BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 97, 26 April 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOYS' OWN COLUMN.

A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST,

THE WAY OF, THE TRANSGRESSOR WAS HARD.

I . Dear Boys,— In these modern days, when justice is so often tempered with mercy, it is hard to realise the terrible laws and punishments inflicted upon our. erring forebears. Men could be hanged for forgery, smuggling, cattle stealing, cutting timber, poaching, shop-lifting, and many other offences. One example will suffice to prove their savage injustice. The press gang seized a young jnan and carried him off to serve in the Navy. His wife, with her baby, was left penniless. »' She stole a piece of cloth valued at live shillings, -which she hoped to sell for food, and the country which had taken away the breadwinner hanged his wife! t •i_ I It is easy to realise that the gaols were crowded, not only with real criminals, but with respectable people who had been driven to some patty offence by sheer want. At that time, owing to the noble efforts of John Howard, Parliament had passed a bill saying that innocent prisoners should be released without having: to pay the heavy fees demanded by the gaolers. Otherwise a poor nan might neve* have come out cf prison, though he were proved not guilty a dozen times over. The prisons were sometimes old dungeons, thirty steps below the earth, slimy and swarming, with rats. Chains* iron collars and logs were used to secure the prisoners. Torture was forbidden by law, but sometimes practised by brutal gaolers. There was no regular allowance ot food, clothing was not supplied, and m Newgate the women slept huddled together on the floor, where the boards were raised in one part to serve as'a pillow, though no bedding was allowed. They were literally halt naked, for want had brought them there, and they were obliged to trade their poor garments for bread. Their friends, to feed them, had to steal, ar.d soon came to swell the number condemned to death. Inthoß ® d^ ys the women's division of Newgate consisted of two cells and two wards, a small area of 190 square yards, which held three hundred- women, triad and untried, who were controlled by two men. Somefcmes, when they were tired of sentencing wom^nt to the raffows, magistrates would order them to bs transported, Wagonloads 3 women in chains were driven to the dock,, and there tW were Mow decks like cattle, with nothing to do on the voyage. On en-.vel at the convict settlement they foond not the least hnl:t Unless they were so fortunate as to find work immediately, they hac to live by starve. They we,, panted a small «»<>»-« £ b »' « h - £ STtSX bette, able l weA than the women, woold steal t.om .he.r .yers to help them, and so the circle of crime went on unto! one ,udge "There is no regenerating a felon. in this life, and for his own sake, nx well as for the sake of society, I, jj think h better to hanj." OA&^. Thank goodness our judges are humane now and, our laws have kept pace with cur progress.