The Express.
London, England, 1863-02-02 00:00:00

THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES AND
TRANSPORTATION.

The following memorial wee presented to the
Duke of Newcastle on Saturday :

TO RIB GRAM TIN TOMB OF NIWCASIII, H.O.

My Lord Duke,—The committee of the General
Association for the Australian Colonies, elected by
an influential body of gentlemen in this country,
who are interested as colonists, or otherwise, in the
several free Australian colonies, have not failed to
observe the demand fora renewal of transportation
which has of late been publicly made by a portion
of the press of the United Kingdom and by several
judges, grand jurors, and other persons connected
with the administration of justice. Being anxious
that her Majesty's government should not be igno-
rant of the sentiments entertained on this subject
by Australians, they desire to lay the following
statement before your grace.
They believe that transportation to any part of
Australia is viewed with grave and well-founded
apprehension by the people and legislatures of all
the free colonies.

First. Because the progress of the settlements
founded by Great Britain in both hemispheres jus-
tifies them in the conviction that before long the
whole of the Australian seaboard will be settled by
emigrants from the mother country ; and because
there is no greater impediment to healthy coloni-
sation, and nothing more pernicious to the moral
welfare of a free settlement, than that it should be
founded upon crime, and that its early history
should be written in shame.

Secondly. Because the apparent material p
and success of the old penal settlements OEN=
South Wales and Van Diemen's Land is not likely
to berepeated uow, when facilities foroommunication
will render it impossible to isolate new settlements ;
when it will be hopeless in the secondary stage
to attract free emigrants to a penal colony while
free colonies in its neighbourhood are offering more
attractive fields for labour ; and when the enor-
mous cost of such settlements, and the abuses to
which their government is liable, will undoubtedly
lead before long to a reaction in public feeling, and
to partial if not entire abandonment of the ex-
periment
Thirdly. Because the experience of former penal
colonies shows that an essential part of the system
is the granting of conditional pardons, allowing and
practically inducing the holders to leave the settle-
ment for any place except the United Kingdom ;
because the panting of such pardons to convicts in
Van Diemen s Lund and Western Australia has
compelled the adjoining colonies to enact in their
self-defence measures subversive of the Queen's
prerogative and inconsistent with the law of Eng-
land ; and because such a conflict is discreditable to
the public policy of the empire, and will, if per-
sisted in, tend to weaken the loyalty of the
colonies.

Fourthly. Because the existence of the penal
settlement on the western coast of Australia has
been protested against by all the free colonies, and
in practice by the free people of that settlement
itself, whose numbers have continuously fallen off
since the introduction of British felons • and be-
cause that introduction is only advocated by those
who remain in consequence of the local expendi-
ture, defrayed from the imperial exchequer, which
it necessitates.

Fifthly. Because they were unwilling that
Australasia should be the subject of experiments in
penal legislation pernicious to the colonies, and at
the same time certain to fail in their main object—
the diminution of crime in the United Kingdom ;
transportation to Australia being no longer looked
upon by the criminal population of this country as
hopeless exile to a land of toil and suffering, but
rather as a means of reaching the gold fields ; and
being even now eagerly hailed in convict prisons
when offered as a substitute for penal servitude.
In conclusion, the committee, fully recognising
I the praiseworthy desire shown by her Majesty's go-
vernment for full inquiry into the subject, as evi-
denced by the recent appointment of a royal cow-
-1 mission, would very respectfully remind your grace
that it is to the acts of the Secretary of State for
the Colonies rather than to the advice of an irre-
sponaible commission that colonists look in matters
of imperial policy affecting their welfare ; and they
trust that the result of your grace's consideration
of the present momentous question will add another
to the many expressions of confidence felt by the
colonies in your grace's administration of affairs.
We have the honour to be, your grace's faithful,
obedient servants,

Charles Nicholson, Stuart A. Donaldson,
Daniel Cooper, and W. C. Wentworth,
New South Wales.
Frederick A. Du Croz and James A.
Youl, Tasmania.
W. Bagot and A. L. Elder, South Aus-
tralia.
Walter Brodie and John Morrison, New
&eland.
James Rae, L. Mackinnon, and H. G.
Ashhurat, Victoria.

Septimul dibbou, Queensland.
London, Jan. 13.

A Cadiz telegram says that yellow fever had
almost disappeared from the capital of the Canaries.
PROPONID MIXORIAL TO Mt LATI RICHARD
Guam —Oa eatarday an indoestial ineeg of the friends
of the late Mr. Green, the shipowner of Midmall. took
place at the Literary Institution, West ladle Dock-road.
for the purpose of taking into considenitioa means for
erecting an appropriate memorial to the memory of the late
lamented gentleman. Mr. Peter Bolt, of the TMissa Iron
Shipbuilding Works, took the chair, and after some w
marks from lb. O. F. Yong, and other gentlemen • rowan.
tion to the Weal that it woe desirable to raise a suitable
y
memorial to the wassisn of/ate Mr. Rieberd Green wee
adopted. aad it wee I
to coseene a public meeting at
the inhabitants of the fa furthermore of the object.
THE Banangates Was.—Puesz AND Lynne'
wznonao Putnam to the News. ialt. inabloosark prangs
Plower. sirruc sod Illy of the Volloy-ihroo bottles la • car.
76., or to 414. ausett.--1. Now Boaiiiiirool, W.—indroltisememt.l