MR. MICHAEL HAWKINS.

Wairarapa Age, 21 March 1925, Page 2

MR. MICHAEL HAWKINS.

NEW CONTROLLER OF PRISONS.

Mr Michael Hawkins (Inspector of Prisons and Director of Prison Works), who has been appointed Con-troller-General of Prisons in succession to the late Mr C. E. Matthews, was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1862. He joined the prison service as a tradesman warder in 1885, and he is the first officer who has risen from the ranks to control of the department.

■ After training for 12 months at Invercargill, he was transferred to Dunedin as trades instructor. In the following year he was transferred to Timaru and in 1890 was appointed acting-gaoler. On the closing of the Timaru prison he was transferred to Lyttelton, and gin 1891, to Invercargill as principal warder. In 1907 he was appointed gaoler at Invercargill, and in 1915 in addition to his office as gaoler, he was appointed Supervisor of Prison Works and Labour, later on in the year being transferred to Wellington in a similar capacity, In 1916 he was relieved of the duties of gaoler and appointed Deputy Inspector of Prisons in addition to his other duties. In 1920 he was promoted to the position of Inspector of Prisons and Supervisor of Prison Works. During Mr Hawkins’s long association with the prison service he has at various times had control of every one of the main prisons and institutions under the administration of the Prisoni Department. Ho was for many years jn charge of the Borstal Institute, at Invercargill, and was largely responsible for the important reclamation scheme which, was carried out by prison labour for the Invercargill Borough Council, as a result of which 2500 acres of land were reclaimed from the sea and converted into magnificent pasture lands.