9

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Acknowledgments. I again desire to place on record the Department's deep sense of gratitude for the assistance and co-operation of the Visiting Justices and Official Visitors who have regularly visited the institutions and have contributed materially in maintaining contentment and discipline. The thanks of the Department are due to the various Borstal committees for their continued interest and help in connection with the administration of the Borstal institutions. To the Women's Borstal Association and its associates the Department is also much indebted for the maintenance of oversight and care of discharged girls. Thanks are also due to the ladies who have regularly, week in and week out, visited the Point Halswell Borstal Institution for the purpose of giving lectures and providing entertainments. To numerous members of the Workers' Educational Association, the Howard League for Penal Reform, and many teachers and other citizens who have assisted voluntarily in a similarmanner the Department also desires to extend its thanks. The helpful co-operation and valuable assistance given by the Prisoners' Aid Society, the Justices' Association, and the Voluntary Probation Committees is gratefully appreciated by the Department. To these organizations which give such splendid assistance in connection with after-care work is largely due the credit for the comparatively small percentage who again appear before the Courts. I desire to make special mention of the work of the late Mr. David Todd of the Dunedin Voluntary Probation Committee whose optimism and wholehearted interest in the welfare and rehabilitation of those who came under the Department's care was a helpful inspiration both to probationers as well as to those members of the staff who were privileged to meet him. Recognizing the peculiar amenability of those in prison to the refining influences of religion, the Department greatly appreciates the care and interest, often at considerable personal inconvenience and expense so far as the visits to the prison camps are concerned, shown by the various ministers of religion who attend to the moral and spiritual welfare of prisoners at the various institutions. In placing on record my sense of gratitude to the members of the staff for their loyalty and the zealous manner in which they have endeavoured to carry out their duties and promote the efficient administration of the Department, I should like specially to mention Mr. D. A. Mackintosh who, as Acting Controller-General during my absence at the Public Service Commissioner's Office, has ably attended to the multifarious matters of routine prison administration. B. L. Dallard, Controller-General of Prisons. Inspector of Prisons to the Controller-General of Prisons. I have the honour to submit my report for the year ended 31st March, 1930, regarding the inspection of the prisons and institutions under the control of the Department. At intervals throughout the year, and as necessity arose, the principal prisons, prison farms, camps, and Borstal institutions were inspected, and opportunities given to prisoners and inmates to discuss with me matters relating to their treatment and general welfare. Officers of all ranks were also given facilities to discuss any question which they desired to bring under the notice of the Department. In the larger prisons a considerable number of the male prisoners serving long terms availed themselves of the opportunity to interview me. Comparatively few complaints were made regarding treatment, but requests for special privileges by way of variation of food-ration or extra tobacco and for transfer to camps and country institutions were fairly numerous. The cells, bedding, &c., at the larger institutions, and the huts at the prison camps, were examined on each of my visits. The accommodation provided at the various institutions is satisfactory, and for the present sufficient. The institutional buildings, interior and exterior, have been kept scrupulously clean, and every possible precaution is taken to ensure that prisoners suffering from contagious diseases are not permitted to come in contact with the other men until the Medical Officer certifies that there is no further danger of infection. Apart from the requests already mentioned by a few of the men who are serving indeterminate sentences at the Auckland Prison, no complaints were made regarding the quality or the adequacy of the food ration. An examination of the Reception Registers at the Institutions reveals the fact that prisoners invariably gain in weight whilst in detention —an indication that the food provided is both adequate and wholesome. With regard to general prison works and industries the progress recorded during the past few years has been well maintained. The available labour is handled in a systematic manner by the officers in charge of the principal works. Comparatively few skilled artisans are received into the institutions, the great majority of the men being labourers. It is therefore necessary that a proportion of the warders should be tradesmen or men experienced in farming, roadmaking, &c. The officers in charge of the working parties allot conduct and industry marks daily, and the Chief Warder subsequently checks the earnings of each man. In allotting industry marks the officials take into consideration the mental and physical condition of each individual prisoner so that those who are unable, through no fault of their own, to perform as much work as the physically fit men, are not deprived of the privileges which follow the earning of maximum marks. The principle of piece-work or task-labour is not indulged in at any of the prison institutions, but men who apply for permission to work overtime, for the purpose of earning extra money for their dependants, are given that privilege, providing they are suitable and work is available. A considerable amount of " overtime "is performed by men at country institutions without continuous supervision. The classes in agricultural science conducted

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