MR. OWEN STANLEYasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, If the total cost of £1,029,920 for the construction of Portland Harbour, as given in the quarterly Return ending 31st March 1870, includes all the expenses of the Convict Labour, together with the Maintenance and Guard for the Convict Establishment at Portland; and, if the Government has ever received any Return contrasting the expense of employing Convict Labour with Free Labour, from the late Mr. Rendel, during the time that Sir Charles Wood, now Viscount Halifax, was at the Admiralty?
§ MR. GOSCHENsaid, in reply, that the total cost of Portland Harbour, amounting to £1,029,920, as shown in the Quarterly Return ending the 31st of March, 1870, did not include the cost of maintenance of convicts nor of the guard; it included the cost only of tools and materials, or the difference between the cost of keeping convicts employed and 956 unemployed. No Return was made by Mr. Rendel at the time Lord Halifax was at the Admiralty showing the difference between convict and free labour, but he believed some such statement was shown unofficially to Sir James Graham.