A VOICE FROM NEW ZEALAND AGAINST CONVICT COLONISTS.
London, 15th September 1856. Sin—Your notice of the proposed revival of transportation has induced me to send you these lines. There are so few persons in Englund acquainted with the true state of public opinion in New Zealand on this subject, that it would be a positive dereliction of duty on the part of any public man recently arrived from that colony to suffer the expressed belief of the Historian of Europe to pass unchallenged, or not to warn those who take an interest in the matter here, of the remarkably strong antagonistic feeling existing in all the six Provinces of the Islands against the introduction of convicts. " The most positive and definite witness in advocating a renewal of trans- portation" may depend upon it, his " one proprietor" would find himself in a very small minority throughout the colony of New Zealand.
My duties as a member of the Legislature threw me into the society of the representatives of all the divisions of the colony assembled at the ca- pital, and a four-years residence in several of the settlements enabled me to judge for myself as to the opinion of the people on this question. The overwhelming majority were against receiving convicts upon any plan whatever. Sir William Denison's remarkable dictum on the point (ex- pressed in a despatch to the Secretary of State at the time he was positively seeking to uphold transportation to Tasmania) has not yet been forgotten, —namely, that the character of the prisoners remained unchanged ; that their reformation was hopeless ; that their presence had a most injurious effect upon the population, and created " an evil which could not in any way admit of monetary compensation." Modified systems, very similar to that advocated by Sir Archibald Alison, were often propounded by persons greedy of gain ; but discussion invariably terminated in the admission that "it would not do "—the tide of public opinion was too strong against the convict element in any shape.
However, the doubt, if any exist, can easily be dissipated. Let the thrice-seven-years Sheriff get his plan forwarded for approval to the proper tribunal—for it must not be forgotten that New Zealand has now a Parliament of her own—and I will guarantee he will soon have an an- swer.
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