104 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



approaching brutality, calculated to promote mutiny among the 

 hardened and the desperation of despair in the more venial offenders. 

 There was no sense of any possible reformatory influence, no aim 

 at any system, or even a glimmering of the simplest principles of 

 criminology. The one object which seemed to possess the official 

 mind entirely was to prevent escape, and even in that, despite the 

 universal use of mediaeval fetters, failure was notorious. In July, 

 1857, the Government fortunately secured in Colonel W. T. N. 

 Champ, as successor to Mr. Price, a much higher type of man. 

 He had made the convict problem a serious study during a twenty- 

 five years' residence in Tasmania, as military officer, police magis- 

 trate, commandant at Port Arthur, and finally as Chief Secretary. 

 He had left the impress of his more humane methods and better 

 organisation even on the pandemonium of that sad island, and 

 before he had been a year in office in Victoria he had practically 

 reconstructed the department. The " floating hells," as the hideous 

 prison hulks which disgraced the bay were popularly called, were 

 gradually abandoned ; the flimsy wooden " stockades " at Carlton 

 and Eichmond were superseded ; and the collection of wooden 

 sheds at Pentridge gave place to a substantial building wherein 

 classification and proper supervision were possible. The result in 

 a very short time was most gratifying to the Government, for not 

 only were the scattered evidences of criminality reduced in number, 

 but the prisoners were found some industrial occupation, and the 

 cost of administration was reduced by fully 20,000 a year. The 

 reformation did not reach any high point in the science of dealing 

 with criminals, but it was a step in the right direction. For the 

 time it satisfied public clamour, and it certainly ended the many 

 mutinous outbreaks, which had been a cause of terror to the citizens 

 and danger and fatality to the officials and prisoners alike. 



The other noticeable event of the period was outside the political 

 arena. It represented a spontaneous effort of the people of Victoria 

 to take some part in the exploration of the vast unknown interior 

 of the continent. So far all effort in that direction had either 

 been at the expense of the Crown or the work of New South 

 Wales and South Australia. Victoria, with its restricted boundaries 

 now fairly well examined, had nothing to gain territorially by any 



