FRENCH TRANSPORTATION POLICY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 606, 15 September 1883, Page 6

FRENCH TRANSPORTATION POLICY.

The Morning Post gives the following details of the new transportation p dicy adopted by France at the expense of the South Pacific : “The new Habitual Criminals Bill, which has passed the Chamber of Deputies, and which is shortly to be discussed by the Senate, condemns every criminal who has beeu twice convicted of a grave offence within a certain period of years, or who has been more frequently convicted of offences less grave within the same period, to transportation for life, or, as it is called, ‘ relegation ’ to a French colony beyond the seas ; and in the schedule of the Bill the territories marked out as the residences of the convicts are, with the exception of French Guinea in South America, all situated in the islands of the Pacific Ocean ; New Caledonia naturally heading the list. As this scheme amounts to nothing less than a vast plan of criminal colonisation, and as it is recoguised that such settlers must be very unwelcome neighbo-s for colonists of an ordinary character, it is possible that the French naval authorities have received instructions to occupy fresh territories which could be devoted exclusively to the residence of French criminals. This plan of clearing French cities and towns of the dangerous scum of the-male and female population is due to the initiative of the the late M. Gambetta, but it has been taken up with zeal by his lieutenants, and we believe that the calculations of the French Government reckon upon a transported population of 40,000 or 50,000 criminals of both sexes within a few years. If, however, there is an evident convenience to the French Government and people in casting out the refuse of their criminal classes upon the distant islands of the Pacific, it may be reasonably suspected that the Australian colonies, which not very long since succeeded iu eradicating the evils of transportation from among themselves, will regard with horror, not unmingled with alarm, the prospect of the establishment of a vast republic of criminals in those regions.”