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Australia and the penal gangs in Norfolk Island (to which we are at present confined), and that an intermediate stage between the two, such, for instance, as a conditional ticket of leave in Van Diemen's Land, would work well for the home management.
The penal gangs, on a really effective footing, would answer the same purpose, and, to a certain extent, they might be rendered available; but I think it will be possible to meet his Excellency's wishes, in some points, and to obviate the difficulties he alludes to, without an indiscriminate return to the penal gang system.
Without further consideration, I am not prepared to suggest more than an outline of the principle on which the selection of convicts for removal in a penal condition should be made, but I will state what occurs to me.
With a view to meet the objection to the convict obtaining a ticket of leave at an earlier period under home than under colonial servitude, I would propose that the scale by which the remission of periods of service in the penal gangs is regulated, should be more favourable to convicts serving in them, than it is at home stations. I think this might be done consistently in consideration of the greater hardships which they probably endure.
I should not be disposed, generally, to recommend the removal of men direct from separate confinement in England to the penal gangs in Van Diemen's Land, but I think this might be done, to some extent, in respect to Irish convicts. As a body, they are not the same vicious and demoralized men that are the subjects of a sentence of transportation in England, and there is not, therefore, the same objection to their early or direct removal after separate confinement, nor the same necessity to subject them to louger periods of corrective discipline. There exists, also, a greater necessity for relieving Ireland from the pressure of numbers.
With regard to English convicts, I would suggest the following course:-
Such men as appeared undeserving of a ticket of leave in the minimum period laid down in the present regulations, or who had been passed over at one or two embarkations. when from lapse of time they might have entitled themselves, by good conduct, to the in- dulgence, should be sent as a punishment to serve out the remainder of the time in Van Diemen's Land.
This would be one way of establishing the intermediate stage which I have before alluded to.
Other convicts under sentence for long periods, after undergoing a proportion of the sentence on public works at home, might be sent to serve out the remainder in Van Diemen's Land, gaining by the removal a remission in the length of time they would have had to serve at home, on the plan approved by Earl Grey in the case of men selected for Western Australia.
Under such circumstances, the removal would be looked upon as a boun, and the men would cheerfully submit to perhaps greater hardships in consequence of the diminished period of detention in a penal condition.
On all occasions of removal from home stations, particulars of character should accompany the men, and a debtor and creditor account (if I may use the expression) of the time they had served, and of the remaining time they were required to serve under some general regulations, should be clearly shown.
1 cannot too strongly urge my opinion of the necessity of establishing such general regulations with reference to the periods of service of all convicts, both at home and abroad. It will give a certainty to their prospects, and a point to work to, which will have a great and beneficial influence, for it is only by taking a wide and comprehensive view of the whole body, that anything like a system of convict management properly so called, can be established.
My view is, that the regulations affecting the condition and prospects of all convicts should be based on some settled principle, and be steadily and uniformly carried out, so that whether a man be serving in Pentonville or at Portland, in Van Diemen's Land or at Norfolk Island, he would be aware of the position in which he was placed, and of what had brought him to it.
With respect to the number which could advantageously be provided for in Van Diemen's Land, Sir W. Denison observes-" but taking everything into consideration I think I am warranted in stating that an annual importation of 1500 male convicts would not do more than supply this colony with an adequate amount of labour."
In my letter dated 23rd November, 1849, I estimated the number of convicts who would require to be removed to the colonies during the year commencing 1st April, 1850, at 3,500, exclusive of those who, from age or infirmity, are considered not equal to earn their livelihood in the colony, and who will be retained in the different counties in which they have received sentence, or in the invalid establialiments.
It would appear an object to avoid bringing a pressure upon Van Diemen's Land, which cannot be materially relieved by a demand for labour, but to whatever extent the convicts may be disposed of by removal to that colony, I think it would be desirable that, of the total number, only a small proportion should be sent to the penal gangs.
I am, &c. (Signed)
J. JEBB,
Lieut.-Colonel
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Enclosure No. 3.
SCALE OF ABATEMENT FOR PROMPT PAYMENT.
Colonial Office, July 27, 1850.
1. TH, Colonial Government will decide whether the payments should be half-yearly or yearly. The former would be preferable, if it would not be attended with practical inconvenience in making the arrangements for the receipt of the money. In either case, if the convict anticipate by one-fourth the time at which his payment falls due, he should be allowed an abatement of two shillings in the pound on the amount.
For this purpose, however, the time of each successive payment should be reckoned from the actual date of the last one, and not from the commencement of the original term. Thus, suppose that the payments due from a convict began to run from the 1st of January, 1851, he might (if the instalments be yearly) pay by the 30th of September, 1851, instead of the 31st of December; and if so, he would be entitled to pay only 41. 10s. instead of 5. His next yearly instalment of 51., however, would in that case be receivable on the 30th of September, 1852, and he would be at liberty to discharge it in that year upon the 30th of June, paying only 4 10s. The benefit of this to the convict would be that he would, on each occasion of his making a payment before the time required by regulation, enable himself to make a further anticipation next time, and thus to discharge his whole debt the more quickly.
2. It would be easy to apply this illustration equally to the case of half-yearly pay- ments. Each of them would admit of being anticipated by a period of six weeks and a half, and the result would be the same at the end of the year as in the foregoing instances. 3. Asit might create more labour than could conveniently be afforded to have an un- limited number of different accounts for the convicts falling in at all times of the there would be no objection to dividing the whole year into half-quarters, and making the account
year, of each convict commence from the first half-quarter day after his obtaining a ticket of leave.
4. The effect of the whole scheme, it will be seen is, that by diligence and promptitude each convict may diminish by 10 per cent. the amount of his payments, and may accelerate by one-fourth his time of getting out of debt.
5. The fact of his having discharged his debt will not qualify the convict for actually obtaining his conditional pardon earlier than the time fixed by regulation. But after having paid his debt, he will no longer be subject to the restraint of having to work for a particular master who should pay over a portion of his wages to the Government; and he will also become eligible for being allowed, if his conduct shall have been in other respects satisfactory, to reside in the towns.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
TLC.O.885
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