AUSTRALIA VISITED,

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 887, 5 August 1910, Page 6

AUSTRALIA VISITED,

PRISON REFORM. THE RICHMOND RAILWAY ACCIDENT. Mr. 1. Salek, of The Terrace, nnd his sou (Mr. A. If. Salek, of Messrs. 0. and R. Beere's offico), rctnrned by tho Moeraki from a two-months' tour of Australia on Wednesday. They spentmost of their time in Sydney, Melbourne, -and Adelaide, but broke their journeys at towns along the line whenever they felt disposed, and wherever there were friends to look up. "Australia seems very prosperous. We were surprised at tho hustle and work that seemed to bo going on in Sydney. New buildings' are going up everywhere, aud the suburbs are stretching out into what were bare fields or scrubravel ed country a year or two ago. Having a letter from Colonel Hume, late Inspector of Prisons, 1 . was afforded facilities for inspecting the Parramalta and Durliiighurst prisons, und was amazed at 'the perfection of the system in force.. For instance, a gang of about forty "toughs" were paraded whilst I was there. These are young fellows under twenty-five years of age, off the street, who ara kept together and apart from the older and more hardened and experienced criminal. The gang ' was put. through a course of physical drill while I' was there—hard, strenuous work, relieved occasionally by marching exercises, in which they became vei-v proficient. The authorities hold the idea .that, in improving the physique they improve the morals, aud physical exercise now largely, takes the place of hard labour. ■ They havo also adopted tho same idea as New Zealand in respect to concentrating women prisoners in a penitentiary .of their own. ■ This has 'been .established on Long .Island, Sydney, and. there the. physical exercise treatment is also in force,- with satisfactory results. I was delighted to see ■.vith what kindness tho prisoners were treated—it seemed that the effect wonld be to, engender .a feeling of. self-respect among the prisoners. For instance, hero /in New Zealand a 'prisoner is branded from collar to heel with the broad arrow. In Sydney this has beet entirely discarded in favour of plain grey clothes and straw hats, with a small number worn ou the breast. This I regarded as another move towards ra--tionalism in the treatment of prisoners.' "I was in Melbourne when the awful train smash took place at Richmond. It was a.horrifying accident, and it. cast-a gloom over the entire city, whilst I was there. I had been but to dinner the previous evening in the suburbs, and one of the young ladies whom I had dined with was among the killed. It was awful —tho wracking grief of those deprived of husband or brother, tho suspense of those waiting for the list of killed and wounded. There are. 800 trains passing through Richmond overy day, and 200,000 people poured into Melbourno through the new FlindeTs' Street Station overy morning, and on this morning in particular the fog was as thick as pea-soup. "After Sydney and Melbourne, Adelaide strikes on« an a. more reposeful aud settled city, yet business is good there, and I was informed that there were no houses to let.. The electric trams have made a difference, and the population of the suburbs is gradually increasing. In fact of the three cities it seemed to be more.br less congested, while the prosperity of tho States broadly is unquestioned. "ln'nplta-nf all this prosperity, little of it is reflected in the homesteads of the country. In New Zealand a prosperous farmer will, as a rule, havo a good hdme surrounded with a garden at least,' if hot more pretentious grounds, but in Australia the farmer does not appear .to' worry, much, about the appearance of his home. Instead of nice stables and outhouses, one generally sees ramshackle, old buildings that look., as if they had been' doing, duty for a generation past, and which have, as an accompaniment a cart usually sheltered under the sparse foliage of a gum-tree. There is a barren air about the Australian homestead which forms a distinct contrast with the smiling country homes of New Zealand."