I. \SULAR A USTRALAM. I, 



'295 



ol stated numbers, and there set to labour on the roads, erecting public buildings, or 

 otherwise assisting in the Government works of the colony. Fvery morning, as tiicsc labour- 

 gnngs land from the punts, they are received on the quay at Noumea by a strong 

 military guard, and embarked in the evening in the same way ; while an armed guard 

 of swrveillants overlooks them at their work. Notwithstanding these precautions, frequent 

 attempts to escape are made, and the warders have standing instructions, which arc not 

 allowed to remain inoperative, to shoot down any convict showing any inclination that 



A PAPUAN VILLAGE, NEW CALEDONIA. 



way. Attempts at escape, more or less successful, are made almost ever)' day from these 

 gangs, as well as from the labour camps, numbering fifty or a hundred men, which are 

 distributed about the colony. The escapees, or evades, sometimes remain at large for 

 months, levying black-mail on the settlers and natives, and not infrequently adding to 

 their record of serious crime. Every now and then, tales are told of convicts escaping 

 in small boats and making their way in the face of terrible privation to the Australian 

 coast. From this circumstance the dissatisfaction on the part of the Australian colonies 

 arose, for the colonists naturally objected to their ports being made places of refuge 

 by this dangerous and . highly undesirable element. The protests of the colonies induced 

 the British Foreign Office to take action, but the official remonstrance to the French 

 Ministry was met by an assurance on the part of M. Ferry that his Government refused 



