LIABLE TO BE SHOT.
Escaping Prisoners in New • Zealand. POWERS OF WARDERS. “ Any prisoner escaping or attempting to escape shall thereby render himself liable to be shot by any officer of the prison, if, after having been called upon to stand, he refuses or fails to do so.” This significant clause in the New Zealand prison regulations is recalled by a cable message from New York. The cable states that a young female convict, who had escaped from prison, was shot by guards. The prison regulations in New Zealand make provision for adequate precautions against the escape of prisoners. For instance the regulations concerning the duties of the controlling officer state, “ He shall inspect the armoury and test the effectiveness of all weapons at least once a month,” and again: “Warders on armed duty must at all times be vigilant and alert. On no account are they to sit or lounge about. Rifles are to be carried at slope, trail or shoulder. Such warders shall abstain from using their arms without sufficient occasion, but must nevertheless regard it as their duty to prevent escape (either by individual attempts of prisoners or by general riot leading to such attempt) and to protect unarmed officers, and shall act accordingly. They must on all occasions be guided by their own judgment and intelligence; but any in recognising their proper course of duty or in acting with # Tect when needful will be regarded as incompetency and the officer shall, apart from any legal penalties incurred, be liable to dismissal.”
An official stated this morning that within recent years prisoners attempting to escape from Mount Eden prison, Auckland, had been wounded. An armed warder was still on duty over the. yard at Mount Eden, but it had been some time since there had been occasion for the use of firearms. All prisoners of a dangerous type were sent to Mount Eden gaol, and it was doLibtful if firearms were ever in evidence in other prisons in New Zealand.
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Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20363, 21 July 1934, Page 11
Word Count
333LIABLE TO BE SHOT. Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20363, 21 July 1934, Page 11
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