THE LYTTELTON INFERNO.

NZ Truth, Issue 111, 3 August 1907, Page 5

THE LYTTELTON INFERNO.

HOW THE PRISONERS ARE TREATED. Allandale the Butt of Brutal Warders. The Commission of Abominable Crime.

Some almost incredible yarns continue to float round m connection with the Lyttelton Gaol, that inferno where a number of very desirable reforms could well be effected. Things have altered somewhat since the first article dealing with the institution was published m this paper. It had the effect of sending Colonel Hume down to look round and see for. himself how the show was being run. He doesn't seem to have troubled himself about the prisoner Allandale— the man who is undergoing a ten years' sentence, and who is isolated and kept locked up m his cell all the time, with the exception of the brief time he is allowed out for iexercise. This has been going on now for about a couple of years, and he sees nobody, but the warder* who brings him his food. Colonel Hume apparently approves of Governor Cleary's treatment of Allandale. This prisoner used to be blamed for- a lot of things which he never did prior to being kept apart from the others. The attempted breaking out of Dennett. White, and Burns - was attributed to him, but he was m no way mixed up with it if fellow-prisoners can be believed. Allandale was always looked upon by the warders as being the master mind, and that he fomented any trouble th?.t was n:o---ing on. That is why Cleary became prejudiced against him, and punished him accordingly. But his antipathy to the man dated back to his last sentence served m the gaol prior to his present trouble. Allandale was baker lirn, ?nd on leaving the goal, it is svM that he mixed a lot of kerosene with the, flour. The act was put down to him, anyway. So Cleary is getting even "with him no-v BY IMPOSING SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. •Men who have had to do time for their little peccadilloes, cemnlain bitterly of the way they are treated by the visiting justices who happen along from time to time to deal with recalcitrant prisoners or those who have committed some slight breach of the regulations. These gentry always take the ■ word of the warders for it ; the prisoner brought before them can't get a show of a

A scottv little cuss is Mr All When he rises up to give the Guv., a rally, A great believer he In the festive racing gee, And the totalisator party's staunchest ally.

fair hearing, and is invariably dismissed with: "Tut, tut, bread and water for so many days." There is nothing just about that. A warder can do no wrong apparently, and some of the crowd are brutes. It happens now and again m rather serious cases that the prisoner may appeal from the decision of the justices to the Minister of Justice,- but that's about all he hears of it, and he doesn't know whether his protest has reached Wellington or not. Allandale made an appeal to the Minister, so writer is informed, but never received a reply.

There was one prisoner m the Lyttelton inferno who never seemed to grow a beard, and it was scon apparent to everyone that he shaved every day, an unheard of gaol luxury. Warder Anthony thought it was up to him to ferret the thing out, so^ he said to Atkinson : ';You have a 'razor m your cell, get away with it or it will be getting you into trouble." The prisoner, thinking that the warder was giving him friendly advice, admitted that he had a razor, and that he concealed it m his hammock. That was all the deceitful Anthony wanted. He had the prisoner brought before the visiting justices, produced the' razor triumphantly, and had so many marks knocked off the man's good conduct record. It is little acts like this that earn a warder promotion.

The convicts haven't a very high regard for Dr. Newell, who attends to the sick. It is told of one man that when he was suffering from rheumatism m the arm and fingers, he asked to see the medico, and was accommodated. He said he couldn't work, and the Doctor ordered him to his cell, and put him on half rations, which may be one way of curing rheumatism, but it wouldn't commend itself to many who suffer from it. In addition, he had the man's clothes taken away from him for three days, and he had perforce to go to bed and keep warm under the blankets. Why prisoners are deprived of their clothes writer cannot understand, unless it is mennt as a sort of punishment for being unwell. When this chap told the warder that he would sooner be out trying to work. RATHER THAN REMAIN IN HIS CELL, they gave him his togs and sent him out with the gang.

People who have been on a wild jag and drank themselves into a state of delirium tremens, .and who are sent along for medical treatment, should really be treated better than they are. They aren't given a "hair of the dog that bit them" apparently, although most doctors believe that small quantities of liquor should be given the afflicted person from time to time. These drinky persons aro placed on half rations and are given beef tea. It is wonderful beef tea, too— water that meat^ was boiled m. And the meat is always of the cheapest procurable, A man suffering very badly from d.t.'s has a rocky time of

(Minister for Lands). A canny Scot.is Bob, ys ken, Who thought he was a statesman w<hen

With his little bill. He sought, to kill Those coves we call the "landed men."

it at night when the lis^t is "put out. He is subject to all sorts of hallucinations, and fights all sorts of enemies m the murky darkness. One man not long ago was always battling with monsters of the most disagreeable character, ami ha used to yell like a fiend all night. Another was under the delusion that a man was stabbing him, and he couldn't war.d him off nohow. When the light was put out he used to perform with a "vengeance. People who drink themselves into such an awful condition have to pay the penalty when their brain-box becomes unbalanced, and they are the prey to weird and wonderful fancies.

It is said by discharged prisoners to be a positive fact that the detestable, unmentionable crime of sodomy is regularly committed m Lyttelton Gaol. There are men — or alleged men— there who are doing time for that very offence, ,and there are equally low, degraded beings who commit this loathsome crime without a qualm. Brutes of this sort could, well be kept m for life ; they are right beyond the pale of society altogether: There are many opportunities afforded EVIL-MINDED CONVICTS of perpetrating the crime mentioned, even on the works where they can get out of sight of the warder for a few minutes. . It is a most disgusting thing to have to r,ecord y but writer 1 is assured that, it is only too true, and that the occurrence is a fairly common one. It is a thov-

tewis, of Courtenay, they reckon can write, His quill as ready and willing, But the palm he can take as a champion skite. When Hansard's pasres he's filling. From Courtenay they sent him, now they resent him, Atod wish him to blazes and— well, He's a darned old Tory, growing ancient and hoary. In fact, bo's a political sell.

oughly scandalous business, but warders can't well have their eyes on their charges the whole of the time, and the blackguards aren't likely to give them a chance to catch them anyway. It is enough to make one shrink and shudder.

The oldest newspaper m the world, the "King Pao" or "News of the Capital," of Pekin, will celebrate its 500 th anniversary this year. Yet probably it has never m all its career circulated so many lies as the Plute papers o£ New. Zealand.