A CENTURY AGO

Hokitika Guardian, 16 August 1929, Page 2

A CENTURY AGO

THE BAD OLD DAYS IN NEW SOUTH WALES. A DVENTURES OF A PENAL EXILE.' GRIM HUMAN DOCUMENT. ' In these days' when penal reform is a much' discussed question, it is diffiouit to realise that a little more than sixty years ago such offences as larceny and theft were among tho numerous crimes punishable by hanging, and that it was not uncommon for lads of sixteen years to suffer the extreme penalty for what would today be met by reformative detention in a Borstal Institute.

In the earlier ’ part •of last century when the transportation' - system was in operation, many hundreds of men-escaped the gallows and with thousands iof -other offenders werx.: condemfied’ 1 to/' be' sent’ bvers’e'ag tjo spend the rest of their - lives in tile •'penal bettileniehtij-' of New South Wales/Van ■ Diemten’s Land and', later, 1 Western Australia. What this meant lias b6en•'' described : 'by many writers in lbbok3-of which ‘-‘For' the Term of His 'Natural Life” ’and “Robbery Under 1 Arms”'are perhaps the ’ best-known, ''K may be ’doubted, however,'- whether /past -liternftiro on-the subject-'has’produced anything to equal the stark-’idealism of ’a remarkable book which has just been published. Edited by the Earl of Birkenhead, it entitled ‘-‘The Adventures ,of Ralph Rashleigh, ni P-enai Exile in Australia, 1825-1844.” ' The book records the life of a mild-natured man with, as Lord Birkenhead says, “no worse criminal instincts than those necessary to become a successful thief and burglar.” In a prefatory note the 1 publishers, Jonathan Cape r -of London, explain that the storywas sent 'to them by Mr Charles H. Bertie, the well-known librarian of Sydney,, who''received it ' front'- “a man who had ; inherited it from his wife’s father/ in whose possession it had remained; fob ■•. thirty 1 years”’ Air Bertie httd read . . the original manuscript- andi was ; 1 so . sure of its - importance that lie had it typed and sent to London..;; i■;lt has been impossible l ,to.: identify the squatter or the heronof; the. tale, say the publishers, although "most: ol the e,vents recorded have :been verified. The name, .Ralph ! Rashleigh, is admittedly an alias. It would that every name, except, j .thpsp of public persons, which occurs in the narrative* has been deliberately altered. The reason ‘for less, that the book was written, .and intended-for publication.

THE PUNISHMENT QF ; CRIME. Rashleigh' had the advantage 1 of a decent upbringing, but,. out' bf weakness of character, adopted What seemed ■■the easier life ’<?f ; crime at ah early age. Terrible indeed' were the of sin’’ for him; ; The ..crime for which he wiis filially Juried- was “not a very desperate Venture, consisting merely of feloniously entering a private house and robbing the butler’s pantry of the silver. Such, it would be thougght in these days, was not a crime 'for which a man deserved to die by hanging, but- this was the sentence”", first pronounced against Rashleigh. 'At the Sessions at which he was convicted, no fewer than .65 men were sentenced to death for similar crimes. Rashleigh’s capital sentence was Computed to transportation for life, and the rest of the. hook is a stark ' -narrative of his ghastly experience - in - the penal col'oriy of New 'Soiith 'Wales. ■ -

, J( : v t . •*. SHOCKING ABUSES

■ Yet, it is impossible to- read- the story of Rashleigh without 1 shudder-, ing, not' only at the sheer brutality "of the whole official system, and the shocking abuses 'openly and almost universally 1 practised with the soinetimes passive, generally active, sanction of the higher officials. In the prison hulks of England, in the convict ships which carried overseas hardened criminals, petty < offenders, and not infrequently innocent men and women wrongfully convicted, in the prisons and penal establishments of New South Wales, and, as ovten as not among the settlers (especially those who were themselves ex-con>-viots), the most appalling cruelties and injustices were perpetrated, oftentimes from -sheer lust' of inflicting tortures upon helpless men. But they wiere not always helpless men. There were many who escaped from even the vigilant custody of those terrible prisons and penal establishments such as the Emu Plains Agricultural Establishment, and the coal mines land Jlime-kilns of Non castle. These became the bushrangers who lived by robbing settlers, and, when the opportunity offered, of exacting revenge upon their former taskmasters.

One of the most thrilling, as it is one of the most shocking and terrible parts of this book, is Roshleigh’s account of the adventures of Foxley and his gang of bushrangers.' Rashleigh having fled from a tyrannical farmer employer, himself an txconvict, and given himself jup to a. district constable, was captuicd by the bushrangers, who, after rescuing Foxley, set fire to the house in which

the policeman and his wife and young children were burned to death.. For many months Rashleigh was compelled to travel about the country under close guard and witness the fiendish and bestial atrocities perpetrated 'by Foxley and his gang, ’until retribution overtook them. Raslileigh was sentenced to death once more, ’‘but his sentence was commuted to throe years” labour at the penal . settlement of Newcastle.

HORRORS OF THE SYSTEM. Tho stark horrors of the lives of the men condemned to work in irons in the coal mines and permitted to spend above ground only one day a week, which was chiefly devoted to merciless floggings for alleged “laziness” and other “offences,” were, however, as nothing to the sadistic cruelties practised on those who for further punishment, were sent to the living death and fiendish tortures of the lime-burners’ gang on the Hunter River. It was small wonder that tho brutalised men frequently murdered their brutal task-masters in order to secure a trip to Sydney and the hangman’s gallows.

ADVENTURES IN WILD LIFE

There came a time when Rashleigh and half-a-dozen others made a thrill-' mg and sensational escape by seizing a boat arid putting* to ’sea. They evaded their pursuers and landed far lip the east coast of ‘New South Wales. What follows is” a narrative of absorbing interest, 1 ahd a refief frofn the horrors and '• bestialities of convict life.' In fights with blacks, and in other ways, 'all'"the members of the party perish Save Rashleigh. He is captured by natives, the “medicine ' man” of - whom'• adopts him' and by whom he is’ initiated'’into certain aboriginal mysteries. For the next four years Rashleigh lives in a state of “contented barbarism.” At length he leaves the tribe and his coastal wanderings take him as far as Cape York, near which he finds two white women and a child, sole survivors op board a wrecked ship. Rashleigh rescues them and ultimately they all reach Sydney in a stray trading schooner. The father of < the women intercedes in Rashleigh’s behalf with the authorities. The convict is assigned to - the old man’s Service and works as overseer on the latter’s farm until he receives a conditional pardon. The. book is a remarkable one, jnd it is difficult, when reading it, to accept Lord Birkenhead’M contention that “there is- no just: «j,use to feel shame that such experiences as are here recalled could befall Britishers,” even if. it be true, as he holds that in an historical sense “the wisdom and justification 'of the transportation system lay in the incontrovertible fact that it worked well.”