HUNT FOR POWELKA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1219, 30 August 1911, Page 6

HUNT FOR POWELKA.

ONE AUTHENTIC STORY, invasion of premises in pitzheeobert,"teeracb; Search for Powelka was maintained all yesterday, but without result. Theories were not as numerous yesterday as : it was expected that they would be. About the best story (and it has authentic confirmation) was that at about ono or two in the morning sorao girls residing in bachelor quarters in Ktzlicrbert Terrace were awakoncd, and the police Bceni to entertain tho opinion that tho man may have been Pow.clka. It appears that one of tho inmates heard a noiso and •switched on tho light. What she saw was a man lying with his head on the bed asleep. There was screaming an-tl so forth, and the man 'at once decamped, calling out, "It's all right." The police were summoned by messenger to Lambton Station, and three arrived. The man was described to them, and tho description they thought tallied with tliat of Powelka.. It is tho best authenticated report of occurrences yesterday. Tho police are still scouring the country for the fugitive, and tho city and tho waterfront are being closely watched. No news has so far been hoard of him, and he has left no trace. The- police aro not snying much, but it is fairly well understood that they havo not heard anything' of Powelka. "You may depend upon it .Vii catch him if wo can," remarked Inspector Ellison last night. Meantime, Palroorstonians seem to be taking precautions. At the meeting of 'the Palmerston High School Board of Governors on Monday night, tho chairman (Mr. W. 11. Collhigwood) was author- _ ised to engage a special mightwatchman filiould Powelka reach that district. It will bo remembered that, whilst Powelka was at large previously, he burnt down tho High School, and this was among tho crimes for which he wns serving .when he escaped from the Terraco Gaol. ——— v

.; TERRACE PRISON. IS IT A SAFE ENOUGH GAOL? "As a matter of fact," said an .authority on the gaols of the Dominion yesterday, "tho Terrace Gaol is not altogether a safe lock-up. When you see Powelka jumping the prison wall one day and getting out of an observation cell the next, you can pretty well guess that it is not up to requirements." ' The speaker, a man with a fairly intimate knowledge of the gaols of New Zealand, know what he was talking about, and What he said had a ring of convictioni' Ho Went'on to say that, if a gaol is i to bo located in the middle of the city (which he did not think was right), the exercise- yard should have walls which could not be scaled unaided—walls liko Pontridge, Melbourne, and Darlinghurst, Sydney, both of which are in the centre of the cities named. The Terrace Gaol has been patched, altered, and extended, until it has no particular form. The old part contains the two observation cells, which, for the purpose of cheap observation, were placed near the front door, and, once outside the cell, there is only an ordinary kind of door to unlock between the inside and outside of the' gaol. Seeing that the prisRoner confined in those cells has to bo "observed" once every twenty minutes or so during the night, ho could b& just ao well attended to if his cell was situated , within prison walls, which was, practically, not the case in tho present instance. Our informant is of opinion that a gaol should not be located in a city, and quotes tho Wellington Gaol as a beautiful residential terrace lost to Wellington. Hβ is of opinion that a plain, stronglybuilt structure should bo built in the country, preferably mav au extensive area; of likely waste lauds, which might be turned-to profitable necount by prison labour. So situated, strangers could not approach., the gaol without their business . being inquired into, and, if a prisoner did brsak... away, it would-bo a .fair "haro and hounds" -affair, without any' denselypopulated areas near to givo hiding.. The sale of the Terrace Gaol property would pay for the- erection of a splendid modern gaol in the country.