MR. CALDWELL AND HIS SELFSUPPORTING PRISONERS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 290, 21 August 1873, Page 6

MR. CALDWELL AND HIS SELFSUPPORTING PRISONERS.

The " South Australian Chronicle " does not approve of the basis upon which Mr. Caldwell endeavors in his yearly reports to show that the prisoners under his charge are self-sup-porting. We extract the following remarks from that journal : — "Whilst upon the subject of reputed self-sup-porting prisons, we may refer to a report of the Superintendent of the Dunedin Gaol (Mr. Caldwell) which was published in 1870, and which in our former article we stated had received the attention of the Sheriff in one of his periodical reports. In the course of the report Mr. Caldwell represents, in eloquent terms, the selfsupporting standard which the prison has attained ; but, on looking at the return to which he triumphantly points as a proof of his assertions, it will be seen that he proceeds upon false premises, and consequently arrives at an erroneous conclusion — a conclusion which is very likely to mislead, in the absence of some explanation. For example, the return says : —"Removal of Bell Hill. 21,944 cubic yards rock, quarried and deposited in various places, at 2s. 6d., £2,743 ; the dredge, 3,160 days' labor at 6a., £848 : jetty extension, 8,315^ days' labor at 08., £304 135. ; reclaiming streets, 1,567£ days' labor at ss. £391 17s. 6d.," &c. It would thus appear that Mr. Caldwell estimates at a regular daily wage of ss. or 6s. per day each prisoner in the Gaol, and makes a return accordingly ; but not a shilling of this represented value is paid into the Treasury. Indeed, we find that the cash paid into the Treasury amounts altogether to only £211 17s. 2d. (including several items which are not prisoners' earnings), out of a total amount put down as the earnings of the prisoners of £7,117 15s. 6d. Such statements as this — and possibly some of the American statistics are framed on a similar basis — are calculated very much to mislead, for they take an artificial standard of remuneration, and work out a result which shows prisons to be money making establishments, whereas in truth, and in fact, they are not so — but impose a heavy incubus of expense. We much prefer the cautious statements of Mr. Boothby, the Comptroller of Convicts in this colony, who simply takes the real cash earings of the prisoners, instead of setting up some fancy standard of remuneration ; and we repeat the statement we made a few days since, that if the actual cash paid into the Treasury on account of tbe Dry Creek Labor Prison amounts to one-half tbe cost of the establishment, the proportion will not be very unsatisfactory.