Tae Sinpao is publishing a series of proposals for reclaiming waste lands, which contain, among good many rather primitive ideas, some sensible suggestions, Notably, in a paragraph which we reprint this morning, a proposal is made to employ criminal labour, which would be an immense advantage if the Government could be impelled to carry it out. Western States have long recognised the principle, and it has been elaborated in the prisons of British India till these have become nearly if not quite self-supporting. Portland breakwater is a striking instance how ict labour can be usefully employed, with advantage to the health of the men, instead of leaving them to stagnate in prison; and the Chinese have before their eyes an example of the system, on small scale, in the so-called "chain-gang" of prisoners under sentence from the Mixed Court, who are made to work on our roads. The Chinese writer we refer to, naturally suggests the utilization of labour upon waste land, and he goes on to suggest the creation, 8o to speak, of convict labour by the adoption of hard labour sentences instead of the system of fining and flogging which is now generally followed. The rich man, it is argued, can atone for his violence by a payment which scarcely deters him from crime while the poor man "must mortgage his field and house and sell his wife and child," to obtain the commutation money, "if he accidentally commits a crime." Again, "the number of people who are sentenced to be flogged in each chow or helen district, every year, must be several thousand," and the writer would have these sentences changed to bard labour to be utilised upon the land. Without however entering into these details, it is sufficient to note
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.