West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1866.

West Coast Times, Issue 235, 23 June 1866, Page 2

West Coast Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1866.

It is to be hoped that the prompt arrest in Nelson of the men over whose h«nds hang so many serious charges, will havo the effect of nipping in tho bud the criminal instincts which have begun to display themselves on tho West Coast. Hitherto Westland has onjoyed an immunity from tho more serious developments of lawnessness somewhat remarkablo when wo take into consideration the circumstances of the population, and the scanty provision made for tho public protection. For a population numbering so many thousands, so widely scattered, and offering so many inducements to tho attacks of robbers and bushrangers, the police force maintained has been smaller than in almost any other country that could be named, marked by conditions at all analogous. The general security of life and property that has prevailed has been mainly due to the spirit of order and subraissiveness to law of the diggers. It is something for the district to be proud of, that open as its mines have been to all comers, and peopled as it has actually been by enterprising adventurers from tho whole of the colonies, the cataloguo of crimes has been so light. It would not have been a surprising thing, if at a much earlier dato in our history, brigandage had becomo an established institution. Many can recall the earlier days of tho gold-

fields in Victoria, when sticking up, robbery, and murder for tho sako ol booty, wore incidents of constant and indeed almost daily occurrence. Executions for theso offences were frequent, and it was deemed necessary in order to hold the lawless class to some extent in check, to maintain a vast constabulary establishment almost on the footing of a colonial army. There is no proper comparison to be drawn between the circumstances of Victoria at that time, and the circumstances underwhich bushranging in New South Wales has since flourished to so lamentable an extent. In New South Wales society was tainted with tho old convict clement ; and in wide districts of the country, and throughout a vast section of the community the old instincts were as rife as over, and tho sympathy with crime strong and irrepressible. Even the young blood of the colony inherited the old taint. Tho majority of the criminnlsjjwho have been hanged or shot down, or aro now undergoing penal servitude, were tho native born sons of convict parents, in whoso homos tho free - bootcr always found ready reception and entertainment. In this protection extended over the outlaw, by a population which saw something to be proud of rather than ashamed, in his daring career, the New South Wales Government encountered the one insurmountable obstacle that Raffled it for years in the effort to root out of society a vice that was a scandal to it. And it was not until a legislative measure was resorted to that enacted more than the severities of martial law, that any absoluto headway was mado against tho prevalence of bushranging. In Victoria tho oircumstances were much more closely analagous to those of tho West Coa6t. A settlement which had never been the homo of a convict population, and was indeed a now country, except so far as it had for some years been sparsely occupied by a few squatters and their servants, and a few importers and factors, became suddenly peopled by strangers from all parts, attracted by tho irresistible magnet of gold. It will be a familiar fact to those who remember tho story of those days, that although lawlessness began rapidly to make its appearance, it was not the immigrant class who fed its ranks. Almost every notable crime that was brought homo to tho culprit, was traced to tho door of some old Tasmanian or New South Wal<? $ convict. It was this circumstanco that led to the passing— and re-passing, after disallowance by tho Queen on grounds of prerogative— of tho celebrated Convicts Provontion Act, punishing with

three years imprisonment with hard labor, the moro presence of a Van Demonian in Victoria vrho had been under sentence, although holding Her Majesty's conditional pardon, making him a frco man in ever^ part of tho Queen's dominions, except tho country from which he had been transported — that was somo part of Great Britain. These mon became a terror to the colonist and tho digger, and it must be confessed that during their reign they earned an unenviable notoriety for thoir class. It was only by the adoption of tho most stringent measures, that they woro prevented, from establishing a permanent reign of terror in that colony.

If the moment has come in tho history of tho West Coast goldfiekls, in which tho community aro threatened with the presence of any number of hardened and deaperato criminals from the other side, everything will depend upon tho prompt capture, nnd tho no less prompt and signal punishment of tho pioneers of the gang. Wo give great credit to the police for tho energy with which they have acted, and congratulate them that they havo had so useful a servant at their command as tho electric telegraph. There is little room for doubt that tho right men havo been laid hold of; and desperate villains thoy must bo, if one-half the crimes with which they are oharged are brought homo. It is to bo hoped that tho ends of justice will not bo frustrated, and that a beacon of warning >vill bo held out to the scores of similar characters who are doubtless ready to follow if the first bold venture prove successful. If wo can only succeed in closing tho doors of tho West Coast against this class— and that can best bo done by teaching them that they will get moro blows thau booty here — these diggings will succeed in maintaining tho character they have established, an the most orderly and law-observing in tho world.