ATTEMPTED GAOL BREAKING.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 102, 27 October 1900, Page 6

ATTEMPTED GAOL BREAKING.

Three prisoners ' incarcerated in the Terrace Gaol made a daring attempt to break out on Thursday night. The would-be escapees, Frederick Stevenson (alias Kingham), William H. Jobson, and John Johnson, were among those recently engaged in removing a portion of the brickwork at Mount Cook ! Gaol, with a view to converting it into a military barracks, and their experience at this work may have suggested the^plan by which they attempted to make their way to the outer world. One of them managed to secure a steel implement used for prising oufc the mortar between the bricks at Mount Cook. Previous to being searched on their return to prison, the prisoners had to traverse ' two small yards into a larger one While passing through one of the first, the man with the secreted tool pretended to be suddenly taken ill, and temporarily absented himself from the rest. As the main body were marching into the gaol after the search, this wily individual took his place unconcernedly amongst them, and so evaded exposure. Shortly before 10 o'clock, Mr. Garvey, Governor of the gaol, having a suspicion that things were not as they should bo, started upon a round of inspection, and in passing the wall of the cell in which the attempt to escape was being made, heard a muffled "tap, tap, tapping," accompanied by a soft scratching sound as the mortar was being removed. He at once gave orders for the cell door to bo thrown open. The sudden switching on of the light revealed the whole plot, and the officials walking in, caught the plotters red-handed. A mocking letter of farewell addressed to Mr. Garvey was found in tho cell. It bade him an affectionate adieu, and went on to say that the writer had invented a patent gaol-breaking machine — evidently the instrument smuggled in from Mount Cook. Stevenson was serving a sentence of three years for theft, and six months for a previous escape. He is a very " old bird," and has had several previous convictions. Jobson was serving seven years for criminal assault on little children, and has had two floggings by order of the Supreme Court. Johnston, the man who was found asleep, was undergoing four years' imprisonment for indecent assault at New Plymouth. A preliminary enquiry was held by <he visiting justices yesterday morning, and this morning the men were brought before Mr. Haselden, S.M., on a charge of gaol-brealdng and remanded till tho 30th October. Another attempted escape was made, yesterday afternoon by a man named 'William Olliver, employed with a jr'.son gang at Point Harwell. The man broke away from the gang, bul was soon recaptured.

A WELL-LAID PLOT THWARTED.