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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
TITLC.O.
TTT
• 885
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Government in such a manner as to relieve you from difficulty in carrying them into effect, which I rely upon your doing with the same ability and judgment you have hitherto displayed; but for your further assistance, and for the information of the convicts themselves, I have thought it expe- dient to have the system which is to be adopted embodied in the form of a set of regulations, which I have caused to be printed, and of which copies are herewith enclosed. The utmost pains will be taken to have these regulations and the position in which they will be placed in the colony thoroughly explained to all convicts who may in future be sent from this country; nor will the rules apply retrospectively to those who have been sent pre- viously to their promulgation.
1 am, &c.
Enclosure No. 1.
CONDITION OF HOLDERS OF TICKETS OF LEAVE IN THE COLONIES.
1. Convicts who are sent to the colonies with tickets of leave will hereafter be required to pay to the Government a certain amount of money as the condition of their enjoying the privilege of a ticket of leave, and ultimately a conditional pardon. These payments, however, will not be the same for all convicts, but will be apportioned to the length of their sentences, in order that each prisoner may have the means of liquidating the debt charged against him by the time when, if he has conducted himself well, he is con- sidered eligible for a conditional pardon.
2. The following is the amount of debt which will accordingly be charged against convicts on their arrival in the colony
(Payable in 1 year.)
7 years' men
£7 10.
10
13
31
15
10 0. 15 0.
(Payable in 2 years.)
(Payable in 3 years.)
22
20
20 0.
27
(Payable in 4 years.)
Life
25 0.
(Payable in 5 years.)
3. In order to provide for paying off this debt, the convicts will not be at liberty to pass out of the immediate custody of Government, unless they shall enter the service of a private employer, who shall make himself responsible for paying to the Government £5 per annum out of the convict's wages, until the above claim on him shall be settled.
4. If the convict should be unable to meet with private employment on these terms, the Government will find him work, and will allow him credit for the value of his labour at the full rate of wages obtainable in private service. He will not, however, be paid in money. A contribution to the Government at the rate of £5 per annum will be charged against him, in like manner as if he were serving a private master. Beyond this sum he will, within the amount of his earnings, be allowed such supplies as he may choose to draw for, the cost of those supplies being charged against him, and any further balance of his earnings being credited to him in reduction of his debt to the Government.
5. The wives and families of ticket-of-leave holders will be sent out to them, when half the cost of doing so has been paid by themselves, or by their friends, or parishes in the United Kingdom. It will be requisite, however, that those families should be supplied with sufficient clothing for the voyage, at their own expense, in like manner as all free emigrants.
6. Any sums paid by convicts to the Government under the preceding regulations, will
be accepted as part of the contribution towards bringing out their families.
7. The rules for the maintenance of good order amongst ticket-of-leave holders are framed and promulgated in the colony. The following are at present some of their principal conditions, but it must be distinctly understood that they are liable to be varied as may be judged to be necessary and proper by the authorities on the spot :---
The ticket-of-leave holder is required to remain within a particular district, which is usually a country district, and not to quit it without obtaining a pass from the magistrate; he must register his place of residence and any change of it, and he is expected to be at his own dwelling from ten o'clock at night until day-break; he must report himself at certain periods in the year at the police-office of his district; for some classes of offences he is liable to summary jurisdiction, and his ticket of leave is liable to recall from misconduct, in which case he is subjected to penal labour. Subject to these conditions, and to the other rules previously enumerated, the holders of tickets of leave are at liberty to act for themselves, and to acquire property, and to sue and be sued in like manner with free people.
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
(Copy.)
Sir,
Enclosure No. 2.
45, Parliament Street, 27 March, 1850.
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th instant, transmitting the copy of a despatch from Sir William Denison, dated the 27th of September, 1849, and requesting I would submit any observations that might occur to me on Convict manage-
ment.
One part of this despatch calls for a particular notice from me.
Speaking of the state of crime among the ticket-of-leave holders, who have landed in Van Diemen's Land during the previous eighteen months, his Excellency states that "the inference he would draw from it is, that the system which has been adopted at home, with reference to the convicts lately sent to this colony, has not produced so favourable a result as that under which the convicts have been compelled to work their way up to the indulgence of a ticket of leave through the various stages of probation.”
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