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Inclosure 2 in No. 35.
The Provost Marshal's Report on Blue Book Statistics for 1874.
THE number of prisoners in custody on the evening of the 31st of December, 1873, was 63, of whom, 53 were males and 10 were females.
The number of commitments during the year 1874 was 344, of whom 2 were for debt, 32 for safe custody till trial or for want of security, and 310 for purposes of penal imprisonment. Of the last number 268 were for sentences of three months or less, and of this number 145, or more than one-half, were for sentences of twenty days and under.
The number of commitments during the year 1874 was greater by 13 than that for. 1873, yet, owing to the trivial nature of the offences committed during the former year, and the short sentences imposed, the daily average number in prison during the year 1874 was less than the daily average for 1873. For the former year it was 67-33; for the latter 72:03.
The following is a return of the daily average number of prisoners for the last five years, which shows a steady decrease in the number :-
Years.
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
Daily Average,
97
92
88
72
67
The average number of prisoners received monthly has been 28, of whom 20 were males and 8 were females; and the monthly average remaining on hand has been 68, 59 being males, and 9 females.
The prisoners sentenced to penal servitude and hard labour have been employed in quarrying stone, in repairing and macadamizing the public roads, in cleaning the public drains and gutters, and in weeding and keeping in order the Government House and other public grounds. The work is all done on account of the Government, and although the prison derives no actual revenue from it, yet its absolute value to the Colony is considerable.
The customary good order and discipline of the prison have been maintained during the year without the necessity of having recourse to undue severity. No corporal punishment has been inflicted during the year.
The expenditure of the establishment, including the salaries of the Keeper, Chaplain, and all its subordinate officers, amounted in the year 1874 to 1,9917. 128, 5d.
The sanitary state of the prison has been most satisfactory. There was one death, the verdict of the Coroner's jury being "acute dysentery." The constitution of this prisoner, when admitted to prison, was completely broken down. He had been com- mmitted to take his trial at the General Court on a charge of Larceny, but before the day of trial came he had answered for his offence at a higher than any earthly tribunal.
(Signed) A. J. THOMPSON, Provost Marshal. February 2, 1875.
Inclosure 3 in No. 35.
Attorney-General's Report for the Year 1874, on the State of Crime in the Colony, as shown by Criminal Procedure in the General Court.
AS stated in previous report, the General Court is the only Superior Court of Criminal Jurisdiction in the Colony, and it has jurisdiction not only over offences committed on the land, but also over the several offences referred to in the Imperial Statutes, 12th and 13th Viet., c. 96; 18th and 19th Vict., c. 91, sec. 21; and 30th and 31st Vict., c. 124, sec. 11.
The mode in which offences are brought before the Court is as follows:-
A charge must be laid before a Magistrate, who, if he commits the accused for trial, returns the depositions taken by him to the office of the Attorney-General, when the Attorney-General, if he coneurs with the Magistrate as to there being a sufficiency of evidence to place the accused on his trial, prosecutes the case by exhibiting at the next meeting of the Court an information charging the offence in the same manner as,
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according to the practice of Criminal Courts in England, would be adopted in framing an indictment.
On the filing of an information, which is an act of course on the motion of the Attorney-General, the accused is required at once to plead, and the trial proceeds exactly in the same manner as a trial of an indictment at the Central Criminal Court in London, with the exception that, except in a capital case, a verdict of conviction or acquittal may be returned by eight out of the twelve jurymen, and in capital cases a verdict of acquittal may be returned in like manner.
The necessity of the previous finding of a Bill of Indictment by a Grand Jury, and of the unanimity of jurors was put an end to here as far back as the year 1848, by the Colonial Statute, 11 Vict, c. 21; and my experience of the working of that Statute has fully convinced me that the change which it effected in the administration of justice has been very beneficial.
Proceeding, however, to the state of crime in the Colony, as shown by criminal proceedings in the General Court in the year 1874, I have to report, that those proceed- ings do not evidence any increase of crime for the year either as to the number or character of the offences brought to trial, for although two charges of murder and several cases of arson appear in the list, yet with reference to the murder charges one proved to be groundless, while in the other case, although death had been caused by an act of brutal violence, there was no evidence of premeditation, and a conviction of manslaughter alone took place; in addition to which it may be stated that although the conviction took place in 1874, and must consequently be noted in the returns for that year, the offence actually occurred in the early part of 1873, the delay in the ultimate trial having been occasioned by a disagreement on the part of the jury at the first trial in July, 1873, and by the absence of witnesses on the part of the defence in the October Term following.
The charges of arson were three in number, in two) of which the evidence was so totally insufficient that the parties were not placed on their trial; while in the third, at the close of the case for the Crown, an immediate acquittal took place.
Outside of the charges of murder and arson before referred to, the criminal cases for the year were confined principally to minor felonies and misdemeanours, for unlawfully wounding, the details of which I submit, as follows:-
Hilary Term, commencing January 20, 1874.
Two criminal informations were exhibited this term, one for murder and one for feloniously wounding, in both of which cases acquittals took place on the merits.
There were also two cases standing over from previous terms, one for murder, which resulted in a conviction for manslaughter, and one for attempting to have carnal knowledge of a girl under ten years, which fell through in consequence of the child not only being found deficient in understanding the nature of an oath, but being shown to have no idea of the moral obligation of speaking the truth.
The case had stood for trial in Michaelmas Term, 1873, but was postponed at my instance for the purpose of having the child instructed in the nature and obligation of an oath; but after having been for three months under the care of a lady of high character and attainments who was specially qualified for the work, I received a report so disparaging as to her veracity that I did not feel justified in placing the accused on his trial.
Easter Term, 1874.
This term commenced on the 21st of April, 1874, the Criminal Calendar consisting of five cases only, viz:—
Two for house-breaking and larceny, in one of which an acquittal took place on its merits, the other resulting in a verdict of " Guilty."
One for shop-breaking and larceny, in which the accused pleaded guilty,
One for feloniously shooting at with intent to murder or do some grievous bodily harin,
And one for feloniously wounding.
The charge for feloniously wounding was not supported by the evidence, and an acquittal took place. The prosecution for shooting at with intent to commit murder resulted, after two trials in the same term, in a verdict of acquittal, but it deserves some special notice as it was a peculiar case, and I was not at all satisfied that the absolute verdict of acquittal which took place was a proper one. Under no circumstances, however, could the case be fairly referred to as evidencing the state of crime in the Colony, as the accused was the mate of an American vessel lying at the time at one of the abutments in the Port of Nassau, who had discharged a loaded revolver in the direction of the land, the
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