The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4229, 15 September 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1876.

The decision to which the House"of Representatives came the other day with respect to the proposed Central Prison at Taranaki was a hasty one, and expressed mo *e than those who voted in favor of Mr Whitaker's amendment pestponing any further dealing with the matter until next session probably intended it to do. The need of a reform in our prison system will not be seriously challenged. There is reason, indeed, to suppose that a substantial improvement has taken place in the condition of the gaols since the Prison Commission of 1868 sent in its report. Considerable sums of money have been spent in enlarging the gaols, and useful regulations have been made for securing efficiency of discipline, which have produced highly beneficial results. Mr Rollestok, who is a competent witness on this subject, during the recent debate in the Lower House made some remarkaxwhich are worth quoting. They were partly in reply to Mr Pbarce, who, referring to the Wellington Gaol, had said, "On the ground of common humanity, some alteration was absolutely required. There were, perhaps, 100 men crowded into a space not sufficient for 30 men. Such a state of things was a scandal to New Zealand." Mr Rolleston observed that He could 3poak with a. knowledge of the gaols in the Colony, for he had seen those in Dunedin, Lyttelton, Christchurch, Westland, and Wellington, and he might be allowed to say that the enthusiasm of the hon. gentleman the Minister of Justice and that of those who hud reported on the subject led them t# use rather stronger terms thau he thought were justified by thp circumstances of these gaols. . . . He for one had certainly not made up his mind as to whether it would not be better to increase the gaol accommodation in places like Wellington. He was aware that, at the present time, In other ports of the Colony, there was no such thing as crowding. In Westland they had more room than they required, and that, he thought, would also be the case in Canterbury in a short time.

Still, after making full allowance for the improvements that have been effected, it stands confessed that the narrow limits of the existing gaols will not permit of a proper system of classification of prisoners being adopted. Mr Stout went into an elaborate dissertation to show that the true method of classification was yet a moot point; and, in short, that the prison doctors differed exceedingly upon the question of the right management of gaols, from which fact he dedueed the conclusion that the policy of New Zealand should be to wait until the' authorities on the other side of the globe had made up their minds as to how convicts should be treated. Mr Stout's premises were as unpractical as his conclusion. The Colony is much too poor to afford the expense of erecting and maintaining model prisons on an extensive scale, wherein experiments in the punishment and reformation of criminals could be tried, but the hard fact presents itself that she has a periodical supply of criminals to punish, and if possible, reform, and that the existing gaols are of such a character that neither end can be effectually accomplished. We cannot wait until Congresses of prison reformers have laid down a plan of scientific classification before proceeding to separate the young criminal from the old—the youthful prisoner, who, led astray by temptation, has committed an offence which has confined him to a gaol for the first time from the hardened ruffian who glories in hi 3 crimes ; nor is it in accordance with justice that misdemeanants, whose offences, though reprehensible in a legal point of view, sometimes betoken but a slight degree of moral turpitude, should be thrust into the society of felons, and treated like them. We must do the best we can under the circumstances; and if we struggle on, it is possible that by the time the scientific prison reformers have finished their discussions we shall be in a position to take advantage of their labors. In point of fact the House did not object to the erection of a Central Prison, into which long sentenced convicts could be drafted, but it objected to the site chosen for the establishment. Somehow or another the Central Prison has got inextricably mixed up with the New Plymouth Breakwater. The two things possess no strand in common; but nevertheless they are in a complete tangle. The Taranaki people evidently look upon the erection of a Central Prison near New Plymouth as meaning that the Colony will undertake the construction of a breakwater for them. Mr Careington's speech reveals this feeling plainly enough. Jt was not a speech about the Central Prison, but a speech on the advantages which the Colony would derive from a breakwater at New Plymouth. A breakwater would doubtless be useful there, but it is hard to see why the Colony should pay for it j and even if it were conclusively proved that such a breakwater was essentially a " Colonial" work the important question would still remain unanswered, as to whether the j present was a convenient time for pro- | ceeding with the undertaking. The late Mr Balfour, 0.E., reported that a substantial breakwater at New Plymouth would cost three-quarters of a million of money. Tha expenditure would, of eourse, be spread over a series of years, and a considerable portion of it would be represented by convict labor; but, nevertheless, the Assembly is justified in reflecting for a little before incurring such a liability, because if the work were once begun any proposal to remove the Central Prison to another part of the country would be met with the cry, " Oh, all the money and labor which have been spent upon this work will be wasted." These considerations, added to a good deal of not undeserved spite against Taranaki, largely influenced the House in determining to postpone the question for another year. It cannot, howeyer, shelve the matter altogether. Something must be done, either by etracting a Central Prison for the aecommO' dation of prisoners undergoing sentences of penal servitude, or by enlarging the principal gaols, as was suggested by Mr R.O&LRB- - The latter plan would apparently be the most etiQUQipic&l, but it certainly would be less effective tb*a tks fltber, and unless it accomplished the end in view with, at least, moderate success, the money expended would be wasted. There is plainly a great

lack of knowledge of the subject both on the part of the Government and of the House. Even the system of discipline to be enforced in the proposed Central Prison seems to be illdefined, and the whole project is surrounded with a nebulous vagueness which ought not to exist m connection with so important a scheme. The recess will afford the Government plenty of leisure for maturing their plans and looking about for a more popular site than that of Taranaki. If, however, ISew Plymouth must be chosen, let them by all means carefully dissooiate the prison from the breakwater.