d on by them, and
with satisfactory results in every way.

[Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF JAIL BUILDINGS, SINGAPORE.

_Plate X._]

Shortly after the transfer of the Straits Settlements to the Crown,
which occurred on the 1st April, 1867, the Governor, then Sir Harry St.
George Ord, called upon Major McNair, who had been appointed Colonial
Engineer and Comptroller of the Indian Convicts, to prepare plans for a
Government House to be erected near Mount Sophia, somewhat under two
miles from the town. The plans were approved by the Governor, and passed
by the Legislative Council early in 1868. The land on which it stands
cost $43,800, and the building, furniture, and laying out of the
grounds, $115,000, and the work, with convict labour, was finished for
the reception of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh[8] in December, 1869.

[Footnote 8: Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.]

DESCRIPTION OF THE SINGAPORE CONVICT JAIL.

We have already incidentally referred to the plans of Captain Man for
the erection of a permanent jail for the Indian convicts, which he had
agreed to construct wholly by convict labour. The enclosure wall already
existed, within which the original temporary buildings and thatched huts
had been run up for their shelter. Only one solid building was within
it, part of which was used as a hospital and the remainder for the
confinement of convicts in irons. The next permanent building to be
erected was quarters for the chief warder, and then came the solid
gateways and guard-rooms. After these were built the wards for the
fourth and fifth classes, or convicts in irons, then Nos. 1 and 2 wards,
all shown on the plan (Plate X.) attached. Then a work-yard was enclosed
by a solid wall, and offices built near the outer entrance to it, for
the offices of the engineer and Superintendent of Convicts. While this
wall was under construction by one gang, other gangs were employed in
erecting within the main enclosure a refractory ward and punishment
cells, and other minor buildings required in the way of store rooms,
filter rooms,[9] chain room, and a receiving room for fresh arrivals;
and the effectual drainage of the whole prison.

[Footnote 9: These filters were of the simplest construction.
They consisted of three very porous earthenware pots or
"chatties" placed on a tripod. In the first was the water to be
filtered, a foot off was the pot full of charcoal and white
sand, and the filtered water was