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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :--

885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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Act, so far as concerned Van Diemen's Land, in order to admit of employing the labour of convicts, with advantage, in improving the Waste Lands and preparing for the reception of settlers.

14. Such were the circumstances under which the present Administration came into office in July 1846.

15. On the 30th of September, 1846, Lord Grey gave Sir W. Denison his first instruction on the subject of convicts. His Lordship recapitulated the previous occurrences, and stated that the Government were led to think it would be necessary to stop the transportation to Van Diemen's Land of male convicts, at all events for the space of two years. The immediate object, therefore, was only to provide for the good discipline of the body on the spot. Lord Grey thought that for this purpose some of the chief objects to be aimed at would be not only to employ the convicts usefully, but to introduce Task-work; to furnish buildings which should admit of better separation in the dormito- ries; to provide for greater efficiency in the comp- trolling officers, and to raise the prisoners by pro- gressive degrees to the class of ticket-of-leave men, or holders of conditional pardons.

16. Such were the first views that occurred to Lord Grey and the Govei ument, more or less quali- fied afterwards, as will presently appear, by further experience and deliberation.

Parliamentary Paper of February

16, 1847, page 56.

1847, page 66,

Ibid., page 76.

17. In another despatch of the 30th September, Parliamentary Paper of February 1846, Lord Grey gave directions for the abandon- ment of Norfolk Island, although in a subsequent despatch of the 7th November, he referred to the Governor's discretion the time for carrying out this instruction. But no further explanation on this point is inserted here, as the main facts about Norfolk Island are intentionally placed together in

a separate paper which will be appended.

gave

18. On the 15th November, 1846, Lord Grey instructions to Sir C. Fitzroy for abstaining from the formation of the projected settlement in North Australia.

Appendix No..

1847.

19. These having been the earliest instructions which were given on Transportation by the Govern- ment, Sir G. Grey in the following year brought the whole subject very fully under review in his letter Parliamentary Paper of February to Lord Grey, dated the 20th January, 1847. At

1847, page 194.

this period the opinion was arrived at, that the transportation of male convicts to Van Diemen's Land on the former system could not be resumed. It was proposed instead, that the convicts first should undergo a limited period of Separate imprisonment; next, that they should be put to labour on public works, either abroad as at Gibraltar and Bermuda, or in this country; and finally, that they should be re- moved to colonies, such as those in Australia, where they had a fair prospect of maintaining themselves by honest industry. Lord Grey expressed his con- Ibid, page 200. The plan was currence in the plan (5th February, 1847), and it

communicated to Sir W. Deni-

1847*.

*

son in a despatch of March 22, substantially is the one which was explained to Parliament that year in the speeches of Lord Grey and Sir G. Grey. By both it was treated as being tentative only. Sir G. Grey's letter said, "the plan itself must for the present be considered as experimental, and power will be reserved to the Government to modify it according to the results of experience."

Australian

20. Some fresh endeavours were made to afford Emigration Paper, relief to the colony. On the 24th of March, 1847. December 1847, page 22.

it was announced to the Lieutenant-Governor that there would be a renewal of the practice of sending out the wives and families of convicts; which course

Not included in printed papers.

of proceeding appears to have been discontinued in 1843, from the difficulty of finding suitable modes of conveyance. On the 26th of April, 1847, Lord Grey announced that the demand upon the Colonial Government for the value of convict labour em- ployed on public works would be relinquished, excepting only the expenses incurred for super- intendence and for tools.

21. After these views had been adopted by the Government, there arrived in the latter part of 1847, at no great interval from one another, Mr.

• This despatch does not appear to have been printed in any of the Parliamentary Papers. It adds, however, nothing to the letters which it inclosed.

D