Evidence Type: Newspaper Report
31 October 1839
THE COUNCIL
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1839
Present—His Excellency the Governor, the Bishop, the Commander of the Forces, Colonial Secretary. Attorney General, Collector of Customs, Auditor of Accounts, Messrs CAMPBELL, BERRY, JONES, BLAXLAND, MACARTHUR, Sir JOHN JAMISON and Captain KING.
His Excellency presented a bill for the abolition of the punishment of transportation for female offenders, and the substitution of confinement in the Factory for extended periods, rendered necessary by the abandonment of Moreton Bay as a penal settlement. Another object of the bill was to remedy a defect in the present law with regard to solitary confinement. By the law as it stands, a female convicted, before two magistrates, of larceny or other misdemeanours, may be sentenced to twelve months in the Factory at hard labour, but they have no power to sentence her to confinement in the cells; but if convicted of a minor offence before one magistrate, he has the power to sentence her to the cells or hard labour at his own option. This anomaly was remedied by the bill; the other clauses gave the matron and superintendent the same power as gaolers in England exercise, under the Act 4 Geo. IV, c.64.
The bill was read a first time, and ordered to be printed, and read a second time on Tuesday.
See Original: “THE COUNCIL. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1839,” The Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 – 1848), Thursday 31 October 1839, p.2
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