THE LATEST IMPROVEMENT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 11, 3 July 1885, Page 9

THE LATEST IMPROVEMENT.

(Dunedin Iteming Herald,) In a speech delivered six or seven weeks ago in Wales by Lord Salisbury, the present Prime Minister, he complained of the present tendency " to fetter men and withdraw from them the freedom of action and of contract which they have hitherto enjoyed. That secular reproduction of the Inquisition, the modern .Inspector, is abroad in all the land. His encroachments are at every man's door. He is the one danger to liberty that is to be feared." In New Zealand we have now a whole host of inspectors with subs and deputies, ramifying the Civil Service, and maintained at a ridicnlous expense, taking into account the limited number of our population. We cannot trace the history of the whole battalion, bat we will select one as an example. In 1873 a complete and comprehensive Prisoos Act was passed, under which the visitation and inspection of prisons was vested in two or more Visiting Justices nominated by the Governor, of whom the Resident Magistrate usually was one. This plan worked well, and was carried out in a sufficient manner for the requirements of a young country which had no criminal class strictly so-called. The prisoners in the main consisted of thoughtless ne'er-do-wells expatriated by equally thoughtless friends in Britain, who, when their allowances ran short, victimised hotel-keepers by passing valueless cheques. There were a few unfortunates also who bad got into trouble when the malt was uppermost. But of professional criminals we had none. It worked well for nine years, till 1882, when the Atkinson Government carried a consolidation of the Prisons Acts, in which a new clause was introduced authorising the appointment of an Inspector of Prisons, at a suitable salary of course, whose duty was "to inspect all prisons." The powers and duties of the Visiting Justices were left untouched. - The new official was scarcely warm in his seat until he took steps to enlarge the „ scope of , his authority and duties, and assume executive functions. Accordingly the very next session, in 1883, a new Prisons Bill was passed, the following important clause :—": — " In addition to any other powers given to the Inspector of Prisons by the said Act (1882), he shall, in relation to any prison, have and exercise all the additional powers exercisable by a Visiting Justice under section 3 of this Act." His power of inspection has thus super-added power to hear complaints of prisoners and to make inquiry and take evidence on oath as to the conduct of any prison officer, the treatment and conduct of the prisoner, and alleged abuses. While the Inspector is thus receiving additional wing feathers, care is *akeff to clip the wings of the Visiting Justices. The sections of the Act of 1882 conferring the necessary judicial powers on Visiting Justices are repealed and swept away. The Inspector is master of the field. He has at all times the ear of the Minister of Justice, and as secrecy is preserved as to the contents of his reports, he becomes indirectly a secret irresponsible functionary, coming within the category of those described in forcible terms by Lord Salisbury. Every prison is a kind of bastile, governed by rules and regulations of an autocratic nature, emanating from the suggestions of an Executive Inspector. We view the union of these functions as inconsistent with the due regard of the sacred principles of liberty which we have been trained to respect. If an inspector be deemed necessary, let his duties be confined to inspection and report. It is the spirit of our law that the maintenance of power and order everywhere be entrusted to those of our fellow-colonists whom the Governor may nominate in that behalf as Justices and. Magistrates, and prisons ought to be no exception. If the Justices fail in their duty, that is no reason for encroaching on our sacred edifice of civil liberty by a radical change of system. Those who fail can be removed and others appointed in their stead. We hope some member will take up this subject and prevent the colony from lapsing into a system of bondage under irresponsible inspectors.