SENSATIONAL ATTEMPT AT GAOLBREAKING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2433, 31 October 1900, Page 71

SENSATIONAL ATTEMPT AT GAOLBREAKING.

FAREWELL LETTER TO THE GAOLER.

(IPito:ji Ouu Owx CoHEEsroxDENT.) WELLINGTON, October 2b.

A sensational attempt at gaol-breaking was made by three inmates of the Wellington Terrace Prison on Thursday night. The cell in wHich the men were placed is at the eastern end of the building, and their scheme was evidently to pierce through the brick wall, and thus liberate themselves at a point where nothing but the gaol plantation lay between Lhexnselves and freedom. The idea no doubt suggested itself to the prisoners from the fact that recently they hare constituted a section of ci gang engaged in knocking the central brickwork out of the Mount Cook Gaol, so that it may be converted into military b»rracks. That; the plot was carefully planned is eyident from several facts. First of all, one of the prisoners managed to conceal about his N person an iron jimmy used (in connection with" the dismantling of the Mount Cook C4aol) for prizing out the mortar and removing the bricks. Adopting a clever pretext he managed to evade search after arrival at the gaol on Thursday evening, and smuggled the jimmy into his cell. The work of excavation evidently commenced early in the evening, but there was no sign of any distmibpnee when the warders made their customary rounds about 8 o'clock. This is no doubt due to the fact that the bunk of one of the men was alongside the wall "which was undergoing the process of excavation. As an additional precaution, and to prevent the sound of their operations from reaching the ears of the warders in the corridors, the piisoners took the blankets from their stretchers and jan-med them tightly in the interstices of the cell door. About 10 o'clock a sharp eared gaol official having a sort of instinctive premonition that things were not as they seemed, stro.led round on a visit of inspection. Arriving at the cell in which the men above referred to -were incarcerated his quick ear detected the chink, chink, chink, of the iron implement against the brick wall. Further investigation convinced him that the operators within had mode considerable progress with their operations, and had indeed, got through nhe inner bricks and v> ere making inroads on the protective concrete covering separating them from liberty. Tho alarm was at once given, the door was thrown opsn, and to the surprise and chagrin of the \rould-be escapees, the governor of the gaol aivd his attendant warders walked into the cell. As may be imagined, the place was in a frightful litter of bricks and debris. One of the prisoners stood with a -jimmy in his hand, and with a paralysed expression oi countenance. Another slowly upraised himself from tho gaping excavaiion which had been created, but the third was lying on bis bunk, fast asleep — so sleepy, in fact, that it was with difficulty that ho was awakened. His expression of surprise on seeing the handwork of his companions would, it is said, have done credit to the treble-dyed hsro of a dime novel. When .the * cell was thoroughly examined, it was found that one of the prisoners — rwho, by the way, had made his escape on a previous occasion — had left an elaborately framed letter of farewell to Mr Garvey," the governor of the gaol.