CO885(2-3) — Page 592

47

BARBADOS.

No. 8.

།། ། ཀ །

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.885

Reference -

The Earl of Kimberley to Governor Rawson,"C.B.

(No. 180. Barbados.) Sir,

Downing Street, November 30, 1872. MY attention has been called to the inclosed extract of a letter from the Auditor- General of Barbados to the editor of the "Agricultural Reporter" respecting one of the gaols of the town of Bridgetown,

I am unable to judge how far Mr. Griffith means to imply that the state of things which he describes is still existing, but I should be glad of a full report from you upon the state of the gaol to which allusion is made.

Inciosure in No. 8.

Newspaper Extract.

I have, &c. (Signed)

KIMBERLEY.

AND yet, within the populous City of Bridgetown, there is a cellar underneath the floors of the Legislative Hall capable, when more than one prisoper sleeps in a cell, of containing 135 persons, but which has constantly more than that number, and has had 185 persons confined in it. A dungeon which is two-thirds underground, and is aired and lighted by windows on a level with the earth;-a dungeon from whose doors the keepers have had to retreat when they opened them in the morning, because of the effluvia emitted from rooms in which 20 to 30 men have been huddled together during the night! A dungeon of which the "West Indian" wrote on the 9th June, 1854:-"The mortality amongst the prisoners in the gaol in Bridgetown has been most frightful. The cholera has proved a general gaol delivery. There were 150 prisoners of all descriptions confined there. As soon as the epidemic appeared amongst them, the Governor ordered all those confined for debt, to be released, those for want of sureties, and for breaches of the peace; keeping such as had been convicted of grave offences. Some 64 remained behind; of those 49 are already dead and the remaining 15 are on the sick list." And yet this wretched place continues to be used as a prison for human beings! although it is due to the authorities to say that everything is done by way of cleanliness, and sanitary and other precautions, for the comfort of those confined in it, whilst the Crown has called attention to it.

No. 9.

3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

Governor Rawson, C.B., to the Earl of Kimberley.-(Received February 15.)

Barbados.)

(No. 4. My Lord,

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your Lordship's despatch No, 180, of the 30th November, inclosing an extract from a letter published in the "Agricultural Reporter" by the Auditor-General, respecting the Town Hall prison, and desiring me to make a full Report on the subject.

Windward Islands, Barbados, January 14, 1873.

2. In order that your Lordship might be fully informed upon it, I have thought it desirable to procure independent reports from the three officers connected with this gaol, viz., the Provost-Marshal, who is in charge of it, the medical officer, who attends it, and the Inspector of Prisons. Of these I inclose copies.

3. Their contents show that Mr. Griffith's statement, as far as it applies to the present time, is substantially correct, although coloured to suit the purpose of his letter, and erroneous in one or two particulars. At the same time they will show that while the gaol is defective in almost every respect, it is far from being unhealthy, and that the physical evils which might be dreaded in a different climate, and with a different class of

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