GAOLBIRDS' PARADISE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13030, 22 November 1905, Page 4

GAOLBIRDS' PARADISE.

... • " • • ' * V '' r •;& PRISON LIFE AT WAIOTAPU CAMP.';

: INMATES' ALLEGATIONS AT THE SUPREME COURT. PRESENTMENT BY THE GRAND JURY.

If the subject matter of questions submitted to witnesses in a case heard before Mr. Jus- ■■ tice Edwards at the criminal sittings of the Supreme Court yesterday forenoon may ba regarded as a reliable indication it would seem that the lives" of prisoners serving sentence at the Waiotapu prison camp, Rotorua, arc by no means a burden to the erring . ones.

The questioner was a young man named Lecdham "Whitehead, who stood in the dock charged with having broken into the Waiotapu Hotel (while undergoing sentence for another crime) and stolen certain articles of clothing. The first witness under crossexamination by him was a fellow-prisoner, by name MacLarcn, who was called to give evidence against accused, and deposed to being associated with Whitehead in breaking and entering the hotel, the nocturnal visit apparently having been made with the object of securing liquor and tobacco. After other questions touching on the charge prisoner asked: Did you not win a quantity of tobacco while playing hazard at the camp a day or two before the alleged burglary, and then lose some of it next day when playing cards?" The memory of the witness, which had been excellent up to this point, now completely failed him, and he said that he had no recollection of tho games referred to. Prisoner expressed surprise at this lapse of memory, and passed on to other matters. A second witness, also serving sentence at Waiotapu tree-planting station, was then placed in the witness-box to give evideno® for the prosecution. His name is Jas. allace, and after questioning him on other points prisoner asked: "Are you not the reputed professor of the spielers' college at the Waiotapu prison?"

Witness indignantly denied having attained the distinction prisoner credited him with.

The Hon. J. A. Tole (Crown Prosecutor):! " The sooner the college is broken up the better, I should say."

When Jeremiah Scanlon," chief gaoler at the Waiotapu camp, was called the Crown Prosecutor addressed him as the keeper oi the "'Waiotapu resort," recognising, presumably, that it could no longer be termed a prison. . At this stage the grand jury was an- : nounced, and the foreman, Mr. W. J. W. Pliilson, after announcing the findings in ' the various cases referred to the jury, inti- ; mated that the , jury wished to make a pre- . sentment to His Honor touching the Waiotapu prison. He informed Mr. Justice. Edwards that from facts that had been brought under their notice the grand jury considered - the prison conditions at Waiotapu unsatisfactory, and thought that if the prison camp, were to be continued more effectual steps : would have to be taken to ensure the proper custody of the prisoners overnight. That criminals should experience such little difficulty in freeing themselves from the quar-* ters in which they were confined was a menace to the safety of residents in the. Rotorua district. •

His Honor said that he held the same opinion as the members of the grand jury, and would communicate the presentment to the Minister for Justice forthwith. The incident closed. ' .