The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 197, 22 October 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1866.

We have heard old colonists say, that on paying a visit to the, mother country, they have bad a ' number of most unpleasant questions put to them. Some have been, Does not everybody either sell or drink sly grog ? . Is not every third man you meet a convict, and are not the colonies composed of convicts underlying a raee of speculators ? Do you not take a complexion from, the savages who dwell around you, and instead of raising them to your standard, have you not descended to the level of themselves ? Sucb taunts, or something resembling them are not uncommon, we are told, in refiued English society, and are not calculated to reassure the returned colonist, who trembles lest he should be suspected of smelling of sly grog, or of having sometime in his eventful history, made his deseert of pickled Maori. We imagine that many an old colonist will on receiving the Nelson papers of the last month, turn the tables ou the inquisitive people referred to, and point to the delightful specimens of London society, who have lately expiated their crimes on the gallows here. The people of the colonies, are uoue too good, we all know, but their condition morally and socially would be infinitely superior to what it is, if Great Britain, which affects to take the lead in wealth, civilisation, morals and refinement, had not made the colonies the repositories for the offscourings of its gaols and penitentiaries, thus causing the virus of convictism to circulate in the blood of the youug communities and poison them at their very source. When it is considered that all the Mauugatapu murderers were originally Londou thieves, it will be conceded that taunts as to the criminal character of colonial society come with au exceeding ill grace from our fastidious home critics. New Zealand has never taken part as a colony, iu the agitation which some of the other colonies have carried on, to induce the British Government to abolish the odious transportation system. Victoria stood nobly in the van in this respect, and by the influence it exerted on the home Government, drew from them the distinct assurance that. the system of deporting criminals to the colonies of the southern hemisphere, should for ever cease. It may still be necessary, however, for the Government of New Zealand, to take action in reference to the deluge of criminals which threatens to over-run the country in consequence of the enticements of the neighboring gold-fields. We hear of the enforcing of a Vagrant Act with greater restrictions than any that before existed ; and there certainly is the greatest necessity that the race of wandering convicts should be watched with greater vigilance than ever; that the efficiency of the police detective force should be raised to the highest point of which it is susceptible ; and that means should be employed to prevent the acts of a class of men, whose punishment , entails an immense burden of debt upon the community. The Government of New Zealand will probably find it necessary to co-operate with the Governments of the other colonies in devising measures for restricting the movements of the great number of criminals at large, and who hail, most of them, from the prisons of the old country. Oue of the most influential of tlie Victorian agitators against the transportation system, was considered to have made a good hit, some few years ago, when he threatened to send to England the same number of convicts that were sent out here. Supposing the thing were practicable it would not be a bad idea to send Sullivan, about the finest specimen the colony can produce of the worst class of London society, to the old country on a lecturing expedition, well provided with testimonials from his patrons here. What a sensation it would produce on the Exeter ' Hall platform, if Sullivan were allowed to rush on surrounded by all the little Sullivans, aud exclaim "here we are again !" Not only

are theieolonies saddled with the worst convicts ofy Christian England,<;but. r wlth their progeny too, and what caai baexpecteS to result from ••■having such* breed amongst us, but the perpetuation and indefinite multiplication of the convict abominations that eat like a canker worm into the heart of the social system. . It is time the tablpa were turned on the stupid English swells who charge the colonies with evils the English Government have forced upon them, k That we :have' amongst us a numerous race r of embryo thieves and murderers, we have the English Government principally to thank; and it will require all the concentrated efforts, of phrenological professors, teachers, • Chris,tian ministers, philanthropists, and statesmen to destroy the hydra headed monster which has begun to rear its horrid. crest amongst us.