DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1224, 5 September 1911, Page 4

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

have always thought KhaE the administration of justice, was ono of the mo3t important matters under our Constitution, but recently on reading Sir Robert Months report on the administration of Cook Islands I noticed it, amongst other matters, grouped under the heading of "minor matters." I scarcely think that , the learned gentleman could lave meant that it wa3 an unimportant matter. This, however,' is not the question that I want to bring under your notice. I think , that it is time that the public awakened to tho fact that some cf our most important Departments of State are being run for tho purpose of airing the fads of Socialiscic theorists. Let us take the Department of Justice, run by tho arch-faddist Sir John Kndlny. His. first fad was with the prisons branch, when tho services of Colonel Hume, a man imported from • Home on account of his experience in prison matters at Dartmoor and other ■prisons, .wero dispensed with and his- appointment was not filled tip by a. man with experience in tho administration of prisons, and discipline, but by a medical juan and a clergyman, both very worthy men in'., their own positions. .But tho arch-faddist thinks that to work out his theories they are most suitable men, and under his celebrated prison reform system tho warders must be very mild and extremely' Civil (o the prisoners under.their control. The result is that wo have, that branch'of tho Department reduced to a : ;arce. If Sir Gilbert wero alive ho could writo a good play on it, somewhat after "Pinafore." Well, tho escape of the convict l'owelka is anothor preof of the demoralisation of tho Department '. owing to tho want of proper supervision. : If we refer to what i 3 dono at Home with respect to the.management of prisons, wofind'that the authorities select a3 a rule military men as governors of prisons, who, from their experience in enforcing discipline,, are especially suited for tho position. No more damning ovidonco of , the rottenness of the system recently established, could bo shown .than the.escape of a notorious criminal from ono of our most important gaols, within ono week after a previous escape and a fortnight of another attempted escapo. Why wns the man not put in irons, and why was an inexperienced warder left in charge of him? Is it usual to leave a door of a prison fronting on a street open? : I will;now refer to another branch o the same Department, namely, the police. Hero we have to replace a man who has been trained in police service nnd administration. We probably fir»d him not (u; good a'.'man as 'his predecessor,- Mr. , Tunbiidge, Well, what do vp , do, We

do not say we will get a better man from Home, or appoint tho senior inspector, who at anyrato has been trained to tho work, but ire appoint JU-. Waldegravc, a verj good man as a pen and ink man, a trained eec-rotary, but a man absolutely without experience in the control of a force, snoh as a trained police force, or in tho training of recruits. If we lake example- by-our sister States wo will find that Now South Wales has only had about three changes. in: tho head of tho Police Department for about JO/years, and when bhey-havo made a--change, it* has always been by the appointment of a man who has had. experience in the control of a police force—l am, etc., ' . ' LEX. Napier, August 31, 1911.