New Zealand Colonist FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1843.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 76, 21 April 1843, Page 2

New Zealand Colonist FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1843.

In our last number we called the attention of the public to on£ instance of neglect or omission on the part of the Government in a matter deeply connected with the administration of justice, and affecting in its consequences the peace and security of the community. The escape of a number of convicted felons, under sentence of transportation, from the miserable building which in this place is the only substitute for a gaol, forces upon our attention another grave matter of complaint on the part of the inhabitants of this place. We allude to the notorious and palpable inadequacy of that building for the purposes for which a gaol is required. Wanting asupon the most cursory inspection, it is seen to be in the requisites of classification—of separating the convictep from the unconvicted—the male from the female—the felon from the debtor—the hardened offender from the tyro in crime, it has now been proved, if such proof were needed, not even to have the solitary merit of security. It is, in fact, nothing that a gaol ought to be. There is scarcely one defect chargeable Upon any building employed for the purpose of confinement, except that this is well aired which may not be charged upon it.

For this, of course, the Government in the first instance was not responsible. Neither they nor ourselves could have provided, immediately upon the foundation of the colony, any better means of securing persons awaiting their trial or under sentence. And, happily, in the first few months our existence, no better security was required. The number of individuals committed was few, and the offences With which they were charged, were comparatively trifling. Our gaol was hardly deserving of the name, but it answered our purpose. Within the last twelve or eighteen months however, the case has been altered. We have been visited by men of desperate character and irreclaimably criminal habits. These men, none of whom, we believe, were among the free emigrants to the settlement, have committed a series of offences, for which they have been tried —and some of them convicted and sentenced. No sooner, however, is the sentence pronounced, than in broad day they leave the gaol in a body, seize upon a boat lying within a few yards of the gate of the prison, and succeed in effecting their escape. And upon consideration the real matter of surprise would seem to be, not that they eventually escaped, but that they remained so long in prison. It is clear that to effect their escape depended entirely upon themselves. That they did not do so previously therefore isattributable to hopes of acquittal which seem in the first instance to have been cherished to the last; and subsequently to the hopes of a more lenient sentence. To this, perhaps, may be added the facility of communication with their friends without, which would alleviate much of the irksomeness of their confinement, and to the abundant society, and leisure which they enjoyed withifi the prison. At any rate it is clear, might be their motives* that it was for their own convenience they remained in prjsoh. There is another ihatter with the state ofiihe is w.dfil4sßemark :• the /utility prisoners who ihe iate sitting of the Supreme acquittal entirely to this circumstance. enabled to fabricate a defence, into consistent shape,, and supported by the testif mony of his wife, and of women Who had been

fellow-prisoners with, him. But this defence could not have been framed, nor could the necessary witnesses to support it have been procured, in the interior of a gaol properly constructed. During, however, the whole of the time vvhich has elapsed since the visit of the late Governor to this port, when we know that the subject was brought under his notice by Mr. Halswell, nothing has been done. The evil then felt has continued, and . has augmented, without a single efficient step being taken towards its removal. It is not that during this period we have not furnished a sufficient surplus revenue to provide for the erection of a new gaol; for unless rumor is strangely mistaken, we have supplied more than treble the amount that would be requisite. Nor is it that onr numbers are insignificant, or our need for it small. That nothing has been done, (we are aware that something is proposed), is consequently an omission on the part of the Government, for which neither the circumstances of the Colony, nor any alleged necessities of Government, could form an excuse.