< Page:Transportation and colonization.djvu
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

AND COLONIZATION.

29

since 1824 has not exceeded 551 males and 143 females; but the prison is capable of containing, by the conversion of the workshops (which, by the abolition of the second class, are no longer wanted,) into separate cells, 796 males and 380 females: but as no proportionate increase of establishment would be required, the expense per head would be materially diminished."

The expense of the maintenance of convicts in New South Wales will appear from the following colonial


Return of the number of prisoners maintained by government in road and chain gangs, gaols and penal settlements, and the average yearly cost of each: 13th of July, 1836.
Maintained in Number of Prisoners Average yearly cost of each, including every charge
£.s.d.
Road-gangs 982 9 910½
Chain-gangs119110 3 6½
Gaols 64613 4 6¼
Penal settlements12501016 6½
Total4069


As road and chain gangs are the usual modes in which government employ the convicts that are not assigned to private settlers in New South Wales, the average yearly cost of maintaining a convict in that colony may be stated at £10.

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.