prisoner sentenced to 14 days imprisonment are to find diet and are not put to hard labour for the whole period of their sentence.
Among the reasons for the adoption of this rule was the fact, that most of the persons sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment, were European Sailors committed for acts of drunkenness, refusal of duty, and impairment for 111 days (or under). The penal diet was found to be more deterrent than the infliction of hard labour with full diet for the same period; moreover, it was thought that the association of such hard labour with the class of offenders it is intended to meet, was destructive of their self-respect, without being more deterrent.
The undeniable result of the existing Rule has been the decrease of such offences.
I may add that a searching enquiry into the dietary and discipline of the Gaol by a Commission of impartial officers, has just been completed, with a view to the framing of a revised scale.