in the Public Gardens on the following evening was also stopped.
We have boen favoured with a copy of au official notification announcing that Ifis Excel. leney the Governor has received a telegram from the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, to the following effoof --" I have heard with deep regret of the calamity on board the steamer Yesso announced in your telegrams."
RELEASE OF PRISONERS FOR NURSING THE
SUFFERERS.
His Excellency the Governor visited the gaol on Friday, Novemebr 30th, and considered the report made by the medical officers and the the Superintendent of the Gaol respecting the services rondered by certain prisoners who had acted as dressers in the temporary hospital fitted ap in the prison where the sixty sufferors from the explosion on board the Yesso were brought to the guol on the 22nd November. Having consulted with Dr. Ayres, the Colonial Surgeon, and with Captain Ducat, the Superin- tendent, and minutely examined the lists submit- ted to bim, His Excellency about half-past twelve o'clock came out of the Superintendent's office and conveyed his decision to the prisoners in question, who were paraded for that purpose in the lower yard.
464
The first list contained the names of twenty- four Europeans including that of A. F. Chambers. His Excelleney, addressing thom, said that when the recent caluniity occurred it became necessary to bring sixty of the sufferers into a temporary! bospital fitted up in the gaol, owing to the fact that the building now used as a Civil Hospital was not large enough. The cases were all of the most serious and distressing kind, of a kind requiring unremitting attention day and night. It was therefore absolutely necessary to secure the im- mediate services of a body of dressers who would act under the superintendence of the medical officers, and this was accomplished by the Colonial Surgeon, who most properly availed himself of the roady help at hand. A considerable number of pri- soners volunteered for this duty. Dr. Ayres and Captain Ducat had chosen those whose good con- duct they could best rely on. The task imposed apon those prisoners was one of the most harrow. ing that could be conceived. The injuries of the patients were shooking to contemplate, and the | great zeal and tenderness shown by the volun. teer dressers in endeavouring to alleviate pain and save life attracted the attention of every one whose duty it was to visit the scene of suf- fering. Dr. Mowll, whose invaluablo assistance had been afforded to the local Government by His Excelleney, Admiral Hillyar, spoke in the highest terms of them, and so had Dr. Ayres and Captain Ducat. He himself had also paid some surprise visits to the Gaol at night, and found the dressers at work and everything being done for the poor wounded people that human beings could accomplish. Under such circumstances be folt it his duty to give them the highest roward he could, and that was their freedom. Some of the Europeans in the list had been cou- vioted by the Naval and Military Authorities, and with reference to these he could only promise to represent their cases to His Excellency the Admiral and to the Colonel in Command of the Troops.
The Chinese prisoners who were also recom. mended for clemency were then paraded and addressoil. through the Interpreter, in similar terms. Of these twenty-four wore liberated, the case of Li Lum Kwai (under a life sentence) was reserved for further consideration, aud the cases of about six other Chinese are to be dealt with by partial remissions of sentence only.
On visiting the other parts of the Gaol some prisoners who had served more than two-thirds of their time begged for clemency, but His Ex- cellency told them that their petitions had been received by him some weeks ago and rejected, as their condnot in prison had not been good.
With the exception of those now liberated and a few liberated où medical certificate, or on the recommendation of the judges, His Excelloney had strictly adhered to the rule he had re-estab. lished that no prisoner could be relieved who had not served two-thirds of his sentence, and then only when his conduct in prison had been so good as to earn the recommendation of the. Superintendent.