NEW CALEDONIA, A PENAL COLONY. (FROM THE "SYDNEY MORNING HERALD.")

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1877, 23 July 1863, Page 5

NEW CALEDONIA, A PENAL COLONY. (FROM THE "SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. ")

"We bear upon good authority that a project is entertained by the Government of France to make New Caledonia a penal colony This has been so long upon the carpet that we may poihaps be justified in still legardmg it rs a matter under discussion. No one will deny the right of the Fiench nation to employ the teiritory they have acquired in any way they please. All declamation upon this subject will be mere raving. It is not until these penal establishments shall piove to be a practical grievance to the colonies that they aie entitled to raiso their voice, and then only to adopt such piecautionary measures as may be necessaiy to pieserve themselves fiom injiuy. There can be no question that some advantages will aceuie to France by having such au outlet for its convict population. In eveiy place where ciiminals exist the pievaihng wish and hope will be to see the last of them, and human natiuo haidly admits oE so much generosity or sympathy with otbeis as to restiain the gratification of this desue within limits where it shall not be injuiious to the outer woild. We theiefoio suppose that if the French Government undeistand that the enterprise vull be a success on behalf of the Fiench nation, it will be of little conseqnence what may be our opinions or wishes. At the same time we can claim to ha\e gieat experience, and to be in a position to judge more tinly what may be the piobable lesult fiom a Fiench point of Mew The establishment of a penal colony can only be effective foi the relief of the French nation by its being one of veiy laigo dimensions. To get nd of a tew despeiate ciiminals annually is haidly worth the cost and the pains The plan to deserve notice must be to foim a penal colony upon a gieat scale, and to lender the the labour ot the convicts subseivient to thesubjiuj-.atiou of the country The throiy seems to be very smooth — to get nd of men fiom an ovoiciowded population whine they aie exposed to tempt itions to ciime, and to place them upon new lands wheie their luboiu is valuable, and wheie they may become the tenants of the soil which they conquer. This is, of comse, a veiv pleising idea. The fhst difhculty, howevei, which stukes us is, that ciime is commonly perpetrated by the male population, and that consequently the colony fiom ltb beginning must be formed in an abnormal condition. The effect of this inequality will show itself thiough all ltb future stages, and u will become moie and moie aggravated as it proceeds. A small fern lie population, ongmally vicious, must tend to pollute eveiything aiound it. A male population in immense excess must be attended with great social detenoiation, and, under these cnciuustances, theie is little advancement Take two opposite case-,. A shipload of young m.iined nn nngi.ants anive in a countiy Let it be supposed that they consißt of 250 couples Let us follow the domestic mciease for the next foity jean and see what will be the result. Om readers have sufficiently numeious examples We know of some families in this country who consist of horn fiftj to a hundred peisons They came here many years ago, and such has been then growth. It may be said that in the fiist stage of colonization an adult male population will prepare the ground for otheis of a different class. This is in some respects true, but a fughtful puce will be paid foi this piepaiation. It is not possible to separate the two classes of people, nor is it \eiy ilesnable , and jnst in proportion as the labour element supplied bv convict systems is powei ful, the moral condition of society must be essentially weak. When the period of transition comes theie will be a ciisis not easily endured. It may indeed be softened by a highly commeicial people who seek out in all directions for new enterprises ; or by a people who produce, almost without cost, enoimous staples, or whose mines yield them laige returns of 50KI. These aie advantages, however, which can liaidly be taken into account where they aio not known beforehand to exist We have the stiongest possible impression that no successful colonization will ever be accomplished through the ntfi position of :onvict labour in piopoition to its cost and to its waste rf He— m pioportion. to the social mischief winch accompanies it, and that it is more HKely (except by ndveutitious cuoumstmioes) to peimanently destioy ihan to advance the settlement of a new counti y Any nation that will lay out large sums of money mil find gather aiound the place a number of thuvmg lealers, and where it is a pmchaser of produce at a nigh price, it will find speculative growers. AH these i\ ill praise the system which benefits them. But looking ;o the cost inclined by the nation compaied with the jfTects produced, we strongly suspect that the whole iffan will be found to be a great geneial loss. It may je said that these colonies, but nu convicttsm, would lot have been ppw; nihi>briec> This is more eas"dmn, proved. But w e might conjeotur* *' , mid juterprising peep}©— led by »<•- ..i.it had a few sixty yeaia ago, stumW- ' , ne sc , en tific visitoi — Victom whi^ " a upon tlle i um))S of i n alev" t liiv l ,p On th e surface about Mount ..mer, the inhabitants of that cnintiy might amount to some millions. Such aie idle conjectuies It is a most unsound system to attempt to establish general principles by particular facts, or t') assume in an altered state of the woild (with commerce expanding as it does now, and the migration of peoples a branch of regular administration) that we can wisely follow that course which was pursued at some previous epoch The South Seas aie now travel sod by vessels of all counti les To sow over them pofhgate men thrown off bv highly civilized nations, will not only retaul theii advancement, but make them dangeious to ships of commeice We know that the intercom se of escaped ciiminals fiom thesp colonies with the natn es of the South Seas has been asomce of inexpressible suffering as well as n ition.il dishonour, and we do not suppose that the Fiench will be moie foitunate in tlieii exilos The French are «aid to be rathei averse to colonization , and no wonder, for they ai c m possession of a country so favoured that it has within itself everything that a people can desne, and with high culture capable of supporting gieatly augmented numbeis. But we can hardly imagine that this indisposition will be conquered by the attractions of a penal colony. Thus as the criminal population of New Caledonia becomes lipe for dischaige, we may expect that large numbers of them will seek a home m the colonies of England. This will, of course, biing the question practically to our doors, and we presume may lead to some such legislation as, with refeience to our own convicts, has been adopted by the colony of Victoria Eveiything of this kind must be looked upon with regiet, as tending to destroy the freedom of communication, and produce iiritation between two nations which have so many interests in common amidst all their contrauetieß. We do not see that we have any right to protest against a convict station at New Caledonia, but we- shall be bound to look narrowly at its development, and guard against any mischievous influence it may produce. At the same time it will be highly gratifying to suppose that the French Government, taking higher and broader views of the inteieste of humanity, will hesitate to pour upon the legions of the south criminals whose presence must always be a Bource of danger and disorder.

Tankards of tiie olden "Tyme."— Various tan- | kards were in use, among which we may mention the peg-tankard and the whistle tankard, the latter of which was constructed with a whistle attached to the brim, which would be sounded when the cup required replenishing, (from winch, in all probability, originated the saying if you want more, you must whistle for it"); or, in more rare instance!?, the whistle was 80 ingeniously contrived at the bottom of the vessel that it would sound its own note when the tankard was empty. The peg-tankard was an ordinarily shaped mug, having in the inside a row of eight pins, one above another, from top to bottom. This tankard held two quarts, so that there was a gill of ale, *. c , half a pint ("Winchester measure), between each pin. The fir»t person who drank was to empty the tankard to the first peg or pin, the second was to empty to the next pin, and so on. The pins were therefoie so many measures to the compotators, making them all drink alike, or the same quantity ; and, as the same space between each pin was such as to contain a. large draught of liquor, the company would be very liable, by this method, to get drunk, especially when, if the drank short of the pin, or beyond it, they were obliged to drink again. For this reason, in Archbishop's Anslem's Canons, made in the Council at London in 1102, priests ara enjoined not to go to drinking-bouts, nor to drink to pegs. This shows the antiquity of the invention, which at least is as old as the Conquest. Among other diinkingvessels we may »lso mention a curious cup possessed by the Vintners' Company, lepresenting a milkmaid carrying a pail on her head. This pail is arranged to act on a swivel ; and, so ingeniously is it contrived, that those of the uninitiated who are invited to partake of it invariably receive iti contents upon their boioms.