t 30 28. A The effects of the financial crisis Avere felt more keenly in 1909 than in the previous year, -with the result that the municipal budget shows a slight falling off in the receipts accompanied by an increase of expenditure. The figures are as follows:— ]?eceip(:s Expenditure ..

Surplus 190». 1909.

£E. £E. .. 258.000 256,000 .. 236,000 244.000 22,000 12,000 The extraordinary receipts for the past year amounted to only £E. 13,000, of which nearly £E. 5,000 was derived from the sale of lands on the new quay.

The proposal to issue a loan of £E. 500,000 to meet the expenses of the breakwater in the east harbour and the drainage scheme mentioned in last year’s report, has been sanctioned by the Government in principle, and is now waiting for the approval of the Powers.

During the course of the year a report was presented on the heavy infant mortality of tlie town, and the steps to be taken to mitigate the evil are now being studied.

29. P The total number of prisoners at the close of 1909 was 13,325 compared with 13,120 in 1908. Of these, 4,233 were undergoing penal servitude, 6,495 detention 01' imprisonment, 1,188 were under appeal, and 1,409 still awaiting trial; 360 were women.

In accordance with the decree of the 11th July, 1908, of which an account was given on p. 36 of last year’s report, 291 liabituals were during the year sentenced for an indeterminate period to the adult reformatory.

The total number of admissions throughout the year was 108,365, compared with 84,632 in 1908, the daily average number confined being 13,420 as against 12,226 in 1908. The deaths were 166, making the mortality per mille on the average population 12'4 (13*6 in 1908).

During the year, 2,589 juveniles were whipped (1,881 in 1908). The total number of inmates at the juvenile reformatory on the 31st December, 1909, was 726 (518 In 1908), 654 being boys and 72 girls, the daily average number of boys and girls confined being 620.

The expenditure of the Department, exclusive of the amount spent on building (£E. 8,000), but including industries, araouuted to £E. 191,000 against £E. 187,000 in 1908, the gro.ss earnings of prisoners amounting to £E. 45,000, compared with £E. 51,000 in 1908.

A satisfactory feature is that the cost per prisoner on the daily average population has been reduced from £E. 11 last year to £E. 10.

30. C The law on the subject of child labour in cotton ginning factories, which Was in course of preparation when my last report was issued, passed safely through the different ordeals to which it was subjected, and was promulgated in July last. The chief provisions of the measure are as follows :— 1. No child under nine years of age maj* be employed in a cotton ginning factory.

2. The employment of children between nine and thirteen years of age is subject to the conditions that the child (o) holds a certificate of age and physical fitness for work, and (/;) must not work for more than eight hours a day; night w'ork and certain other particularly dangerous forms of employment are altogether prohibited.

3. All persons engaged in recruiting or supervising child labour must be licensed. 4. Government in.spectors have the right to enter factories in order to supervise the proper working of the regulationsj and to report any infringement of the law.

5. A first offence may be punished by fine up to £E. 1, and a second by imprisonment not exceerling a week. (The.se penalties are obviously inadequate for the offences House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.