PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
C.O.
885
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Statistical Returna,
20
In 1841 the total convict population in Van Diemen's Land had been 16,391. In 1842 it had increased to 20,332, of whom about 7000 were in November 17.1842. the probation gangs. On the 1st September, 1843, it amounted to 24,926,
Sir J. Franklin,
Parliamentary
Papers of 1845, p. 17.
Ibid. p. 30.
of whom were
"Old Convicts"-Males
Females
And New Convicts"-Males
Females
Of the "Old Convicts" there held tickets
of leave
Were in assigned service-Males
Were married
Were absconders
11,697
3,385
15,082
9,692
152
9,844
24,926
Males 4,15]
Females 680
4,831
3,205
Females 1,078
Females
648
Males
469
5,400
10,231
Males
1.931
2
""
20
Of the "New Hands" there were in private
service
Held tickets of leave
Werc absconders
Men.
Women.
Leaving of the "Old Hands"
3,872
979
And of the "New Hands"
7,739
152
11,611
1,131
1,953
12,742
24,926
In all 12,742 convicts to be employed and supported by the Government.
C
44
On the 30th September, 1843, the first quarter under the new system terminated, and the impossibility of carrying it out in practice at once showed itself. According to the arrangement already adverted to, the Commissary General applied to the Lieutenant-Governor for the sum due from the colony, on account of labour performed by convicts for colonial purposes, amounting to 3,219/. 7s. 6d., being at the rate of about 13,000. a-year*. By this time, however, the pecuniary embarrassments of Van Diemen's Land had increased, and Sir E. Wilmot was unable to meet the demand. He accordingly applied to the llome Government for instruc- tions, adding, "that in the pecuniary distress and embarrassment which universally prevails here, there is but little chance of probation convicts being employed, even at moderate wages, by private individuals; and as "to paying for convict labour to the amount per annum above mentioned, "for the moderate sum charged per day per many the Commissariat, "there is no prospect whatever." The alternative appeared to be, either to leave the pass-holders, who could not obtain private service, and even the probation gangs, in idleness, or to reduce the charge to the colony for employing them. Adopting the latter alternative, Sir E. Wilmot proposed that the sum paid by the colony for superintendents and overseers of convicts, amounting to about 40007. a-year, should be accepted as an equivalent for whatever labour the convicts might perform for the colony. He was likewise compelled, shortly afterwards, to set aside that part of
⚫ The value of convict labour was calculated at Gd. per day per man.
J
21
the instructions of November 1842 which prohibited the payment of wages
p
31.
to pass-holders employed by Government, in-order not to disappoint the expectations of the large body of pass-holders who had emerged in clue course, from the probation gangs without being able to get into private service. This departure from the original scheme was sanctioned; but August 31, 1844, to the proposal of accepting the sum paid for superintendents and Parliamentary overseers, as an equivalent for the labour of the probation gangs, Lord Papers of 1845, Stanley opposed a decided negative. He observed that it amounted to a proposal for executing all manner of works for the benefit of the colony, for a fixed annual sum of 4000., the rest of the expense being defrayed by this country; that the colonists had no claim, either indivi- dually or collectively, to be supplied with convict labour, either gratui- tously or on very low terms, unless the interests of the British Treasury required it; that consequently, if neither the Colonial Treasury, nor indi- viduals, could afford to pay for the labour of convicts, they must be employed on all such labour as would relieve the British Treasury of part of the expense of their maintenance; i, e.—1st. In raising their own food ; building their own gaols, school-houses, or hospitals; making their own clothes and implements of labour. 2nd. In performing such work as might be required for the naval and military, and other imperial depart- ments. And, 3rd. If there should be still a superfluity of labour, in preparing wild lands for settlement, the excess of price realized at their sale to be carried to the British Treasury.
看看
E
L
66
In May 1844, Sir E. Wilmot reported that the colonists were becom- ing more reconciled to the new system; that the number of ticket-of-leave men and probation pass-holders unable to get into service, continued, however, large, and that there was no prospect of their diminution; that these men
being thus thrown on the world with nothing but their labour to support them, and no labour being in demand, either starve or "steal." As a partial remedy, he proposed to grant to deserving ticket-of- leave men small allotments of land, to be afterwards repurchased from them by the Government. And he concluded as follows:- Unless some "incans are adopted to employ the ticket-of-leave men and conditional- pardon men, who, as they receive their indulgence, are thrown on their "own resources, I am fearful we shall not only have a pauper population, but a thieving population thrown upon us. The number of ticket-of-leave men now in the colony, up to this date, is 4,937; the number of condi- *tional-pardon men is 4000; and the number of the three classes of pass- holders, from the commencement of the new system up to this time (a period of six months), is 7,018. We may fairly calculate, therefore, the manumission of additional convicts, to be thrown entirely on their own "resources, to be annually about 2,500; and the number of additional men "on wages to be about the same; and I understand that the number of prisoners sent from England and elsewhere will be also about 5000 per annum, which will thus replace those who are withdrawn from Govern- "ment rations. A plan, therefore, which would identify with and locate these men on the soil, and encourage them in industrious habits, is the great desideratum of our exertions." This despatch was put aside at the time, to wait the result of some modifications of the Transportation system which Lord Stanley intended to propose to the Cabinet.
4
-
41
+
-
Tickets of leave In service
5,138 5,416 2,074
Unemployed
Ibid.
p- 35.
In July 1844, Sir E. Wilmot transmitted the Second Half-yearly Report Ibid. p. 38. from the Comptroller-General, by which it appeared that, on the 30th June, 1844, the number of convicts in Van Diemen's Land had increased, including those from Norfolk Island, to 23,078 men and 3.894 women; that, of the men, 5,138 held tickets of leave, and 5,416 were in service on wages; 12,028 but that the male pass-holders unable to obtain em- ployment had increased, in six months, from 945 to 2,071.* It further appeared that between July 1814 and July 1815, 3,872 more convicts would pass from the gangs to the stage of probation pass-
* It is not possible from the returns to ascertain the number of female pass-holders out of employ.
G