VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 33, 24 May 1845, Page 4

VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.

Lord Stanley is "tightening the hoops" upon the Tasmanian colonists, as will appear from the following extract from one of his recent despatches to Sir Eardley Wilmot : — "-It must ever be borne in mind that Van Diemen's Xiand was a convict settlement before it was a colony. The access of free settlers to the island has been, in many ways, of great value, and has .much facilitated the execution of the system of transportation. But still, the primary and great object in occupying Van Diemen's Land having been the establishment of a .-.penal settlement there, it is not to be admitted that the free colonists are entitled to regard the convicts as intruders, or to claim any indemnity for the inconveniences with which their presence may be attained. " To whatever extent the free settlers are willing and able to employ the convicts as servants, in the latter stages of their punishment, to that extent it is an arrangement of mutual advantage; the Government is relieved from an expensive burthen; and the colonists are supplied with cheap and effective labour. " But, when the demand for that labour ceases, the colonists, whether collectively or individually, have no claim to be supplied with convict labour, either gratuitously or on very low terms, unless the interests of the British Treasury admit or require it. If the colonists cannot afford more than £4,000 per annum in return for the great benefit of having their public works executed at the expense of this country, it is of course quite reasonable that they should refuse to give more. But, on the other hand, it is not less reasonable that the British Government should decline to enter into any such arrangement, if any other method of more advantageously employing such labour can be found. The practice of regarding the colony as having some indefinite claim on

.tlie Government for indemnity — and the practice /of regarding convict labour as a commodity not fluctuating in value like all other vendible things, but capable of being estimated once for all at a 'fixed and low price, are alike reprehensible. Such admissions once made, there is absolutely no limit to the consequent demand on the British Treasury, or at least, there is no such limit so long as any ingenuity can suggest public works to be untertaken by the Treasury for the convenience and profit of the colony. If the free .inhabitants cannot purchase the labour we have 'tarsell, at a price which it is worthouV while to jieSept, it remains for us to consider whether some-other advantageous eraploymentof'it cannot b'ffisfound." o =■ —