SECRET SOCIETY OF RAND NATIVES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2114, 3 April 1914, Page 5

SECRET SOCIETY OF RAND NATIVES.

DKA'ili SENTENCES TINDER A "J'LACJC KING." Astonishing facts wore published recently by tho Department of Just tec showing that native convicts have been binding tlujmselves together in gangs for erim-ii'i-al purposes, and havo been recruiting ill mill'.! eompouuds. Their organisations comprise a ki.115. 'a iulge, a- fighting general, a tned.kia-i officer, warriors., and. yosiiiger natives. Tho -organisations hold trials and decree punishments, sentencing to death, in satte cases by stabbing With a sharpened nail thrnueji the shoulders, bj strangling with a wet iowel, or by putting powdered gkss in tho Victim's food, More usual punishments a-to knocking out tlie front teeth, especially in the esse of police; informers. The organisations terrorise natives to become mc-ni- : hers of !«o gangs. The Prison Department is- adopting rigorous ineasures for the stipp're-sgißn of the- gangs, which originate ehtefly in the prisons, whence their king—a Zulu, \fho recently .recanted to issue orders by convicts who were disahsrgad and to reGfiive messages from nati»«s e-iitorl-Bg the prisons. Ifis_ orders wero. binding on . the organisations, whieli ■ were chiefly Zulu.—"Daily Mail."