CO885-(1-2) — Page 665

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

19

C.O.

Reference :--

885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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the

With these convicts have been sent out somewhat upwards of 200 military pensioners, to serve as

of guards on the voyage, and as a means pro- tection in the colony, and a Company of 100 Sappers and Miners, both as a military guard and also as superintendents and instructors upon public works carried on by the convicts. Hitherto the conduct of the convicts has been decidedly good. The inhabitants have welcomed their arrival with gratitude. An entirely new aspect is said to be presented by the colony. The convicts have been chiefly employed hitherto in preparing the buildings and grounds required for their own establishment, but they also have been making new roads, con- structing bridges, and are to labour on some im- portant improvements of the harbour. About 500 ticket-of-leave men are in private service. There is some reason to fear that the number of this class, unless the convicts should be very gradually intro- duced, may outrun the means of private employment in so limited a community. Indeed this has actually occurred to a certain degree; and the men are employed by Government, under fewer restrictions than prisoners properly destined for the public works, but at the same time ou such scanty wages as afford them every inducement to seek earnestly an opportunity of getting employment.

The

of the first formation of convict expenses

any establishment must inevitably be very large. Alt the costly buildings have to be provided. And the same staff of superior officers is required for even a moderate number of convicts which would serve to control a large body. The amount of the estimate which it was necessary to submit to Parliament this year was no less tha 86,000. But economy has been strictly enjoined on the local authorities. Several of the expenses are not of a nature to recur, and others, it is hoped, may be avoided or di- minished.

Had circumstances remained the same as when the resolution was adopted of sending convicts to Western Australia, it might reasonably have been hoped that the advantage of cheap labour, the im- provement of the internal communications and of the harbours, and the fresh prospects opened by steam navigation, would have gradually invited such an accession of free settlers as would have admitted of

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the absorption of a large annual supply of convicts into the general mass of society. The writer of the present paper still continues to think that Western Australia is the best colony at this moment available

for the reception of convicts, but it cannot be dis- guised that the discovery of gold in the Eastern Colonies of Australia, by the irresistible attractions which it holds out to all free emigrants from this kingdom, has rendered the success of the experi- ment in Western Australia, when carried to any large extent, much more doubtful and difficult.

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND

From 1849 to the present time.

Quitting this digression on the endeavours made to open new places for the reception of convicts, it is now time to return to the course of the corres- pondence with Van Diemen's Land. This was left, it will be remembered (page 6), with the instructions from Lord Grey dated the 27th of April, 1848, which have formed the basis of the system that has continued to be pursued up to the present time. Very favourable reports were soon afterwards

Parl. Paper. February 1849, pp. received from Sir William Denison of the local

1 6, 143.

improvements in convict discipline. These reports showed that large reductions had been made in the establishments; that efficiency had been promoted by retaining the best of the officers; that great improvements had been made in the buildings, so as to admit of a proper separation of the convicts, and that without reckoning too soon on any radical cure of the moral evil, at any rate the deplorable crime which infested them had been effectually checked by the measures adopted for its repression.

There can be no doubt that Van Diemen's Land benefited largely by the strenuous efforts made by the Government in 1849 to obtain another outlet for convicts. To New South Wales nearly 1670 male convicts were sent in the course of that year; This only 300 were sent to Van Diemen's Land. gave time for the colony to recover the effects of the

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excessive numbers it had received, and also for executing the local reforms which were in progress, A carefully digested plan has been introduced of employing by task-work those convicts who remain on the hands of Government. Again it was stipu- lated by the British Treasury formerly, that the colony should pay for all the Colonial works executed by the convicts, and the result was, that the colony declined having the works, and the con- victs had nothing useful to do. Lord Grey procured the abolition of this inconvenient rule, and there is no longer a want of beneficial means of employment, for conviets whilst chargeable to Government. But no better test can be afforded of improvement, both in the prisoners and in the state of the colony, than a diminution in the number waiting for employment at the hiring-depôts. The following statement on this point is extracted from the last half-yearly report of the Comptroller-General, for the period ending the 31st December, 1851:

Number of Male Convicts awaiting Hire at each of

the following dates:

December 31, 1846

"

11

1847

>>

"

1848

35

1849

17

"

1850

וי

"

1851

2,025

1,194

1,091

618

883

38

The number unable to obtain employment has

been diminished from 2000 to 38.

Great pecuniary reductions also have been effected.

The

gross Commissariat expenditure for military and convicts was in

1847

1846

1849

1850

293,200

244,500

210,500

184,500

For 1851 the accounts are not yet received.

The salaries in the Convict Department have been reduced from 156,000. in 1848, to 109,000/. in 1852; a saving of 47,000l.

It is true that the number of convicts in these years has diminished, but by no means in so large a proportion. The following table will exhibit the total number of convicts present in Van Diemen's Land in each of the years specified.

Sir Wm. Denison, July 20 1852.