COMFORTABLE CONVICTS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1861, 28 April 1863, Page 3

COMFORTABLE CONVICTS IN NEW ZEALAND.

[Front the Nelson Colonist.} Lately the question ' What shall we do with our convicts?' has been perplexing statesmen and social reformers at home. The licket-of-leave system, a consequence of the substitution of penal servitude iur transportation, has been a disastrous failure. The authorities at home have found themselves unable to make provision for imprisoning arrant scoundrels duriDg the whole term of sentence, and these in en have for years back been liberated under tickets-of-lnave, and like the man possessed by fiends in the parable, they velum to their haunts, taking with them seven devils of crime worse than those they entertained before. 'The garrotte movement which during the past year had set all London and other large cities under a system of chronic tenor, is the plentiful fruit of this legislation. The long popular, and to some exten maudlin sentiment whbh sough 1 to ameliorate the condition of criminals in prisons culminated of late years to a point which produced clean comfortable quarters, where prisoners were well fed, well exercised, taught, doctored, cared for, and altogether placed in such circumstances as made their system of living the envy of many an industrious poor man, and not seldom superior to the unhappy inmate of the English workhouse who dragged out his existence on limited ' skil/igolee."

A reaction appears now to have occurred at home on this question, and not too scon. The pampering of the legion of scoundrelism is now condemned, and the real punishment of the convicted criminal, the making of his life wretched, the taking from him those physical comforts of the right to which his own act deprived him, and the resorting to physical pain as a punitive force (and why not flog the ruffian who beats his wife until she is a mass of bruises ?) — these means are now openly advocated. Carlyle's doctrine of severe unmitigated and continuous punishment is not far from the true philosophy-of retributive justice. Among the methods for ouce more ridding the home country of its plethora of malefactors is the return to transportation, lo agaio make some of the antipodal colonies the receptiibles of the incarnation of British crime. To this the colonists of Australasia will at once re* ply by, a unauimous and decided * No.' The project would doubtless free England of many of its rascals, but we shall presently show that instead of being a means for increasing their punishment or adding' to their discomfort, it would be greatly the reverse. The experience of letting our convicts to masters in new c'oun* tries, proves that comfort and ultimate competence at the antipodes have very often been the reward of hoirie crime.

The tables we give below, showing the luxury in which convicts In New Zealand revel, may well make many a poor hard-working man at home envy the comfortable scoundrels. The following are the daily rations served out in the prison of the colonial capital, Auokland, to cod ricts of the second class, whose crhneß have • been so great as to bring: upou them a sentence of penal servitude exceeding to years — I 1 lb fresh meat 1$ lbs bread 2 lbs potatoes J lb mixed vegetables 1 oz. tea 2 OZ3. sugar £ oz. soap i $ oz. salt ' 2 oz9. tobacco, weekly How many families in England would rejoice Ito live on this liberal scale? Even the scamp's tobacco is guaranteed! After this who would not be a coni vict in Auckland gaol? The man who enjoys , i all this need not work hard, and by pleading indisposition he may escape work altogether fur a long time, and this he can well do by eating till indigestion follows. By a beautiful anomaly that proves the logical minds of criminal legislators, we find tint the smaller villian whose offence infers imprisonment with hard labor for pnriods ranging from a month to two years, is much less luxuriously fed— though . still very comfortably so indeed — than the greater criminal. Here is the allowance to this . ; convict of the first class ; the 'tea; stigar, yef e« tables (mixed— the capricious dog!) and to<;f^ bacco, grunted to the greater rogue being ;^g denied to the lesser: — . .. : „; . i : 5 . .; .; '%^}si f lb fresh meat - : £ '^Z;; : :!■"•> l£ lbs bread > ' ■ 1; ! -^ 2 lbs potatoes „'..., „;-.;.,: £ op soap - r : ■'■'■■, •" J oz salt : . •;^<-^;\<'itf:U'yi-- : : r ;\ 6 ozs oatmeal ''•-."; i.,.,... Vi These tables are those of Auokland vptfsoflj^ ;;i| Othep provinces, not altogether sq\ libeija|^ei^ )$S° provide for their criminals so largely^; to mi|^|^j| their condition in gaol a\ .very «6otof6r|BbVe^nejf^|i indeed. V^yjS^.^^yzVf^^tisi^l^^^M the first is, that tp send ■3siUs.h';irimio'awitoifJfM these colonies is roariife i Stljr ; n^ti^eij^^^ t^p| t^^ to their punishment;j^a'ai^t&e.?^eeSj^^i|^M^^^ the convict^d,-sco,uhdre|?v'of. il .Ne^^MM9E^^^^S to an ep^^.'^J^.^i?^i^^^|^^HH|