225
· 18
ninc months a further ten guards, but the authority of the Finance
Committee will be sought before any appointments are made.
The increase in the number of wardresses and the
six servants and messengers arc all for the new female prison at Lai Chi Kok, which it is anticipated will be ready
next March.
There is a large incrcaso on the sub-head Fuel.
$9,000 of this however is a transfer from the sub-head Light. Owing to frequent and well justified complaints from residents in
the neighbourhood of Victoria Gaol, gas cookers were a few years
ago substituted for the wood burning stoves then in use. The price of gas has been advanced 33% involving a large increase
on this vote.
The vote Subsistence of Prisoners has increased by
60% as a result of improving the dicts in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee presided over by the Director
of Mcdical and Sanitary Services.
Two votes totalling $33,400 are entered under
Special Expenditure for the Gaol Printing Shop. Government is fully satisfied that the Gaol printing establishment is an
economical proposition. For the amount of work done the spccial supervisory staff is small.
The only difficulty is
to find an adequate number of prisoners suitable for printing
work. It takes twelve months or more to train a printer.
These two machines will save the work of ten and twenty mon
respectively.
HEAD 25. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT.
C
As explained in the footnotes, the salaries or
fees which Government pays to the three University Professors
of Mcdicine, Surgery and Obstetrics as Consultants will be
covered by the fees which Government will receive from
patients