POLICE AND PRISONS DEPARTMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 956, 27 June 1890, Page 30

POLICE AND PRISONS DEPARTMENTS.

Of the many vividly interesting reports annually presented to Parliament those on the working of the Police and Prisons Department are especially nice reading, notably the latter, which always gives some exhilarating particulars about crime, how many offenders there are, what the cost of keeping them is, and so on. These documents were laid on the table on Tuesday. The Inspector of Prisons reports very favourably on the First Offenders Probation Act, and is well satisfied with the manner in which the prisons have been conducted. The prisoners’ health has been very good, and the daily average of prisoners in the gaols has been 551‘22 males and 75‘02 females, as against 591 *26 males?and 863T3 females in the previous year. The gross cost of maintenance was £45 15s 8d per head, which is a slight increase, and which is accounted for by the decrease in the number of prisoners. The Inspector does not think local prisons can be made self-support-ing, and he suggests that to make long sentences more deterrent, theoffenders should have a less liberal ration scale and be kept iu separation for a certain time at the commencement of their sentences. The receipts from prison labour were £45513s Sd (exclusive of work at the fortifications), as against £7042 8s 3d in 1888. The new prison buildings in course of erection at Wellington and Auckland have made good progress during the year. At Wellington the roof has been completed, and the internal fittiugs are being pushed on with all speed. The exercising yards have been bronght down to the proper level, and as soon as the kitchen and scullery are built the wing Bbould be ready for occupation. Major Gudgeon’s report on the police force is a highly favourable one as to the general efficiency and conduct of the force, v hich now consists of 494 men, an increase of 10 on ISSB. The most important feature of the report is a recommendation (which we believe the Government will adopt) that a grant of £5 per head should be made on account of 67 men who have joined since February, ISB7, and are debarred from long-service pay. These men would pay another £4 la 3d peivannum, and thus insure for a pension of £75 per annum at the age of 60 years, in lieu of receiving the usual compensation of one month’s pay for each year of service on retirement. The criminal statistics for the year ending 31st December, 1889, show a slight increase in the gross total of offences. In the North Island there has been an increase of 189, in the South a decrease of 141. The general increase is due almost entirely to the crime of drunkenness, in which there has been an increase in the North of 129 and a decrease in the South of 72. In the following crimes there has been an increase : Common assaults, 110 ; larcenies, 157 ; indecent exposure, 13; forcible abduction, 12 ; forgery and uttering, 13; malicious injury to property, 18 ; vagrancy, 41; obstructing and assaulting police, 48. Other crimes have decreased, such as—Arson, S : breaking and entering, and burglary, 34 ; breaches of the peace, 11 ; perjury, 6, &c. A careful investigation of the records shows that about nine-tenths of the men convicted of drunkenness are over forty years of age, and not more than one in thirteen has been born in the colonies.