The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1882. Teaching Prisoners Trades.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 669, 22 June 1882, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas, et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 1882. Teaching Prisoners Trades.

TOWN EDITION.

[lssued at 4.40 p.m. j

Mr Hutchison presented a monster petition to Parliament on Tuesday afternoon. The document was twentyfive feet long with four columns of signatures on each sheet, comprising in all many thousands of names of artizans and others, dwellers in the Middle Island, who took this forcible means of bringing under the notice of our legislators, at Wellington, their protest against the teaching of trades to prisoners in gaols. The petition set forth : “ That the system of teaching skilled trades in the gaols of the colony competes against and lessens the demand for free labor, and, besides, reduces the social status of a large section of the people of the colony. The following reasons are adduced in support thereof, namely:—(l) That universal depression has been augmented by the system. (2) That unskilled criminals, by being taught trades, and thereby placed on an equality with free artisans, benefit to a considerable extent. Your petitioners therefore submit that the system proves incentive to crime rather than deterrent. (3) That under the system a felon gains by imprisonment that for which a free artisan pays a

premium. (4) That making gaols self supporting under the system will eventually compel a number of artisans (taxpayers) to leave the colony, and that their share of taxation will fall on those that remain. Therefore there can be no real saving. (5) That from the ranks of the artisans men in the colony and elsewhere have risen to eminence, and that these, together with the present artisans, will suffer degradation if the system is permitted to branch out over a large sphere. (6) That if the system is continued apprentices will be associated with hardened criminals, and that such association will naturally have an unsatisfactory influence upon apprentices. Your petitioners would respectfully submit that the system is unjust, as it is antagonistic to the free artisan, who contributes to the State through the Customs and other channels. Your petitioners desire to draw attention to the fact that the system complained of is being strongly agitated against in America, and that the question will come before Congress at an early date. Your petitioners, in consideration of the foregoing, ask that your honorable House will afford such relief as to it will seem meet.” What Parliament will do in the matter remains to be seen, but, in truth, it is called upon to decide in this question a most difficult problem. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, it is a hardship—and a very great hardship—that the gaol bird should be fitted to compete against the honest man, and should as the result and reward for his dishonesty be placed on an equality as a bread-winner with the man who has never broken thej laws of his country, and whose acquaintance with the pursuit he follows for a living has been purchased by years of hard and honest toil. And yet what is to become of Mr Bill Sykes if he is to be debarred from learning something which shall enable him, if so willed, to earn his bread in a reputable manner ? What hope can there possibly be of his reform so long as he is precluded from acquiring in the only place he is ever likely to acquire— i.e., in gaol—a knowledge of a trade or handicraft which shall enable him to support himself by other means than “ cracking cribs ” or filching gold watches from unsuspecting old gentlemen ? There are two sides to every question, but both sides of this particular question are entitled to so much careful consideration that it will take a good deal of discrimination to enable the Government to deal with it in a satisfactory manner. It will be interesting to watch how they will get out of the dilemma.