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There were strong reasons for suspecting that,
notwithstanding the bond which they had entered into, rigidly to adhere
to the regulations which had been established for their benefit, some
among them were so very deficient of even honest principles as to attempt
by various means to evade the regulation, to the great injury of other
more industrious and more deserving men. In order the more readily to
detect a practice so shameful and iniquitous, the governor judged it
requisite to hold out a reward to those who would come forward and give
such information as should be sufficient to prove the offence, by
offering one-third of the sum forfeited to the informer. The settlers were
also called upon to give information of any labouring man who, on
offering himself for hire, should refuse to accept the regulated wages.
As such person must be incapable of living in this country without work,
he was immediately to be apprehended as a vagrant, who, having no visible
means of providing honestly for his support, must have recourse to
robbery.


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