Prisoners their own warders

by John Frederick Adolphus McNair; W. D. Bayliss

GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SINGAPORE, COMPLETED.

Plate XIX.

In one part of this yard was also a machine shop, in which were fitted lathes, punching and shearing machines, and a bolt and nut machine, also a band saw and a circular saw table. To drive this machinery a 12 h.p. engine was used, and this was placed under the charge of a convict who had been employed in the engine-room of a P. and O. steamer, and had gone through his probationary period in the jail. Added to these machines was one of Blake's stone-crushers to break stone of various gauges for metalling the roads of the town.

This was the first Indian jail, and we might even go so far as to say it was amongst the first of any jails, where convicts were employed in connection with steam power. We had, it is true, an engine to be worked by manual power, for six or eight men abreast, to drive the circular saw, but it did not answer. It was intended as "crank" labour for the convicts.

When Dr. Mouat, the Inspector-General of Jails, Bengal, wrote his annual report of 1864-65, he said: "I have suggested the introduction of steam machinery for the spinning of jute yarn, in order that all prisoners sentenced to rigorous imprisonment may never be without the hard labour which the jail is bound to provide for them. In this, as in most matters connected with the organization of prison industry, I have been anticipated by the authorities at Singapore, there being a steam saw-mill in use at the Singapore jail, and a pug-mill employed in the preparation of the clay used in the brick and tile manufactory."

The carpenters made every necessary article required for the public buildings in progress; even the pulpit, reading-desk, and interior fittings for the cathedral were the work of their hands. The blacksmiths had four smithies, and forged, cast, and prepared all kinds of ordinary iron work found necessary. The coopers made buckets, tubs, and all the casks for storing cement, and for other jail purposes. The wheelwrights made all the carts, barrows (hand and wheel), and the hack-barrows wanted at the brick kilns. The stone-cutters turned out the mouldings, mullions, capitals, cills, steps, and all that was essential in our building operations.

Within the jail proper there were shops for tailors, weavers, rattan workers, coir and rope makers, flag makers, a printing press, and a photographic studio, and a few draughtsmen for executing plans and working drawings. The tailors cut out, made, and repaired the clothing for the fourth and fifth classes, and any other such occupation required in the prison. The weavers, who worked with an ordinary Indian hand-loom, made the coarse cloth required for those classes in irons, and washed, dressed, combed, carded, and spun the raw wool purchased from the butchers in the town, from which the "kumblies" or coarse blankets supplied to all the convicts were made. The coir or yarn manufactured from the husks of cocoanuts was prepared by those employed at "hard labour" in the refractory ward. From this yarn we made cordage for the convict boats, mattresses for the hospitals, and matting of various kinds. The flag makers made up and repaired the flags and colours for the signal stations, and for the department of the master attendant. Upon this work female convicts, and feeble men of the sixth class, were usually employed.

The printing press was established in 1860, and to start it the services of a Portuguese foreman printer were engaged for a short time to teach the convicts; and bookbinding was added later on. Photography was taught by one of us[14] to two intelligent convicts of the Calcutta Baboo class who wrote English. All convicts had their likeness taken, and were registered for identification in case of escape; also local prisoners and men under custody by the police. We had not, of course, the knowledge then of Mr. Henry's method of identity by means of "finger-prints," for it was only approved last year by the Government of India. The draughtsmen, numbering three, executed all the plans and working drawings for the public works. Those for the cathedral and Government House, and many other buildings, were drawn by these men, the principal draughtsman being a convict transported from Bombay of the name of Babajee. The rattan workers wrought chairs and baskets of all kinds, fenders for the Government steamers, and signal baskets for the flagstaff's.

There were other minor industries carried on within the prison walls, so that it was a busy scene of task work from one end to the other, for every one was engaged upon something, and there was no chance for an idler to do nothing. Nursing a job was quite out of the question.

But we must pass on to deal with the industries beyond the walls, and we shall limit our description to the making of bricks, lime, and cement, and the quarrying of stone, and well digging.