The Globe. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1022, 4 October 1877, Page 2

The Globe. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1877.

The subject of the management of our prisons and the amendments nesystem has, on several occasions, been before the Legislature. Special commissions have been appointed at considerable cost to the colony, and have gone very minutely into the question. A mass of evidence has been taken, and the pith of the recommendation made to the Government has been the provision of a central penal establishment. "Unfortunately, owing to some local jealousy, the proposition of the Ministry to establish the so much needed institution was negatived, and the matter still remains in the same unsatisfactory state. Under the present state of things there is no means of classification in our gaols. Criminals who have fallen for the first time, and who if perhaps removed from evil influences, would come out altered and reformed men, have to mix with veteran criminals of the worst possible type. At the recent session of the Supreme Court, his Honor Mr. Justice .Johnston adverted in very strong terms to the defective system. His Honor pointed out that an offender

against the law who might be young, both in years and crime, when compelled to associate with the worst and inost depraved characters of the community, also became demoralised. His term of imprisonment, so far from rendering him a man anxious on regaining his liberty to become once more a useful member of society, only tended to make him still more adept in the career of crime he had entered upon. The man's life was ruined, and the public put to the expense of keepinghim. When a judge of the ripe experience and sound judgment, such as his Honor Mr. Justice Johnston, deems it his duty publicly to call attention to the defective state of our prison system, it seems to us high time something was done. By the establishment of a central penal prison the worst characters in the several districts would be drafted off, and opportunity would be afforded to the gaolers to institute a system of classification which would effectually prevent the evils so graphically described by his Honor. Until this is done, we shall have our gaols so far from being instruments of reformation, moral pest houses, which will act as training houses for criminals. This is no fancy picture, nor is it in any way exaggerated. The words of his Honor fully justify the assertion. During a long judicial career in New Zealand, his Honor has had opportunities of becoming most thoroughly acquainted with the working of our penal system. His decided opinion, founded on this long experience, is that it is radically defective, and requires immediate amendment. "Whilst speaking of the system, it must not be understood that we are in any way imputing blame to the officers whose duty it is to administer it. Par from it, the discharge of their duties under circumstances of great difficulty entitle them to very great commendation. But as his Honor puts it, the whole system is egregiously defective, and should be at once remedied. We hope that, though late in the day, the Government will not allow the present session to pass over without endeavoring to remove, so far as they can, this evil from our midst.

The advice of the dramatist to assume a virtue if you have it not, appears to have been most strictly followed by the New Zealand Press Agency. Time after time, until it became monotonous, we have had it asserted that in no case is the least bias, either political or otherwise, allowed to influence the telegrams despatched by them to the papers of the colony. But what is the fact. A recent telegram from its Christchureh correspondent has been telegraphed throughout the colony, which shows a decided bias towards a recently-established institution. The telegram to which we refer is as follows, and appears in the " Otago Daily Times " of Tuesday last: — "A preliminary meeting of the promoters of the new Insurance Company was held today. The result has not transpired. The principal movers in it are said to be Mr J. L. Coster, manager of the Bank of New Zealand, and Mr F. Wilson, of the firm of Wilson and Sawtell. The new company is not likely to meet with much support here. The general opinion seems to be, there is not room for another company, besides which the majority of the best business houses here are already connected with the Union Company, and the Standard Company has notified its intention at once to make a second issue of 50.000 shares." Though we are unwilling to believe such a thing, the telegram referred to appears to bear the impress of inspiration ;at the same time we can hardly think that any one connected with the Union Insurance Company would resort to such a means of damaging the prospects of a rival institution. By the telegram the public are led to believe, not only that the projected company has been coldly received, but that it has been called into existence by the Bank of New Zealand. Surely there can be no truth in such a statement ; the gentlemen who are said to compose the projectors possess more independence than to be at the beck and call of that all-powerful institution. When the list of provisional Directors is before the public, it will then be seen how many of them could possibly be accused of being liable to such influence.