REMISSION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 180, 1 August 1941, Page 8

REMISSION

FLOGGING ORDER

POUR ESCAPEES

GOVERNMENT VIEW i <By Telegraph.—Parliamcitary Reporter.) WELLINGTON", this day. The Government has decided to recommend the remission of the flogging ordered by Mr. Justice Blair earlier this year to be carried out on four prisoners as part of the sentence imposed on them for assaulting warders in their escape from the Auckland gaol. This announcement was contained in an answer tallied in the House of Representatives yesterday to a question of which notice was given some weeks ago by Mr. Endean (National. Remuera), and it was a matter which was keenly debated.

In his reply to tne question, the Minister of Justice, Mr. .Mason, said that the recommendation was based on opposition to flogging as a form of punishment.

Mr. Endean referred to the attack as a "cowardly and criminal assault," 'in which one warder almost lost his 'life. The Government's answer, he said, was far from satisfactory. He thought he was correct in saying that any person in New Zealand with any legal experience would agree .that one of the faults of the present : Government was its inability and indisposition to exact the necessary discipline in order to see that law and order were maintained. Mrr Broad foot ( National. Waitomo): And that innocent people are protected. For Discipline Mr. Endean said that anyone who had studied British jurisprudence, and particularly anyone who had seen the effects of punishment and how it deterred people, must be impressed with the necessity that discipline must be maintained. The punishment of flogging was still on the Statute Book of this countrv. Let the Government either keep it there or take it off. If it was in the I law then it must be enforced. In this case one of the prisoners was himself a convicted murderer and was in the prison under a particular license which the Government seemed to hand out to all criminals when they committed offences against people in this country. "The facts I think here are most alarming indeed," said Mr. Endean. It was necessary to face up to this question of discipline. He had been told in Auckland by a responsible police official that the reason cars were stolen in New Zealand was due, to the_ fact that when young men committed that offence ' they fully believed that they would be admitted to probation. This disgraceful state of affairs was shown by the fact that a New Zealand soldier had been sentenced to six months' imprisonment in Fiji for car conversion. Foul Crime The crime that had been committed by the Auckland gaol escapees j was the most heinous and foul crime ever committed in the history of criminal jurisprudence in New Zealand. He had been informed that one of tne reasons for the difficulty in maintaining order and discipline was the introduction of the 40-hour week. (Government laughter.) "Savage punishments do not prevent crimes." said Mr. McCombs <Go\ eminent. Lyttelton). "What prevents crime is the certainty of detection. , ' Mr. O'Brien (Government. Westland): They merely brutalise the people. Mr. McCombs said it would be interesting to know just what training judges had in the psychological effects of the punishment thev awarded. He contended that if judges knew a little more about the effects of some of the punishments tney awarded they would not award them so freely. Xo Savagery Mr. Harker (National. Waipawai said that no one was more opposed than he \Vas to brutality or savagerv in punishment, but in this particular case lie thought there was nothing savouring of savagery in the sentence imposed by Mr. Justice Blair, or in the attitude of the iudges of the Court of Appeal. In Mr. Justice Blair New Zealand was fortunate in having one of the most humane men in the country, a man who had given close personal study to the whole system of punishment and to the effects of punishment. Mr. Combs (Government. Wellington Suburbs t said the punishment ordered by the Court if carried out would not prevent a repetition of such a crinie. What would prevent a repetition would be an alteration in the conditions under which the men were guarded. Those who advocated the flogging also overlooked the reaction on the man who would have to carry out the punishment.