§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India, inasmuch as the most recent Official Returns from Bengal show that during the past five years, out of a daily average of 17,945 prisoners in the gaols of that Presidency, there were 1,169 deaths, of which only 207 were from cholera, will the Government endeavour more effectually to secure the introduction into the generality of Bengal prisons of those special sanitary improvements which have lately been eminently successful at the Hooghly District Gaol and also at Bhagalpore, where deaths from dysentery and other malarial diseases have, in consequence, been reduced to a minimum?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONThe hon. Member has quoted figures which apply not to the last five years, but the 51 years from 1844 to 1894. The corresponding figures for the last five years would be 16,576, 622, and 51. The average death rate per mille of average strength in those five years was only 37, a rate so low that it goes far to confirm the statement which I made last week that the Lieutenant Governor is doing all that lies in his power to make the gaols more healthy. I am not aware what are the special sanitary improvements to which the question refers; but I will cause the question to be brought under the notice of the Lieutenant Governor.