Melbourne Graduate School of Education - Theses

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    The Point Puer experiment: a study of the penal and educational treatment of juvenile transportees in Van Diemen's Land, 1830-1850
    Hooper, F. C. ( 1954)
    This work is intended to present the results of research into the transportation of juveniles to Van Diemen's Land. Much of the study of necessity was centred around the station at Point Puer, the establishment for boy convicts, an adjunct of Port Arthur, which was opened in 1834. The foundation of this station reflected the perceptible evolution in the character of transportation, which coincided with changes in the relationship of the Mother Country with the colonies. Even by the mid-thirties, convicts were no longer acceptable to the colonies as human junk. The colonies, and Van Diemen's Land in particular, were increasingly demanding that, if convicts were to be admitted at all, it should be on their terms and not Britain's. Point Puer illustrates this state of affairs in two particulars. First, the emphasis was henceforth to be placed on reformation, and the reformation of youth as being the material most likely to benefit the colony. Secondly, the British Government began to modify the transportation system by the "free emigration" scheme, usually associated with the notorious "Pentonvillains", after 1840. The reformation of youthful offenders for citizenship in a new and pioneering society was an ideal stressed by several experienced leaders associated with the transportation system in the thirties. With this end in view, Booth outlined the procedure at the Point, for which he was largely responsible, in his report to the Lieutenant Governor in 1837. The reformative process was designed to centre round three aspects: religious, mechanical, and scholastic training. These were, he stressed, the three skills necessary for a balanced character.