A.—2.

4

No. 4. Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon to the Officer Administering the Government of New Zealand. (Circular.) Sir, — Downing Street, 11th December, 1877. I have the honor to transmit to you a copy of a letter from Dr. Wines, President of the International Penitentiary Commission, enclosing a copy of a circular letter which he has addressed to Governments relative to the Congress which it is proposed to hold in Stockholm during the latter half of August, 1878, and requesting to be furnished with information respecting prisons and prison discipline, &c, for publication in a work which he hopes io prepare in time to lay before the meeting of the Congress. I trust that those colonies which have not already furnished any reports to myself or Dr. Wines, in compliance with my circular despatch of the 9th of March last, will furnish them before the contemplated Congress, and that those colonies which have furnished reports will supplement them by any additional facts or statistics which it may be considered desirable to place before Dr. Wines. I have, &c, The Officer Administering the Government of CARNARVON. New Zealand.

Enclosure in No. 4. Dr. Wines to the Earl of Carnarvon. My Lord, — Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y., 24th August, 1877. I have had the honor to receive, through your Lordship's courtesy, two additional reports from Downing Street, and one direct from the colonial authorities at Singapore, for all which I again return my warmest thanks. I am in this way gathering a rich accumulation of material for a work I am contemplating under the title of '•' State of Prisons and of Prison Discipline and Reform throughout the Civilized World.''' I hope to get this work prepared and printed before the meeting of the Congress, and I feel, very sensibly, that I shall be under the greatest possible obligation to your Lordship for the information contained in it. lam extremely anxious that, if possible, no nook or corner of the civilized world shall be without some record of the actual state of the'prison question therein. I suppose that most of the more important of the English colonies have already sent in their reports. But I greatly desire to have something from every one, however small the colony, and however short the report, even if the latter does not exceed a dozen lines. By the way, I believe that in 1866 or 1867, in answer to a set of questions sent out by the Home Department, reports were made by all, or nearly all, the colonies, on the then state of their prisons and prison systems. I would he very much obliged if your Lordship will kindly furnish me with a copy of the Blue Book in which those reports were printed. I have just issued a circular letter to Governments in relation to the Congress, a copy of which I herewith enclose. Of this circular I also forward fifty copies by book-post, thinking that possibly your Lordship might think it worth while to forward copies to the authorities of the several colonial possessions of Her Majcstjr the Queen. In the same package arc likewise done up copies of two circular letters addressed within the past few months to my colleagues on the Permanent Commission, which I think I have not heretofore sent to your Lordship, and which will put you cm courant of matters relating to the postponement of the Congress to 1878. If your Lordship would not think it too much trouble, I would feel inexpressedly obliged if you would make another effort to secure reports from the other colonies in Her Majesty's dominions. I would also be glad to be informed how reports may be obtained from the various departments (Presidencies I believe they are called) of the great British East Indian Empire. I have, &c., The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon, &c. E. C. Wines.

Sub-Enclosure to Enclosure in No. 4. International Penitentiary Congress to be held in Stockholm during the latter half of August, 1878. The exact date of opening to be hereafter announced by the Swedish Government. (A Circular Letter addressed to Governments.) Sir, — Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, 18th August, 1877. As President of the Permanent International Penitentiary Commission, created by the Congress of London, in 1872, I had the honor, in September of last year, to address a letter to