322 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



Bigge's criticism of convict discipline has been set forth 

 already in Chapter V. It is unsatisfactory to find that beyond 

 proposing that the magistrates should have the power of trans- 

 porting offenders to other parts of the Colony for periods which 

 might exceed their original sentences, he could offer no import- 

 ant change in what he felt to be an inefficient system. He 

 hoped for great improvements, however, from the dispersion 

 of the prisoners, the cessation of their wages, and a stricter 

 regulation of remissions of sentence, including a complete 

 prohibition of giving tickets-of-leave to new arrivals. 



The great difficulty of the settlement's future, he thought, 

 lay in the lack of demand for the produce of the convicts' labour. 

 It was with the view of increasing this that he advocated 

 encouragement for the export of wood, mimosa bark (for tan- 

 ning), and wool, by a decrease in the duties levied in England 

 on these productions. It was also with this view that he sup- 

 ported the establishment of distilleries. 1 



Putting aside for the moment the second report dealing 

 with the judicial establishment, it is well to pass on to the third, 

 which dealt with the trade and agriculture of the Colony and 

 with all subsidiary features. The whole tendency of that report 

 was to favour the aggregation of large areas under private 

 ownership; to make it easy for the capitalist to procure land, 

 and thus, with the convict labour, develop the wool export of 

 the country. It was practically a repudiation of the policy so 

 long attempted by the Home Government of establishing a 

 regime of small proprietors. Bigge looked for the prosperity 

 of the Colony to capitalist farmers with large estates, cultivated 

 by forced labour, or to proprietary companies holding sway 

 over immense tracts where great herds of sheep would be 

 guarded by lonely convict shepherds. He looked with a cold 

 and unfeeling eye upon the Colony's attempt to start manufac- 

 tures, regarding them as of doubtful value to New South Wales, 

 and as directly injurious to the mother country. At the same 

 time he desired greatly to foster the South Sea trade, not only 

 for the profit it might bring, but also to give an outlet for the 



1 These proposals were carried out by 3 Geo. IV., c. 96. Duty on New 

 South Wales wool for ten years was to be id. per lb., extract of bark for tanning 

 to be allowed in duty free, and timber also duty free. 



