1813.] 



'New SoiLth Wales. 



123 



exempt from all compulsory labour ; similar tickets are given to 

 men un <s (' to active employmeDt, as goldsmiths and others; 

 the rt'iiiamder are disfributed amongst t])e settlers as servants and 

 lab(»ure5S. 1 he convicts in the service of Government are 

 divided into ganus, — every gang has an overseer, and every two 

 or three gau..s a siiperiiitendeiit ; these are frequently chosen 

 from amongst those convicts who best conduct themselves. They 

 work from six in the morning til! three in the afternoon, and the 

 renialnder of the day is allowed them, to be spent e.itlier in 

 amusement or proiitable labour for themselves. They are 

 clothed, fed, and for the most part lodged by Government; and 

 though in the early periods of the s^olony, inconvenience and 

 distress may have arisen from the irregularity of supply from this 

 country, latterly the ico.i and clothing have been good, and^ 

 generally speaking, in sufficient abundance. Should the con- 

 victs misconduct themselves at their work, the superintendents 

 have no power of inflicting punishment, but are for that purpose 

 obliged to take them before a magistrate ; the sitting magistrate 

 of the week at Sydney may order a punishment of 25 lashes ; 

 a regular bench, which consists, at least, of three, may order as 

 many as 300 ; and in the distant parts of the colony, a single 

 magistrate has the same power with the bench at Sydney ; but a 

 heavy punishment is not executed without the previous approba- 

 tion of the Governor. Another mode of correction, and that 

 which your committee would recommend to be preferred, in as 

 many cases as possible, is to sentence the culprit to work for a 

 certain number of days in the gaol gang : he is here obliged to 

 labour at some public werk in irons, from six in the morning to 

 six at night, and no hours are allowed to him for profit or 

 amusement. The convicts distributed amongst the settlers are 

 clothed, supported, and lodged by tliem ; they work either by 

 the task or for the same number of hours as the Government 

 convicts; and when tlieir set labour is finished, are allowed to 

 work on their own accouiit. The master has no power over 

 them of corporal punishment, and this can only be inflicted by 

 the interference of a magistrate ; even if the master be a ma- 

 gistrate himself, he can order no punishment to his own servant, 

 but must have recourse to another n)agistrate. If the servant 

 feels himself ill used by his master, he has power of complaining 

 to a magrstrate, who will, if the complaint be well founded, 

 deprive the master of his servant. It is so much the interest of 

 the settlers to keep their servants in good health, and to attend 

 to their conduct, that your committee have heard no evidence 

 but in commendation of their treatment, and of its effects upon 

 their morals and comfort. Indeed it is m,ost manifest that where 

 two or three convicts are domiciled in a family, removed from 

 their former companions, and forced into habits of industry and 



