POLITICAL POINTS

Evening Star, Issue 18729, 3 September 1924, Page 4

POLITICAL POINTS

[Fsom Qua Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, September 2. PRISONS DEPARTMENT RECORD. The receipts of the Prisons Department for the post year constituted a record, the cash returns amounting to £53,178, as compared with £46,000 .for 1922-23, a difference of £7,118, or 15.46 per cent. The total expenditure was £131.609, as against £123,360 the previous year. The net cost of the department was £78,431, against £77,301 for 1922-35. In addition to cash receipts, there was a definite return of £23,486, as the actual value of the prison labor employed on labor and other public works in connection with prisons for which no transfer credits were obtained; and a further return of £11,974 for farm and gardening work. , The department, states the report, is therefore successfully working out its policy of development of the public estate and of the individual. The total gross figure is £88,638, which does not take account of a further £15,311, the estimated value of the labor employed in various intermural industries, domestic work, etc., providing for the making of boots, clothing, etc., for inmates and the staff, and cooking, baking, etc. The daily average number of able-bodied prisoners throughout the year was 908.4. Paynfent of wages to dependents of prisoners resulted in an - additional expenditure of £5,500, and'the new probation branch cost £3,000. The cost per head of prisoners’ rations was £15.23. * -K * » RAILWAY WAGES REPORT. ; An attempt made by Mr Sidey to secure information from the Minister of Railways regarding the results of the recent Railway Wages Board was unsuccessful. Mr Sidey asked the Minister if the report published in the newspapers was accurate, and when it would be mode available to Parliament.

The Minister replied that ho wns unable -to say whether the newspaper report was accurate or ■ otherwise. The position was that the Railway Department had been asked to report on how the ,board's recommendations would affect it. This report would be considered by Cabinet, after which there was no reason why the whole report should not be presented to Parliament. Mr Forbes: How did it come to be published? The Minister: lam unable'lo say, and it is nob for me to say. The document is,, confidential until released by Cabinet

TEACHEBS’ SUPERANNUATION’, A hopeful prospect of superannuation of teachers employed at the Jubilee Institute for the Blind in Auckland was indicated by the Minister of Education, when the .point was raised by several members in the House to-day. Mr Parr remarked that the staff of the School for tho Blind at Christchurch came under the usual provisions of the Superannuation Act. This showed differentiation, which ho thought tho Government should wipe out as soon as possible. He had raised the matter ’in Cabinet, which had instructed the Government actuary to report on the liability incurred in including these teachers in ■ the superannuation fund. They would probably have to pay up a certain amount to put them on something like equal terms with other contributors. The annual report of the Teachers’ Superannuation Fund showed a credit balance of £868,662, being an increase of £79,000. There are 6,868 contributors, and 1,078 persons drawing allowances. The total annual liability is £112,861; members’ contributions are £101,632, interest £48,725. The fund is supplemented by a Government subsidy of £63,835.

REAL REFORM AMONG PRISONERS,

Dealing with tho prison centres at Paparua (Christchurch), Waikeria (in the Waikato}, and Borstal Institute (Invercargill), the Hon. C. J. Parr (Minister of Justice) told the House that a work of ■real reform was going on in these places. At Bqrstal, which, was largely a swamp ■farm, 'there had been, in the eight years to 1925, a total of 739 youths and young men admitted. Of these forty-seven, or 6.86 per cent., had been reconvicted. Mr Forbes: Very good!, * Mr Parr said ho thought these were valuable figures, as indicating the success of the work. At Waikena, out of a total of 1,092 cases, there bad been reconvicted 6.77 per cent. In regard to the criminally insane, ho agreed with Mr Sidey that it was a matter for the trained psychologist, and they had to look to the mental hospitals very largely to assist in tho matter. Ho hoped to have tha report of tho Royal Commission on this question within a few days. Replying to Mr Harris, tho Minister said that after three months a prisoner’s dependents received 16s 6d per week, after four months 20s per week, and after six months 22s per week. Touching the question of warders’ wages, raised by Mr Lee, the Public Service Commissioner had been asked to make a report on the matter. • # » <* DIFFERENCE ONLY IN NAME. “Regarding a prisoner sentenced to reformative detention,” said the Hon. 0. J. Parr (Minister of Justice), “I believe it is only a difference in name between him and tho hard-labor man. Really the term reformative detention should be abolished, in my opinion.” The Minister added 'that some men who got reformative detention were old offenders. When a first offender, got reformative detention he was at once taken from tho large prisons, such as Mount Eden, and placed at a farm such as Waikeria. The Minister’s remarks were made in reply to Mr Harris, who read a letter fie had received from a man serving a term of reformative detention in Mount Eden gaol. The prisoner complained bitterly to him that he was forced to associate with the very worst type of criminal in the gaol. Ho wrote; “ There is no such thing as reformative detention in Mount Eden,” and added that he was forced to associate and work with sexual perverts, mental degenerates, murderers, and men convicted of all kinds of bestial crime. Mr Wilford: Surely that is not right? Mr Harris: I want to give the Minister the opportunity of saying so if it is not right. I should be sorry if such a thing happened in New Zealand gaols. # ’* # « ARE WARDERS BOYCOTTED? In pleading for better wages for prison warders, Mr Lee (Auckland East) declared that the community at large showed a fair amount of hostility towards tho warders, who were subjected to boycott. Mr Wilford : Surely not! Mr Lee said they should not be, but the fact remained that they were boycotted. He pointed out that warders were not so well paid as the police. Ha was satisfied tbit they were the right type of men, and an ex-prisoner had described them as fairly decent fellows. In regard to tha situation of prisons, ho urged the construction of prisons in the suburbs after the stylo of farms. No doubt a stronghold like Mount Eden, in Auckland, was necessary for tough cases, but be considered that the less-rigid typo should bo further developed. * * » » SENTENCE OF DEATH. Reference to places of execution was made by Mr Lee, when discussing the report. He admitted that there was not unanimity in the House on the question of capital .punishment, but suggested that in future executions should not take place in any of the big prisons. If men were to be 'executed they should bo taken right away. When one considered that there wore usually 400 or 500 other prisoner's in gaol on such occasions, it would be ' agreed that some other arrangement than the present should be made.