COSTLY PRISONERS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 118, 20 May 1914, Page 6

COSTLY PRISONERS

o ''The Department is quite aware of the unsuitableness of the Terrace Prison, and the question of making other provision in Wellington is now receiving the consideration of the Government. . . . The idea is to erect a small, up-to-date prison in Wellington, sufficient for only local requirements," is a passage from the Justice Department's charge of inaccuracy against Mr. W. T. Young, who lately complained about unhealthiness and overcrowding at the gaol. Thus Mr. Young has been directly challenged to prove his circumstantial narrative, and he is not likely to sit still under the imputation on his veracity. "After making allowance for the injured feelings of the Red Federation's president, there is something for sober study by the public and by the Department of Justice," commented The Post On Saturday. The Department's answer is. in effect, that it has learned nothing from Mr. Young, and the official rejoinder, indeed, implies that the Red Federal complainant has either been guilty of mis-state-ments himself or has allowed himself to be the mouthpiece of other persons' imaginations. It is now Mr. Young's movp. When we rtiscmssod this subject a fow day* ago ws .were more concerned with

the general question of the accommodation and employment of prisoners than with the defects of the local gaol. This building has long been regarded ac unsuitable by men competent to form an opinion. Three years ago' Sir John tfindlay, then Minister of Justice, as the result of a. report which he ordered, had decided to close the Terrace Prison or use it solely for the detention and reformative treatment of convicted women. At that time tho Minister was busy with largo plans by which he hoped to much reduce the coat of maintaining criminals and to simultaneously improve them. The cost per head was running a« high as £80 a. year at eomo gaols, and Sir John was determined to lighten the load of the free." Hence came his well-studied scheme of penal farms and workshops, on lines which would not bring them into competition with free labour. Ablebodied prisoners were to earn' their own living, and were to have facilities to make money for dependents or for themselves (when released). These were rational proposals, which would have helped to) ease the "cost of living" tor the honest, now burdened by much deadweight of imprisoned criminals, but tho < people who were to enjoy the benefit did 'not seem to perceive the fact that they could gain an advantage. It wa* a novelty for New Zealand— and human ' nature is conservative in the mass, even | in "the laboratory of the world.'* In some important social affairs Now Zealand, far from leading the world, lags a long way behind. Generally people are quick to take an interest in a matter of money. Whether it is a scheme to put cash in the pocket, or to take it out, an average citizen is usually willing to receive information, and to think about it. Yet a large proposal, which cannot fail to work well for the public, may be treated with suspicion or stupidly set aside. For example, Sir; John Findlay, a* part of his plan for a sane economic use of prison labour, took great pains to secure the data necessary for the preparation of comparatively rough, or poor land for commercial j orchards. The idea, which experts aa- t proved, was to have the prisoners as pioneers of free men. The guarded work- - era at the front would break in the j ground for profitable settlement. Fruit tree« would be the main objective, but I part of each area was to take grass, and 1 thus the orchardist was to be a dairy- '< man as well— on a modest scale, of | course. Thus land, lyihg ,waste, could have been cheaply planted, and the way 1 would have been clear for an increase of i the national wealth. At this interval \t may seem incredible, but the proposal was howled down by the Fruitgrowers' Association. It was roared up and down the two Islands that prisoners were to be «3ed in competition with free men. The protesters who thus scared themselves with their own weird distortions of the ! truth declined to listen to reason— and thus a good idea, valuable to New Zealand, was condemned by blind prejulice and de,af, deneeness.