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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Legislative Council.-Şingapore, October 3, 1872.

Present:

His Excellency the Governor.

His Honour the Chief Justice (Mr. Sidgreaves).

The Honourable the Officer commanding Her Majesty's Troops (Lieutenant-

Colonel Smith, 80th Regiment),

His Honour the Judge of Penang (Sir W. Hackett).

The Honourable the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Birch).

The Honourable the Attorney-General (Mr. Braddell).

The Honourable the Treasurer (Mr. Willans).

The Honourable the Auditor-General (Mr. C. J. Irving).

The Honourable the Acting Colonial Engineer (Captain Innes, R.E.).

The Honourable F. S. Brown.

The Honourable H. A. K. Whampoa.

The Honourable J. J. Greenshields.

The Honourable R. Little, M.D.

The Honourable T. Shelford.

The Minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed.

The Governor-Gentlemen, I find it necessary, before proceeding to the orders of the day, to bring before you two subjects of very great importance, on which I wish to make some observations, in order to afford you an opportunity of considering them against the time when it will be necessary that you should give an expression of your opinion upon them. The two subjects are, the management of our prisons, and what it may be necessary to do, consequent upon the principle that has been laid down, after the consideration that has been given to the subject; and the other is education.

With respect to our prisons, you know that at page 21 of our "Proceedings," again at page 55, and again at page 61, papers were laid before you containing opinions expressed by authorities at home, and by members of our own body appointed to inquire into the management of our prisons, and the conclusion arrived at was that very great changes were imperatively required in the management of these establishments.

The Acting Colonial Engineer has devoted himself with very great care and labour indeed to the consideration of the alterations necessary for carrying out the system determined upon, and has made proposals to introduce the system partially in our gaols here. The Resolu- tion, you will recollect, was—

That the Council concurs with his Excellency the Governor that the time has arrived when steps should be taken to improve the state of the colonial prisons by the introduction of a better system of managenient and a more rigid discipline, and that it is prepared to vote the funds which may be necessary for commencing this work in the way suggested in the report of the Acting Colonial Engineer on the correspondence relating to prisons, laid before it on the 4th instant."

And it also agreed to the increase in establishments that would be necessary to give effect to these changes; I now desire to read you a Report which I have only received within the last day or two, which will be printed shortly, when you will have an oppor- tunity of considering it; but I wish to read it to you, in order that you may be prepared for the heavy expenditure which will be necessary in carrying out the system which you have decided to introduce here, for enforcing a far more rigid system of prison discipline for checking crime, and especially petty crime amongst the population. [His Excellency here read the letter and Report of the Acting Colonial Engineer, which were accompanied by very clear plans and drawings. As I stated to you in the course of my observations, I contemplate that the money for this work shall, of course, be taken from our savings; not from the current revenue, or, at least, whatever is proposed for the current year; the after years must look after themselves. The papers will be printed and laid before you, and I do not know whether it will be satisfactory to you to have a Special Committee appointed from amongst yourselves to consider the question. Perhaps it looks complicated, but I do not think you will find it so in reality. The facts are that we stand committed to the principle of an improved prison discipline; that the Acting Colonial Engineer has now supplied us with estimates of the cost of what he thinks necessary to be done to carry this out; and it appears to me that the principal thing we have to consider is, over how many years we shall spread the exponditure.

The Auditor-General inquired whether it would not be the most economical plan

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in the long run to sell the present site of the Convict Gaol at Singapore, for which a good price might probably be got, and to remove the gnol to a cheaper site in the

country.

The Governor said it had not occurred to him that such an arrangement could be made; but the suggestion was a valuable one, and he would have inquiry made on the subject.

Mr. Brown said that certainly the Penang prisons required great improvements, and he was very glad that his Excellency had brought these papers before the Council.

Mr. Greenshields.--I think, on such an important question, if we could count upon the presence of members, it should be a Committee of the whole Council; but if a Select Com- mittee is considered desirable, I shall always be very happy to serve upon it.

A Committee was appointed, consisting of the Acting Colonial Engineer, Mr. Brown, Mr. Greenshields, and Dr. Little.

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

Papers laid before the Legislative Council by the command of his Excellency the Governor. October 15, 1872.

Report by the Acting Colonial Engineer on the proposal to Build a New Gaol for Singapore. WITH reference to the suggestions made at a recent meeting of Council, relative to shifting the Singapore Gaol to a new site, and selling the present one, inquiry has been made as to the sum likely to be realized by the latter, and 50,000 dollars may be taken as the outside amount, whilst a new gaol for 600 prisoners would probably cost about 200,000 dollars, showing an excess of 61,000 dollars over the arrangements recently proposed, thus :-

Singapore Penang Malacca

Singapore

Penang Malacca

ESTIMATE LATELY SUBMITTED.

Dols. 98,000 72,000

9,000

Total

179,000

COST OF NEW GAOLS.

Dols.

9,000* 200,000 72,000

9,000

290,000

50,000

240,000

179,000

61,000

Deduct price of site to be sold

Excess

:::

The chief drawback to the arrangement would be that the improvements in discipline at Singapore would be necessarily delayed in a great measure until the new buildings were in a forward state; they would take at least two years to build, and could hardly be commenced till 1874.

(Signed)

W. INNES, Captain, R.E.,

Acting Colonial Engineer,

Already incurred at existing gaol.

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