Sessional_Paper_1885-1886 — Page 155

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25. A very few remarks will suffice as to the Prison industries of the past year.

Oakum picking, hitherto not very remunerative, has paid well this year, as, instead of, as previously paying $70 a ton for the raw material or paper stuff, it has since June last been procured for $45, while oakum has been sold for the same price as before.

Rattan chair and basket making is a new industry, started in October last. The work is easily taught, convicts take much interest in it, and are anxious to be taught. It seems likely to be remu- nerative, and could be greatly extended were space available.

Coir Yarn. An old industry and a remunerative one, can only be worked with one loom for want

of space.

Net making, for the same reason cannot be extended.

Grass mat-making, shoe-making, carpentering and tailoring are almost entirely confined to work for Gaol purposes, making up Gaol clothing, shoes and bed mats, and executing repairs etc. Printing is done for most of the Public offices. No expense is connected with it; the offices sending the stationery used for their printing.

Labor on Public works has not been put down as remunerative for reasons already explained. $360 were paid by the Civil Hospital and Asylum during the year for washing done in the Gaol. This has now been discontinued; the Hospital washing being done elsewhere. As far as can be ascer- tained, no profit has been realizedby this industry, the cost of fuel, soap, etc., having, it is believed, eaten up the money received, but no accurate account appears ever to have been kept. The Prison washing was mixed up with that for Hospital and Asylum. No permanent record was kept of the number of Prison clothes washed. The washing for Prison officers was likewise mixed up with the other washing, and, to add to all, the fuel used for kitchen and washhouse was not accounted for separately. The officer in charge of the washhouse on my arrival could barely read and write, and kept his notes in pencil hieroglyphics. I had therefore to give up as hopeless the attempt to make out an account of the washing industry for the past year.

A proper account is now kept.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

26. Having now reported on those points of Prison discipline and administration which appear of more prominent interest, all the further observations or suggestions I would desire to offer centre round the one theme, the urgent necessity of no longer delaying the building of a new Gaol, on the recognised principle of separate sleeping accommodation for every prisoner and ample space for work- shops and industrial labour. No deterrent or reformatory efforts can meet with appreciable success, in the absence of these necessary conditions. But, these conditions once granted, there would be every prospect of diminishing crime in, and consequent expense to, the Colony.

27. I have visited the neighbouring Prisons of Canton and Macao. In the former the Prisoners are treated with a harshness and severity which we could not imitate, but which proves deterrent. In Macao I found the Prison far less overcrowded than this Gaol. A portion of the convicts there were employed on Public works but received no extra rations. The diet and clothing etc., supplied to Prisoners there, appeared less liberal than in Victoria Gaol, though I think more in correspondence with the ordinary living of Chinese coolies. But we cannot, as a civilized and Christian people, treat our convicts otherwise than with humane attention to their health and comfort in food and clothing etc. But at the same time it seems due to the community and to the Prisoners themselves that, bound as we feel ourselves to treat convicts with a consideration and humanity which to the natives of these parts appears luxurious ease, we whould also adopt those means which the experience of England has shewn to suffice, for taming and reforming the worst of our own criminal population; and imprison- ment on the separate system is the first and mightiest of these agencies.

28. I have recently had an opportunity of visiting the Prison at Singapore, and could not fail to observe how far Singapore is in advance of Hongkong in its treatment of criminals. In that Prison there is separate accommodation for 800 criminals (in Hongkong 49.) The greater part of the Gaol staff consists of warders trained in English Prisons, and liberally paid. The results, I understand, have equalled the expectations of that Government in building their new Prison. From the Singapore Prison report of 1884 it appears that for the last three years there has been a steady decrease in the number of convictions for graver offences, and it is specially noted that during the year "four men only have been reconvicted, who had ever undergone a sentence of three years and upwards,"

29. In the event of the building of a new Gaol being further delayed, I would request Govern- ment to take into consideration the advisability of reserving the Victoria Gaol for convicts and long sentence Prisoners only, removing the short sentence Prisoners to some other building. The Victoria Gaol could be made to accommodate the former class in separation at no very great expense for altera- tions.

30 It would also, I think, tend to the repression of crime in Hongkong, if Prisoners who have earned a remission of sentence were, as in England, placed by legislative enactment under the Super- vision of the Police, so that, if found returning to a criminal career, they might at once be sent back by the Magistrates to Prison, to complete their original sentence.

A. GORDON. Superintendent, Victoria Gaol,