The New Zealand Herald SPECTEMUR AGENDO. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1868.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1400, 13 May 1868, Page 3

The New Zealand Herald SPECTEMUR AGENDO.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1868.

" Rive even' m.in tliinc oar, but few tljy voice ; Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all, —To thine own self be true tnd it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

"We have had some pretty good evidence lately that the terrors of Mount Eden Stock- 1 ade for evil doers are by no means of a great or lasting character. Several long sentenced men have set to work at their old trade of robbery with violence. As soon as they have fairly got outside the walls, and even when they have been again retaken, and once more put" in jail, some of them have made a savage attack" on a warder, and very nearly succeeded in killing him. This is become a very serious question. Our jail, certainly, does not appear to have much of a reformatory influence, and it fails sometimes at least, to have beneficial effect, as a punisher for and a deterrer from crime. The cost to the country of keeping these ruftiaus to which we are referring, is about £40 a year each; of their dietnrywe have before had occasion to speak, and to condemn it, and also the small amount of real hard labour vliich is done by them. ISfow it appears to us that the otoss outrages committed by men recently come out of jail, go a long way to prove the position we have often taken as regards both the food and the work of the prisoners confined at Mount Eden. The former is far too good and too plentiful, the latter is too light and easy. We would make an alteration in both, and he who entered the prison walls for a second offence should be more severely dealt with than he was at his first imprisonment. These old jail birds do not care much for the confinement, as long as they get their daily pound of beef, their soup seasoned with celery, and other vegetables; their cocoa and wheaten bread, and other luxuries which are supplied to them, not forgetting medical comforts, in the shape of bottled stout or port wine, when they take it into their heads that they require " a drain," and must go through*the tedious process of pretending to be a little indisposed in order to get their daily " nobbier." The recipe for such gentlemen as these should be short commons and heavy work ; for they appear to be all but, if not quite, lost to all sense of decency, and to kindness and proper conduct and treatment.

But these murderous garotting characters must be dealt with alone in another way. They must liave a little extra attention. In every caje of robbery with violence the culprit should be well flogged within the prison walls. There is now a regulation " eatfor prisoners at home, and or two of them ought to be immediately imported for use at jMount Eden. Garotting had become quite an institution in England. It got to such a pitch that a reign of terror was practicallv established. But by ordering every convicted garotter to be soundly flogged, the nuisance of garotting was very soon abated. Robberies with other forms of violence, however, were rather numerous, and the judges, after consultation with one another, determined to order flogging in such cases. It is now so ordered constantly, and it has liad no small eftect in deterring these cowardly brutes from maltreating their victims. We' have now a few of such characters in Mount Eden. Those two ruffians who brutally attacked and robbed Mr. Caley immediately they were out of jail, and who, since they have been there, have attacked and well nigh killed Warder Dunn, are evidently persons to whom a taste of the cat, to the extent of say fifty lashes, at a time the dose repeated at intervals of say three months, would be highly beneficial. And we must call upon the judge of the Supreme Court —who may try these men —and others of a similar character, to follow the good example of the English Judges, and order liberal doses of flogging in every case where violence of this character is proved. It is bad enough for an honest tradesman to be waylaid and robbed of the hard earnings of his industry, but to he left in a pool of blood, half killed, is somewhat too bad. Nothing, however, but sharp corporal chastisement seems to have any effect -.on such hardened characters. Their consciences are seared, their minds are dead to kindly influences, their skin is really the only sensitive thing about them, and the cat is the article which, above all others, excites its sensibility. We have frequently read in English papers of this punishment being inflicted. Calcraft, the executioner, it appears, is sometimes called upon to do the work, and this iucreases the disgrace It- is almost as bad to be well floggedbythe common hangman,asto be hung I by him, though to be sure sentimental feelings about disgrace will not always enter into the obtuse and brutal mind of a garotter, or the brutes who half murder those whom they rob. We suppose it would hardly do to give power to a visiting justice to order men to be flogged for such outrages as that committed on Warder Dunn, but we certainly should have no objection whatever to that power being given to two or three justices, who should be able, after consultation, to at once order such men as the two to whom we are referring to receive a maximum number of lashes. This might perhaps be fifty, or probably thirty might be enough, for thirty stripes on the bare back with a good serviceable eat, wielded by a strong and expert hand, would no doubt deter prisoners from often breaking into insurrection, and violently assaulting the officers of the prison. The duties of the latter are arduous enough, and their pay is little enough, and it is quite clear that we must fully protect them from the brutal violence of" prisoners. Putting such men in irons and solitary confinement is some punishment, but a good whipping would be a great deal better, and would be much more permanently effective. It is no use being mawkish about the matter, and talking of flogging being degrading and hardening, how can such men as the abusers of Mr. Caley and Warder Dunn be more degraded, more hardened than what they are. Kindness, good living, and easy work have been ineffectually tried. No sooner do they get out of confinement than they show how much tliey have benefitted by this treatment, how much elevated and softened they are by it, by im-

mediately proceeding to show that they are brutalized apparently beyond redemption, ani 3 that nothing but extreme severity will have any effect upon them. We therefore cordially advocate a liberal use of the cat on all convicted of robbery with violence, and on prisoners who make brutal attacks oil the officers of the jail. Reverting to the diet and work of prisoners, experience shows that there are many difficulties connected with these subjects. The easiest way of removing them appears to bo that suggested some time ago in the Cornhill Magazine. The writer suggested that prisoners should not bo fed as a matter of course, whether they skulked or worked, but that they should be afforded the opportunity of working, and should have no food hut wliat they earned. This is a Scriptural as well as a common sense plan. He that will not work, neither should he eat. And it is the law applicable to mankind in general, who are outside a prison. Most ot us have to work for what we have, and why should the criminal not do so after lie has broken the laws of liis country, and is confined 111 a prison. G-ive each man credit lor the work ho actually docs, stop a portion ot that for the expeuses of warders, doctors, and so forth, and give him the remainder to pay ' for lii's food and clothes, and give him no more than the remainder. The beneficial effect of this plan would be visible in many ways, and is highly deserving ot a fair trial. The public must insist that their rulers give practical consideration to the management of the gaols in this colony, with a view to the suppression of crime.