GAOL ENQUIRY.

Press, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5562, 17 July 1883, Page 2

GAOL ENQUIRY.

fPEHSe ASSOCIATION TBLEGBAM.] WELLINGTON, July 16. The gaol enquiry commenced this morning. The following is the evidence taken:— Andrew Cummock —I entered the Dunedin gaol on the 7th July, 1879, and was transferred to Lyttelton in December, 1882. A short time after I entered Dunedin gaol Mr Caldwell sent for mc, and asked mc if I would tell him what transpired in the gaol, and if I would speak in favor of any warder who might be brought up, and -promised if I did he would make it all right for mc. Warder Cashman illtreated a Maori prisoner shortly after I was received. The Maori asked to leave the yard, and the warder pressed a key hard behind the Maori's ears. He pressed the prisoner to the fence where he fell, the blood spurting from his nose and ears. I was wardsman at the time. The matter was reported, and Mr Caldwell sent for mc and asked if I had Been the affair. I told him what I had seen. He said he would be tried before Mr Watt, and asked mc to give evidence as to what really Cashman did to the Maori. I told him I would state the truth on oath. Mr Caldwell brought the ill-treated Maori before Mr Logan and another Visiting Justice. After I had stated that I would tell the truth, Mr Caldwell locked mc up in No. 1 cell and kept mc there during the enquiry before Mr Watt. The next occasion was when I received fourteen days, or 112 marks, for giving official bread to A. Whitti, a Maori. I explained the matter to the visiting justices, and told them that I had been reported through Cashman, but they concluded I had been guilty of a prison offence. Five or six months after this I was brought before the visiting justices, and charged with being too quiet, and Mr Caldwell told the visitors that I contemplated an escape. I was on that occasion reprimanded. I was brought up on many occasions, and my cases were not entered in the defaulters' sheets. The last case I referred to was not entered. On the same occasion when I was brought to the office. I was not directly punished, but I was indirectly. On the 25th February, 1882, I was brought before the Magistrate charged with attempting to circulate false reports against the ga*ler to Captain Hume, Messrs Logan and Brown being Justices. I was severely reprimanded, and told that Captain Hume was Inspector of Prisons, and not Inspector of Prisoners. On the Bth February I asked to see Captain Hume, but was kept out of the way, but afterwards was permitted to see Captain Hume. Before this I saw Captain Hume, and wanted a private interview with him; but he told mc I must see him in the presence of Mr Caldwell. I then asked to be transferred on the ground that my family were in Dunedin, and I wished to be away, and that I was an invalid. The application was backed up by Mr Caldwell, as he said I was a thorough invalid. Subsequently Mr Caldwell opposed the transfer when before the Justices, and told them I was in perfect health. On that occasion Mr Caldwell ordered mo out of the office. When I asked to see the Inspector on the Tuesday following the Inspector was 'in the gaol, and I was locked up in the debtors' quarters with prisoner McColl by Cashman, whom I again told I desired to see the Inspector. The next day McColl and I were in the warders' quarters, and from thence I saw the Inspector with Mr Caldwell, but the latter afterwards said the Inspector had not been in the gaol that day. A few days afterwards I was charged with idleness, and I told the Justices I (had seen Captain Hume walking with Mr Caldwell. I.then was debarred from seeing my friends, land Mr Caldwell stopped mc from writing. I wrote a defence for prisoner Stringe, by order of the principal warder, Duncan, and was brought up for this, and Mr Caldwell threw mc from one end of the office to the other, and shook mc, and lifting mc up bodily, threw mc outside on to the scraper, Sergt. Flannery being present. On the following day Mr Caldwell talked mc over, and gave mc two glasses of brandy. On another occasion Mr Caldwell spoke too gruffly to my wife, who was crying about the illness of our child. I told Mr Caldwell I was mistaken as to his being a gentleman. Mr Caldwell pushed my wife out of the office, and seized mc by the throat and shook mc, and locked mc up in a cell. Mr Caldwell afterwards sent for mc, and gave mc liquor and apologised. On one occasion Warder Cashman ran mc across the yard by my ears, and I asked Mr Caldwell to remove mc, but he would not. In May, 1882, Mr Caldwell shook mc because I said I would give evidence in a case. I was locked up, and not permitted to give evidence on the 28th October. X was charged before the Justices with being guilty of improper conduct with the female prisoners, and knowing of similar irregularities on the part of other prisoners. I refused to say anything to Messrs Logan and Brown, Justices, in regard to the charge. I subsequently told Mr Logan that irregularities might have taken place in April, May, June and July, 1831, and that the door in the debtor's quarters was open on one occasion for twenty minutes. I refused to tell the Justices if any impropriety had taken place between the prisoner Shannon and a female prisoner. After inquiry I was told to put my bed in the corridor, where I was compelled to sleep for three nights with the windows open, althoHgh I was suffering from cold. In November last I was left in a cell without being let out. After the visits of the Chaplain I was searched. Afterwards Mr Caldwell wanted

to put in writing what.. I hadll said to Captain Hume, and promised to;M obtain a mitigation. On refusing, M*'l Caldwell assaulted mc violently. Although J j very ill, I was not allowed to Eβ on the bed for some time. A few days after Mr Caldwell told mc I waa to be transferred, and 1 offered mc brandy, which I refused. Mr Caldwell thereupon said, "You'll regret this." I had bean brought before th. Justices for complaining to my fnends of my treatment in the gaol, but waa not punished. ;. To Captain Hume—l was brought up before the Justices a fortnight after reception for sitting down in the Supreme Court and for scheming on the night of my conviction, I was reprimanded. I objected to Mr Logan dealing with mc because he was one of the Athenmum Committee. The prisoner Gray was sick, and f ell in the"yard. Warder Flannery picked him up, and he fell. Mr Caldwell ruehed out and ordered him to be removed. He was dragged up the yard. I called out "Shame," and was brought before Mr Caldwell, who shook mc, but not to hurt mc. My father and mother were prevented from seeing mc. I had often seen femalee sent w> the office, and not always with the Matron. Sometimes they wt-nt without the Matron through officers' quarters. Maggie Duncan was locked in an upstairs room, aud I have seen the Gaoler go up-stairs and into her room without the matron. Mr Caldwell visited a woman named Ingles in the same room in the debtors' quarters. The warders have also passed the women up to the same room. I knew the prisoner Thereby, who whenever he got into trouble received sentence. [The witness here dot-eribed improprieties he saw between «■ iua!e and female prisoner in Dunedin v>aul.] Female prisoners were employed in scrubbing the men's quarters, being in charge of officers who took little heed of them. I never saw the matron or assistant matron in charge of them while scrubbing. On one occasion I saw Warder Cashman behaving improperly with a female prieoner. The armory was not locked when I cl-aned the 'jjlace. The arms were loaded. After complaining to Captain Hume in February. 1882.1 was still worse treated; in fnct, Mr Caldwell and his subordinates did their utmost to kill mc. To Mr Solomon--—I never complained to the doctor of the ill-treatment at the hands of Mr Caldwell.

The inquiry was adjourned till Wednesday morning.