CO885(1-2) — Page 629

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

* 885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

6

9. Convicts sent out with tickets of leave are, on their arrival, to be at once forwarded to the rural districts of the colony, without being permitted to remain in the towns, and they will there be em- ployed by the Government until private employment, under the conditions I have named, can be found by them. I have stated that the amount to be annually deducted from their wages is to be 57., a sum which I have named as being that which it was found practicable to require to be paid in New South Wales; but as I am aware that the value of labour is higher in that colony than in Van Diemen's Land, and as the value of labour will always be liable to variations, you will understand that you are authorized to reduce the amount to be so paid according to circumstances. You may either make a general reduction, if the low rate of wages requires it, or else one in favour of individuals, if you are satis- fied that from a deficiency of physical strength for the performance of labour, particular convicts are un- able to earn wages sufficient to afford the required payment. You will, however, be very cautious in making such reductions in favour of individuals, remembering that it is highly desirable not to dimi- nish the inducement to convicts to exert them- selves, during their previous period of proba- tionary punishment, to acquire skill in some useful employment, in the hope of earlier earning their entire freedom after their arrival in the colony. The amount to be deducted from the wages of a convict of ordinary strength ought to be such, that by industry he should still be able to earn an ample share of the necessaries of life, and a very mode- rate amount of those indulgences which persons in this situation may fairly expect. The scale of allow- ances which was formerly made by the best mastere to assigned servants would afford you a useful guide in estimating what proportion of the wages of convicts holding tickets of leave, might fairly be The valuable in- stopped by the Government.

formation contained in your despatch No. 142, of the 27th of September last, as to the relation which experience has shown to exist between the high or low rate of wages prevailing in the colony, and the greater or less frequency of certain offences, affords additional evidence of the importance of adopting a system, by which convicts, when relieved

*

7

from the discipline of a penal establishment, may not be subjected to the temptations to which they are exposed, by having the command of much money beyond what is required for their support.

10. In making it compulsory upon convicts to pay a certain sum to the Government, I consider it, however, advisable, as you have suggested, that, as regards married convicts, this regulation should not be allowed to throw any additional difficulties in the way of their obtaining the advantage of having their wives and children sent out to join them. It is upon many grounds of the highest import- ance that these men should be joined by their families as soon as is possible, without impairing the efficiency of the punishment to which they are to be subjected. Accordingly the payments which they are to be required to make in common with other convicts, are to be allowed to reckon towards making up the proportion of the expense of sending out their families, which under the existing regula- tion is required to be supplied by themselves, or by assistance given to them from some private source.

11. In another of your suggestions, viz., that the rule of requiring ticket-of-leave holders to reside at a distance from the towns ought not to be en- forced in Van Diemen's Land, I am unable to concur, at least as regards those convicts who have not yet discharged their debt to the Government, so as to qualify them in that respect for the indulgence of conditional pardons. No doubt a relaxation of this rule might afford some increased facility to them in obtaining employment; but, on the other hand, ex- perience is, I think, decisive as to the advantage of not allowing convicts, when they first pass out of the custody of the Government, to be exposed to the temptations of a town, and the benefit which under the system of assignment was derived from their being dispersed in the thinly-peopled districts has been universally recognized. It is an additional reason for enforcing the rule, that it will prevent the newly-arrived convicts from competing in obtaining employment in the towns with those who have made greater progress in earning their free- dom; and I regard it as highly desirable that those convicts who have obtained conditional pardons, or

is