Sessional_Paper_1937 — Page 153

231

the main items by weight be put up to separate tender. In considering the diets we have recourse to the recommendation of the Diet Committee established in 1931. Apparently Prof. L. T. Ride, though then in the Colony, was not a member of this Committee. We therefore submitted the existing diets sheets to him in his capacity as Chairman of the Nutrition Committee and his comments thereon are attached. From these it is clear that the existing scales of diets are generous, if not excessive, and that readjustment could very well be made without damage and still further reduce the cost of maintenance. We would specially draw attention to Dr. Ride's suggestion that the rice should be bought in bulk, unhulled, and that the daily ration should be hulled on the spot by a prison labourer, thereby ensuring (a) better storage of the grain, and (b) less likelihood of loss of the essential vitamins.

In view of the fact that the Chief Warder stated there was no "hard labour' because no scale of hard labour was laid down by the Governor in Council, we suggest that the existence of a hard labour scale diet is an anomaly which should be removed and therefore that for prisoners of each race one standard diet only should be used and this should only be varied by order of the Medical Officer. We are informed that Class II diets are given to prisoners, in the case of Europeans after three months, in the case of Indians and Chinese after six months. We are of the opinion that the Class I diet, Light Labour, is amply sufficient for the most exhausting hard labour that can at present be inflicted and no altera- tion in this respect is required.

(d) Labour: We were informed that of 354 prisoners sentenced to hard labour only one could be said to be doing hard labour. The Principal Warder in charge of Industries at Stanley Prison informed us that there was in fact no such thing as hard labour, only industrial labour, and when we came over to inquire into this we discovered that a man doing so-called hard labour in the boct-shop satisfied require- ments if he turned out a pair of leather Chinese slippers in 3 days and that a man actually works for 6 hours a day only, excluding breaks for exercise and congee. The hardest work is that of making coir mats where the stipulated task is 1 sq. ft. of coir mat per day. It was noticeable that Pr. Warder Bagley avoided as far as possible telling us what were the actual tasks he expected per diem of the prisoners. On inquiry among local boot making contractors we discovered that an ordinary bootmaker working on a contract would be expected to turn out two pairs per man per day, and as it seems improbable that the remainder of the tasks set as labour to the prisoners are any more exacting in nature we considered that this side of prison administration should definitely be tightened up. This should be easy enough in the case of a skilled or semi-skilled workman employed on tasks such as printing, book-binding, boot-making, mat making and the like, but there remain a number of prisoners who are at present, to all intents and purposes, unemployable, i.e., short sentence prisoners, skilled in no trade and unwilling to learn. These comprise what is known as No. 16 Party, which of course varies from day to day in numbers. For these and others who refuse to fulfil their allotted tasks we suggest that real hard labour be provided in the form of stone-breaking and/or the sawing and splitting of logs for firewood. An abundance of suitable stone lies ready to hand on the Stanley Peninsula to be used for this purpose. Inquiries from the Public Works Department show that the cost of transport of the broken stone from the prison to various points on the Island would be economical. We suggest that if waste timber could be bought cheaply it might be taken by junk direct to the Gaol for cutting and splitting and then sold by contract. The immense amount of fallen damaged timber due to the typhoon might possibly be thus utilized. A further suggestion has been made to us, that prison labour might very profitably be employed on the growing of Chinese vegetables to be used in the prisoners' diets. It is we believe generally accepted that vegetable foods contain a large proportion of the vitamins necessary for health in a mere concentrated form than is otherwise obtainable, and although the ground in the immediate vicinity of Stanley Prison does not appear to be specially suitable for such produce, there may be ground not far off which could be made available. We suggest that this matter should be investigated by the Botanical and Forestry Department.