BORSTAL DIET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22963, 19 August 1936, Page 15

BORSTAL DIET

DR M'MILLAN’S “DISCOVERY” CHALLENGED BY MR HARGEST (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 18. Exception to the diet provided for the inmates of the Invercargill Borstal Institution was taken by Dr D. G. M'Millan (Govt., Dunedin West) during consideration of the Estimates of the Department of Justice and Prisons in the House of Representatives to-day. Dr'M'Millan said that although the institution produced dairy products in abundance the boys were fed on bread and fat. “ I hone the Minister will take steps to remove this relic of barbarism,” he said. Dr M'Millan’s statement was immediately challenged by Mr J. Hargest (Opposition, Awarua). The boys at Invercargill, he'said, were as well fed as any prison population in the world. He had visited the institution on many oepasions and had partaken of meals which were on a par with the fare provided at any reasonable hotel in this tryMr W. J. Broadfoot (Opposition, Waitomo): A home away from home. Mr W. J. Poison (Opposition, Stratford): You are making it too attractive. The Minister of Lands, Mr F. Langstone: Do they get toothpicks on the table? Mr Hargest: I would not like the statement to go unchallenged that the boys are badly fed. The Minister of Justice, Mr H. G. R. Mason, said he concurred with Mr Hargest’s statement as to the rations. The health records were good and the prisoners appeared to thrive on the food provided. The opinion that Mr Hargest’s statement was a little exaggerated was expressed by Mr J. A. Lee (Government, Grey Lynn). One would hardly put “Hotel de Ritz ’ across the prison door, he said, yet if Mr Hargest’s statement were correct that might be*done with safety. “A meal that is good to a visitor is not necessarily a good meal to the person who has to eat it day after day,” said Mr Lee. “During the war bully beef and biscuits were quite a good meal if one had to eat it once, but not so if it was the meal every day.”