COMFORTS OF GAOL

Manawatu Standard, Volume L, Issue 113, 9 April 1930, Page 12

COMFORTS OF GAOL

WEEK-ENDS AT HOME. JUSTICE IN HAW AllStating that he had. had the interesting experience of sitting on the Bench at the Police . Court one morning by kind invitation of the Chief Mugstrate (termed “Judge m Annerica), Mr M. A. Eliott outlined ,to the Palmerston North Citizens’ Lunch Club yesterday afternoon the methods of justice which he observed his visit to Honolulu last winter. 1 also visited the penitentiary,” said Mr Eliott. “The guests there, so long as they avoid giving the guards any trouble, certainly appear to have all the comforts of a home and with additional opportunities of enjoying a rest cure. They have three good meals a day, a comfortable hammock at night, shady trees to lounge under, papers and books, and even smokes, a uarber’s shop, canteen, etc., and are occasionally allowed out to spend the week-end' at home under, a tlnoat from the' gaolers that if they don t retain by a certain time, they will be locked out. The alleged hard labour would excite tlie envy of even officials of an Australian Labour Union. . " y anyone should want to escape is beyond eofaiprehension. “DESPERATION ROW.” “The worst characters such as condemned murderers, etc., are kept under lock and key in much closer confinement in what is ’ known as 'desperation row,’- but even two of these gentlemen were able to cut through the bars of their cells and bolt for the country the night before I visited tlie gaol. A particularly fiendish murder of a little white boy was committed by a Japanese who confessed to the crime, was duly tried, found guilty, and .condemned to death.. hapliened nearly a year ago, but, in accordance with American practice, appeal after appeal has been lodged on some technical point and execution has been deferred from time to time until everyone, including the star performer, is heartily sick of the delay. I went into the execution cell and saw the noose tied at the ed of the hanging rope and the trap-door all ready for action-. The warder said, “We will git him yit,” but he said it -with the spirit of one with whom hope deferred hath made the heart-sick.* “A practice of the American Courts is a sentence stating a minimum and a maximum period Of imprisonment. While I was in Honolulu a man- was gaoled for ‘not less than three months or; more than 10 years. _lt is difficult to conceive why a man receiving three months’ sentence should be ■ liable to have this extended to 10 years, or why anyone guilty of, a creme warranting 10 years’ imprisonment could be released in three months. TRAFFIC PROBLEM... “In common' with many other cities and towns the motor, traffic problem is of the greatest moment in Honolulu. There must be almost as many motor vehicles as, adult population. The roads are well paved with bitumen-ami are kept in first-class condition. It appears to be the one object in life for every Asiatic, of all ages from childhood upwards, to possess a motor car and his next ambition is to step on the ‘gas’ every time and all the time. When trouble occurs or ail accident appears imminent the Japanese i driver invariably lets* go of everything and throws up the hands. This, combined with a lax admistration of traffic by-laws, leads to innumerable accidents, and hardly a day elapses without deaths and injuries. When an Asiatic runs over anyone or collides with another car, his first and only object is to bolt and lie is often • successful in getting away unidentified. In common with all American cities, the rule of the road for both vehicles and pedestrians is to keep to the right and all vehicles entering a main highway must make a compulsory stop before doing so. In most inter-sections a flat piece of black rubber 14in. long by Bin. high and about jin. thick with the word ‘Stop’ painted white is fastened to the ground in the centre of the road. Should a vehicle run over this - rubber it simply bends over and then springs back into position again. The traffic controllers are nearly - all Hawaiians and their ‘dolce far niente’ character certainly errs in the avoidance of exertion rather than risk the danger of perspiration through making an arrest.” -•» '• V