STORY OF OLD PRISON.
FACILITIES FOR ESCAPE. DISCOVERY BY SUPERVISOR. In connection with the proposal to demolish the Mount Cook Barracks, Wellington, formerly a prison, it is recalled that when tho building was being erected by prison labour over 40 years ago an ingenious attempt was made to provide facilities for tho escape of a prisoner in tho condemned cell. Occasionally while the building was proceeding the supervisor would go round and examine tho work, here and there tapping the walls with his heavy stick. ! Striking the wall where the condemned cell was to ho he found! it did no " ring " properly. He made a close examination, and trying the moitar found that only n thin crust had been put in between the face bricks on eithei sido and that with only just enough lime to hold it together. A nail would have scratched it out in powder. There was not a bit of mortar between the inner rows of bricks, and all that would have been necessary would hjvo been to lift the bricks out. The space in the wall affected was about a square yard, giving a prisoner ample room to climb through. The men who were concerned in the woik suffered severe disciplinary action.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20331, 12 August 1929, Page 9
Word Count
207STORY OF OLD PRISON. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20331, 12 August 1929, Page 9
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