SINGAPORE (_Continued_)
To continue the narrative according to date, we trace that in the year
1858, after the mutiny, the Indian Government came to the conclusion
that at all principal centres "field redoubts" should be constructed, to
be available as places of refuge for Europeans in the event of a native
rising; and accordingly orders were given for the fortification of
Singapore. Colonel Collyer, of the Madras Engineers, was therefore sent
over from Madras to design and carry out the necessary military works,
and he was given the appointment of Chief Engineer of the Straits
Settlements.
He selected Government Hill for the main work, and improved and enlarged
the batteries on Mounts Palmer and Faber, being of opinion that, beyond
the idea of a place of refuge, the island should be fortified to resist
aggression from without. All his plans were approved, and, as Lord
Canning had then become the first "Viceroy" of India, the main work was
named after him, which name it bears to this day. In the execution of
most of the earthwork, Chinese labour was employed, but the convicts
were utilized in building the sally ports, constructing the drawbridge,
sinking the deep wells; and the whole of the bricks, and much of the
lime and cement required, were manufactured by the convicts at the
Government kilns on the Serangoon Road. Colonel Collyer also designed
other important works in the place, notably the Collyer Quay. Major
Mayne, of the same corps, succeeded him, and in his time the waterworks
scheme for the town was initiated, but not carried fully to completion,
and fresh designs became necessary under his successor, in consultation
with the late Sir Robert Rawlinson, K.C.B.
During this year also the convicts were employed in the erection of a
new court house (now the public offices), the general hospital, lunatic
asylum, pauper hospital, and some other minor public works. They also
built the walls of the reclamation works along the sea front, now known
as Collyer Quay, and above referred to, and the river wall at Campong
Malacca. Both these sea and river works had been attempted by free
labour, but the work of the convicts for this class of rubble walling
was found more suitable, and therefore it was carried 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 drawn off from the third. The
charcoal and sand were renewed twice a week.]
It was only when all these buildings were actually completed, in the
year 1860, that the establishment assumed the character of a prison; and
the convicts themselves were not slow to realize the fact, for it became
a proverb amongst them that "an open campong, or village, had become a
closed cage."
In 1857 there were altogether under the control of the convict
authorities no fewer than 2,139 transported felons from India and about
fifty from Hongkong. About one half of this number were localised in the
main prison, the other half being employed upon the country roads, the
quarries, and brickfields. These were of the third class; the second
class men were detailed for duties as Government messengers, punkah
pullers at the hospitals and Government offices, and others of this
class also as "lookout men" at the flag-staff stations, helpers to light
keepers, crews for the Government boats conveying firewood to the jail
and brick kilns, and others digging and conveying coral for lime
burning.
In the main prison the wards were built of a uniform length of 230 feet,
breadth 60 feet, and height of walls 20 feet. The wards were not ceiled,
but open to the tiles, with a ridge ventilator along the whole roof.
Beneath the side windows, which were barred, ground ventilation was
provided, in order to ensure a current of air throughout the whole
building. The floors were laid in concrete, and cemented over with
"soorkee," or brick dust and cement mixed, and graded to the sides. Each
ward was arranged to contain four hundred convicts. All the convicts
were in association, separate confinement being restricted to the
punishment cells. In each ward were platform sleeping benches. They were
raised three feet at the head, and two feet nine inches at the foot,
above the floor, and were coated with coal tar except on the actual
sleeping place.
Lime-wash was used for the inner roofing timbers and tiles, and
generally for the walls, except for the three feet of dado, which was
coated with coal tar. Parts of this dado were daily re-coated with hot
fresh tar, as we found coal tar to be a valuable deodorizer. To each
ward there were four night urinals, detached from the main building and
provided with double spring doors. In each urinal there were utensils
coated with coal tar, and at every corner iron crates filled with
wood-charcoal to absorb noxious vapours. Down the centre of each ward
spit-boxes were provided for second and third class convicts accustomed
to betel chewing. There was always a night watch of one petty convict
officer in each ward, and surprise visits were often paid at night by
the Superintendent, his assistant, and the chief warder. Going down a
ward at night, one might see four hundred or more of these convicts,
each enveloped from head to foot in a "chadar," or native sheet,
literally over head and ears in sleep. They were all properly worked,
properly fed, and properly punished when they deserved it; so, with the
benefit of the two first, and a wholesome dread of the third, no wonder
they were soon lulled to sleep when the prison doors were closed upon
them. Now, at the risk of being a little tedious, we propose to describe
in some detail the "day" latrines in use in this old jail. The
information may, we think, be of service to those who have native
prisoners under their charge either in jails or police stations in the
East. At this period of time, when conservancy has rightly taken a first
place in all such establishments, it may be thought by some to be
superfluous, but the system pursued by us worked so very well that we do
not hesitate to give an account of it.
There were many such latrines in the prison, so we will confine our
remarks to one only. The building in use for this purpose was about
seventy feet in length and twenty feet wide, and the tiled roof was
supported upon brick pillars raised twelve feet from the ground. In its
construction care was taken, above all things, to ensure a solid floor
"impervious" to "moisture." This was made by first laying down six
inches of well-prepared concrete, consisting of pounded granite,
brick-dust, and gravel cemented together by hydraulic mortar, then
overlaid with pure cement, and after this coated with an inch thick of
asphalt. Around the whole building was an open drain, about two feet
inside of the pillars, and built like the floor, and carefully graded to
the outfall. The walls, pillars, and drains were coated with coal tar,
and here and there daily renewed to ensure deodorization. Close to the
drain, and at eighteen inches apart, were placed troughs of hard wood
two feet in length, one foot nine inches wide, and nine inches deep,
with stout handles at either end. These troughs were smeared over with
pitch. Between every second trough was placed a box containing about a
bushel of powdered red earth, perfectly dry, and in each box was a ladle
made of half a cocoanut shell attached to a handle. Two convicts of the
sixth, or feeble class, were placed in charge of this latrine, whose
duty it was to see that the red earth was sprinkled by those using the
troughs. When the troughs were full they were emptied into a
conservancy cart with a hermetically closed screw top, and when this was
full it was conveyed by bullocks to plantations in the country.
We think we are quite warranted in saying that this was the first jail,
if not the first establishment anywhere, in which this dry earth system
of conservancy was used. For centuries, no doubt, in India the
well-known habit of the cat had been followed by many of the native
castes, but it was not until vast numbers of these convicts from India
were aggregated in association that the application of the system to
their dwellings was initiated, and we think that the clever invention of
the "earth closet" for certain localities may have suggested itself to
its inventor when a resident at Singapore.
It may be as well to give here the testimony of Dr. Mouat, the
Inspector-General of Jails, Bengal, on the efficiency of the conservancy
of this old jail, and in no spirit of self-satisfaction we quote his own
words "verbatim," which are as follows:--
"Singapore, _1st June, 1865_.--I have sincere pleasure in
recording the unmixed satisfaction which I have experienced
from a careful examination of the jail, and system of prison
management in use at Singapore.
The scrupulous cleanliness, perfect plan of conservancy,
excellent order, well-regulated system of labour and
punishments, and the high standard of health attained are not
surpassed in any other well-regulated institution of the same
kind that I am acquainted with in Europe or in Asia. My
personal knowledge of prisons and of all details of prison
management is sufficiently extended to entitle me to speak with
authority on this subject.
In many important points of internal economy and discipline,
Singapore can fairly lay claim to being _Primus in Indis_ in
the adoption and practical working of principles that are now
generally accepted as sound and correct. My own feeling on the
subject is that Colonels Man and Macpherson and Captain McNair,
to whom the chief credit appears to be due, are entitled to
rank in the first class of prison officers and reformers in
India."
Perhaps the last addition to the jail buildings was the erection by the
convict bricklayers and plasterers of a stand to hold the prison bell,
and from whence to call the roll at general musters. It was built in the
form of a "monopteron," a sort of structure without walls, and composed
of columns arranged in a circle, and supporting a covered cupola.