CO885(1-2) — Page 550

Sir,

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Inclosure 1 in No. 3.

Captain Maconochie to Mr. Hawes.

London, September 22, 1846. MRS. NAYLOR, wife of the Rev. Mr. Naylor, late Chaplain of Norfolk Island, has just arrived from Sydney, bringing with her the inclosed paper, which it was her husband's directions that she should print and publish here as a pamphlet.

On showing it to me, however, I can entertain no doubt of the extreme impropriety there would be in adopting such a course, without previously, or rather professedly, laying it before Her Majesty's Government.

I have taken it on myself, therefore, now to inclose it to you, with a request that you would bring it under Earl Grey's notice. And though I can have no personal knowledge of the facts stated in it, my acquaintance with the island would enable me to explain, qualify, and in some cases corroborate its allegations, if required.

My Lord,

I have, &c., (Signed)

Inclosure 2 in No. 3.

A. MACONOCHIE.

*The Rev. T. B. Naylor to Lord Stanley.

I HAVE just left an important and interesting sphere of duty as Chap- lain of the penal settlement at Norfolk Island, where, during some years past I have closely observed the working of its management. In resigning my office I feel it to be a duty I owe to your Lordship, as head of the Convict Department, to the community at large, and to the unhappy prisoners especially, thus publicly to direct attention to the existing state of things on that island; for, I feel that there are evils which demand instant and effectual remedy.

I am persuaded, my Lord, that you are sincere in the wishes you have repeatedly expressed about the reformation of our Penal System. I am also led to believe that a large portion of the thinking public in England is awakening to a conviction of the importance of this subject; and I am sure that the interests of the empire are intimately blended with it. I make therefore no apology for adding this humble contribution towards the elucidation of the question. It may perhaps help towards the attainment of truth, or, at least, of some better result than has, I regret to say, yet attended our convict experiments.

I have lived, as it were, in a large gaol, and have been in hourly com- munication with prisoners and their comptrollers. The advantage such a position has afforded me may entitle my opinions about them to some consideration. It is not my intention, however, now to enter upon the subject at all abstractedly. I am too well acquainted with its difficulties to attempt to discuss them in a pamphlet; and your time, my Lord, must be too thoroughly occupied to allow me to hope that you would read it, if I wrote more. They are pressing and practical evils to which I direct your attention, and I would fain hope that you will give it. Without further preface I proceed to show—

1. That Norfolk Island is, in almost every essential requisite, unfit for a Penal Station. It has no harbour and no safe anchorage-it has a treacherous and dangerous reef bar. The island itself is of very limited extent, incapable of producing a tenth part of the food required for the convicts on it. Large supplies of maize and all the animal food issued for Wheat will not grow their rations are imported from New South Wales.

there the maize crop is very uncertain. The labour of nearly 2000 con- victs in it is dwindled away most unprofitably. Gangs of them are indeed

This letter bears no date. It is stated to have been written about the month of April last. but it must have reference to a period prior to September 1845, at which date Mr. Naylor is reported to have left Norfolk Island.

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employed in making roads, in erecting public buildings, in agricultural and other labour, but all to no profitable purpose, beyond the present and actual exigencies of the settlement. No remunerative return is made. The climate, delicious for those persons who are not exposed to the semi-tropical sun, is much too warm for English prisoners. They are unable to work hard in it; as a consequence, they acquire indolent habits, or, if they face the work, they suffer fearfully from dysentery, It is on this account a bad place of training for men who are to gain a livelihood in the colonies to which they are afterwards to proceed. Few persons would conceive it possible that such a number of men, all apparently employed, could con- trive by any ingenuity to do so small an amount of work. It is about 1000 miles distant from New South Wales, and 1500 from the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land. This complete isolation is admitted to be its chief recommendation for the purposes to which it is applied; yet the evils arising from even this supposed advantage, are infinitely greater than any real benelit it confers. The immense distance from head quarters in Van Diemen's Land, where everything of the slightest impor- tance has to be referred for decision, is attended with highly injurious and mischievous effects upon the discipline of the settlement. Three months usually elapse before any question can be decided; and cases may, and do constantly occur, which show how fatal the consequences of such a delay must prove. I select from many others, this. There is no Criminal Court on the island in which felonies can be tried; so that, whenever any offence is committed in which the local magistrates have no summary jurisdiction, the offender is sent to prison, there to await the arrival of a barrister selected in Van Diemen's Land as a temporary judge, who, with a crown prosecutor, and five officers of Her Majesty's land or sea Not to mention the forces, constitute a court of criminal session. deviation from constitutional practice which marks this proceeding, or the difficulty which a judge so appointed must find in maintaining the inde- pendence and impartiality which is the honourable boast of the English bench; not to mention the almost impossibility which officers in military charge of prisoners must find, in divesting themselves of their previous impressions when trying them to say nothing of the hardship to the the prisoner, who is deprived, even in matters which affect his life, of the advantages everywhere else afforded men under such circumstances; bad as all this is, the end is infinitely worse. When sentence of death is passed, the wretched man's fate has to be decided in Van Diemen's Land. A lingering suspense of two or three months follows, during which the condemned man's mind is in the least degree in a state to enable him to derive benefit from religious advice or duties; and when at length the warrant for his execution comes, there is no appeal from its mandate, however informal or defective the instrument may be. I am not ima- gining a case, my Lord, I have one indelibly fixed upon my recollection. In May 1845, two men were committed to jail, charged with murder. court of criminal sessions sat. The men were found guilty and sentenced to death. The finding of the court and sentence of the judge were referred to Van Diemen's Land. In August their confirmation was brought to the island and communicated to the prisoners. The warrant was found to be a most defective document, and doubts arose about the legality of acting upon it. I received this letter from the gentleman who was appointed to act as sherill for the occasion:—

My dear Sir.

Norfolk Island, August 28, 1845.

A

** I shall feel obliged by your looking over the papers which I here- with send. With reference to the warrant sent to me for the execution of the two prisoners under sentence of death, I think the same to be, first, incorrect as to identity by setting forth Superintendent of Convicts,' whereas I was not so on the date of the said warrant, nor since the 10th day of May last; and next, that the said warrant is wanting in explana- tion of the sentence to be carried into effect, as compared with other warrants used upon a former occasion. Your opinion on the above. alluded to warrant will be of the greatest possible importance to me, as 1

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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