212
AWO
eight
4.
three hundred and seventy-
On the general question of crime, the statistical returns in the part of the Blue Book relating to Gaol and prisoners, show
that in 1874 the daily average number of prisoners in the Wongtai Gaol was 350; in 1895 it rose to 894; and in 1876 to 432.
The activity of the Police in the last quarter of 1876, to which Sir Arthur Kennedy adverts, appears to have been directed against vagrants and unlicensed hawkers, for, according to the returns, in the month of October they secured the conviction of 117 mendicants, 92 unlicensed hawkers and 27 persons for not carrying passes or lights. This being a larger number in one month than the total number of such offences for the preceding four months.
As to the increase of serious crime, such as violence, burglary, robbery and larceny, my enquiries lead me to believe that it cannot be explained by the "cheap fares theory"; but that it is, to some extent, the result of the Wongtai prison system, which, both as regards the structure of ...