MURPHY!

NZ Truth, Issue 82, 12 January 1907, Page 4

MURPHY !

ALLEGED DEVILISH DOINGS

AT DUNGAREE.

Six Fut Two ay Irish Gaoler.

AH too frequently is it the case m our prisons that all sorts of petty tyranny and malipious illtreatment is added to the sentence imposed, by the judge,, who, m the guilele^sness of his order, thinks the man he has sent up is deprived of his liberty and merely doing a short day's work and feeding on low diet under rigid supervision as tq conduct and - regularity. That is -what the humane judge thinks : but he's like the bosun said of Dick Deadeye, " 'c means well, but 'c don't know." Little dreams he how the wretched trim who have been sent to durance arc often treated by brutal, overbearing* naturally cruel, and frtfotiently drunken gaolers and wsurders. We need another Charles Readc to expose this social cancer to -A HORRWII'"' WORLD. Why should men who have erred, and especially flhase who . have dona so for- the first time, b# /treated worse than niggers on a plantation, and as badly as Chows is a S'African mine ? The rules and. • regulations are explicit, and no gaol official should t.e allowed to go. bekiird them and -$o add cruelty and . b#j?ression and degradation to the. 'burden imposed by the law. But they do. It is well known to the world at large that there are many men -"clothed m i.a little brief authority" who "play; i suoh fantastic tricks before high Heaven as make the angels w.eep." Men ol this type appear to , be m every gaol m the world ; men' who are by nature unfitted to hold a posit/ion of power over other men. Brutes who

GLOAT OVER THE MISERY of the wretches whose lives m gaol they delight m makng hell upon earth. Jabez Balfour found such men m English gaols, and hi 3 description m his story of gaol life, recentlypu'blished, of the brutal ferocity and devilish cruelty -of one warder m Portland, is enough to raise a burning Hell m the heart of a ny' : reader who is not calloused to the sorrows and sufferings of others. ' Such a man would appear to have been placed m charge of the treeplanting camp at Dungaree,^ if th.c information that has reacried this office is to foe relied upon, and there is every reason to ; believe that it can. His name is Murphy, and ha is naturally an Irishman, and a choleric Irishman at that. He .stands " six I feet two or so and is big m .proportion. Common sense- .".ml iha slightest knowledge of human i.-;ilure should teach those responsible for such appointments that BIG-, CHOLERIC ANDUNSOBER IRISHMEN ; are the verj last m the country from whose ranks to draw men to rule over other men. Look at them as gangers over navvies m any. corner of th<3 world—and listen to ! Driving, bullying, fluent' foul' abuse, cruelty and oppression seem to afford them the keenest enjoyment, and they, possess a perfect genius fp A r "picking oh" certain iinen and making them" the butt and target of their, coarse. Offensive wit. and' ti^it cruel persecution. That this is ,vsp is world-wide knowledge, and- ?et our Government departments aiust needs place specimens, of the..",cta < 5s over unfortunate prisoners wWhave not even the poor option of the free navvy— bhey cannot lay, down, their tools, demand their inone? and chuck the job. They dare not even remonstrate, it they did ' i£ would mean very probably physical injury, additional detention and. toss of good conduct marks. There is. no berth for which it is so essential that the most careful selection" should be made as for that :of gaoler and warder, and yot we have t»he spectacle of any '• „. BIG, STRONG, BRUTAL FELLOW who has a political pull, being pitchforked into- these positions as the reward of smoogdng and services of the "ward politician" order, to some political freak .of the moment. Murphy, who has -charge of the station at Dungaree,, and has two warders under him, * seems imbued with the idea that he must, m duty bound, add the fear of physical hurt arad the goad'of a cruel," malicious tongue and a malignant eye to the punishment imposed upon his charges by the law. When he is suffering from over-indulgence, "or the effects thereof, it is said to be his pastime to send for any man he has taken a set on, to the office and there bully and strike him, or seize him by the throat, -fhake him like a terrier does a rat and half strangle him before he lets him go. Whether this is dictated by Murphy's; real nature or whether he is dominated m such brutalities by booze, is s. question •for his superior officer to decide. One tiling is certain and that is that .neither Murphy, nor any other beggar on horseback, has a. right 1 to

EXTEND A MAN'S SENTENCE at his own sws«t will. Yet that is just what this big bully does as a regular thins, to gratify his spleen. A young; man, a first offender, who came under his fatherly control, was suffering s-o intensely, from great carbuncles on the neck that he was forced to tell Murphy he could not continue to drive the spade into the soil m digging holes for trees. Murphy told him be could go off, but added "but you'll have to stay m longer for the spell" ; and he kept his word. The young fellow's time, was up on New Year's Day (Tuesday) 'but he was kept m custody and made to work up till the last mmnute of the following .Saturday. Tho same utterly illegal course Was taken with another roan whose sentence expired on Monday, December 31, but who was detained by this extraordinary man 1 , Murphy, until inday, and even then was worked at nigger-driving speed, up to the last moment,' when, after the gang had knocked off and fallen m to .march back to. barracks, he was called out of the ranks and told he could go. Now, Murphy, nor any other gaoler, has no power to thus extend a. prisoner's sentence, and if cither or these men, or any other man ne so detains, choosts to take action ray damages against the GqwrnniCTfc for this utterly illegal detention after sentence has expired, they will most certainly succeed. Such bring tin caw and m the interests o! 'hmnatitv it is up to the (.Government ti* institute an enquiry into thf method* of Murphy.