AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. 



57 



leading colonies, adopted addresses praying the 

 British Government to introduce a bill to create 

 a Federal Council. The other colonies adopted 

 the resolutions during the summer, with the 

 exception of New Zealand and New South 

 Wales, where the proposal encountered gener- 

 al indifference and some degree of opposition. 

 These colonies did not act until the beginning 

 of the extraordinary session of the British 

 Parliament. New Zealand, content with the 

 security afforded by her isolated geographical 

 position, and with her independent material 

 progress, feared the expense involved in feder- 

 ation and possible encroachments on her legis- 

 lative independence. New South Wales also 

 feared that federation with the less progres- 

 sive colonies would prove an incumbrance, 

 and dreaded lest the British Government 

 should propose the cession of the valuable 

 Riverine District to Victoria. The Govern- 

 ment refused to bring, the subject before the 

 Assembly until the land bill was disposed of. 

 At last, when the British Cabinet had an en- 

 abling act prepared, the Legislature of New 

 South Wales approved in qualified terms the 

 resolutions, and that of New Zealand also re- 

 corded its general approval. 



Victoria was constituted a self-governing col- 

 ony in 1854. The Legislative Council, of 86 

 members, is elective by a limited franchise, 

 fixed by the law of 1881 at 10 annual rata- 

 ble value of freehold property, or the occu- 

 pancy of rented or leased property rated at 

 25 annual value for all except professional 

 men. The term of the members, who must 

 have property yielding 100 income, is nine 

 years, one third retiring every three years. 

 The members of the Legislative Assembly are 

 elected for three years by universal suffrage. 

 The Governor is Sir Henry Brougham Loch, 

 formerly Governor of the Isle of Man, who 

 succeeded the Marquis of Normanby in July, 

 1884. The Prime Minister is James Service. 



Finance. The revenue for the year ending 

 June 30, 1884, was 5,934,241, being 332,176 

 greater than in 1882-'83. The railroad reve- 

 nue increased, owing to the fine grain-crop, from 

 1,838,284 to 2,079,248. The customs re- 

 ceipts showed a falling off. The revenue for 

 1884 -'85 is estimated at 6,495,878; the ex- 

 penditure at 6,402,931. The London and 

 Oriental Bank, which failed in 1884, held on 

 deposit 438,364 of the colonial funds. A 

 redemption loan of 3,500,000 is to be floated 

 in 1885 to meet 3,180,000 of debenture?, 

 which fall due. An additional tax of two 

 shillings per gallon on spirits was determined 

 on in order to increase the revenue still further, 

 and to satisfy the temperance sentiment of the 

 community, and assimilate the system of taxa- 

 tion to that of New South Wales and the other 

 colonies. 



The Rfddivist Question. The announcement 

 of a bill by the French Government to provide 

 for the transportation of recidivistes, or crimi- 

 nals who have served sentences for former 



offenses, created excitement and alarm through- 

 out the Australian colonies, and stimulated the 

 movements in favor of coufederation and the 

 annexation of the islands of the Western Pa- 

 cific. ^ The plan of ridding France of her habit- 

 ual criminals, by sending them to the colonies 

 where the conditions are more favorable for 

 reform, has been in contemplation for several 

 years. It originated with Gambetta, after the 

 hostile demonstration of his Belleville constit- 

 uents, characterized by him at the time as 

 criminals whom he would track to their lairs. 

 The recidivist bill, introduced in 1884, applies 

 to offenders that have been sentenced twice to 

 penal servitude, or four times for such crimes 

 as larceny, breach of trust, obtaining money 

 under false pretenses, indecent conduct, etc., 

 or six times for begging or vagabondage under 

 suspicious circumstances, or for an equivalent 

 combination of any of the three classes of of- 

 fenses. 



The agitation for diplomatic action and the 

 representations to the home authorities in this 

 sense were resented in France as an interfer- 

 ence with her domestic legislation. The Aus- 

 tralians objected to the use of New Caledonia 

 at all as a convict settlement, and suggested its 

 acquisition by Great Britain in exchange for 

 the Falkland Islands. New Caledonia was not 

 a penal colony until the transportation thither 

 of 13,000 Communists. After their amnesty, 

 other criminals who were considered suitable 

 subjects for colonization were settled on the 

 Government lands. The strict discipline of 

 Admiral Courbet was followed in November, 

 1882, by the humanitarian mildness.of Captain 

 Pallu de la Barriere, a governor who fitly 

 represents the sentimental laxity that marks 

 recent French criminal legislation. The con- 

 victs are allowed almost as much freedom as 

 the other colonists enjoy, and when they have 

 obtained tickets-of-leave they can take up farms 

 and bring out their families. If unmar- 

 ried, they can select wives from among ship- 

 ments of female delinquents in the French 

 penitentiaries, who volunteer to go out to New 

 Caledonia to marry convicts. Most of these 

 are immoral women. Three-year tickets-of- 

 leave to reside abroad are granted to expirees 

 on condition that they shall not return to 

 France. Men of this class are sometimes 

 landed in Australia from steamers ; others es- 

 cape in open boats. The criminal class in the 

 English colonies has thus been augmented by 

 some desperate ruffians and some very skillful 

 burglars. New Caledonia has been the desti- 

 nation of French murderers for several years, 

 and transportation thither was so attractive to 

 French criminals that in 1880 an epidemic of 

 murder broke out in the prisons, so that a law 

 had to be passed excluding murders committed 

 in prison from this form of punishment. 



In January, 1884, the British Government 

 protested against the sending of any more 

 criminals to New Caledonia in view of the state 

 of feeling existing in the colonies. M. Ferry 



