554 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



after the initial expenditure the penitentiaries ought to be soon 

 ahnost self-supporting. He points out that in England the 

 administration of criminal justice costs the annual sura of seven 

 and a half millions sterling, and adds he has not the slightest 

 doubt that within ten years of the establishment of the new 

 system this vast expenditure might be reduced by a half. 



It must not be forgotten in connection with the question 

 of the cost of the proposed penitentiary that the State is 

 already burdened with a heavy tax to support and guard the 

 class of criminals referred to. It would only be a transference of 

 this expenditure to a new and, it is hoped, a more effective 

 department. The only immediate outlay of any magnitude would 

 be the cost of the site, buildings, and necessary surroundings. As 

 before pointed out, this would be a light matter if shared in due 

 proportion by all the colonies. The preceding remarks on the 

 treatment of habitual criminals are intended as suggestions only. 

 They are the result of reflection and study of much that has been 

 written on the subject. The tendency of my own thoughts upon it, 

 before Dr. Strahan's opinions could have been known in Australia, 

 will sufficiently appear by an extract from a previous address I 

 gave before the Australian Natives' Association in Adelaide, 

 It is too long to read to you now. Dr. Strahan's address was 

 delivered on the 25th August, 1891; mine upon the 14th Sep- 

 tember, 1891. The coincidence seemed sufficiently interesting 

 for me to take the liberty of sending him a copy, and he favored 

 me with one of his pamphlets in return. It is most earnestly 

 written. In the preface he says, " It has been received with 

 most courteous consideration on all hands. The press criti- 

 cisms have been friendly, not to say flattering, and this notwith- 

 standing the fact that some very radical changes in our present 

 system of dealing with habitual criminals were therein advocated. 

 On the other hand, I have received a host of letters from prison 

 surgeons, criminal lawyers, medical practitioners, and others, all 

 of which more or less strongly support the views I ventured to 

 advance, and not a few of which indorse my conchisions in totoP 



I am not aware whether any subsequent eft'orts have been put 

 forth to give the learned doctor's advocacy a practical test, but if 

 the trend of English feeling is so strong in his favor I should 

 think he is not the man (judging from the tone of his address, for 

 I have not the privilege of his acquaintance) to let the ojiportunity 

 pass. 



PREVIOCrS COxNVICTIONS IX OTHER COLONIES. 

 There is one other matter in connection with the habitual 

 criminal which might with advantage be provided for by legislation. 

 Authority should be given to the Judge passing sentence to treat 

 convictions in any of the adjacent colonies as " previous convic- 

 tions," entitling such Judge to award the additional punishment 



