11
H.—2o
Tlie new kitchen block at Invercargill has been completed and a fully equipped hospital added. A large swimming-tank has been built, and arrangements entered into with the Invercargill Borough Council for the supplying of tepid water from their power-station. The subdividing of exercise-yards and building of boundary-walls have been gone on with. Three additional officers' cottages have been built. An additional, lighter, also pontoons for the purpose of carrying the suction-dredge plant, has been provided. A second milking-shed has been built, and a third is now being got ready. Plans have been prepared and arrangements made for building a new range of stables, also a commodious barn. The roading and draining, also fencing on the new farm, have been pushed on. Shelter-trees to the number of 5,000 have been planted, also a number of fruit-trees. The new rifle-range embankment has been completed, and the area enclosed, consisting of 270 acres, has been taken over by the Prisons Department in so far as grazing-rights are concerned. The work of building firing-mounds, stop-banks, and target-galleries for the rifle range the Defence Department is providing for the local Territorial Forces and rifle club is now being put in hand. The Spoy Street drain, which at time of my last report was being cut, has now been completed. This drain is two miles in length, 22 ft. wide at top by 11 ft. at bottom, and of an average depth of 5 ft. Bin. Miles of smaller drains have been cut and miles of fences erected. A suction-dredge plant capable of moving 50 yards of solids per hour lias been procured, and is now being fitted up for the purpose of pumping material from the river-channel and depositing same on low-lying portions of the farm. Once this has been done the Prisons Department will possess one of the finest farms in the whole of Southland. A firewoodcutting plant, also a portable sawmilling plant, is being installed for the purpose of dealing with the timber standing on the 90-acre block recently acquired by the Prisons Department. The work of constructing the eastern embankment, which was part of the original scheme under the agreement entered into with the Invercargill Borough Council, is now nearing completion. Maintenance of the existing embankments, together with work incidental to the development of a farm located upon land which a few years ago was part of the estuary, will continue to keep a considerable number of inmates constantly employed for several years to come. Much has been done, but much still requires to be done. At New Plymouth, metal-quarrying and gardening operations have fully employed the small number of prisoners confined there. , M. Hawkins, Inspector of Prisons and Supervisor of Works.
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