of the Transportation Committee. It is the continuance or discontinuance of convict slavery; that is, of the assignment system, which affects the pecuniary interests of the penal colonies. The colonists want convicts to rear their flocks, and till their fields, and for no other purposes. Their present prosperity will vanish if they be deprived of their present supply of convict labour, unless they obtain labour from some other source. They will cease to flourish, especially in New South Wales, even if they retain the present supply of convict labour, unless an additional quantity of labour be procured from other quarters.

How, I ask, can such a supply of labour be obtained as will compensate for the abolition of transportation, or at least of the assignment system, and will furnish a regularly increasing amount of labour in proportion to the increase of the field of production? So severely was the want of labour felt in New South Wales that it was proposed to import Hindoos, as indentured labourers, who were to be returned to their native country, at the end of a certain period of time. With regard to this plan, I must observe that experience has fully shown that it is impossible to enforce bonds of indenture without a system of punishment that would make the indentured labourer almost a slave. It has generally happened, when the indentured labourer was of the same race as his master, and equal to him in intelligence, that he has broken his indenture and sold his labour to the highest bidder for it. On the other hand, when the labourer was of an inferior race, he was first entrapped, and subsequently reduced by his master to a state of

bondage. Now, every one, who is aware of the ignorance and helplessness of the Hill Coolies (the particular caste of Hindoos proposed to be imported as indentured labourers), must at once perceive that this mode of supplying New South Wales with labour would, in reality, establish a species of slavery in that colony. The Colonial Office has, therefore, very properly refused to assent to such a proceeding. Moreover, if the indentured labourers were to be ultimately sent back to their own country, the importation of a few thousand Hindoos annually would be a mere temporary expedient wholly inadequate to that extension of industry of which New South Wales is capable. On the other hand, if they were permanently to settle in the colony they would form a separate class, distinct in colour, language, and religion; and a state of society would ensue, such as, I think, no statesman would desire to produce in Australia, after the ample experience, which we have had, of the pernicious consequences of a similar state of society in our West Indian colonies and in the Southern States of America.

Emigration from this country is, therefore, the only source from which labour can be advantageously supplied to New South Wales. But here several difficult questions arise. If transportation continue, the emigration of free labourers to the same place where criminals are sent to be punished is most objectionable; first, because it would destroy a great portion of the terrors of transportation, inasmuch as the condition of a labourer in the penal colony is represented to be better than that of one in this country; and the

mere banishment, which is generally considered to be the greater portion of the punishment, would, in consequence be considered rather in the light of a benefit than of an evil. Secondly, because transportation has produced, and tends to perpetuate, in the penal colonies a state of morality worse than that of any other community in the world. This has been amply proved by the report of the Transportation Committee. I entertain, therefore, the most serious doubts whether the Government is morally justified in encouraging the industrious classes of this country in emigrating to a community, where it is all but certain that their moral principles will be subverted by association with the criminals, who are compelled to accompany them. To send 5,000 criminals and as many free emigrants to labour together in the same place is an anomaly in legislation, in defence of which no arguments of any validity can be urged. If transportation continue, it would be far better to circumscribe the penal colonies, to allow none but offenders to dwell in them, and to make them nothing else than large gaols, such as was the condition of Van Diemen's Land under Sir George Arthur. New South Wales should then be limited to the territory which is now occupied. And the remainder of it, especially Port Phillip, and the surrounding district of most fertile land, called Australia Felix, should be established into a new colony, untainted by convicts, and inhabited only by free, industrious, and intelligent emigrants. Such a colony would in a short time afford a market for the productions of this country, and a commerce as extensive as those of the present

penal colonies. It is true the penal colonies would still be the sinks of iniquity and vice they now are; they would not become worse: that is impossible. They would not, however, contaminate the whole of that vast and fertile district which at present is included within the boundaries of New South Wales. Undoubtedly this proposition is one highly injurious to the interests of the free settlers of New South Wales. But it is the only alternative which, in my opinion, the continuance of transportation permits. Some of the inhabitants of New South Wales claim a vested interest in the labour of the criminals of this country; if so, they must take it with all its consequences. They have selected a gaol as their abode, they must submit to its inconveniences and sufferings. They have chosen to dwell amongst offenders, they must not expect that the Legislature will encourage, or even permit innocent men to become their companions. For I consider the Legislature to be equally bound to guard over the moral as well as the economical interests of its subjects. It ought to prevent those over whom it exercises authority from sacrificing their dearer and more important, though remoter, interests, for the sake of some minor, though immediate, advantage; especially when such persons are liable to act in ignorance, as is the case with the greater portion of the emigrant labourers. I myself cannot conceive how any virtuous, any highminded man, any person in whom the desire of pecuniary gain has not obliterated every other and better feeling, can consent to become an inmate of these colonies, if transportation continue, unless under the most erroneous impressions of the

consequences of that system of punishment. Indeed, I feel firmly convinced that, with the continuance of transportation, all the better portion of the inhabitants of these colonies, and of the emigrants, will remove to the other Australian communities, that are now springing up, where similar descriptions of industry are carried on, where a better state of society exists, and where free institutions will soon be established, which can never be the case in the penal colonies, as long as convicts are transported.

Sir, if transportation be abolished, I see no obvious difficulty in maintaining the present economical prosperity of these colonies, and in purifying them. The motion of my honourable friend points out the means; all that is required is the inclination and the determination on the part of the Government vigorously to adopt those means.

In order that New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land may continue in their career of wealth, the place of the 30,000 or 40,000 convicts, who are now labourers in the penal colonies, must be supplied by a similar number of free labourers. And here I must remark that 40,000 free men will produce far more than 40,000 convicts; for there was no fact better established before the Transportation Committee than that, even at the present high rate of wages, free labour, when it can be obtained, is more profitable to its employer than the compulsory labour of unpaid convicts. And, likewise, I should observe, that the whole of this amount of labour would not be required at once; for a certain period of time must elapse before the whole of the convicts, who are now employed as