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No. 38.

(No. 124.) 8ir,

The Earl of Carnarvon to Governor Sir H. Bulwer, K.C.M.G.

Downing Street, August 31, 1875.

I HAVE had under my consideration the Returns relating to prison discipline inclosed in Sir Garnet Wolseley's despatch No. 92 of the 26th of April.*

2. The subject of prison reform has, during the last ten years, been actively pressed upon the attention of the Colonies by successive Secretaries of State, and if the Colonial Governments and Legislatures have failed to deal effectually with the question, the responsibility does not rest with Her Majesty's successive Governments.

3. The digest and summary relating to Colonial prisons, which was inclosed in the Duke of Buckingham's Circular despatch of the 18th of June, 1867, contained a full exposition of the principles on which a sound prison discipline should be based. The system in Natal is at variance in almost every particular with those principles, and most conspicuously in the entire absence of the separate system.

4. And not only are the prisons in their structure incompatible with good system, but they are very inadequate in their dimensions to the present requirements of the Colony. In the Returns now under review it appears that in Durban—the principal prison of the Colony-the space available is only at the rate of 193 cubic feet a-head for the prisoners: in Pietermaritzburg the amount is 294 cubic feet; in Greytown 270 cubic feet; and in Estcourt 54 cubic feet. I should be glad if I could believe that this latter figure was the result of a mistake on the part of the person compiling the Returns; but the care and exactness with which other galculations in the Returns are made leave little doubt that he has correctly recorded a fact which, when fully considered, cannot be looked on as otherwise than lastingly discreditable to those with whom the responsibility rests.

5. A large proportion of the persons confined in the prison were apparently members of the Langalibalele and Putili tribes, as to a part of whom, I may observe, Her Majesty's Government, after mature consideration, liave pronounced that there is no material evidence of guilt against them.

6. The compiler of the Returns observes that "The separation enforced, where the gaol accommodation admits of it, is that of sexes and races.” I hesitate to draw from this passage the inference which its language suggests—that the gaol accommo- dation is sometimes so scanty that it does not admit of the separation of the sexes. I merely note in passing that the use of the word separation in this passage implies an entire want of familiarity with the principles and practice of prison discipline on the part of the compiler, who, 1 am forced to suppose, is probably the officer immediately responsible for the prison discipline of the Colony. "Separation," as you are aware, in discussions relating to prison discipline, has come to be used exclusively as applied to the individual cellular separation of prisoner from prisoner a fact of which the compiler could hardly have remained ignorant had he been supplied with and studied the digest on prison discipline which accompanied the Duke of Buckingham's Circular despatch of the 18th of June, 1867.

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7. The overcrowded wards of these prisons are in no case lighted at night, and consequently numbers of depraved men are left huddled together in the closest proximity in unlighted wards for from eight to twelve hours at a time. experience of all countries indicates what must be the state of discipline and the extent of depravity prevailing under such conditions.

8. I note that at Estcourt there was, as one would expect, "a good deal of illness owing to crowding and want of exercise with regard to those committed for trial-a total want of accommodation for the sick."

9. It is a serious aggravation of the scandal that the state of things disclosed by these Returns is not now made known for the first time, nor can the Colony plead that the subject has not been brought to the notice of their Government, for I observe that my predecessors have not failed to urge reform upon the Colony in this most important matter.

10. When it is considered that the annual revenue of the Colony has risen from 24,0007. in 1851 to 217,000. in 1874-a rate of increase unequalled in almost any other Colony-it will be seen that a heavy responsibility rests with those who, having the means, have failed to make due provision for this branch of adminis- tration.

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11. I sincerely trust that the new Legislature which will now be called together under the recent amendment of the Constitution will address itself to the careful consideration of a question so closely affecting the good government of the Colony, and will adopt measures for placing the prison system on a footing which will be creditable to the community. Unfortunately the time is one when unusual calls are made upon the revenues of the Colony, and painfully unsatisfactory as the present state of things must be pronouneed, many of these calls are so urgent that they cannot be refused precedence over prison expenditure.

12. Unluckily, moreover, the crimes, or, at all events, the number of offences brought to justice in the Colony are rapidly increasing, the number of apprehensions and summonses having risen from 3,370 in 1872 to 6,751 in 1874.

13. I hope, however, that you may, with the resources at your command, be able to do much in the direction of reform. The attention which you gave to this class of questions in your former government. lead me to suppose that you will with the less difficulty be able to deal promptly and effectually with those now before you. Captain Hime, R.E., the newly-appointed Colonial Engineer, on whom much of the labour will rest, has been in communication with my Department upon the important ques- tion of enlarging and improving the prison accommodation of the Colony in a manner which will be within your available resources,

I have, &c.

(Signed)

CARNARVON,