A.—4.

As to New Caledonia, Governor de la Barriere had confirmed by his evidence the adverse opinions he had expressed in his despatch of October, 1883, appended to the Committee's first report. Though the climate of that colony was excellent and its soil fertile, the State territory there was hardly sufficient to insure to the convicts who would be sent there even up to 1888 the concessions promised by the law of 1854, and at the same time reserve land enough to enclose (encadrer) the penal settlement within free colonization. Besides, New Caledonia was still in its infancy as a colony. Industry did not exist there, and the 3,000 Überes constrained to residence had to be maintained by the State, for want of other work. The nickel mines had not recovered from the crisis caused by the failure of the Bank of New Caledonia; moreover, the owners of those mines all preferred the less costly and quasi- servile labour of the New Hebrides recruits. Lastly, M. Schcelcher (senator) had laid before the Committee a protest by M. Moncelon, delegate from New Caledonia, and there was a similar protest by the Gonseil Ghneral of Guiana, against applying the Bill to either colony. The Committee had been last year of opinion that it would be useless, and even dangerous, to define in the Bill the colonies where relegation might take place; and now a more exhaustive study of the question had shown that, in the interest of the law itself, it was necessary to leave to the d-overnment an even larger choice of the territories in which to put the scheme in force. With this object, the first section of the Bill had been amended by the omission of the words " colonies or possessions," thus suppressing every restriction as to the places to be selected for relegation, one condition only being made, that these places were not to be assimilated to prisons. It would of course be said that this was giving the Executive a blank cheque (blanc-seing). Certainly that was not to be denied. But Parliament would each year be able to exercise a control through the estimates; and, besides, in presence of difficulties which it would be puerile to dissemble, and in view of the large numbers which, especially at first, would come under the law, the Committee had thought it wisest to leave to the Executive the fullest latitude in selecting the places where this crowd of malefactors might be utilized, who, if accumulated at one point, would certainly constitute there a great embarrassment if not a public danger. The Committee did not, however, exclude any place; and, notwithstanding the grave objections made against Guiana, they did not mean to say that the Government could not, or ought not, to make the attempt there. Nor did the Committee even hold that in New Caledonia, notwithstanding the embarrassment already caused by the presence of 7,000 forqwts and 3,000 Überes, it would not be possible to send a certain number of relegues. And perhaps at Senegal, or some other French possession, recidivistes might be employed upon public works for which free workmen were now imported at a great cost. Profoundly convinced still of the necessity of the law, the Committee could not admit that any difficulties should be allowed to prevent or suspend its effect; and they therefore hoped that the Senate, sharing in that feeling, would adopt their present proposals. 3. Begime to be applied to the Belegues. While public opinion in France had manifested a legitimate impatience for the banishment of incorrigible criminals who made a trade of violating every social law, it must be admitted that, in the colonies threatened with the reception of these criminals, public opinion had declared itself with undeniable energy against the scheme. The Chamber of Commerce of Noumea and the delegate of New Caledonia emulated the Council and the member for Guiana in protests against this new kind of transportation. Was there any right to be surprised at this ? Neither past history nor present circumstances could give much confidence about the future. It must be acknowledged that the transportation which began in 1852 had not, in thirty-two years, produced, from the colonial point of view of either New Caledonia or Guiana, the results which had been expected. [Here follows an account of the ruinous failure at Guiana.] At New Caledonia, after fifteen years of transportation, and with an effectif of ten thousand people, hardly fifty miles of road had been constructed, and the Harbour of Noumea was still without facilities which its geographical position and its prospective importance demanded. At best a few hundreds, out of the thousands transported, had become attached to the soil in either of the penal colonies. What had become of the ÜberSs constrained to temporary or perpetual residence under the law of 1854 ? For the most part without work, falling back on the State for support, subject to no discipline, they had only been a source of disturbance and demoralization to the free colonists. Such results, established by all the information before the Committee, now justified them in saying that, if the law of 1854 had solved one side of the problem by averting the progress of graver crimes, its colonial side yet awaited solution. Did this mean that a solution was impossible ? Far be it from the Committee to think so. They still believed in the utility of transportation, and in the possibility of turning it to the advantage of the colonies. But the Government must give their attention to the reforms required in the whole penal system beyond sea, and especially to the position, hitherto ill-defined, of the libkrks. The necessity for these reforms had doubtless been a chief cause of the alarm in New Caledonia and Guiana; but another cause lay in the fact of its having been proposed to leave the recidivistes, when once relegated under the condition of not leaving the colony, in a state of absolute liberty and in the possession of common rights. This idea, embodied in the original report of M. GervilleB^ache and the debates in the Chamber of Deputies, had never been shared by the Senate Committee. A regime of absolute liberty and of common rights to be possessed by incorrigible malefactors had always seemed to them to constitute a peril for any colony so great that the law could not have been really carried out. Those convicts only who could provide for their own wants ought to enjoy liberty, limited by police measures necessary for the public safety. As for those who, without the means of existence, became chargeable to the State, the right to require forced labour from them was undeniable. This had always been the opinion of the Committee, and their renewed investigation had now led them to declare, in more express terms, in the very first section of the Bill, not only the meaning of relegation, but the consequences it must entail upon the convicts.

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