The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1875.

Dunstan Times, Issue 704, 15 October 1875, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1875.

Beneath the rule of men entirely just the pen is mightier than the sword.

Nothing can be more revolting to the sensitive feelings of a civilized community than the shooting down of a human being in the public streets The tragedy enacted in Dunedin on the morning of Monday, the 4th iust., when the convict Cyrus Haley was shot dead by one of the Gaol Warders while endeavoring to make his escape, appears in our mind something so horrible that, notwithstanding what the man’s previous crimes may have been, and although he doubtless has deserved the punishment of death upon several previous occasions, the manner in which his life was sacrificed on that fatal morning amounted to nothing less than an outrage upon public decency. Can it possibly be believed that in Christian Dunedin, with its many churches and ministers of religion, who-with their large and highly respectable congregations of worshippers, always zealous and liberal in the cause of Christianity, a man, even allowing that he was a monster in crime, should be butchered and his life blood spilt in one of the leading thoroughfares of that city ; and what is more, in the very precincts of the First Church’, two bullets being even fired at him in the garden of the Manse itself, where at least all should be peace and quietness, and while, perhaps, tiie minister of God was sleeping after the fatigues of the arduous duties pertaining to his holy office on the previous Sunday 1 Such a terrible occurrence is almost too frightful to contemp'ate, and we hope, for humanity’s sake, that even the possibility of anything approaching to such a revolting circumstance will never be permitted to occur again. The Daily Times in its report of the fatal occurrence appears to make the best of tbe matter for tbe Gaol authorities. inasmuch that Warder Miller repeatedly called upon Haley to “ stop,” which was. all that was necessary for him to do, as, according to the Gaol Regulations made'nndef the Prisons’ Act, 1873, under the hand of His Excellency the -Governor, and which are read to prisoners, states that —“ Any per-ou attempting to escape ; will render himself liable to be shot by any officer of tbe Gaol after being called on to stand.” The Times then proceeds to inform its readers that “ it is the officer’s duty to first call on the prisoner to stand, and if be does not do so, the . officer, as a last resource, and to prevent him from escaping, is bound to use tbe weapon in bis hands.” This reasoning may be all very good under certain conditions, but circumstances alter cases, and wo think that such must be tbe case here with regard to Dunedin Gaol Although it is a penal establishment, and probably the most secure of its kind in New Zealand, it is nevertheless situated in the midst of a large and populous city, and a very great deal of the punishment of prisoners, in the shape of hand labor, takes place immediately beneath the public gaze. As a matter of economyitis highly desirable that felon labor should be made to support felon life, and where this can be done without offending public decency tbe system is most commendable. But, with criminals of the Haley stamp who set a very small

value upon hitman Jife the plan .dor tnands some modulatiortp-and sncli desperadoes should not be placed in a position where any breach of the prison regulations the penalty of which might lead to bloodshed —shoul 1 come before-the eye of the public. Employment for such monsters should be found within the walls of the prison itself, and the .feelings of quiet citizens spared he infliction of any such a painful circumstance as that to which they were subjected to on that fatal Monday morning, The fact of ITaley, while endeavoring to escape from custody, being only clad in his shirt, drawos, and boots, should have been sufficiently convincing that he was unarmed No man running at the top of his-speed thus clad, and jumping, over fences in the bargain, could possibly have any .very murderous weapon concealed about his person, and wo should imagine that Warder Miller, even.if he could not have run down his man, should have contented himself with disabling him, and there is very' little to doubt but that, in either' case, he would have been assisted by some passers-by insecure. bis pri-oner'and prevent him from doing any hj im. Under the circumstances it Was next to impossible that Daley could escape, and the very fact of his endeavoring to do so was, in air probability-the result of mere frenzy, or the action of a monomaniac. - Although the verdict of the Jury was that of justifiable homicide, and the twelve good men and true afterwards commended the action taken by Miller, it rendered it none the less wise after all. He should only have had recourso to his rifle in the 1 last extremity, when all other means-had failed,-or that he Was murderously attacked' by the " runaway. Were the Dunedin” Gaol so situated that- a convict could make his escape into the bush, and afterwards become a prey upon society, the conduct of Warder Miller would have been justifiible but when such an-action takes place in the public streets of a populous city, and a community professing Christianity, it amounts to nothing less than a crime. All that we know about Haley is fx‘om what we have gathered from the hew.-papers, and the story of his life is, as the Daily Times says, doubtless a “ dieadful one ; still, even in a man like this there must be some redeeming qualities, while possibly he might not always have been bad ; and it only proves what we said in our last week’s issue, that before attempting anything like such a doubtful work as that of Christianiaition of the Chinese, philantrophists should first look at home, and devote their efforts towards making Christians of that unchristian portion of the population of New Zealand Comprised within their own countrymen, and who, unfortunately are to-be found in large numbers. It has been discussed upon several occasions the advisability, of forming a penal settlement for the whole of the Colony on some island off the West Coast, ‘ and where, we should imagine, every security could be obtained for the safe keeping of prisoners. The large increase of our criminal population makes the necessity for such an establishment almost daily more and more apnarent; while such a catastrophe as the Haley affair discloses the imperative necessity that felons who have reached the last stage of human depravity should, while undergoing their punishment, be subject no longer to the possibility of coming into close contact with the outside public, whose feelings have in this particular instance been most grievously ou'raged.