PRISON WARDERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXIII, Issue 8820, 17 March 1914, Page 2

PRISON WARDERS.

ALLEGED DISCONTENT.

, (Per Presii Association.) i ■ ■ ' AUCKLAND, March 16. A good deal has been said lately concerning discontent amongst the warders in the New Zealand prisons regarding their conditions of'work. The Wellington "Evening Post" of a recent date 5 published an official statement, denying (that there was any reason for disconj tent, and maintaining that the men were not called upon to work more than eight hours per day. This assertion is not endorsed by several men who recently threw up their positions in Mount Eden gaol, and who state that discontent is rife throughout the Dominion. One of the warders, who recently resigned from Mount Eden gaol, stated his grievance to a "Star" representative this < morning. "There are," he states, "only 38 warders in the institution to look after nearly 300 prisoners, and they work from nine to 10 hours per day." According ,to the ex-warder in question, there is particular discontent in regard to the hours which men on night duty work. Two warders watch over the prisoners during the night for something like 11 hours, but it is so arranged that between 7.p.m. and 6 a.m. each man takes five hours' sleep in a room from which he can readily be summoned. This room, it is alleged, is infested with vermin, and has been the cause of endless trouble. Bugs, he states, are the terror of those who have the misfortune to find their way into the wooden wing of the gaol, and it is alleged that prisoners have even had their eyes " bunged up" with bug bites. It is stated that in the last three weeks there have been four resignations at Mount Eden. 1 .. ' \