The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 101, 2 July 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1866.

Notwithstanding the hope universally indulged, that we are on the eve of discovering the whole truth iv reference to the revolting murders which have been committed.in this province, we think it possible that the Search Committee are only at the commencement of their labors. The inroad of the most hardened class of convicts into this part of the colony should call forth a strong expression of public disapproval. There appears to be no law sufficiently stringent to prevent this class of persons from landing in the colony, a fact which furnishes the strongest possible reason why the Executive and tbe Legislature should be worked upon by the public voice to furnish a remedy for an evil fraught with such disastrous consequences. Although the transportation of convicts from England to the Australian colonies has now ceased, the consequences of the penal system will for a long time to come press heavily on the colonies least able to bear them, and of which our own furnishes a notable example. Not many months ago, a batch of 30 or 40 emancipated criminals arrived in Sydney from Western Australia, a great number of whom commenced their accustomed work as soon as they landed, and were sentenced to various degrets of punishment. The sif tings of the Swan river, will find their way here in addition to the convicts expelled from the other colonies, unless the public voice is expressed in a determined manner agaiust the importation of the social abomination. In Victoria, as in Great Britain, a ticket-of-leave holder cannot escape the vigilance of the police. He is obliged to report himself periodically to the police of the district in which he resides, under penalty of imprisonment at the discretion of the magistrate before whom he is brought. It is to Victoria that the colonies are indebted for the promise from the home Government to arrest the exportation of criminals, and it may become necessary for the inhabitants of this island to follow the example of the sister colony. Previous to the separation of Victoria from New South Wales, the British Government proclaimed New South Wales as a place to which criminals might be sent, and two ship loads of felons actually arrived iv Port Phillip Bay. The Anti-transportation Committee, with the Governor at their head, and supported by the people from the highest to the lowest, made such a determined show of resistance, that tho convicts were not allowed to land, and Victoria was preserved from the reproach of becoming a penal colony. After Morgan the | bushranger had inspired terror for several j years, throughout a large district in New South Wales, emboldened by impunity, he dared to cross the Victorian border. It was asserted at the time by the press in the district, that he would be taken dead or alive, within a week from the time of his daring attempt. This prediction was strictly fulfilled. He was shot by a civilian in the act of sticking-up the inmates of a homestead, on the border ; thus, furnishing a powerful illustration of the fact, that Victoria is no home for robbers and murderers. We have not to thank Mr. Cardwell, who for a long time pooh poohed the anti-transportation movement, but the spirited . remonstrance of the Victorian Government and people in 1863, for the commencement of the movement | which, resulted in the determination on the part of the British Government to send no more convicts to any part of the Australian continent. ■-<. It is by the spirited efforts of an entire people that these important results have been attained; and if the worst features ofconvictism arei to be prevented from beiug transplanted from the gaols and hulks of the penal colonies, to these tranquil settlements, it must be by the efforts of the people, acting through their representatives in parliament, and inducing them to take such legislative action as shall stem the desolatiug torrent which has set in upon us. Victoria is made too hot to hold the murderous fraternity whose

recent patronage of us we, have such 'reason to .remember^/; Even N. S. Wales, an penal -col ony,; a large portion of whose 'population has been indoctrinated in crime,is crying out loudly- against the rush of convicts from... the western portion of Australia. Then why should New Zealand, be forced to submit to this fearful scourge, which will entail untold calamities on some, of it's.mos.t prosperous settlements, and inflict .incalculable evils on many a happy hearth and- smiling homestead, unless the people demand with trumpet voice, and unflinching resolve, such legislative action aa shall lead to a prevention of the evil.