Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/735

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 719

feeling about the modern situation. The postulate of evolution, according to Mr. Spencer, is the equilibration of energy. He must have seen that the extension of communication from the nations having a balance of power to the weak races would precipitate transformations unprecedented ; that science and invention used in exploitation of natural resources must revive struggles between economic classes ; and finally, that only when these gigantic equilibrations shall be com- pleted can there be peace, a final disappearance of militarism with its correlated type of character. Seeing this, Mr. Spencer's inability to look upon the process without bitterness is a crowning proof of the intensity of his abhorrence of all aggression. FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS, in International Journal of Ethics, July, 1904.

H. E. F

The Government Prison Settlement at Waiotapu, New Zealand an Experiment in the Utilization of Prison Labor. Off the main coach-road through the North Island of New Zealand, in a trackless volcanic plain covered with manuka scrub and steaming hot springs, stands a cluster of white huts. These buildings are the scene of an experiment, philanthropic or social, which from its novelty alone is of unique interest. The writer visited the prison camp on January 31, 1903. That was just two years after its opening.

The real work of the prisoners is tree-planting. The settlement area is 1,280 acres. The government owns this. The soil is made of volcanic ash, from four inches to two feet deep. The government forester had found that pines suitable for timber would grow there. More than 200 acres are already under cultivation. Everything is done by prison labor. The men work in parties of twelve, under an unarmed warder.

The prisoners are almost all men convicted of felonies, on charges such as forgery and embezzlement. Many are gentlemen by birth and education. No attempts to escape have been made. Only prisoners of the class working for good marks are sent there. Four live together in each of the fifteen box-like houses. The men's health is excellent, high level, climate, natural hot baths, and outdoor work being the causes. The experiment has not been expensive, comparing per capita cost for that at ordinary prisons. Two similar settlements are now proposed.

In forming prison settlements, the government in no way intends to super- sede the convict labor used in road-making. It intends: (i) to discriminate between classes of prisoners, to humanize the conditions of life for those not criminals by disposition, and to prevent the herding of hardened criminals and first offenders ; (2) not to interfere with free labor, as no government could afford to carry out such a scheme of tree-planting on waste land except by prison labor. CONSTANCE A. BARNICOAT, in International Journal of Ethics, July, 1904.

H. E. F

Crime in England. For some years prison reformers have referred to England as the one country where crime was decreasing ; but the tide of statistics has at last turned, and has risen so high as to awaken some concern. The increase in the number of commitments to 100,000 of the population has been most con- spicuous within the last three or four years, rising from 460 in 1901 to 535 per 100,000 in 1903.

Inquiry reveals four probable causes for the increase: (i) Greater activity on the part of the police has resulted, in some districts, in the more rigid enforcement of law with regard to drunkenness, immorality, and vagrancy. Thus progress toward a better enforcement of the law in a community makes it com- pare unfavorably as to prison population with less well-regulated districts, (a) Growth of vagrancy and of offenses against workhouse regulations by men who prefer prison to workhouse life has helped to swell the number of commitments. This condition raises the question whether labor colonies on the Belgian model might not be established to advantage, where the professional tramp, who now goes from prison to prison, may be detained for a long period of time. (3) The return of soldiers from South Africa seems to have added slightly to the number of commitments for assault and drunkenness. (4) A considerable rise in the number of prisoners committed for debt is evident in all parts of the country.