TRANSPORTATION — VAN DIEMEN'S LAND. (Hansard, 26 May 1846)

§ MR. EWART

rose to move Resolutions to the effect that the present system of making the Colony of Van Diemen's Land a general receptacle for convicts should cease, and that transportation should no longer be maintained as a punishment; but be continued only as a supplement to the previous punishment of imprisonment. On a previous occasion, he called the attention of the Government to the state of Van Diemen's Land. Since then he had presented a petition setting forth the sufferings of the population of that Colony; he therefore felt justified in bringing the question forward, not only, however, on that ground, but because it was a question deeply involving the moral state of the Colony, and calling imperatively for legislative interference. If the question were put, à priori, whether, if all the convicts of a country were concentrated within one small Colony, the most disastrous moral results would not attend such a system, he would appeal to hon. Gentleman whether their unanimous answer would not be—it must necessarily be so. No sooner did he hear of the scheme which had been recently adopted, and for which they were indebted to Lord Stanley, than he foresaw petitions and complaints from the people of Van Diemen's Land. Such a consummation was natural. He would quote no less an authority than that of Dr. Arnold in support of his own view on this subject. That eminent literary character took a very strong view of the question, and some time since wrote in a letter to Sir J. Franklin to this effect:— Holding our West India Colonies to be one of the worst stains in the moral history of mankind, a convict Colony seems to me to be even more 1289 shocking and more monstrous in its very conception. I do not know to what extent Van Diemen's Land is so; but I am sure that no such evil can be done to mankind as by thus sowing with rotten seed, and raising up a nation morally tainted in its very origin. Compared with this the bloodiest exterminations ever effected by conquest were useful and good actions. From the year 1824 to 1840, Van Diemen's Land gradually advanced in prosperity. Its population increased from 12,700 to 40,000; its shipping, from one vessel to 141; its imports, from 62,000l. to 988,000l.; its exports from 14,500l. to 867,000l.; its places of worship, from 4 to 44, and its schools in proportion. In the unfortunate year of 1840, a change took place. Transportation, which hitherto had been extended to New South Wales, was stopped, and the whole body of convicts was concentrated in Van Diemen's Land alone. The effect of such a policy, one would imagine, would have struck the commonest mind; but for a statesman to have adopted it must ever reflect discredit on his judgment and foresight. The concentration system having been introduced in 1840, there came in 1842 that most noxious and condemnable probationary system, also the work of Lord Stanley. The convicts were first sent to Norfolk Island, and having there contracted every species of moral pollution, they were afterwards sent forth to disseminate it among the population of the ill-fated Colony of Van Die-men's Land. The results of this system were just what might have been expected. The statements he had been furnished with of the moral consequences of this concentration system were such as he should not be justified in reading to the House. They were abominable, unutterable, and worse than fancy ever feigned, or fear conceived. In discharge of the melancholy duty which had devolved upon him, he must read a few of the communications he had received. The petition which he had presented set forth—that the petitioners were in a constant state of dread and anxiety for themselves and their families, owing to the number of convicts by whom they were surrounded. They felt they had no security for life or property, and that the moral condition of the Colony was daily becoming worse. No Government, however able, could counteract the evils of this mass of criminals. If the present system of transportation continued, the petitioners stated that they must, at whatever sacrifice, abandon a Colony which would become unfit for any man to inhabit 1290 who regarded the highest interests of himself and of his children. He had received a communication from a gentleman who went out under the auspices of the Government itself, and who made the following statement:— I brought out to this place (Van Diemen's Land), when I returned to it from England, upwards of eighty criminals, who had been under the excellent system pursued at Parkhurst for two or more years. The voyage was, with few exceptions, delightful to me, in the promise it gave of the well-doing of these boys; but before a year was over their head, scarcely half a dozen out of the fifty-two who were retained here (the others were sent to New Zealand) had not been under punishment. He had also a letter from the Bishop of Tasmania, who observed— It is cheering in the midst of the horrible moral and spiritual evils that surround us, to find that there are highminded and commanding spirits who sympathize with us. There is yet hope that with God's blessing our evils will be at least ameliorated, cured they cannot be in this generation. Such were some of the dreadful evils resulting from the system of transporting convicts to Van Diemen's Land. The petition to which he had referred bore the signatures of one bishop, six members of council, and thirty-nine magistrates. He had been informed that so great was the insecurity in this Colony, that gangs of men went armed about the country. The hon. Gentleman was here interrupted by