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insufficient work, but during the year just past and at present the position is tending to the reverse. Improved conditions of trade and lower musters than for many years past are making it difficult to maintain adequately some of the industries embarked upon by the Department. This is particularly the case on the prison farms, which last year returned £24,000 revenue to the State, exclusive of approximately £6,000 produced for domestic and farm use, and, in consequence, it has been necessary to install a number of minor labour-saving devices, including shearing-machines, milking-machines, laundry-machinery, _ feeInstalled of necessity to make up for lessened numbers, these are, however, a distinct advantage from the vocational viewpoint, as inmates will have the opportunity of gaining a more varied experience than hitherto, and the drudgery will be lessened. While the diversity of the prison industries and their geographically widespread location on the one hand require fairly elaborate organization for administration control, these features to a great extent eased the effect on them of the depression which spread itself less seriously than would have been the case had our activities been entirely confined to one or two industries only, such as farming and quarrying. The policy of developing self-supporting industries —i.e., for internal needs —has also proved an advantage during the depression. Breadmaking, meat-production for city institutions, manufacture of soap, floor polish and sandsoap, tobacco-manufacturing, clothing and boot manufacturing, and potato and other vegetable production have, besides reducing costs, provided work entirely unaffected by the depression. The foliowing notes on the principal industries are set out: — Farmifig.—This is carried out at six institutions and covers practically all branches, including cattle-raising and dairying; sheep, horse, and pig raising; poultry and pheasant raising; and vegetable, fruit, honey, and tobacco culture, and ordinary crop production. Further clearing of unimproved land at Hautu and Rangipo has been curtailed in the meantime, and energies are being concentrated 011 consolidating and subdividing areas already cleared and broken in. Quarry and Roadworks. —The main quarries are at Auckland and Paparua, while roadwork building and maintenance is centered at National Park. Total revenue from this source amounted to £33,000 for the year. Quarrying, in a small way and confined to screening, is carried on at Napier and New Plymouth Prisons. Tailoring, Bootmaking, and Mail-lag Repairs.—This is carried on at Auckland Prison, which undertakes all our own requirements in boots and clothing for officers and prisoners, all Mental Hospitals footwear, and all Post Office mail-bag repairs. The value of work for those two Departments last year amounted to approximately £6,000. Laundering.—This is the main industry at the two women's institutions, Pomt Halswell and Addington, where laundering for various Departments is undertaken. Revenue earned amounted to £2,800 approximately for the year. Alternatives to Imprisonment for Default. Under the caption " Imprisonment by Courts of Summary Jurisdiction in Default of Payment of Fines and other Sums of Money," an exhaustive report was presented to the British Parliament in July, 1934, by a departmentarCommittee under the Chairmanship of Sir John Fischer Williams, C.B.E.,'k.C.,'which was set up by the Home Secretary "to review the existing law relating to the enforcement of fines imposed by Courts of Summary Jurisdiction and to the enforcement of wife maintenance and affiliation orders and of payment of rates, and to consider whether by changes in the law or in the methods of administration it is possible to reduce the number of imprisonments in default of payment, due regard being given to the importance of securing compliance with orders made by the Courts." It was pointed out that in England and Wales in 1933, out of a total of 50,884- persons imprisoned for ail causes, no fewer than 23,669 were imprisoned in respect of the non-payment of moneys i.e., fines, maintenance-moneys, and ordinary civil debts. This army of persons, it has been pointed out, reaches prison not because offences have been committed for which imprisonment is regarded as the fitting penalty, but because of failure to pay sums due under order of the Courts. Whilst imprisonment, it was stated, is the ultimate sanction for the enforcement of such orders, and cannot be wholly dispensed with, it is not a sanction which ought lightly to be applied, and the Committee made it plain that this was a problem which was urgent and called for a remedy. The following extract from the late Mr. Thoday's recently published booklet is to the point: " Imprisonment is a sanction harsh and severe in its consequences to the individual and expensive to the State. In its effect upon a man's character and self-respect, the suffering caused to his family and dependants, the interruption of his work and the possibility of his failing to find work upon his release, it is often out of all proportion to the wrong which he has committed or the default of which he has been guilty. It is therefore essential that it should never be imposed without careful consideration, and should only be resorted to if it is the only practicable way of enforcing compliance with the law or with obligations which in the public interest must be enforced. It is particularly necessary that any possibility of the sanction being put into operation mechanically or by virtue of an automatic procedure of enforcement should be rigorously excluded." As a consequence of the above-mentioned report an Act intituled " The Money Payments (Justices Procedure) Act, 1935," was passed in England, embodying substantially the recommendations made by the Committee, as a result of which, it is claimed, the amount of imprisonment can be

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