"As an Engineer Officer of the D.P.W., I have had a good deal of experience as regards the management of jails in India and Burmah, and have, of course, employed much convict labour, but I have never been in any jail where the arrangements are so perfect as in that of Singapore. While the discipline under which the convicts are held is obviously most efficient, the skill with which their labour is directed will be equally obvious to all who will take the trouble, as I have done, to go into the detail of their operations, and look at the results in the many large works which have been executed at Singapore. I went over the brick field with Captain McNair, and while I found that the greatest reasonable amount of work was got out of each man, I also found that the work turned out was the best I have seen in India. Where there are good bricks, other work is seen to be equally good, and when a proper amount of work is required per convict, then the discipline must be also good; I measured myself what the men were expected to do, and found it to be three cubic yards in eight hours. This is the full task of a European sapper in the same time." Our lime and cement were made from coral, of which there were extensive reefs round the Island of Singapore, and some few "atolls" (a Cingalese word), or special coral islands. Coral is almost a pure carbonate of lime, and therefore very well suited for the purpose. It was broken up and heated in kilns constructed for the purpose. The cement was made from this lime, and from selected clay, in the proportions we had by careful experiments established, until we obtained a good and quick-setting article. It was made into small balls and then dried, and burnt in a special kiln, and afterwards well and finely ground and sifted by female convicts; its tensile strength was excellent. [Illustration: CONVICTS STONE-QUARRYING, AT PULO OBIN, SINGAPORE. _Plate XX._] STONE QUARRYING (see Plate XX.). The stone we used for all our building operations was procured from an island between Singapore East and the mainland of Johore, and was named Pulo Obin. It is about three miles long and three-quarters of a mile broad. The stone was the best possible form of crystallised granite, fine grained, very compact and durable, grey in colour, with here and there black patches or nodules of hornblende. It occurs in large fluted boulders, and was wrought by the convicts by fire, or by blasting with gun-powder, or split by pointed chisels and large hammers. Its weight was 168 lbs. per cubic foot. The excellent quality of this granite led the Government of India to approve of the construction by the late Colonel Eraser, C.B., of several courses for the Alguada Reef lighthouse, which was built upon a dangerous reef off the coast of Burmah. Our department looked after the preparation of some of these courses, and forwarded them by ship to Burmah.