§ COLONEL BERESFORDsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether steam power has been supplied in the workshops now established in several of the prisons in England, where the manufacture of various articles is carried on, or in any of them; and, if it be true that the goods, or any of them, so manufacfactured or hand made, are sold below the ordinary market price, thus competing unfairly with free labour?
MR. BRUCEAs far, Sir, as I have been able to ascertain, steam power has been applied in the workshop of Wakefield Prison alone, but the articles manufactured there are not, as I understand, sold under market price. All the articles manufactured in convict prisons are sold to the Government, with the exception of mats, which are sold to the public, but not under market price.