Sir W. DenisoHS Plan for Reclamation of Prisoners. 5 1 



of the criminal, consisted in the classification of criminals ac- 

 cording to the nature of their crime — co-operative labour during 

 the day, solitary confinement at night, and a certain amount 

 of remuneration for work performed, so as to stimulate to 

 habits of industry by a visible reward, and a scale of dietary 

 barely sufficient to maintain life, any additional delicacy 

 being paid for out of the man's own earnings, yet not so as 

 to entirely exhaust his wages, the balance of which thus 

 went on accumulating, so as to give him a small sum of 

 money in hand, when, his sentence expired, he was set at 

 liberty with, it is to be hoped, freshly-acquired habits of in- 

 dustry. To facilitate this benevolent j^lan. Sir William be- 

 thought him of erecting the prisons in the neighbourhood of 

 Sydney, where there is more of a market for convict labour, 

 and recommended the construction of roads. The number of 

 prisoners at present in New South Wales is about 1260, 

 whose support costs on an average £36,000 per annum. In 

 order to adapt to the existing prisons the new system put 

 in operation by the late Governor-general, and extend it to 

 1600 men,* there would be required a further outlay of 

 £69,000, but one-third of the present annual outlay for 

 sustenance would be saved. 



On 25th November the Novara, thoroughly overhauled and 

 rejuvenated, returned to her former anchorage near Garden 

 Island, and the following day commenced a series of festivi- 

 ties/ which the German residents at Sydney had got up 



* Viz. 1400 men, and 200 women. 



E 2 



