New rule Old rule Remarks
206 In (b) Penal-diet in alternative weeks in separate confinement is omitted, this diet having been abolished in the New diet scales.
(c) is added. It is covered by old rule 324.
In (a) the number of strokes of the birch is increased to 30 in the case of an adult and 15 in the case of a juvenile, and the use of the cat-o'-nine-tails (maximum number of strokes 30) is introduced for adults.
It is very rarely that offences which had to be dealt with under old rule 280 occurred. They were almost invariably cases of gross personal violence on a prison officer and always committed by very refractory prisoners.
To deal with such cases a severer form of whipping is required than was possible under the old rule.
To give an instance. The only case this year in which it has been necessary to call in the visiting justice to assist in dealing with a prisoner was the case of Prisoner No.8 in April last.
This man was convicted with 4 others of robbery with violence being armed in 1897 and sentenced to 10 years H.L. In April he committed a murderous assault on a European Warder with a heavy timber bar used in mat-weaving.
He broke one of the Warder's fingers as he put his hand up to defend himself and the man has lost the use of the limb.
To punish such an offence with a whipping of 20