USES OF PRISON LABOUR.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3437, 19 May 1898, Page 4

USES OF PRISON LABOUR.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— Taking advantage of the cheap travelling on the railways during Easter week, I visited the towns of "Wanganui and iNapior, and could not help noticing how very much more the people of these have done and are doing to make their respective towns pleasant places of resort for visitors and pleasure-seekers in comparison to what is being done in this larger city of Wellington. Take Wanganui, for instance, with its fine public reserves in the centra of the town, once all sandhills and a constant source of growling by visitors and residents alike. Now they are beautifully turfed and planted with ornamental shrubs, a splendid cycle track, made, I am told, by the cyclists themselves under expert guidance, and I observed that the prison labour is being used to further level the ground for recreation purposes. Who having visited the racecourse, within 10 minutes’ walk of the town, would not be almost persuaded to take an interest in racing if only for the pleasure of spending a day in such wellpreserved grounds, with its velvety lawns and playing fountains, its beautiful gardens and small lagoons with swans, ducks, &0., swimming thereon, and with its fine appointments making it one of the, if not the prettiest pleasure spots in New Zealand? Of course Wanganui has many natural advantages over Wellington for pleasure-seekers, notably the river, but surely something more could be done here where we have so many who are well-to-do to make the city more attractive to visitors, so that the reproach so frequently hurled at us might cease. We have an enormous belt of land round the city. What is there to prevent a large part of this being planted and seated and kept in order ? If the Council is not disposed to look after it, why not vest the property in the hands of a scenery preservation society, and let them use the revenue derived from the let portions of the belt for beautifying purposes, and if Wanganui can obtain the services of prison labour, why not Wellington?

Then, one other suggestion. Napier, small town though it is, has managed to form a splendid parade some two miles long facing the ocean, with seats at intervals over a great part of it, and having a row of trees planted along its whole length. Could we not well emulate them, and have as fine, aye, a much finer, parade round the rocks to Point Jerningham ; and could not the prison labour be utilised here again to advantage ? This suggestion of the use of prison labour would not interfere with free labour, because I can well believe that such works as I have mentioned would not be undertaken if free labour had to bo employed. Are not these questions which the Council might well take up and the papers advocate, so that the city might be famed for something more than its dirty, evilsmelling streets, its bare hills and high winds.—l am, &0.. Citizen.