182 TRINIDAD. 



1851. Number of natives then, 40,584 ; average annual number 

 of offences, 156 : for the five years I have recorded it is 625. 

 Surely the native population has not increased fourfold : it has 

 not even doubled. 



If we take the religion of the offenders as a starting point 

 for comparison, we arrive at the following results : — 



Non-Christians 6,693 



Christians — 



Anglicans ... ... ... ... ... 3,565 



Roman Catholics ... ... 3,829 



Other Christian Communities ... ... 94 



7.488 



I wish to call special attention to the following facts, 

 the large increase of female and of juvenile offenders. The 

 years 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, had given an average oi 

 104 female offenders; the five years 1872, 1873, 1876, 187^ 

 1878 give an average of 353, more than treble that of tl 

 first period. Again, the number of female offenders, which 

 1873 was only 208, had swelled up to 460 in 1878. 



The number of juvenile offenders, which in 1873 was 5" 

 had increased to 84 in 1877. This is, indeed, a sad progression. 



I cannot do better than quote here some passages of tl 

 reports of the Inspector of Prisons for 1874 and 1877 ; and I 

 so the more readily as I entirely concur in whatever he says 

 this subject and on prison discipline generally. 



"The question of female crime/'' he remarks, "is a vei 

 serious one ; and when it is considered that by far the great 

 number of our female prisoners are committed for riotous 

 haviour, obscene language, drunkenness, and other offences 

 that type, I cannot but think that it would be worth while 

 consider whether women of this class should not be treat* 

 somewhat in the same way as juvenile offenders, and sent to 

 penitentiary for a term of years, instead of being allowed to 

 spend their lives in alternative short spells of libert} 7 and im- 

 prisonment. 



"These short periods are, in reality, nothing more than 

 intervals of rest, during which the female convicts gather health 

 and strength at the public expense, and come out with renewed 

 energies to recommence the same round of vice and debauchery. 

 It is painful to be obliged to make such an assertion ; but I am 

 bound to state that each succeeding year shows a rapid spread 



