Evidence Type: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
DATE: 4 January 1845
THE FEMALE FACTORY.
THE WASHERWOMEN’S PETITION.
To the Editor of the Parramatta Chronicle.
SIR,—Since my last communication, I find it is the intention of the Governer [sic] to prorogue the Council on this day (Saturday) to some indefinate [sic] period—perhaps for ever. Therefore, it is needless troubling you with the obvious arguments with which I am prepared in favour of the Washerwoman’s Petition, and against the impolitic, cruel and unjust system of suffering the women, placed in the Female Factory, for punishment and (Oh, name it not in Gath—neither publish it in the streets of Askalon.) reformation! to compete with British immigrants in the free labour market, while their husbands are out of employment, and beseiging [sic] Government House for bread for their famishing little ones, a fact Sir GEORGE GIPPS himself bore testimony to in his memorable “sayings and doings” in the Hunter River District, lately.
Sir GEORGE GIPPS, sir, is an able tactitian [sic]—an able politician, and an admirable special pleader, although an indifferent lawyer.—Yet, I remember hearing the impolicy, both as regards the “prison discipline” of the women in the Factory, and the maintenance of the free population out of doors—illustrtaed [sic] by facts and arguments—at a time when distress prevailed to an alarming extent throughout the colony—which all Sir GEORGE’s ability, ingenuity, and special pleading, could not furnish a reply to, within the very walls of his own mansion. But in lieu of argument, his Excellency had recourse to a species of intimidation, which (to his manifest surprise) failed of its desired effect, on the humble individual to whom his intemperate speech was directed. Beaten at all points, his Excellency knitted his ponderous brows, folded his arms, and with lips compressed, and attitude of defence—both to the cries of hunger of the starving immigrants out of doors, and of the indisputable proofs of their patience, long-suffering, and their wrongs—petulantly exclaimed, “well, sir, I will not argue with you upon the system of prison discipline pursued in this colony, in contra-distinction to Van Diemen’s Land, or on the policy of Sir GEORGE ARTHUR’s method of coercing the prison population. But all I can say is, that I cannot see the force of your arguments—I will not do what you require me, and you cannot make me.“
This sententious summing up, of course, closed all opportunity of replying to his Excellency, in his own citadel; but, a respectful petition was subsequently drawn up, and presented to the Council by MR. WENTWORTH, and warmly supported by DR. BLAND, in which the claims of this much-injured class—and through them of all the male portion of the immigrant classes—were clearly and ably defined, and the petition, having met with as flattering a reception as its mover and seconder could command, there it has been permitted to lie either on or under the table of the House, from that day to this, without any honourable member thinking it worth his while to make any motion thereon.
If Hyde Park Barracks be a moral pest house—a sink of iniquity—a plague spot on their fair face of creation, on account of the wickedness of its depraved inmates—what designation can be coined sufficiently graphic or descriptive of the Female Factory at Parramatta!
They are of so serious a nature that I will not even speculate on them, or even, for the honour of human nature, name them. Perhaps Sir GEORGE is more competent to the task, to which I most devoutly commend him.
PUBLICOLO.
CITATION
Female Factory Online (femalefactoryonline.org), “Letter to the Editor: The Female Factory: Washerwomen’s Petition,” https://femalefactoryonline.org/female-factory-reports/r18450104/, accessed [insert current date].
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