SEAMEN IN GAOL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10531, 24 October 1925, Page 3

SEAMEN IN GAOL.

ROUTINE AT MOUNT EDEN. THE PRISON OVERCROWDED. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, October 23. Nearly 250 seamen strikers are accommodated at Mount Eden Gaol under make-shift but not uncomfortable conditions; no house of detention offers home comforts to those who offend against the laws of the land. In spite of the sudden congestion the gaol authorities seem to have been equal to the emergency. The majority of the seaman have been accommodated in the gaol chapel and schoolroom. They enjoy a leisure which may soon pall. None of them are working. Their daily routine is adjusted so that they will not come into contact with the regular prisoners when they are summoned into the building at meal times. Between meals most of the seamen gather in the courtyard. They play no games, but are' permitted to read literature from the -gaol's extensive library. Smoking is permitted. At 5 o'clock in the evening the seamen have to come indoors. After dining they may read until 9 o'clock. Tho kitchen staff Iras been kent working up to full capacity to feed the 250 men, whose appetites have apparently not suffered from inactivity. The food is good. It is the regular prison ration, and no inmate of Mount Eden Gaol who follows a policy of good conduct has yet found his rations unpalatable or inadequate. The first seamen sentenced, the batch of eight from the Benicia, have been discharged. The sentences of a large number expire on November 6.