PATRIOTIC PRISONERS

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 110, 5 November 1915, Page 8

PATRIOTIC PRISONERS

BIG DEVELOPMENT WORKS.

Under the system in vogue the prisoners who are sewing their sentences in the tree-planting prison camps are allowed to interview the Minister of Justice (Hon. Dr. R. M'Nab) in person when he pays the camps a visit, and put their requests before him. Dr. M'Nab returned to Wellington last night from a visit to the various prisons and camps in the North, and he told a Post reporter to-day that a large proportion of the men who interviewed him asked for release on condition that they went to the front.

Speaking generally of his tour of inspection, the Minister said he was inspecting the various classes of work which are being .carried out by prisoners in the North Island. At Waimarino they are engaged in road construction towards Tokaano and Lake Taupo; at Rotorua they are engaged in treeplanting, and at Waikeria a prison farm has been established.

Questioned further about Waikeria (the big central North Island prison), the Minister said its development is proceeding satisfactorily. The major portion of the work consists of the construction of roads to open up the property and the construction of the main prison building. It is all being done by the labour of the prisoners. At present the men are living in temporary cells, which can be easily transferred from place to place (some have been taken up from as far south us Hanmer), but it is expected that the first batch of 80 prisoners will be provided with permanent accommodation early in the new year. The construction of other buildings will then be proceeded with, and the administration blocks completed. While this is being done a good start has been made with the agricultural development of the prison area. Waikeria supplies Auckland and some other prisons with vegetables, and has been doing so for a considerable time. Quite a large area of land has been broken in, and is under cultivation, and a number of sheep and cattle are grazing on it. At the present time between 50 and 60 prisoners are located there.

In connection with tree planting, the Minister stated that the bulk of the work at Rotorua is now under prison control. With prison and free labour, something like 16,000 acres have been planted. The land is pumice land, generally regarded as being almost unsuitable for settlement, but the Minister found that the best trees that grow in New Zealand are thriving there. For instance, there were varieties of eucalypts, pmus insignis (Austrian and Corsican varieties), and the Oregon pine. The Forestry Department ha-s "lined out" at one of the prison campß (Kaingaroa) a- million and a-half trees for next season's planting. As the result of his visit of inspection, the Minister contemplates instituting some administrative alterations, chiefly in oomiection with the road works.