HOKITIKA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 48, 30 April 1866, Page 3

HOKITIKA.

Public indignation has been aroused •in Hokitika by the frightfully inadequate provision made for the accommodation of prisoners in the lock-up or goal. A public meeting on. the subject took place in Hokitika on Monday evening. Some idea may be gathered of the horrors of the place from the following statement in the West Coast Times of Monday : — " Last night no less than sixty-three unfortunate prisoners were shut up, to go through the weary and suffering hours of an unusually close aud oppressive night as best they could, in the Hokitika public gaol. It may be expected that each day's committals from the Resident Magistrate's Court will continuously add to the number. Do people form any adequate conception of what is involved in the imprisonment of so many persons within so circumscribed a space ? We are satisfied they do not; or the shocking inhumanity of the thing could never be endured for so long a time by any Christian community. The Gaol consists of six cells of the height of eight feet, and comprises a total superficial area of 560 square feet. In other words each one of the present 63 prisoners, when standing enjoys a space of less then a square yard, and when lying at night, this same amount of floor. A strip of dirty floor, say seven feet in length, and two or three inches over a single foot in width, is granted him for his blanket and his limbs. On cold nights it is conceivable that a degree of miserable comfort is derived from the density with which these prisoners are crowded together. What imagination is lively enough to picture the filth, and foetid atmosphere, and the thousand accessories of horror, that must belong to such nights in such dens ? Medical authorities tell us that every strong man enclosed in a room, requires four cubic feet of fresh air each minute for the due performance of the functions of life ; and that by natural expiration from the lungs, and the exhalations from his skin, he vitiates or renders poisonous a hundred and thirty cub:c inches of air every minute. At the public meeting above referred to, a number of resolutions were passed. A deputation was appointed to wait on Mr. Sale, and to telegraph to Judge Gresson on the subject.