OK Fess up, you convicts

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Be proud.
A society that transported people for stealing food when they were hungry had a lot of problems. Just proves the whole idea of deterring crime by imposing extreme punishments doesn't work.
I could say more, but I don't want to get political.

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Hi Disco, interesting concept you have there...

Stealing clothes OK when yours are getting overused, stealing petrol when you've run out, stealing drugs cos you NEED them, stealing things to sell cos you have no money etc

Where do WE draw the line?

Yes people do desperate things in desperate times, not all of these convicts stole food, and of those that did, they were hardly on deaths door...in fact there were different reasons why some stole food, to assume that ALL food stealing was for 'survival of the species' is (in my humble opinion) generalising and perhaps trivialising.

Long bow.... But I'm probably the only one who sees it this way, so sorry about that :D ... Yeh I know, easy for me to have an opinion, I wasn't there. I admit, everyone did it tough in the good old days...no iPads, maccas or air conditioned shopping centres etc. :( actually sounds quite inviting...

Interestingly, 'extreme punishment' in the end was actually a 'blessing in disguise' :)
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Originally Posted by kogvos

One on that list is a relative of mine. The other was a Marine.

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Yes, our Nation was born with the help of Sailors, & Marines. I have a pommy mate, ex RM WO.2, he used to be insufferable, but when I told him this, he became unbearable. Only bought under control when I reminded him who did the whipping, with the cat. Still my mate, though. Lobsters, can't live with them, can't live without them. Bob

One of my relatives (female who worked in the post office) was sent to Oz as convict for "secreting a letter".

Probably an insider for a Tabloid?

Pardoned (excused) on arrival.

Regards
Andrew

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Originally Posted by bob10

Yes, our Nation was born with the help of Sailors, & Marines. I have a pommy mate, ex RM WO.2, he used to be insufferable, but when I told him this, he became unbearable. Only bought under control when I reminded him who did the whipping, with the cat. Still my mate, though. Lobsters, can't live with them, can't live without them. Bob

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You might like to point out to your friend that the marines also staged a coup. This resulted in them being sent home in disgrace and replaced by the army.

None of my rello's there. We are latecomers, ancestors first sailed out in 1870 as freesettlers.:)

I reckon that's why the Wallabies are so average Bob, maybe there is to much undernourished convict blood in the team. ... :p:angel:;)

Interesting how common the name "Ditto" was as a given name back then?

I haven't met anyone called Ditto in my whole life! :angel:

Basically, we're here because the British decided to export their 'problem of the poor' so they wouldn't have to support all the people they'd locked up to defend their class-driven privileges.
It turned out to be a good thing for many of those people of course, as others have said, but it was still an admission of failure in that the English leadership wouldn't develop a society which could have supported everyone, rather than just the privileged.
Threats of extreme punishment are meaningless when you're starving and you see a loaf of bread apparently needing a friend. We'll be reminded of this truth if the current government succeeds in cutting the dole off for six months in every year, as street crime and break-ins will soar because people will be desperate to survive, since there aren't enough jobs for them all.
Maybe we could copy the English example and export them - I see we already have camps on Nauru and Manus Island.
My opinion, of course...

Not only the problem of the poor, but export their Irish political prisoners. A disproportionate number of the convicts were victims of dispossession in Ireland.

Sometimes I think I know a few convicts, particularly when there are shackle marks around their ankles, but it may also be some sort of kinky sex! :twisted:

Rum, sodomy & the lash, apparently some people enjoy that sort of thing,

me

rather be a convict :p