BORSTAL INSTITUTION

Southland Times, Issue 19478, 30 March 1922, Page 5

BORSTAL INSTITUTION

INSPECTED BY MINISTER OF JUSTICE. GOOD WORK ACHIEVED. A visit of inspection was paid to the Invercargill Borstal Institution by the Minister of Justice, the Hon. E. P. Lee, yesterday. Mr Lee, who was accompanied by the Controller-General of Prisons, Mr C. E. Matthews, came to Invercargill specially to see the institution and the work undertaken by the inmates. In conversation with a Times reporter last evening the Minister expressed himself as being very well pleased with all he had seen. “I have been endeavouring for some time,” said Mr Lee, “to visit tue institution but my having to go to Samoa and pressure of business connected with other Departments under my supervision have prevented, uptill now, my doing so. It is impossible to gain a fair knowledge of the work and results achieved by an examination of the many records that come before me dealing with the affairs of the institution, and now that 1 have seen the place and have had the different undertaxlngs explained to me on the spot, I am satisfied with the work that is being accomplished from the standpoints of the training of the inmates, the State and the municipality of Invercargill. I spent the whole day with the officials looking over the institution buildings and the farm, aud I must say that I was surprised at the extent of the work done by the inmates. The conversion of water and swamp areas into fine agricultural land will be of great value to the town, and when one considers what has already been done during the last few years, and eees the plans for future operations it can easily be forecasted what the area will be like in a short period of time. “Apart from the value of the work being done on the farm, the healthy occupation afforded and the training received by the young men committed to the institution must tend to improve the minds and bodies of the inmates. If the same amount of good is obtained in this direction as has been the case with the farming operations, then the institution is achieving the success which its founders had in