The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1868.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2207, 17 January 1868, Page 2

The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1868.

A Special Commission has been appointed to consider the propriety and the means of forming a central penal establishment for the whole colony, It is gratifying to know that this important matter has not beeu overlooked by the General Government, and there js every reason to expect a comprehensive and practicable report from those who have been named as Commissioners. _ The history of the treatment of criminals is a very singular one, and is not wanting in those sudden and incomprehensible changes of opinion which may be traced with regard to almost every topic of public interests England. There was a time when criminals were treated like mere brutes, without an attempt to reclaim them or to make them useful. Then came the age of 3ohn Howard, who taught us our duty even to the most erring of our fellow creatures, and reminded us that there was hope of even the most abandoned. By-and-by the idea of sympathy for th e criminal population was, in true Mghsh fashion, carried to an extreme, and the attention, comforts, and even uxuries provided for convicts made the hardships of the honest poor Beem all the more trying "and

unbearable. This excess of oare for criminals may bo said to have culmiuatod in the famous complaint recorded by cortain gftol-visitors—that the prisoners iu one particular gaol were supplied with only ono pair of slippers each. But it is still tho case that, if tho daily proviaious of an agricultural labourer with a largo family, a privato soldier trained to dofead his country, a person approhended on suspicion of crimo, aud a convicted criminal, bo set down in tho •order of their cost and their nourishing qualities, they must bo placed in exactly tho opposite order to that in which wo have named them. Tho condemned felon has tho best and most abundant food, whilo the nlloivance gradually falls away till wo come dowu to that of the hard* worked, honest pesaut, And it is not in material or bodily corn* forts alone that this favouritism is shewn. The chaplain's pets hare long beon recognised as among the most dangerous and troublesome of the criminal class, And yet it is only a fow months ago since the Home News contained the information that a distinguished English prelate—the Bishop of Salisbury—held special services for the confirmation of fiftyfour convicts in one of the great prisons of England.

Public feeling is gradually returning to a sounder and healthier state. There seems to be little danger of our evea again falling back upon the old barbarous system of treatment, but there is as strong a determination to discourage all pampering of convicts. Tears ago a very high authority on this subject warned the English Government that the country would very soon be troubled with a "dormant" criminal class, and find great embarassment in dealing with it. And this has been only too surely fulfilled. The truth is, that in many respects a refractory criminal is master of the situation. Chaplains, gaolers, governors, and attendants must wait upon him, and supply his wants, but must not treat him harshly whatever he does. If he is required to labour, he is never expected to do as much work as an honest labourer, who has to earn a livelihood for himself and his family. A good example of this was lately shewn in the case of the Auckland Gaol. One of the officers, on being examined as to the amount of work to be done by convict labour, in. one particular department—that of stone-breaking—stated that one cubic yard to three fourths of that quantity daily, was the utmost that could be looked for. On the other hand, he gave one and three-fourths as the average result of a free man's daily labour. We have no reason to suppose that the Auckland Gaol is not conducted with reasonable firmness and judgment. From what we can learn, our impression is decidedly favourable to it in comparison with several others. For it is quite possible that some other establishments wouldnot be abletopresent evensogood an average amount of labour as that named above. As a further illustration of tbio state of tningß, we may refer to the great satisfaction shewn in some convict establishments when it was discovered that by giving or withholding a certain daily allowance of tobacco, some inducement was provided for making the inmates work, or at least conduct themselves properly. It has been asserted that the remarkable outbreaks which occurred in several prisons during the last few years, were the natural and necessary results of the treatment which the prisoners received. They were well and regularly fed, they were required to take just so much exercise as was good for their health, or as suited their fancy, they wero restrained from their ordinary vicious courses, and escaped the consquence of a depraved life and exposure to the elements. The consequence was that they were in what might, with peculiar fitness, be termed a state of rude health, and their revolts were the inevitable consequences of their robust physical condition and comparative inactivity. It is pitiable to think that these outbreaks, from such a cause, should have occurred in a country where thousands of honest and industrious people have to maintain an almost lifelong struggle to provide themselves with a sufficiency of the poorest fare. But, as we have already said, the current of public feeling is turning in another direction. One of the earliest signs of this was the determined outcry made for corporal punishment on the infamous garotters on of some few winters back. Even a moderate application of the lash has been found to be a very wholesome addition to the treatment of prisoners convicted of gross offences against the person.

The task now before the Government is one on which much light has been thrown by the experience of others. All that can be learned from the most complete failure of one scheme, and from the thoroughly satisfactory results of another, may be obtained by a careful perusal of what are known broadly as the EngIwh and the Irish convict systems. Several months ago wo called the attention of the Government and the public to the comparative merits of these systems. While that pursued m England has satisfied no one, the method adopted in Ireland has gone beyond the expectations of its most jaoguine friends. Eighty per cent is the proportion of prisoners actually and permanently reclaimed. But we will not again refor at length to it further than to urge that careful and anxious consideration ought to be accorded to that system both by the lately appointed Commission, and by the members of the Legislature. It need be no matter of surprise that Ireland should afford to us the best example of a successful treatment by Government of this as well as several other subjects of great public importance. For many years the leading statesmen of both" political parties m the United Kingdom have ! devoted their best I endeavours to

remedy |fcho evils under which that unhappy country has so long laboured, Merely party considerations havo con" spired with the higher ykm of statesmanship to urge upon them the adoption of the most likely means to ameliorate its condition. And it is evident that their endeavours have met with a largo amount of bucoobs, But in no dopartmont, not oven in that of education, has that success beon so great as iu tho measures adopted for repressing crimo, and for reforming the criminal. Some of tho goneral principles involved in theso measures we may take occasion to indicate, but wo shall certainly eipsct to find in the report of the Commission evidences of a largo and intimate acquaintance with the system which has been developed with such patience, perseverance, aud unexampled success in Ireland.