GAOLER "JERRY"

NZ Truth, Issue 1035, 26 September 1925, Page 6

GAOLER "JERRY"

THE loveable traits of the Celtio . character are uppermost m the rugged make-up of J. C. Scanlon — "Jerry" to his friends.

Thirty-seven year 3 m . the Prisons service, far from quenching- the

humanities overflowing m his Irish soul, have confirmed his "humanism," even though m his time he has dealt -with some hard characters, m the days when a warder's best friends were' his fists.

From pugilism tc psychology represents a big step m criminological prac- SCANLON tice, but Jerry J- c « oCANLON,^ Scanlon combined — and still -represents—all that is best m both schools.

Though he had no doctrinaire recommendations, he was selected, about the beginning of this century, to lead the first big open-air experiment of the New Zealand Prisons Department — the tree -planting on the pumice plains at Waiotapu. It is well worth a few days of anyone's time to visit the Waiotapu plantation; and there, if you want to see Jerry Scanlon's monument, well — just look around!

The quarter of a century that has sent the pines skyward has bent the rugged Scanlon just a little earthward, and his superannuation is not twelve months off. But his memory will remain as his pumice-grown pines — ever-green.