GAOL INQUIRY.

Waikato Times, Issue 12185, 21 September 1911, Page 4

GAOL INQUIRY.

A WARDER DISMISSED

PACTS OF THE CASE

WELLINGTON, Wednesday. As the result of the report of the Board of Inquiry under the Civil Service Act into certain charges made aj-sinsl Warder Baxter at Mt. Eden ''•>■[. Baxter has bean dismissed from tlij public service. The accused man, who has throuyh"iit complained that tire inquiry was not open to the Press, saw , a reporter < n receipt of a telegram announcing his dc'smisss.l. and expressed himself as being anxious that the public should have the particulars of the case. He stated that ha was determined to thrash the matter out to the bitter end, and to that purpose he would take the platform with whoever opposed Sir John Findlay (Minister for Justice) in the forthcoming elections. and say all he knew regarding the working of the prisons. THE CHARGES. Dealing with the allegations against him, Mr BaxUr said he had received an intimation from the Department dismissing him. The Department stated, in their opinion, three had been proved. They were that he had made assignations with two of the women visitors to the presion ; secondly, that he had been guilty of immoral relations ; and, thirdly, that he brought undue pressure to bear upon the gaoler.in order to get a remission of sentence for one of the prisoners. Speaking of these charges, Mr Baxter said that in the first place the woman said that he was not the man who made the assignations. In regard to the charge of having immoral relations with a girl, he considered he had proved that there was m> truth in this charge, and that the lady was a friend of his wifa's, and had known them for 15 months. In the last charge, the evidence put forward by the prosecution was that he typed four unsigned letters for the prisoner's sister to copy in order to appeal to the gaoler for a remission of sentence. As a matter of fact, declared Mr Baxter, at the time the letter was typed he had lost the key lof the machine, and during that time others had access to the •instrument. He had, be asserted, produced documents to show that political influence secured the remission of sentence, which was backed' up by the mother of the prisoner in question. The other charges, which were not proved, said Mr Baxter, were that he attempted to procure abortion ; attempting to tamper with a witness by trying to influence heir not to come to Court ; for favouring a certain contractor with metal : for receiving ammunition from the ammunition factory, and allowing the factory to take scoria in return ; for embezzling £lO, supposed to be sent to a prisoner by registered post ; for interception of a letter three days before the inquiry closed ; and with making 1 a fraudulent entry in the expenditurebook. THE WARDER'S COMPLAINT.

Stating that he had not been given a shadow of fair play, Mr Baxter said he had teen convicted without there being a tittle of evidence against him. He was able to disaprove all the allegations quite easily, but he had bad to fight a strong array of counsel, the Rev. Kyle, some twenty warders, assisted by the police and detective force. He had told the Court that the whole affair was a farce behind closed doors, and he strongly ohjectod to the presence o>f Mr Kyle, the Government criminologist, who, he said, simply judged the truth of the witness' statement by the twitching of the bands and face. DISMISSED WARDER'S CAREER. Mr Baxter further stated that through a scheme of his for the revision of ration tendering be. had saved the Government £IOOO to £I2OO, approximately, a year, and he had Papers from the Minister to show thei Department's appreciation of his work in this direction. He had shown how to successfully keep down expenditure in the Mt. Cook prison, Wellington, and had revised the Police Gazette. He was rewarded on two occasions for smart captures when McNiel and Burgess escaped from Wellington prison, and be was commended for his assistance in recapturing the escapem Burke and Dr is coll when they got away from WclHnnton goal. He had ;i]so recommendations from the Wellington gaoler and from tbe> Mt. Eden raoler.