HOLT'S IMPRISONMENT.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 7192, 9 October 1886, Page 4

HOLT'S IMPRISONMENT.

FAVOURITISM BECAUSE OF POSITION.

In the Legislative Assembly oESydnej', on September 28, a dibcussiou took place on the clauses of the Prisoners' Detention Bill. Sir H. Parkes Baid so far as possible, the sentence which a prisoner endured oU2;bt to be one w hicb was p;issed on him after his triil by a jadae of the land. That sentence ouuht not to be altered under the most extraordinary circumstances, and it ought not to be permitted that such a sentence should be altered at the caprice or will of a Comptroller General oi Prisons. Mr. Garland, speaking upon this clause, referred to the case of Holt, who, he believed, despite the recommendation ot the Minister for Justice that he should be sent to Berrima, as originally intended, Still remained at Parramatta, so that tho decision of the Minister was overruled by the Comptroller-General of Prisons. And ■whilst on this matter he said that he \va3 told on the best authority tbat at the present time, although Holt was certified to be insune, he wus in reality as sane aa the Minister for Jußtice, than whom theic was no more square-headed man in the community. Holt was receiving the very best of treatment, was "jolly as a sandboy," and expre&aed to his friends a firm conviction that he would be out of a,aol within twelve months. Tho letters Ilolt wrote to his friends outside destroyed any idea of his insanity. He (Mr. Garland) supposed that it was because he had friends in high positions and waa well connected that he was not treated as other prisoners who were less fortunate than ho •was in these respects.