Evidence Type: Newspaper Report
13 March 1838
The Gazette, in alluding to the Governor’s visit to the Female Penitentiary (Factory), has thought proper to misrepresent both the conduct of SIR RICHARD BOURKE and that of SIR GEORGE GIPPS. The contract for the cells to be built in that prison, was entered into before the late Governor’s retirement—the practice of cellular punishment having his fullest sanction, and being, in this instance, his own specific recommendation. His Excellency’s speech, at the dinner so cordially given to COLONEL SNODGRASS, in testimony of a grateful sense of the manner in which he filled the station of Acting Governor, has furnished occasion for that journal to publish some remarks related to the celebrated “Transportation and Punishment Bill” (one of the most praiseworthy measures of SIR RICHARD BOURKE’s legislation), the calumny and fallacy of which we have resolved at once fully to expose. We indulge in no such vanity—we are guilty of no such presumption—as that which appears so contemptible, alternately so ridiculous and so disgusting, in some of our contemporaries. We could not suppose that it was in our power to give an unpardonable offence to the Sovereign’s representative, as one of our journalizing colleagues declared he has done, by publishing a ribaldic, though certainly a sickening song; nor can we imagine, like the contemporary with whom we are now in collision, that the ruler of this territory will change his policy, or hasten or retard his measures, at our suggestion or by our advice. But, as the history of that radical improvement in our convict code of laws, and (what is of more consequence) in the administration of them, may not be known to the majority of that public who are now enjoying the advantages resulting from it—as it may be possible, that if SIR GEORGE GIPPS ever read the Gazette, he may chance also to glance over The Australian, we are induced to publish the following extract from an article entitled, “The Administration of SIR RICHARD BOURKE,” in the Australian Magazine. To the bane of our contemporaries’ publication, we supply the antidote: — “TRANSPORTATION AND PUNISHMENT BILL.”
See Original: “SIR RICHARD BOURKE AND SIR GEORGE GIPPS—THE “TRANSPORTATION AND PUNISHMENT BILL”—THE OPPOSITION PAPERS AT WORK AGAIN,” The Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 – 1848), Tuesday 13 March 1838, p.2
The Female Factory Online 