The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1880.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 494, 25 February 1880, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1880.

Bo.Me years ago Australia had her first experience of escaped prisoners from New Caledonia. One of the visitors was a man of title, who had taken a leading part in the Commune. This fellow was lionised by the colonial snobs, and seems to have bad a good time of it throughout his trip back to Europe, whither he boldly made his way. Perhaps the colony of New South Wales felt itself flattered at being, like England, an asylum for political refugees. Perhaps, also, the escape of the prisoners, and of the titled man in particular, was a crafty experiment, a feeler put out to try the colonial pulse on the subject of receiving an indefinite amount of the honour of protecting refugees, political and other. But the novelty of the visits of French patriots soon wore off, and a faint grumble began to be hoard, which deepened into a growl as it became clearer and clearer that the escapes were not genuine, but connived at by the French authorities. And not even the splendid patronage accorded by Franco to their Exhibition will bo able to make the people of New South Wales submit tamely to being made, a second time, the sink for the dregs of a groat European population. It is only a few months since the. French Consul in Sydney took some interest in tavo of these newly-arrived New Caledonians, and informed the Chief of the Sydney Police that ho had better send them np-conntry free of cost, so that they should be of the least possible trouble to the police department! A cooler piece of impudence it would be difficult to imagine, and the people of the colony .expressed themselves clearly to that effect. Since that time the matter Ims lain quiet, until the recent outrage, committed by the French authorities, against the freedom and self-respect of this colony. We believe that this is the first ease of the passage of criminals to an English colony, being actually paid by the .French. Hitherto they have worn a cloak of pretence, which was, at least, an acknowledgement that French filth should not be shot into these colonies with impunity. But now the cloak is laid aside, and a captain receives so much per head to laud French fanatics and felons in New Zealand, the colony that boasts proudly of having received no convicts from the United Kingdom. It is a most humiliating thing that a Foreign Power should, with impunity, let a contract for carrying to our shores its outcast population. We can call it nothing less than a dastardly outrage upon a free and respectable community ; an outrage that should be resisted, if need be, with the weapon that has not yet quite yielded to the pen. What tvith Maoris, incendiaries, and fraudulent bankrupts, this colony has enough to do with prisoners without assisting Franco to bear her burdens.

It appears that there is no law to prevent the landing of these people, and if there were it would be an easy matter for them to land in spite ot any law that the colony could make, if the French continued to pay ship-masters to land them on onr shores. When once they wore landed there would he no resource but to imprison them, which would be a poor consolation for the colony, and would be taken very kindly by the powers that be in New Caledonia. In Victoria they have a statute to prevent the influx of criminals. Under that law it will be remembered that the infamous Sullivan was arrested and detained in custody for mouths, until an opportunity offered for shipping him back to New Zealand. To deal in that way with hundreds of French convicts that might be sent hero, would, of course, be out of the question. The only escape, then, is- to prevent the French authorities from further connivance at the landing of these unwelcome \ isitors. This can only be done through I ho Imperial Government, and we should imagine that it would accord with the "spirited foreign policy,and the “peace with honour” propensities of Lord B'aeonsli-Id’s (Jovernment, to settle the matter at once. But we latmol forget bow. in treating with the “ decendanf-. of the sun and the moon,” the colonies were regarded ns a mere convenience, and the celestials w-rm by Imperial treatv, and to serve Imperial interests, allowed In teem in upon the colonial labour market. Whether a similar course wid be talma m the o;:n, ev ret. remains to be seen

\Vi‘ do n>*l • 1 hot n !<*tv* r vnn >< : f Communists would ‘7r •;111y injure llu:

colony. They would not be able to seize Auckland and murder the bishops and clergy ; they would not be apt to burn our palaces, throw down our historical monuments, or lift Sir George Grey into power. It requires greater 1 poverty, move people, larger cities, anti bett-T French than is spoken in New Zealand, to work up the political enthusiasm on which Communists flourish. Nevertheless it is an insult to be expected to receive them, whether they would do harm or not. But the proposed importations, like these already arrived, arc not exclusively political prisoners. There are among them cut-throats, pickpockets, burglars, and swindlers of the cleverest and most dangerous type—from all of whom, Good Lord deliver us. It is only just to devote a few words to dispelling an error that, perhaps, is widely spread with respect to who and what the Communists are. “ Communism, in the sense of having all things in common, is not to be confounded with the idea for which the Communists of Paris fought in 1871 ; that idea was political rather than social, although the same persons may often hold both doctrines. Commune is the designation of the lowest administrative division in France, corresponding in rural districts to an English parish or rather township, and in regard to cities, being equivalent to municipality. The Communist doctrine is, that every such commune, like Paris, Marseilles, &c,, should be a kind of independent state in itself, and France merely a federation of such states. Tins idea has taken deep hold of the extreme democrats, not only in the large towns of France, but also in Spain, and, to a less extent, in other parts of the Continent. It was for the very opposite idea that the great civil war in the United States was fought and won.” We may add that anything that can be done to increase the difficulty to the French of the transport system, and to lead them finally to abandon it, will be a service rendered to the cause of civilisation. Germany and the United States provide for their criminals at homo, and England, after a long course of experience, has finally given up the system of banishment. She at first allowed certain out-laws to choose between banishment and hanging. Afterwards she con-

track'd with ship-masters to carry convicts to her American colonies, whither she continued, in spite of remonstrances, to send them until the war of Independence compelled her to desist. A few years afterwards—in 1788—thefirstshipment of convicts landed at Botany Bay. They continued to come for over twenty years at the rate of 400 a-year, when the number began to rise, and the average reached 3,000 a-ycar—in one year nearly 5,000 landed. In the course of time the colonists began to resist the further importation of convicts, and it has now entirely ceased, both in Australia and in Gibraltar. It is now generally admitted that the system was essentially barbarous and shortsighted. Itmade degraded and savage boasts of the bond, and heartless slave drivers of the free. Nothing that Dante imagined could be a worse hell than the places where convicts were herded together. Prisoners frequently escaped together, and ate one another in the bush. One freed convict on being examined respecting a certain murder said, “ I don’t know which one yon mean, I’ve seen so many.” The treatment of convicts was such that, in the penal settlements, they often committed murder for the sake of the chance of escape that the journey to Sydney, and the trial, would afford. On one occasion, after a revolt of the convicts had been suppressed, the Chapalin went in to them to read out the names of those who had to die, and each man as his name was pronounced fell upon his knees and thanked Heaven for deliverance, the rest standing gloomy and silent. We have no doubt that affairs in New Caledonia are not much better. It is to be hoped that, as furnaces are made to consume their own smoke, countries will be brought to absorb and correct their own criminals.