ng jail, and no intramural
workshops of any kind were provided, the convicts being employed almost
exclusively on extramural works, such as opening up roads on the Penang
Hill and throughout the island, and in Province Wellesley; also in
brick-making, felling timber, burning lime, and reclaiming mangrove
swamps. The ground on which some portion of the present town is built
was filled up by convict labour. Much later on, however, in the Fifties,
rattan work was introduced into the prison, and easy chairs, lounging
chairs, baskets, and other articles of a very substantial quality were
manufactured and sold to the public at a higher price than that for
which the same articles could be purchased in the town, but they were
far superior both in the quality of rattan and in their make. About the
year 1860, blacksmiths' and carpenters' shops were established in the
prison, and on the different "commands" in the country districts.

The ordinary discipline of the jail was carried out in accordance with
the "Penang Rules" referred to, and any breach of these rules was
punished according to the nature of the offence, at the discretion of
the Superintendent. There was then no formal investigation or inquiry
into convict complaints or misdemeanours, and no records of them were
kept with any show of regularity. It was only after the appointment of
the late General Man as Resident Councillor of Penang, Captain Hilliard
being Superintendent, that a manifest improvement in the management and
control of the convicts took place, and especially in their industrial
training. He brought with him the system in force in Singapore, and the
new rules and regulations formed with the sanction of the Governor, then
Colonel Butterworth, and which were an improvement on the old Penang
rules, but were only at this time being tentatively carried out in
Penang. By these rules the entire abolition of free warders was
approved, and petty officers raised from amongst the convicts themselves
fully established, though as the Governor himself said in his letter to
the Resident Councillor of Singapore in August, 1854, "I had drawn up
these rules as long ago as 1845 in the face of much opposition."

The late General Man held the appointment at Penang from 1860 until
1867, when the Straits Settlements were transferred to the Crown, and
from Penang he went to the Andaman Islands to introduce there the system
of convict management in force in the Straits Settlement