Punishment and profit : the reports of Commissioner Bigge on the colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, 1822-1823; their origins, nature and significance
Abstract
The Treasury and the Home Office criticized the transportation
system in New South Wales and influenced the Colonial Office, in
1817, to appoint a Commission of Inquiry into that colony.
Impressed with Bigge’s career in Trinidad, in 1818 Bathurst chose
him to be the commissioner. In the months before his departure
from England, he received a clear indication of the trend of public
opinion on the penal settlements. He knew that the expense should
be reduced; he knew, too, that there were grave doubts about the
efficiency of transportation as a punishment. In the colonies, he
collected information which suggested the need for a change in the
administration of New South Wales. He also gradually conceived the
idea of reconciling punishment and profit by removing convicts from
government employment and assigning them to the service of the
landholders. He wrote his reports under strain, but produced a
balanced and accurate account of the state of New South Wales and
Van Diemen’s Land. The implementing of his suggestions marked the
transition of those settlements from gaols to colonies.