Excursion to Port Arthur. 
289 
throughout the Colony, would give the death-blow to 
every species of absconding. There is a factory, hitherto 
overlooked, where bricks, tiles, gutter tiles, flower-pots, 
and other similar articles are manufactured. From the 
excellence of the clay, the commodities are of the most 
superior quality; so much so, that the use of a pugmill, and 
a careful selection of material, might prove the means 
of creating a pottery of infinite value, whence a ware 
little inferior to Wedgwood’s might be produced. As it 
is. Port Arthur brick-kilns not only supply all the wants 
of the Settlement and Point Puer, but export largely to 
Hobart Town, both for Government appropriation as 
well as for general sale : in fact, the excess of produc¬ 
tion (in numerous articles) available for exportation leaves 
a large balance to the credit of the Penal Settlement. 
Port Arthur was at one time the receptacle of educated 
convicts, who, upon their arrival in the Colony, were 
wont to be ordered thither. The Probation System has 
now put an end to that, and it is only used as a place of 
secondary punishment for re-convicted offenders, and 
boys direct from England, who, as far as practicable, are 
taught reformation through the iron hand of coercion. 
Port Arthur was founded by Colonel Arthur as an 
experimental station in 1830 : Dr. Russell, Assistant 
Surgeon of the 63rd regiment, was sent down in the 
double capacity of Medical Officer and Commandant, 
with 16 or 17 convicts at his disposal. The present site 
was at once fixed upon, and the infant scion increased 
under the several successive rules of Captain Mahon, 
Major Briggs, and Captain Gibbons, of the 63rd 
regiment. It was on St. Patrick’s Day, 1833, that the 
present active, intelligent, and enterprising Commandant 
assumed the reins of office, which, during his nine years’ 
career, he has wielded with a skill and integrity of 
purpose that cannot sufficiently be commended. Much 
VOL. I. NO. iv. 
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