Supposing, therefore, that each convict under sentence of transportation for fourteen years or for life is to be maintained in such gangs in New South Wales for seven years, the whole cost of the maintenance of each transported convict during that period, allowing £15 additional for the payment of his passage-out,[1] will not exceed £85, or £12. 2s. 10¼d. per annum. But even admitting that the cost of the maintenance of convicts in penitentiaries in England could be reduced generally to the lowest rate to which it had ever been actually reduced during eight years previous to the year 1832, viz, to £30. 3s.. (the average cost varying from that amount to £57. 12s. 2d.) the whole cost of the maintenance of a convict in a penitentiary for seven years would amount to £211. 1s. or £30. 3s. per annum. Besides, supposing the penitentiary system to be the only one allowed by government for the future, the probability is, that in four cases out of every five, the liberated convict, after having served out his seven years and subjected his country to this
- ↑ During the year 1834, the ship Norfolk was chartered to convey convicts to New South Wales or Van Dieman's Land, at a rate which cost the government £6 for each convict: their provisions, at the rate of 9d. a day for 120 days, would cost £4. 10s. additional. Other items might, perhaps, raise the cost for each convict to about £15.
