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1845.

11. In January 1845, the Comptroller-General made a report, in which he still did not take a desponding view of the state of his department. He concluded his report by the following statement: "Notwithstanding the difficulties experienced in this particular part of the system, I have no hesitation in saying that, as a whole, it is vastly superior to any that has pre- ceded it; and, had the colony continued in a prosperous state, I feel convinced it would have worked well through- out, provided always that there had been an outlet afforded to keep down too great a supply of convict labour.”

The only point in which he suggested a diffi- culty, was the immediate removal of the gangs and pass-holders to unsettled districts, to be employed in raising their own food, &c., according to Lord Stanley's instructions of August 1844. With re- ference to this part of the subject, he observed,

"Eventually the whole of the convicts will be removed from the settled districts; but this must, as I have said before, be a work of time, for the preparation of proper huts and barracks for so large a body of men, especially when the great objects of discipline, instruction, and reformation have to be considered, is no slight task; with which important objects the Separate system is closely connected; and unless this part of the general plan is carried out, it is impossible, in my opinion, to work con- victs in large gangs in unsettled districts, without the greatest fear of demoralization;-indeed I feel it to be a paramount duty to lay before Lord Standey, that the Separate system, to a certain extent, is one of necessity; and that it is a matter of very great difficulty, not insur- mountable, certainly, but requiring great attention and time, to carry out successfully a system of discipline and reformation, concurrently with field labour, in large gangs of men hutted."

Parliamentary Papers of August

1845, page 69.

1846.

12. In January 1846, however, the accumula- tion of unemployed convicts on the hands of Go- vernment had become still larger, and excited great alarm both in Sir E. Wilmot and the Comptroller- General. They had ceased to repeat the anticipa- tions of success which at first they expressed; and Mr. Forster now gave his opinion of the ill effects of the existing state of affairs, in the following

terms:

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

IC.O.

885

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

Parliamentary Paper of February

1847, page 16.

August 29. 1846.

the

pass-

"It is my duty again to state that the condition of holders at Hiring depôts is little better than what it was when they were in probation gangs and that so long a

present state of things lasts, the value of the discipline and instruction afforded to the convicts in the probation gangs, cannot be fairly tested. The evil of large bodies o pass-holders being congregated at depôts, although no par of the system originally promulgated by Her Majesty Government, has, from the force of circumstances, become not only a component part of it, but a serious detriment to its moral success.

Sir E. Wilmot adverted also, about this time, to Parliamentary Paper of February the necessity of enlarging the buildings already

1847, page 117.

1847, page 9.

erected, and of adding greatly to their number. Too much economy, he said, had been in his opinion the mistake of the Commissariat, which, acting on the injunctions to aim at diminishing expense to the mother-country, had not in suf- ficient extent or with sufficient dispatch furnished the buildings required.

13. At this time, irrespective of the direct inconvenience of the want of employment, the other and greater evil of the corruption of the convicts had become apparent.

Before the middle of 1846, the accounts which had arrived of their moral degradation were of the most alarming and deplorable nature. Moved by this

By command, February 16. 1847, intelligence, Mr. Gladstone, on the 7th of May,

pages 1 and 2.

1846, acting on a plan which had previously been suggested by Lord Stanley to the Treasury, gave Sir C. Fitzroy instructions for founding a new colony for convicts "who by pardon or lapse of time have regained their freedom, but who may be unable to find elsewhere an effective demand for their services." This colony was to be called North Parliamentary Paper of February Australia. On the 13th of May, 1846, he addressed Sir James Graham, then at the Home Office, on the existing evils, and urged the importance of diverting as many as possible of the accruing male convicts in this country from, Van Diemen's Land. He suggested that as many as practicable should be sent to Bermuda and Gibraltar, and that inquiry should be made as to sending convicts to the Cape. Lord Stanley had previously induced the Treasury to grant 24,0001. per annum towards the expenses of police and gaols, for the relief of the colony, and had also procured the repeal of the Land Sales

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