H.—2o

4

Value of Prison, Labour for which neither Gash nor Financial Credits are received. Although the Department's cash receipts for the year indicate that the labour available has been used to the best advantage, the total amount earned by no means covers the value of the work actually done. Substantial progress has been made in this as in previous years in the construction of buildings, the making of roads, and in other works that have been required for State purposes. All this work if carried out by private contracts would have resulted in considerable expenditure being incurred. By the employment of prison labour the total amount involved was saved to the State. In accordance with the practice recently followed the Public Works Engineers have supplied estimates of the value of this work calculated on free-labour standards. The details of the work carried out and of its value are shown in Tabic 2 below. The marked increase on the previous year's total is partly due to the fact that the low rate per man allowed in previous years—viz., 3s. per day for labourers and ss. per day for tradesmen— has been increased to a general average of 7s. 6d. per day in sympathy with the rates now paid to free labour. This alteration is fully justified by the fact that under present conditions it is found that the average prisoner works quite as satisfactorily as the average free labourer or tradesman.

Table 2. —Total Value of Prison Labour employed on Roads, Buildings, Reclamation, Wall-building, and other Public Works, for which no Financial Credit has been received, for the Year ended 31st March, 1920.

In addition to the large out put of constructional and other reproductive work shown in the two preceding tables a large amount of prison labour is required to develop the farming properties, to make boots and clothing for the inmates and oilieers, to carry on the domestic services, and to do the numberless things that are necessary in connection with the management of the institutions. This entails a large expenditure of labour that has a definite value to the State. On a low assessment the total value of such labour in each institution is as shown in Table 3 below.

Table 3. —Value of Prison Labour employed on Prison Works and Industries, for which Cash Credits are not obtained, for Year ended 31st March, 1920.

Prison. Buildings, Construction Walls, and and MaintenYards. ance of Roads. Excavatin ; for Buildings. Blockmaking. t. ElectricDrainage u h T , Works. 1 . f, ,. Installation. £ 2,483 2,910 3,565 667 2,590 6,000 £ £ £ £ £ 229 £ 2,712 4,191 3,960 1,001 2,924 7,050 Auckland InvercargiL .. 250 1,031 Paparua Point Halswell Waikeria Wi Tako .. 395 334 167 250 167 200 600 Totals 417 1,631 18,215 1,146 200 229 21,838

Prison. Bootmaking foi-Ollicers and Prisoners. Tailoring (including Repairs) and Red Cross Work. I Gardening and Farming. Buildingwork. Quarrying, Levelling of Reserves, Domestic! Employ- ! Totals. ment. Addington Auckland Invercargill Kaingaroa Lytteiton Napier New Plymouth Paparua Roto-aira Waikeria Wellington Wi Tako Minor gaols £ 747 144 44 '.'. 17 111 901 45 201 66 LI £ 616 487 150 45 99 £ 651 346 2,506 163 81 336 1,117 116 2,619 1,068 55 84 £ 6 85 £ 4,292 206 445 £ 588 1,963 1,011 490 210 238 387 822 476 1,021 1,343 75 145 £ 1,855 7,835 3,811 748 416 781 1,018 2,840 757 3,841 4,503 130 262 120 1,191 835 22 £28,797