Philip Gidley King reforms the colony under military pressure

Philip Gidley King inherited Hunter's struggle with the New South Wales Corps and tried to curb illicit liquor trading. He regulated prices, wages, working hours, and convict employment while encouraging construction, government herds, crop experiments, whaling, sealing, coal mining, and trade education for convict boys. He encouraged smallpox vaccination and supported print measures that made official rules and public information harder for soldiers to control. King appointed emancipated convicts to responsible positions, regulated assigned servants, laid the foundation of the ticket-of-leave system, and temporarily permitted Father James Dixon to celebrate Mass for Irish convicts. His profits from cattle sales and land grants are characterized as modest compared with those of the Corps. Corps resistance helped force his resignation and led to William Bligh's appointment, after which the Rum Rebellion against Bligh prompted Britain to restore civil control.