1841-1886
603
Commodore, Captain BONHAM BAX (who I regret to say has died since), and my honourable friend, Surveyor-General, and we prepared a project which has been put before the Finance Committee as first submitted to a committee I nominated of competent gentlemen, who examined the scheme, and their report upon the breakwater was laid before the Finance Committee. This will also be printed, with a plan accompanying it, and the Secretary of State has written to say he proposes to submit the plan so prepared to Sir JOHN COODE, and on receiving his report no doubt the work will be sanctioned, and, I trust, commenced next year.
Gentlemen, I purpose to ask you to vote this year the sum of $10,000 for providing a separate system, that is, for altering the present gaol. You are aware that soon after I received a despatch from Lord CARNARVON in which he pointed out the necessity for having a separate system for the repression of crime. I need not dwell on the subject. It is clearly established all over the world that the great deterrent to crime is a gaol on the separate system. My friend, Sir WILLIAM GREGORY, when first he arrived at Ceylon, said he thought the prisons, which were not on the separate system but on the system of associated cells, might be maintained; he did not think it absolutely necessary for Orientals to be treated in that way; but before leaving the Colony he said he wished frankly to state that he had found by his own experience he was wrong. During his residence there he had the opportunity of making the changes insisted upon by Lord CARNARVON, and he found them most beneficial to Ceylon. He also visited India, and said, what every man is prepared to say, that the great deterrent of crime is the establishment of the separate system. Therefore, I propose to do it here. We will do as much as we can next year, and I don't apprehend we will want more for the amount of work we can get through than $10,000. The maximum number of prisoners in Gaol last year was 563 at this date, that is on the 12th November. We may happen to have a smaller number. It may very properly be said, in constructing the separate system, we ought to provide for the maximum number, and therefore there should be 563 cells. But I agree with me it is desirable to have the juvenile offenders removed from the prison to industrial schools or reformatories of some kind; also to remove the females. Women do not require to be treated with the same severe prison discipline as men, and there is no necessity for imposing the separate system. The time may perhaps come when some member of my Council, or unofficial members connected with commerce, will be prepared to suggest that imprisonment for debt in this Colony should be abolished. There is at present but one prisoner for debt and he occupies a whole gallery of the Gaol. But that is a question I leave to my honourable friends connected with the commercial pursuits of the Colony. As the matter stands, I am providing for 500 separate cells, and that is on the assumption that the juveniles will be sent elsewhere, and we will make separate provision for females.