HOLT'S IMPRISONMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7761, 6 October 1886, Page 6

HOLT'S IMPRISONMENT.

FAVOURITISM BECAUSE OP POSITION. In the Legislative Assembly of Sydney, on September 28, a discussion took place on the clauses of the Prisoners' Detention Bill. Sir H; Parkes aaid so far as possible, the sentence which a prisoner endured ought to be one which was passed on him after his trial by a Judge of the land. That sentence ought not to be altered under the most extraordinary circumstances,' and it ought not. to be permitted that such a sentence should be altered at the caprice or will of a Comptroller-General of Prisons. Mr. Garland, speaking upon this clause, referred' to the case of Holt, who, he believed, despite the recommendation of the Minister for Justice that he should be sent to Berrima, as originally intended, still remained at Parramatta, bo that the decision of the Minister was overruled by the Comptroller-General of Prisons. And whilst on this matter he said that he was told on the* beet authority that at the present time, although Holt was certified to be insane, ho was in reality as sane as the Minister for Justice, than whom there was no more square-headed man in the community. Holt was receiving the very beet of treatment, was "jolly as a sandboy," and expressed to his friends a firm conviction that he would be out of gaol within twelve months, The letters Holt wrote to his friends outside destroyed any idea of his insanity. He (Mr. Garland) supposed that it-was because he had -friends in high positions and was well connected that he was not treated as other prisoners who were less fortunate than he was in these respects. '