A Tour in Tasmania.

Manawatu Standard, Volume 4, Issue 118, 25 April 1883, Page 2

A Tour m Tasmania.

[Correspondent of Post.] But it is of Van Diemen's Land, and not of Tasmania, that I wish now t" write. That name and the horrors of transportation have been impressed on ray memory since my earliest years of understanding, and countless were the t tale 3 I used to listen to about men and women being torn from their homes and families for ever for crimes which would now be dealt with summarily by a magistrate. I felt naturally, curious to go and see for myself a land the name of which is painfully familiar to many who are living m the Old 0 >untry to this day, whose friends have long since paid the penalty of their oriraes, their bones now rotting m the prison grave»yards of Van Diemen's Land. Even at the presen timet it is probable there are not many at Home. Conldwho tell you where Tasmania was, although they coaH lay their fingers on Van Diemen's Land m a moment. This showa what a notorious spot it is under its original name, and how little it is known under the name which a second baptism has conferred upon it. Port Arthur once the prinicpal of the Van Diemaa's Land prisons, and the place of exile of William Smith O'Brien, is about 60 miles from Hobart. There are no convicts there now, the last of them having been removed to the capital some years ago. The prison and surounding buildings are now crumbling to decay, but it will ba a place ever celebrated m the history of the country. All sorts of contradictory stories are told as to the cruelties that were inflicted there, and it is difficult to distinguish what, is true from what is purely mythical. You will never "gefanyoHß^-who-jwaa^mployea as an official at Port. Arthur to own that the convicts were ever cruelly used without sufficient cause, but results have shown that punishments were inflicted, that drove men to madness, deperation, and despair. Many escapes wore made not only trom. Port Arthur but from" other places, and the escaped convicts took to the bush and became bushrangers. And thus bushranging originated. Sometimes they remained at large for years, shooting and robbing people when they had a chance, but m most instances the difficulty of obtaining food urged them to give themselves up to their former masters. At Eagle Hack Neck, dogrs were chained to give the alarm m case any of the convicts attempted to escape, and the sharks were encouraged to keep about the spot by being regularly fed, so that if the convicts attempted to escape by swimming, the sharks would put an end to their exist* ence. It ia believed that several perished m this ma&ner. la those days either flogging or hanging was almost a daily occurrence. There can be no doubt that strict discipline was necessary, and that no breach of the prison regulations could be allowed to go unpunished ; but m some cases the punishments were unnecessarily severe. Little mercy, indeed, was extended to the offending convict, and death was hailed as a happy r^ease by many a one. Some of those who were let out as servants to free settlers led quite a reformed life, and are now living m ease and comfort on their own property. Some of the females married and made excellent wi^es, but the majority of the female convicts sent out from England on'y got from bad to worse after obtaining conditional pardons. Convict labour has done a good deal for the country m various ways. It has helped to clear the land of its bush, and it has made such roads as are not to found m any other part of the colonies. There is no- | thing to equal the old coach road between Launceston and Hobart, a distance of 120 miles. Everything that has been done by convict labour is well and substantially done, and there are numbers of buildings m Hobart and other places, erected by convict labour, that will endure for years and years to come —long after the hearts of those who assisted m their erection, now free and independent men, have ceased to beat.