The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-14 00:00:00

[Stamped, id. Additional.]

to Wadden Australia.' The meaning .1 this preposel to on
who are not really ignorant of the geography and
us
historyli of the Antralasian (workmen, is—that either pre-
sently by escape, or ultimately by discharge, the aide-
bodied felon of Great Britain ire to become pert and
parcel of the population of Australasia ; that South Aus-
tralia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Tas-
mania, and New Zealand, are to be ma& the refuge foe
Britain's outcasts, the hiding plena for her els
and shame. We have a firm trust end belief that
this reeoeuneadatica of the roal commiassioesre is made
in kaoline, of the following facts:—That Waters Aas-
tails perms several seaports socemilds to shims at one of
which, King George's Sound, the mail steamers sad ether
vessel& to and from the eastern Gamin regylariy call.
That the distance from Perth, the capital of Western
Australia, and from King George's Sound, to Adelaide,
the capital of South Australis, is 1,670 miles in the former
case, and 1.220 miles in the latter. That the usual
length of panne from King George's Bound le
four days. That convicts do escape by ma from
Western Australia, some of whom have bean cap-
tured and dealt with in the eastern colonies. That
the difficulties of au overlaid exit from Western Aus-
tralia are daily disappearing before the labours sod ester-
prise of the settler and explorers' io rendering available
tracts of country hitherto deemed impassable. That the
population at Western Australis is =teen thousand, of
whom but eleven thousand five hundred are rion-oonvict.
That the population of the colonies of Australasia is about
1,317,000. That expires* do—and will, as a mend rule—
leave a country were their history is knows, when employ.
meet is limited and wages are low, and where the field for
enterprise and new occupation is couSned within narrow
limits. That for than ramose Aber do met and will musk
seek the other Australasian 'atonic*, as being of
easy access ; as abounding in wealth and the mans
of employment ; as offering tempting opportunities to the
evil-disposed, by reason of their thinly peopled sod weakly
guarded territories ; as having population for the most part
engaged is pursuits which necessitate the employment of
persons unknowe by reputation; and as affording facilities
by the isolated circumstances of those pursuit', and the un-
suspicious hospitality which is the custom of the country,
for outrage and for weeps. That the blight of a felon immi-
gration perpetuates its noxious influence wherever it has
fallen is but too well known to the readers of Australian his-
tory. Its effect upon the temporal and Menial welfare of a
community is too obvious for common ; sad upon us '
✓ians it would fall with consequences all the more heavy
bemuse wholly unexpected after the royal and ministerial
declarations et the opening of the imperial parliament in
1103—that transportation to Australia was about finally to
cease. In the face of such declarations, would it be hold
unreasonable were we to complain that the policy now re-
commended would be a breach of faith, as well as an
invasion of our rights as citizens of the empire ? As Chris-
tian men, the representative, of upwards of half a million
of loyal British subjects, emigrants to a colony which we
were led to believe would be protected from this evil, we
solemnly appeal to those who are related to us
by the ties of country and of blood ; and we
say do not permit this fair land of our adop-
tion, the happy homes of tens of thousands
of families who were lately your neighbours, the inmates
of your dwellings, and whom we fondly believe are still
your friends and the sharers of your love, to be desolated by
the prurience of a convict curse • from whose contact you
yourselves, powerful in numbers, in your means of pro-
tection, sad of reformation, have shrunk with a enteral
loathing and dread. We ase uo language of menace, we
rely oa your justice, but experience warns us that the ne-
cessities of states are opt to warp the judgment of rulers ;
and our well-potioded anxieties on this question, for the
safety and happiness of all we bold dear upon this earth,
cannot, and will not subside, unless transportation to any
part of Australasia be abolished at once and for ever.
Melbourne, Eird October, 1863.
The following is from the Melbourne herald of
Oct. 24 :
Commercial affairs, if not brilliant, are mood, and sow'
have nothing like the gloomy reports prevailing twelve
months ago. Is the agricultural district, also the farmers I
seem to be animated by a more hopeful and healthy spirit,
and there is every prospect of a =guillemot harvest,
although during the past few months we have had a more
heavy ridden than in the previous eight or ten years. In
fact, what we want in order to develop our resources and
to make this the moat prosperous country udder the sun, is
more available labour. Victoria was sever better entitled
to the designation of the Paradise of Labour • but it must
be confessed that some of the working classes expect too
much, refuse to accept reasonable wages, and so compel
capitalists to keep their mosey idle, to the detriment of
the entire oommuoity. In connexion with this it may be ob-
served that the governmen t has issued new regulations teethe
introduction iota Victoria of persona skilled in special indus-
tries from the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The only
=eligible under these rules for free panne, from
will be single females, order the age of 33, who
have been accustomed to domestic service. Of these it is
proposed to select for Victoria at the rate of 150 per month.
The other clear of immigrants contemplated by the regula-
tions are persons skilled in the manufacture of wine or oil,
the drying or preservation of fruit, the culture or manu-
facture of tobacco. Particulars an be obtained from the
Emigratioa Commissioners, London.

.Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean had appeared in
Melbourne, and been well received.