THE TOMBS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18442, 28 March 1922, Page 2

THE TOMBS

A visitor to the Magistrate’s Court buildings, noticing that sbme alterations were in progress there, took it into his head to have a look at the scene of the carpenter’s op-rations. This led him to a neighbourhood of which he had heard a good deal, but which he explored then for the first time. This is the “treasure island” of the Court buildings, commonly known as the “cells.” The visitor was struck with the scene which came before his gaze: complaints have been mi de o' the Court chamber, but it is a palace compared with these cells; few realise the dungeon where prisoners are held pending their trial—men and women, innocent until found guilty, sit until the call comes in a scene of squalor unfitting for enlightened times. The dingy dusty passage which leads from a trapdoor next to the street into the “Tombs,” has on one side the Court supply of fuel: adjacent are two cells which, wihle perhaps not filthy, are at least a disgrace to the Department of Justice. 11l lit from low sunk windows, and from what small light percolates into the cells from gas jets, and almost wholly vmnting in sanitary appliances except receptacles of a more or less “passing” interest, the place is simply an unlined cellar. The visitor came to realise that this was indeed a relic of “old Wanganui,” and a relic which could well be done away with. Incarceration in r. dark dungeon is not the sort of thing which mends criminals —it rather makes them. The alterations in hand might well extend to making the chamber, if not attractive, at least reasonably comfortable for the unfortunates, guilty or innocent, awaiting the anxious time of their trial. We commend the comments for consideration in the responsible quarter.