The normal fate of a well-behaved convict prior to 1840 was assignment to public or private service. Convicts upon arrival in the settlement were assigned either to the government or to free settlers. Assigned servants were often paid. Most received indulgences like tea, sugar, tobacco or even spirits as an incentive to work and as a means of discipline. For the most part they were kindly treated. If conditions were hard and the men had to live in huts with roofs of stringy bark laid on sapling rafters tied with cords from a kurrajong tree and beds of wooden slabs covered with bark - it must be remembered that these were probably the same conditions under which the masters suffered.
The master was in a position to charge any of his servants with insubordination or misconduct. They could not punish the convict themselves. However, the master could send a man to the nearest magistrate who could hear the case and determine punishment.
Little more than 10% of convicts succeeded in maintaining a 'clean sheet'.
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