GRIME m SCOTLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 93

GRIME m SCOTLAND.

The annual report of the Scottish Prison Commissioners has just- been issued, and - contains some interesting items. It states for instance, that "the class of female convicts tends to disappear in Scotland." In 1907 no woman was sentenced to penal servitude. On the other hand the males so dealt with numbered 122, as compared with an annual average of 75 during the preceding ten years. The total number of committals to prison was 61,312, .w-hicb. is an increase of 1100 on the preceding year, but most of them, judging from the lightness of the sentences, must have been for trivial offences. In 45,282 cases the sentences ranged from less than * daj to 14 days^ JS T o less than 80 per

cent., of the charges were for such offence; as drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vagrancy, and the like. A diagram shows the fluctuation of the prison populatior during the year. After the " burst " at the new Tear is over this population falls to its lowest point by the middle of January. As the spring comes it rises steadily but slowly, and as soon as summen arrives there is a sudden rush, so that the prisons are at their fullest by the middle of July. A decline then sets in, and continues until the next New Year arrives. The reason for there being so many more prisoners in summer than in winter has not yet been discovered. The commissioners also point out that of the annual total of commitments to prison the Irish account for one-third. This is a fact which ought to be noted' and remembered at a time when attempts are being made to cry up the Irish as a lawabiding people. Either they are leniently dealt with in their own iand, or their moral strength is too weak to keep them straight in another one. In any case they are a serious blot upon Scotland's name, and a heavy burden upon her finances.

GLASGOW BURGLARIES. Though there is very little darkness in Scotland at this time of the year, the burglars in Glasgow are still busy with their depredations. One night lately they effected an entrance into the premises of Messrs A. and- J. Faill, contractors, Robertson street, by cutting a hole in the floor of an empty warehouse overhead, and then letting themselves down with a rope. Expecting to find a large sum of money in the safee, for the payment df wages on the following day, they proceeded to blow in the safes with explosives, but only got £12 in money. The robbery was discovered in the morning by ( a charwoman who came to perform her •duties. More successful were burglars who made their way into the premises of Mr M'Menamin, a jeweller in St. Enoch square, and succeeded in getting off with articles, the value of which is stated to amount to about £3000. In this case also a large safe was blown open by means of an explosive.