FORESTRY AND PRISON LABOUR.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11507, 13 February 1903, Page 4

FORESTRY AND PRISON LABOUR.

In Mr Seddon's epeech at Levin he referred to the question of afforestation, and indicated an extension of the system. In his opinion there should be nurseries in nearly every district, instead of, as at present, is only a few. Everyone will agree as to the wifidom of widening the scope of a department capable of so much benefit to the colony aa the department of forestry. The destruction of the forest, without any attempt being made to provide for future needs, went on far too long, and it is gratifying to find that in one respect at least the Government is not oblivious of the-claims of posterity. In foreshadowing an increase in the activities of the department, the Premier referred to the success which had attended the experiment of using prison labour for tree-planting. This ha* now been carried out- at: Waiotann. .on the road between.

Rotorua and Taupo, for the past year oi two, and has been attended with such results as go far to justify the Premier's assertion that it has passed out of the experimental stage. Eighty-two thousand tree* were planted there last year, and a good deal of fencing and reading had also to be done, while an area of 106 acres was cleared of scrub in readiness for the next season's planting. By the end of April, it was estimated, over a quarter of a million pite would hare been dug 'for the trees to be planted this year. The average number of prisoners employed was twenty-two, of whom the chief forester remarks that they showed no tendency to loiter, and that "though perhaps hardly "equal to free labour in point of speed, the " works undertaken have been carried out in "a thorough and workman-like manner." The men employed, however, have been of a good class, and have apparently taken considerable interest in the work, so that better result* have probably been obtained than if the course now advocated by Mr Seddon had been followed. He would take, is said, every prisoner in tihe large centres and concentrate them in different parts of the North and South, Island at tree-planting. By so doing he believed they would reform the men, and they would certainly have a valuable asset as the result of their work. "He " wouldi spend no more money in bricks for " building gaols in the large centres." Mr Seddon, no doubt, said rather more than he meant; he can hardly intend to take every prisoner out of the large centres and turn .them all to tree-planting. Apart from the fact that a number of prisoners are physically unfitted for the work, it should/ in our opinion, be restricted to the better class of prisoners, whose behaviour has entitled them to t3}e privilege. For it is generally understood that prisoners regard tt as a privilege to be sent to Waiotapu, where, apart from tihe surroundings, which compare pleasantly with the walls of a gaol, such boons as tobacco and outdoor reoreatdon such as football are said to be allowed to the prisoners. It would be unwise to make "hard labour" so pleasant as to rob gaol of its terrors. Even in this tender-hearted age prisons must to come extent be places of puniehment. But the general idea of making more use of prison-labour at such work as foreetay ie good, especially as it betoken recognition by the Government of the necessity for the extension of tree-planting.