ROTOROA ISLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 137, 10 June 1911, Page 9

ROTOROA ISLAND.

REFORMATORY OR WHAT?

lETTER FROM AN INMATE.

The "Dominion" publishes the following letter from an inmate of the Salvation Army Inebriate Home at Rotoroa, and replies thereto by the Minister for Justice and Major Toomer, of Auckland.

To the Editor—Sir, —Will you kindly graut mc a little space in your paper to complain of the injustice that is being done lo a considerable number of people personally, and the whole country generally? I refer to an institution which is miscalled a reformatory home for inebriates, and run by the Salvation Army in conjunction with the Government. Here you have a large number of all sorts and conditions of men. able-bodied and well able to earn a good living for themselves, shut up on an island, living an aimless and indolent life, injurious alike to their mental and physical health and faculties. Sir, I would" like to ask the population of this country, through the medium of your paper, just three questions:—

1. Is this place a prison or a reformatory?

2. Is it a fair thing that a man should be punished with a year's imprisonment for the mere offence of insobriety? 3. What effect is this -treatment having on the men sent here?

As an inmate of this place, I do not expect any opinion of mine to carry weight, with the public. But it will be something done if I succeed in placing the matter in. all its naked trurh before the people. On all sides of mc, from day to day, I hear nothing but complaints from strong men in the prime of life, who cannot understand tbe terrible injustice that is being done -them in this enforced idleness and waste of time and energy. If this is a prison, then I think you will admit that the punishment is greater than the offence deserves. If intended for a reformatory, then the fact that a large number of men have been returned a second time should prove conclusively that the effect of this treatment is not what was expected or desired. I should think it were better to call it at once a miserable failure, and to admit tlhat to proceed wdth it any further would be a sinful and wholly ineffectual expenditure of publk- money. A number of people, including the writer and his present companions, have been sacrificed in order to carry out this experiment, but we hope that our efforts, through your kindness and courtesy, will be the means of preventing this farce going any further. —I am, etc., VICTIM. Rot'oroa Island, May 27. 1911. STATEME>CTS IX REPLY. THE, HON. G. FOWLDS. Copies o-f the above letter have been shown to the Hon. G. Fowlds, ActingMinister for Justice, and to Major Toomer, of tbe Men's Social Office of the Salvation Army.

Air. Fowlds stated that Rotoroa Island was both a reformatory and a prison. According to the information given to him, a number of cases had gone back there a second time, but on the whole the institution had done excellent work in the reclamation of drunkards. Work was provided, but it was easier t<y get a horse to the water than to make him drink. Some of tbe men, he believed, did not do very much work, but the work was provided, and a good many of them did work, and worked very well. The place was regularly inspected by officers of the Prisons Department, Dr. Hay, and the Rev. M. Kayll. SALVATION" ABAIY. Major Toomer sends the following statement from Auckland:—"As a rule inebriates are not confined to delicate men or weaklings physically. They include able-bodied men, who 'have given way to the habit of drinking, until they have become a menace to themselves and society at large. The Government, after years of experience, has found that fining or committing these men for short sentences is a.bsolutely useless, and had no beneficial effect. Therefore they consider the only hope is to take them away from their surroundings, companions, and the hotels that they have frequented, isolate, them where procuring drink is impossible, and by good living, regular habits, and -healthy surroundings give them a chance to build up their constitutions and thus enable them to conquer their craving for drink. All the men who acre physically fit for work are engaged in various kinds of employment, such as farm work, gardening, fishing, tending cattle, and poultry, road-making, and ail work in connection with the home. Our experiences have been that men who have come to us in a brokendown and almost dying condition, have been discharged in a sound, healthy state of mind and body, able to engage in any kind of work to which they 'have Deen accustomed. [Regarding the ques-

•tions: — "1. The endeavour of the Army (while recognising that it is a reformatory) is to make it a home as much as possible.

•'2. The inmates are not sent for punishment as to prison, but for their own good because they have proved unable to look after themselves and to refrain from drink, and we have had numbers of cases where we believe the inmates' lives have been saved as a Tesult of their admission to the home.

'"3. This question has practically been answered above.

"Men who have come to us wrecked both bodily and mentally have been sent out strong and well, and thus a chance has been given to make a fresh start in life, if they had any wish to avail themselves of it, and leave the drink alone. It is an old saying, 'You can take a horse to water, but cannot make him drink.' It is equally true that you can send a man to Rotoroa and do all that is humanly possible, hut cannot make a sober man of him ntrainst his will. A number of habisual drunkards are sent to the island who have no desire or intention to give up the drink. "Victim' has not been

victimised by the Salvation Army, who have done all they can for him, and also for every man who has been committed to our care."