He selected Government Hill for the main work, and improved and enlarged the batteries on Mounts Palmer and Faber, being of opinion that, beyond the idea of a place of refuge, the island should be fortified to resist aggression from without. All his plans were approved, and, as Lord Canning had then become the first "Viceroy" of India, the main work was named after him, which name it bears to this day. In the execution of most of the earthwork, Chinese labour was employed, but the convicts were utilized in building the sally ports, constructing the drawbridge, sinking the deep wells; and the whole of the bricks, and much of the lime and cement required, were manufactured by the convicts at the Government kilns on the Serangoon Road. Colonel Collyer also designed other important works in the place, notably the Collyer Quay. Major Mayne, of the same corps, succeeded him, and in his time the waterworks scheme for the town was initiated, but not carried fully to completion, and fresh designs became necessary under his successor, in consultation with the late Sir Robert Rawlinson, K.C.B. During this year also the convicts were employed in the erection of a new court house (now the public offices), the general hospital, lunatic asylum, pauper hospital, and some other minor public works. They also built the walls of the reclamation works along the sea front, now known as Collyer Quay, and above referred to, and the river wall at Campong Malacca. Both these sea and river works had been attempted by free labour, but the work of the convicts for this class of rubble walling was found more suitable, and therefore it was carried on by them, and with satisfactory results in every way. [Illustration: DISTRIBUTION OF JAIL BUILDINGS, SINGAPORE. _Plate X._] Shortly after the transfer of the Straits Settlements to the Crown, which occurred on the 1st April, 1867, the Governor, then Sir Harry St. George Ord, called upon Major McNair, who had been appointed Colonial Engineer and Comptroller of the Indian Convicts, to prepare plans for a Government House to be erected near Mount Sophia, somewhat under two miles from the town. The plans were approved by the Governor, and passed by the Legislative Council early in 1868. The land on which it stands cost $43,800, and the building, furniture, and laying out of the grounds, $115,000, and the work, with convict labour, was finished for the reception of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh[8] in December, 1869. [Footnote 8: Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.] DESCRIPTION OF THE SINGAPORE CONVICT JAIL.