New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, October 13, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 438, 13 October 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, October 13, 1849.

The debate in the General Legislative Council on Lord Grey's proposal for the introduction of exiles into New Zealand (republished in our present number) is the last and one of the most strenuous protests recorded against a scheme which has been universally condemned by both races, and by all classes, from the Governor downwards, as fraught with the most mischievous consequences to the future prospects and well-being of the colony. If, therefore, the opinions of the inhabitants of New Zealand so strongly, so generally expressed, are allowed to hare their due weight, we may presume that the project will be abandoned, and that we may be relieved from further apprehension on this head. The proposal of the Governor to provide for the custody and reformation of the criminals of this country within itself, instead of sending them, as at present, to a penal colony to undergo their punishment, is worthy of consideration, and if it were carried out, if throughout the dominions of Great Britain and its dependencies each country were to bear the consequences of its own guilt by providing for the punishment and reformation of its own criminals, instead of selecting some of the colonies to be the receptacles of the vice and crime of the empire, the question of the disposal of convicts would be

set at rest. We do not see any objection to Sir George Grey's proposal if the rule obtained generally, but we are strongly of opinion that it should be accompanied by an express provision that no conditional pardons or tickets-of-leave should have any force or effect in New Zealand, and that the holders of them should not be allowed to remain in the colony. The fact is, that unless care is j taken by the General Legislature to provide against the evil, although the transportation of convicts to this country may be prohibited, we may suffer severely from its indirect consequences from our dangerous proximity to the penal settlements. If on the one hand exiles are to be sent, as is proposed from Great Britain to New South Wales, who are to be free on their landing, while on the other hand the Governor of Van Diemen's Land is allowed to grant conditional pardons, not available in that colony, for the purpose of getting rid of a portion of its convict population and of dispersing them among the adjacent colonies, a number of these convicts will surely find their way to New Zealand, and the more the colony advances the more their numbers are likely to increase. It appears from some observations of Sir A. Stephen the present Chief Justice of New South Wales, that in the three heaviest calendars that'have occurred within the last three years in Sydney, the proportion which the prisoners originally transported bore to those who were always free, was from two -thirds to three- fourths of the whole number, and the gravest crimes were committed jy those who had been convicts. In this settlement also, it has been found from official returns that a great proportion of the criminals have been convicts from the neighbouring colonies who have usually been guilty of the most serious offences. Now the community has a right to expect to be protected by some stringent legislative enactment from the consequences of these arrangements, which are dishonest evasions of some of the difficulties connected with the question of convict discipline ; we may provide for the safe custody and punishment of our own criminals, but we ought not to be exposed to the depredations of criminals who are thus let loose to prey upon society at large, or be taxed to defray the heavy expenses of an increased police force for their apprehension, and the cost of their piosecution and punishment.

A very high flood occurred at the Hutt on Thursday last, occasioned by the rain which had fallen the previous day, the water rising twelve inches higher than the floods during the winter. The unusual height of the flood was caused (we are informed) by the obstructions in the different drains and watercourses which, owing to the culpable carelessness of persons clearing land, were choked up with fallen timber, and acted as dams in preventing the water from running off.

The Perseverance arrived yesterday from Fyfes station, with a cargo of oil. We understand that 42 tuns of oil have been caught at Fyfes station, and they were trying out another whale when the Perseverance left. The present season has been considered a very unfavourable one at the different whaling stations on the coast.

Thk Scotia, which put into harbour last night from Otago, on her way to Sydney, has brought intelligence of the arrival of the Larkins at that settlement.