._]

In one part of this yard was also a machine shop, in which were fitted
lathes, punching and shearing machines, and a bolt and nut machine, also
a band saw and a circular saw table. To drive this machinery a 12 h.p.
engine was used, and this was placed under the charge of a convict who
had been employed in the engine-room of a P. and O. steamer, and had
gone through his probationary period in the jail. Added to these
machines was one of Blake's stone-crushers to break stone of various
gauges for metalling the roads of the town.

This was the first Indian jail, and we might even go so far as to say it
was amongst the first of any jails, where convicts were employed in
connection with steam power. We had, it is true, an engine to be worked
by manual power, for six or eight men abreast, to drive the circular
saw, but it did not answer. It was intended as "crank" labour for the
convicts.

When Dr. Mouat, the Inspector-General of Jails, Bengal, wrote his annual
report of 1864-65, he said: "I have suggested the introduction of steam
machinery for the spinning of jute yarn, in order that all prisoners
sentenced to rigorous imprisonment may never be without the hard labour
which the jail is bound to provide for them. In this, as in most matters
connected with the organization of prison industry, I have been
anticipated by the authorities at Singapore, there being a steam
saw-mill in use at the Singapore jail, and a pug-mill employed in the
preparation of the clay used in the brick and tile manufactory."

The carpenters made every necessary article required for the public
buildings in progress; even the pulpit, reading-desk, and interior
fittings for the cathedral were the work of their hands. The blacksmiths
had four smithies, and forged, cast, and prepared all kinds of ordinary
iron work found necessary. The coopers made buckets, tubs, and all the
casks for storing cement, and for other jail purposes. The wheelwrights
made all the carts, barrows (hand and wheel), and the hack-barrows
wanted at the brick kilns. The stone-cutters turned out the mouldings,
mullions, capitals, cills, steps, and all that was essential in our
building operations.

Within the jail proper there were shops for tailors, weavers, rattan
workers, coir and rope makers, flag makers, a printing press, and a
photographic studio, and a few draughtsmen for executing plans and
working drawings. The tailors cut out, made, and repaired the clothing
for t