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41
concerned. In short, I observed, if I had required additional
evidence upon the subject, a strong demonstration of the
groundlessness of those misrepresentations which in England
have of late been disseminated respecting the character of the
free population of this colony .... 11
In spite of Franklin 's misgivngs, the Probation System was
accepted and had now to be put into operation . At a meeti_ng of the
Executive Council on May 20, 1841, Forster was elected Comptroller-General
of Convicts at a salary of three hundred pounds per annum .
By this time
probationary ga _
ngs had been formed at Brown 's River, Jerusalem, Rocky Hills
on the Eastern Coast, and SC}ltwater River on Tasman's Peninsula.
Barracks
had been built on Slopen Island and at Flinder 's Bay on Forestier Peninsula,
which Franklin considered better suited to the purposes of discipline than
Tasman 's Peninsula.
there .
He hoped that in time a 11 convicts \IIOU ld be co 11 ec ted
According to the Standing Orders for the Regulation of the
Probation System of Convict Labour, the aim was to
teach convicts habitually
to egard the labour and coercion they suffered as the result and desert of
their ow guilt .
Discipline was to be igorous and uncompromising, but
tempered with judicious advice and moral and rel_igious instruction .
Those
in chrge were to treat the convicts as fello\11 men and, though there was to
be no relaxation of punishment, attempt to influence their minds to a
better form of behaviour and life;
the 'mind' was important, and a man 's
character and conduct were to be the deciding factors in the type of
punishment meted out . There were to be no indulgences such as tobacco ,
and their only possessions were to be rations and clothing issued by the
Government .
The general principles of the system must be acted upon to the
let'ter; they must be enforced with firnmess and in a spirit
of consistency and determination, anything like an approach to
partiality, favour or affection being studiously avoided . l 2
The Courier in its editdrial on August 27 , 1841, commented:
.... In considering our Probation systew, no person of candid
discernment can fail to remark that, while governed by a tone
of sufficient severity to adapt it to the characters and
condition of the individuals for whom designed, it is conspicuous
for a spirit of ample benevolence, the desire of reclaiming and
restoring the criminal to a useful position in the social state,
which cannot be estimated too highly. We believe it to be the
expressed desire of the Director of the plan to those carrying
out his instructions , to avoid uncalled for chastisements on all
occasions , and that no extreme or degrading punishments be
awarded without careful consideration whether their infliction
be more likely t·o admonish or retard the delinquent 's return to
the path of amendment. As the mere wages of guilt, therefore t
punishment is in disuse. It is made the bus iness of the
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GO 33/32 p. 335 .
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l2 GO
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33/38 p . 846 .
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