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538
decrease of 45 in the committals for vagrancy may be
attributed at any rate in part to the operation of the
Vagrancy Amendment Ordinance which came into effect about
the middle of the year and was dealt with at length in my
Despatch No. 24 of the 31st. January last. The decrease in
offences against the Sanitary Bye-laws from 273 to 141 is
also satisfactory. There were 169 convictions from the New
Territory as compared with 80 in the preceding year.
3.
The percentage of prisoners to
population according to the daily average of the former and
the estimated number of the latter was .184 as compared
with .188, the average percentage for the last ten years.
4.
There were 1,029 punishments for
breaches of prison discipline as compared with 798 in 1904,
:
1,530 in 1903, and 1,971 in 1902. The average of punish-
-mente per prisoner was 1.47 as compared with 1.1 in the
preceding year.
5.
The earnings from the industrial
labour of the prisoners show an increase of $3,764.36 over
the preceding year.
6.
With reference to the fifth para-
-graph of my Despatch of last year dealing with the over-
-crowding of the Gaol, and in continuation of paragraph 7
of