While these great changes were proceeding in the Convict System, I was endeavouring also by conference with representatives of Discharged Prisoners' Aid Societies of Local Prisons to obtain their agreement to certain changes in the system of aid for Local prisoners, having been led by experience to the opinion that a greater efficiency might perhaps be attained in dealing with prisoners discharged from Local Prisons under a different system. I submitted certain propositions, the object of which was, within the limit of existing financial resources (public and private), by an alteration of the financial arrangements, to increase the powers and duties of Aid Societies, subject to a sufficient control of public funds on the part of the Commissioners. This could only be made possible by discontinuing the practice of allowing certain prisoners to earn gratuities _as a matter of right_ by good conduct and industry in prison. Long experience had led the Commissioners to the opinion that the Gratuity System in Local Prisons was not a success. It was originally borrowed from the Penal Servitude System at the time when Local Prisons were centralized at Whitehall, and was generally accepted as a sufficient discharge of the power conferred on Justices of the Peace under Section 42 of the Prison Act, 1865, for making provision for the benefit of discharged prisoners, but it was ineffective, as a means of charity, because such a relatively small percentage of prisoners (_i.e._, only those whose sentences were over one month) would profit by it, and, secondly, as a means of discipline in securing the good conduct of the prisoners by the hope of earning a small sum on discharge, it could now be dispensed with, as the power to earn remission, conferred by the Prison Act, 1898, constituted, in the opinion of the Prison Authorities, a sufficient inducement to abstain from acts by which this highly-prized privilege could be lost. It was therefore desirable that the benefits conferred on prisoners by the Gratuity System should be secured to them in some other way. The State was paying in Gratuities at that time about £8,000 a year, and between £3,000 and £4,000 by way of grants to Aid Societies, under the scheme approved in 1897. To this total of about £11,000 a year the Aid Societies were contributing, roughly, about £10,000 a year. My proposals were (1) to abolish all gratuities: (2) to raise the Government grant from 6_d._ to 1_s._ per head: (3) to place this money at the disposition of the Aid Societies, at a rate corresponding to the number of prisoners discharged from each prison, subject to certain conditions, the principal of which were that every Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society should: (_a_) be duly registered with a certificate of the Commissioners that it is properly and efficiently organized: (_b_) that the increased Government grant should be met by a local annual subscription equal to one-half of the amount: (_c_) that