PRISON VEGETABLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15820, 18 January 1915, Page 3

PRISON VEGETABLES.

NEW SOUTH WALES IDEA

The New South W ales Attorney-Ocneral and Minister for Justice, Mr. D. B. Hall, has had every opportunity of inspecting the afforestation and prison labour schemes of the New Zealand Government. Mr. Herdman accompanied Mr. Hall over the afforestation camps and pointed out the advantages claimed for the scheimc, the areas that had been planted, and indicated the growth that had taken place in the trees. The party passed through the original Waiotapu Camp where tree-planting was first carried out in 1901. Mr. Hall was surprised at the growth that had taken place, some of the trees having attained a height, of fully 50ft

Mr C. E. Matthews, inspector of prisons, accompanied Mr. Hall on his tour of the Auckland district-.

*' Perhaps tho best thing I can say in regard to the New Zealand prisons administration," said Mr. Hall to a Herald representative last night, "is that a year ago I started to imitate it by founding a scheme on exactly similar lines. The result of my investigations here will give me the benefit of 15 years' New Zealand experience and enable us to make a few changes of a comparatively unimportant character, which the New Zealand authorities La ve eeen tit to introduce here. If wo can get as good results out of our first 15 years as we saw in the vicinity of Rotorua we shall be well satisfied. At the same time the present intention is not to go in for the scheme as extensively in New South Wales as you have in New Zealand. Our idea is rather to start prison farms for the supplying of vegetables and to extend the work in a direction which will give an earlier return for the expenditure of labour and money gather than to plant a forest which will not come to maturity for a quarter of a century. The time is very opportune in New South Wales. In the past our larger centres have been supplied, I understand, almost entirely by Chinese. The White Australia policy is making Chinese labqur scarce and there is an ample demand for any vegetables that we are able to grow without unduly interfering with vested interests."