No. 62.
A
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Letter from the Superintendent of Victoria Gaol, with the Returns annexed for the Year 1879, are published for general information.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 10th March, 1880.
W. H. MARSH,
Colonial Secretary.
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VICTORIA GAOL OFFICE, HONGKONG, 8th March, 1880.
SIR,-I have the honour to forward the usual Returns for the Annual Blue Book. They consist of:-
1st.-Statistical Returns of the Prison of Hongkong for the year 1879.
2nd.-Return showing the number of Prisoners in Victoria Gaol on the last day of each week of the year 1879.
3rd. Return showing the Classification of Offences for which prisoners were committed to Victoria Gaol from the respective Courts of the Colony during the year 1879.
2. Return No. 2 is of doubtful utility as it is apt to mislead as to the actual state of crime in the Colony. A comparison of the weekly averages of prisoners in Gaol at any period cannot give an idea of the increase or decrease of crime at that period, for it is a fact which I will proceed to prove that the years in which the weekly averages were largest have been those in which there was the smallest amount of crime. Take for instance the years 1872, 1876, and 1879. The respective averages of the number of prisoners confined in Victoria Gaol during these years are 519, 438, and 572; this would seem to warrant the inference that in the year 1879 crime was more rife than in 1872 or 1876. But this is not so. For the admissions to the Gaol in 1879 are less than those in 1872 or 1876, the admissions being
In 1872, 6,268 admissions.
In 1876, 4,065
In 1879, 3,669
Thus showing that although the weekly average of 1879 is larger than that of 1872, the admissions in the former year are less by 2,599 than in the latter year.
3. I have often heard the remark made during the last two years, "Your numbers still keep very high." But as I have already shown we cannot judge by comparison of the weekly average of the state of crime in the Colony at any two periods. The explanation of the difference between the weekly averages of two such years as 1872 and 1879 seems to me to be this. During the last year there have been fewer convictions of prisoners for short terms of imprisonment than there used to be formerly. Of late old offenders when apprehended are either sent to the Supreme Court where they receive long sentences or are sent to prison for six months which is the longest sentence a Magistrate can give. An habitual criminal now brought before the Supreme Court receives a long sentence, say seven years.