recognise the soldier man’s merits, and so he added to his legitimate quarrel with the meaner hucksters of his officials the quarrel with the enterprising MacArthur; and, although there is no written evidence to prove it, there is little doubt that MacArthur’s letters to England had due effect upon the minds of the home authorities.

The Duke of Portland wrote to Hunter early in 1799 requesting him to afford the fullest refutation of a number of charges that had been made against the administration of the colony.  Wrote the Duke:—­

“I proceed to let you know that it is asserted that the price of necessary articles is of late doubled; that the same wheat is received into the Government stores at ten shillings per bushel which the settler is under the necessity of selling to the huckster at three shillings; that spirits or other articles are purchased by the officers of His Majesty’s forces in New South Wales,