FLOGGING OF A PRISONER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1129, 19 July 1873, Page 2

FLOGGING OF A PRISONER.

At 10 o'clock yesterday forenoon the pxinishment of flogging was inflicted on a prisoner named William Duffy, who was sentenced at the recent sessions of the Supreme Court, by His Honour Mr Justice Chapman, to two years' imprisonment with hard labour, and in addition to receive 25 lashes with the cat-o' -nine-tails, for attempting to commit a rape upon the person of a female child at the Dunstan. The flogging was administered in the Stockade Yard, in the presence of the Provincial Surgeon, Mr Caldwell, the Governor of the Gaol, and other officials. The prisoner, who is a somewhat slightly built man, was formerly a soldier in the 65th Regiment of foot. He was brought from his cell by Sergeant Watson, and appeared very pale from nervous excitement. The expression of his face was somewhat anxious, but lie walked up to the triangle collectedly and steadily, as if he had made up his mind to the punishment, and after baring himself to the waist by taking off his shirt, stood with his feet together, and a hand grasping each front leg of the triangle. The flagellator— a tall powerful man, formerly a boatswain in the lioyal Nayy — tied him with the straps, under the direction of Mr Caldwell, and then took his position with the cat, testing the correctness of the reach by laying it gently on the culprit's back. At the side stood the Provincial Surgeon and Medical Officer of the Gaol, &c. The signal hay» ing been given, the flagellator swung the cats twice round his head to give the blow impetus, and with the third sweep brought it down Oft the right shoulder, drawing from the prisoner an exclamation of pain. The stroke was given with a will, and the track of the cords and the dents of the knots could be traced on the skin— the pain evidently increasing as the strokes descended. We will not go into further detail regarding the effect of the lashes, and it will suffice to aay that Duffy was well and truly whipped, as he deserved to be.

Private letters from England and Vienna reoeived in Christchurch, and quoted by one of the papers there, are to the effect that New Zealand will be well represented at the Vienna Exhibition. The space allotted to the Colony was found too small for the exhibits sent, and part of that set aside for South Australia was in consequence appro, priated,

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