IN SINGAPORE, 
43 
was not at all surprised, when I w T ent to the house of correction, to 
find that threefourths of the prisoners were Opium smokers: this I 
say did not surprise me, but confirmed what I had already Supposed- 
Determined to pursue the enquiry further, I examined the prisoners 
sentenced at the Quarter Sessions, and the grand Sessions of Oyer 
and Terminer as well as those who were in Jail, waiting their trial 
and undergoing their punishment. In table No. 2 taken in the be¬ 
ginning of July are fifty one Chinese prisoners, who were confined in 
the Jail; of these, the majority were waiting for their trial, a few only 
having been sentenced at a previous session: of these 51, 15 only de¬ 
clared they were not Opium smokers. Towards the end of Septem¬ 
ber I again examined the prisoners confined in the Jail, the majority 
of whom I had examined in July, but some had not been examin¬ 
ed having entered subsequently, and some had been discharged, 
the Court sitting at the time; from this examination, a very different 
result was obtained compared with the previous one, for out of 69 as 
seen in table 3, 31 only were found to be habitual Opium smokers. 
This naturally excited my astonishment. 1 then examined the pri¬ 
soners sentenced to punishment at the Quarter Sessions, and found as 
Table 4 shows, that only 9 out of 23 were adicted to the vice, which 
confirmed the greater accuracy of Table No- 3, or rather its more 
general accordance with that class of criminals. Table No. 5 con¬ 
tains a list of persons sentenced to Bombay from Pinang, of whom 
10 are Chinamen, and one only of that 10 does not smoke*, No. 6 
the last table, shows a list of all prisoners condemned to the house of 
Correction by the Hon’ble the Recorder in this last Session; and m 
it we see 25 Chinese, 12 of whom are Opium smokers. 
