The Alexandra and Yea Standard, Gobur, Thornton and Acheron Express at KellyGang 16/11/1878 (3)
T'HE ADVANTAGES OF TRANSPORTAION
William Howitt, in a paper written with a view of advocating a return to the punishment of transportation, says: -- "In Victoria I used to see Sir William Denison, the Governor of Tasmania, daily abused by the press as a despot and a slavedriver, because he employed the convicts upon public works. When I went over there great was my astonishment at the beautiful cultivation of the island- a perfect garden- and the civil, orderly, and kindly working population. Calling on the Governor, he asked me where I landed. 'At Launceston;' that is, at the opposite end of the island, 'And you found, in coming hither, excellent roads, a well-appointed coach, good bridges, smiling villages, and well cultured lands?' 'Yes, all, and most admirable.' “That is all the result of convict labour.” Sir William took me to the window and showed me a splendid port where vessels of 800 tons were lying. 'Had you come here a few years ago.' said Sir William,' you would have found that a shallow pool, and the grooms washing their horses' legs there.' He said he was about to make a second port of equal capacity when the clamour was raised against transportation; the bill passed, and all his means of improvement were out off.
In Tasmania I rode along through the most wild and solitary parts of the county, through woods and mountains, where there was little population but saw shepherds and. herdsmen, and their convict wives. I was once compelled to pass the night in the but of an Irish convict, who, with his Irish convict wife, might have murdered me, and thus, far away from the ordinary tracks, have secured my money and my horse. There was not the slightest danger. It was not an Italy, old in so called civilisation, but still the haunt of the brigand. On the contrary, these former criminals did all in their power for my comfort and that of my horse, and the next morning the man went a considerable way through the woods to show me the pass in tho mountains. On reaching the house of the friends whom I was going to visit I found that they had not a servant, man or woman, who was not a convict, and yet never locked a door at night! In fact, Tasmania and New South Wales were far more secure than Italy, outside its town gates, is even now, alter all the improved conditions of the new government. Such are the miraculous powers of regeneration existing in conditions of hope, of elbow-room, of removal from the fatality of evil companionship, of the healthy spirit of nature, and the fair beckquings ahead of home life, family ties, peace, and competence. As Mr Falkiner remarks, the London pick pockets generally proved the most active and effective shepherds and herdsmen. Not only, as he observes, have their faculties been sharpened by their former life but theft is no longer a necessity, nor even a possibility, for them, but activity is their necessity. The solitude is an awe to them. They must be on the stir to lose the sense of it, and thus give all their attention to their charges. It is a curious fact that Barrington, the celebrated Dublin pickpocket, became one of the earliest and most esteemed magistrates of Sydney.
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