642 
Wentworth's New South Wales, 
Having no personal knowledge of tli e 
manner in which this extraordinary 
agency is effected, I do not pledge my¬ 
self for the correctness of the statement; 
but I am well aware that the difficulty 
complained of does exist. Every set¬ 
tler to whom a convict servant is as¬ 
signed, is required, by authority of the 
local Government, to pay as wages ten 
pounds sterling per annum to a male, 
and seven pounds to a female, besides 
board and lodging. 
The male convicts not disposed of as 
servants, or by tickets of leave, are 
formed into gangs, which are stationed 
indifferent parts of the country in Go¬ 
vernment employ, such as making and 
repairing roads, and various other pub- 
lie works, and are maintained from the 
stores. Those employed at Sydney and 
its vicinity are lodged in a barrack, 
which has lately been erected, and is 
fitted for the accommodation of about 
eight hundred persons. There is an¬ 
other building of the same kind, at 
Emu Plains, but on a smaller scale, 
which want of time prevented me from 
visiting. The barrack at Sydney is 
spacious and lofty, erected in a healthy 
and appropriate situation ; it is tho¬ 
roughly ventilated, is kept exceedingly 
clean, and has many other advantages. 
Various means have been adopted to 
restrain the irregularities of convicts, 
and punishments of a summary kind 
are frequently inflicted. Of these, the 
most severe next to that of death is 
transportation to the Coal River , which 
is ordered usually by His Honour the 
Judge Advocate, or a Bench of Magis¬ 
trates, for a term of years, or for life, 
as the enormity of the offence may re¬ 
quire. Convicts dread this mode of 
punishment very much, because they 
are there compelled to work in chains 
from sun-rise till sun-set, and are sub¬ 
ject also to other restrictions of a highly 
penal description. The rigour of this 
sentence is, however, frequently relaxed 
in degree, as the criminal shows signs 
of amendment; and in very few cases 
is it found necessary to subject any of 
the convicts to a repetition of that sen¬ 
tence, Punishment by flogging is 
sometimes resorted to, and the inflic¬ 
tion, which may be ordered by any 
Magistrate on conviction, seldom ex¬ 
ceeds twenty-five lashes. 
For females, it is considered suffi¬ 
ciently severe to confine them for a 
limited time to constant labour in the 
Factory at Parramatta: but enough 
has been said on that subject to satisfy 
that they can benefit but very little" 
from such a discipline. The restraint 
produced by those punishments gene¬ 
rally has some effect in preventing 
crime; but that of sending offenders to 
the Coal River , to which punishment 
females as well as males are liable, ap¬ 
pears the most dreaded, and crimes are 
evidently less frequent than might be 
expected in a population composed of 
such mischievous materials. 
A 
Statistical, Historical , and Political 
DESCRIPTION 
OF 
THE COLONY 
OF 
NEW SOUTH WALES, 
AMD ITS 
Dependent Settlements 
IN 
VAN DIEMENS LAND : 
With a particular enumeration of the advantages 
which these Colonies offer for Emigration, a"de- 
monstratinn of their superiority in many respects* 
over those possessed by the United States of Ame¬ 
rica ; and a word of advice to Emigrants. 
THE SECOND EDITION, 
Considerably enlarged, and embellished with a View 
of the Town of Sydney, and a Map. 
BY W. C. WENTWORTH, ESQ. 
A Native of the Colony. 
[This, in ever)' respect, is a very superior 
book to the preceding. The author is a 
man of sense, and he conveys to his rea¬ 
ders much valuable information without 
appealing to their passions or superstitious 
feelings. It is, in a word, the best ac¬ 
count of these remote settlements that has 
appeared, and from bis reports of the 
colony tens of thousands now starving 
in England would be happy in being 
transported to them if it were not under the 
ignominious name of convicts, with a lia¬ 
bility to be preached at and manacled 
during the voyage. The new discoveries 
in the interior are faithfully described, and 
seem likely to call for changes in our maps 
of this vast region. The author’s observa¬ 
tions on the state and defects of the colo¬ 
nial government call for the early attention 
of both Houses of Parliament. 
ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 
If a judgment were formed of this 
island from the general aspect of the 
country bordering the sea, it would be 
pronounced one of the most barren 
spots on the face of the globe. Ex¬ 
perience, however, has proved that 
sncli an opinion would be exactly the 
reverse of truth; since, in as far as the 
interior has been explored, its general 
fertility amply compensates for the ex¬ 
treme sterility of the coast. 
The greater part of this country is 
covered with timber of a gigantic 
growth. 
