CO882-(2-3) — Page 81

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TILLC.O.882

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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thirteen native assistants as clerks, overmen, &c. The remaining number of 204 represents the amount of manual labour required above ground or underground, which might be either free or convict labour, according to the system adopted.

9. Directing for the present the consideration of the question exclusively to the employment of convict labour, there would thus be a total number of 204 convicts to be employed at the mines, of whom 150 would be required for underground work.

10. How to obtain 150 convicts who would volunteer for underground work, and how to maintain this complement is a somewhat complicated question. The only occasion on which convicts have been worked underground at these mines, and therefore the only occasion on which a test is furnished by experience, occurred in 1870. Sixteen convicts were sent to Coal Point at Mr. Lumsden's request to assist in the works above ground; but he subsequently desiring to employ them underground, they were asked to volunteer for the service, a daily allowance of tobacco being promised in return. Four only out of the sixteen were induced to volunteer; and perhaps this proportion of one-fourth may be fairly accepted as the test proportion, though Mr. Howard doubts if it would be main- tained in the total number of convicts.

11. Taking it, however, as representing the proportion to be relied upon, I proceed to apply it to the present convict establishment. It appears that the average number of prisoners of all classes, local as well as transmarine, may be put at 130, which includes of course, such as are physically incapacitated for hard labour, such as being local prisoners confined for petty offences for short terms could not well be sent to the mines, and such as on account of desperate or intriguing character it might not be advisable to admit to employment of this special nature.

Putting at the most favourable calculation, the available portion of the establishment at 100, this would furnish, at the rate named, 25 convict labourers for underground work.

12. There would remain 125 convicts to be procured from elsewhere-from the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, or India.

13. But as the work is voluntary, and only a certain proportion out of a given number of convicts can be expected to volunteer for it, a consideration presents itself as to the mode by which this number could be procured.

It would obviously be out of the question that the Colony should apply for and receive into the island the total number out of which the required proportion might be secured. The selection must necessarily be carried out beforehand, and only those received into the island who shall have previously agreed to work underground. This would throw upon the authorities of the possessions named the task of making the necessary arrangement with the convicts in their prisons; and, assuming the co-operation of those governments, the success of the authorities in obtaining the required number is is still another question, and would, probably, depend upon the extent of inducement held out.

14. Supposing, however, by these means the required number obtained it would be further necessary to provide against the defection of any convicts who might become dissatisfied with the nature of their labour, by binding them to their agreement-in other words, by making obligatory upon them the employment when once they have volun- tarily undertaken it.

15. The employment in the mines of voluntary convict labour, to the extent I have indicated, would therefore be attended with some complications, and, possibly, with some difficulties.

If the labour were made obligatory these complications would, of course, disappear, for it would be simply necessary to apply for and receive a certain number of convicts, the only proviso being, that those sent should be able-bodied and capable of sustaining the labour.

16. The next consideration applies to the provision that would be necessary for the accommodation and supervision of a large body of convicts. The total number to be employed at the mines is estimated, as I have said, at 204. These convicts would be independent of the present gaol establishment, and would be located in another part of

the island.

Their accommodation and supervision would necessitate the construction of gaol premises at Coal Point, the support of a separate gaol establishment, and an increase to the armed police force, proportioned to the increased number of convicts introduced.

17. The existing gaol establishment in Victoria it would be necessary to maintain at its present strength, nor could the number of convicts be reduced. The number available for hard labour at present seldom exceeds, and generally falls short of, 100. It is upon this labour that the Public Works Department depends for the construction of new works,

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for the maintenance and repair of all existing works, buildings, roads, and bridges, and for drainage and jungle clearing. It is by this labour, too, that all the coaling operations of the Company at Victoria are performed, and the labour is also supplied to the Company in the construction of works undertaken by them at Victoria, such as their wharf and coal-sheds. Large as this number of labourers may appear, my experience satisfies me that it is hardly sufficient for these purposes, and when the Coal Company requires and obtains any extensive share of this assistance, remunerative as it is in a pecuniary form to the Government to give the assistance, it is prejudicial to its interests in another way, by the corresponding loss of labour which is required for the due maintenance and repair of the public works of the Colony; and whenever the yield of coal increases, whether it be under a company's management or under that of the Government, it will become necessary to increase the convict establishment at Victoria to meet the demand upon the Public Works Department.

18. As I have referred to the employment of free labour at the mines, I may here take the occasion to mention that this might be either partial or exclusive.

19. By the latter term I mean the employment of free labour to the exclusion of convict labour, which has been the system hitherto pursued at the mines. It is a system, however, which has not been free from embarrassment, arising from the difficulty encountered on several occasions of securing a sufficient and certain supply of labour; though it must be added that the difficulty has, in great measure, been due to the capricious and unsatisfactory management of former companies, which, provoking want of confidence, failed to retain the labour they had once attracted to the spot.

Still, it is a difficulty which would need consideration should a system of free labour be preferred; in favour of which, supposing it practicable, it must be noticed it would get rid of the necessity of providing gaol accommodation, a separate gaol establishment, and the charge of maintaining a body of convicts, and, further, would diminish, although

it might not altogether exclude, the necessity for additional police strength. On the other hand, it would entail its own expenses for wages and contingencies.

20. The other mode referred to is the employment in part of convict labour, and in part of free labour. Under this system it would still be necessary to provide gaol accommodation aud a gaol establishment, and a certain corresponding increase to the police force would also be necessary.

21. This system, indeed, would probably be the most costly, as the employment of 100 convicts would necessitate measures almost as great as the employment of 200. I should, however, have been disposed to venture an opinion in favour of the system, as resting the undertaking upon two resources of labour instead of upon one, and as encouraging an industrial class; but Mr. Howard is opposed to a mixed system as dangerous to the discipline of the convict element.

22. These are the three labour systems open to the Government to select from, should it at any time decide to undertake the working of the mines as a financial or commercial enterprise.

23. What the chances are of such an enterprise being successful is the next and the main question for consideration.

24. The failure of the four Companies that preceded the Oriental Coal Company, and the possible failure of this Company also, the prospect of which contingency has invited these considerations, could not, as facts speaking for themselves, but operate injuriously and discouragingly on the future disposal of the mines.

The arguments of past results will always be a strong argument with most people; and unqualified failure has been the result of Labuan mining in the past.

25. For a Company, therefore, or for a Government to embark in an enterprise hitherto associated with nothing but failure, would seem, on the face of it, a hazardous experiment; nor could the enterprise be undertaken without a most careful examination into the conditions upon which its successful prosecution would depend, and without previous assurance on certain essential points.

28. The chief points which occur to me as necessary to ascertain and determine beforehand are these :--

(1.) The capabilities of the mines as to extent, situation, and fertility,

(2.) The causes of the past failures, whether they have proceeded from any inherent fault in the coal measures, or from exceptional difficulties in working them, or from the nature of the coal; or whether they have been due to mismanagement, a wrong system of working, want of sufficient means, or to any other circumstance.

(3.) The present position, as showing the extent and condition of existing opera- tions, with reference to their capabilities of prosecution and development, and to the more immediate prospects of the mines.