WAS IT A HOAX?

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 855, 29 June 1910, Page 4

WAS IT A HOAX?

ALLEGECLETTER FROM POWELKA. A letter purporting to be signed by the criminal Powelka, and addressed from the Terrace Gaol, was published in our morning contemporary yesterday. The Mlcr was a defence of the "New Zealand Times" against tlie attacks of the newspaper "Truth," and aim a denial of allegations made against Powelka himself. The communication certainly did not read like thn effort of an illiterate person such as Powelka is supposed to be, and doubts as to ils authenticity were also raised from the fact that the writer stated that he had read the article referred to in -Truth. ,, Possibly newspapers containing information relating to criminals undergoing sentences of imprisonment are supplied by the gaol authorities to the criminals in question, but we Tory much doubt it. In any case the matter was brought under the notice of Iho Minister for justice, Dr. Findlay, who stated that he had made immediate inquiry in the proper quarters, and had ascertained that no such letter as had appeared in the "New Zealand Times" was passed, or allowed to be passed, by the gaoler. Such a procedure' would be a direct breach of the prison regulations. "As no means by which the letter could have reached an outside authority have been discovered," concluded Dr. Findlay, "it seems highly probable that it is not authentic." Seeing that the publication of the letter, whether genuine or not, could serve no good purpose, it is to be regretted that it was published at all.