CO885-(1-2) — Page 691

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

• 885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

Practical obstacles in the existing Colonies.

Reasons why a new Colony would not meet the difficulty.

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the blackest crime and wickedness. Nothing can be stronger than the contrast between this notion and the accounts given by impartial observers on the spot, of which some examples have been referred to in the foregoing pages. Travelling by day or by night is generally acknowledged to be remarkably safe in the Convict Colonies, and property has been affirmed to be, in some respects, even more secure on the banks of the Hawksbury or the Derwent than on those of the Thames. It would occupy too much space, however, fully to examine this part of the subject.

But freely admitting that transportation, when the use of suitable Colonies could be commanded, might be an excellent punishment, still it has been shown that, in Van Diemen's Land and the adjacent Colonies, the opposition to it became irresistible, and that, at the same time, the discovery of gold unfitted them for the purpose. "Western Australia, indeed, then became available, but with far too limited resources to absorb the great number of convicts transported under the old system.

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In this dilemma, the expedient which first offers itself to every mind, is the formation of a new Colony. This is an ever-recurring suggestion, but it does not meet the real difficulty of the case. is easy enough to provide for the men whilst they are still under coercion; and the constant proposals of such places as the Falkland Islands or the Auck- land Islands, or even St. Paul's and Amsterdam, mistake the object to be accomplished. For a mere gaol, Wandsworth Common, or any heath in Surrey, would, probably, be a much better site, affording much more efficient superintendence and cheaper maintenance. The real object is to provide for the convicts becoming ultimately useful members of society, and for this purpose, the essential con- dition of success is, that there should already exist in the Colony a tolerably large free population, both able and willing to afford the emancipated convicts abundant employment. It would be simply impossible to gain any of the benefits of transporta- tion by forcing convicts on an unwilling community. For even if any Government could have thought itself justfied in lighting up the flames of a rebellion in such an attempt, and in binding, for example, all great Australian Colonies into a common league against the mother country, the very fact that

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