INSPECTION OF PRISONS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2044, 11 September 1880, Page 3

INSPECTION OF PRISONS.

The question of the appointment of an official to revise and reorganise the prison system of New Zealand, which has been long under the consideration of Sir Julius Vogel, has been finally settled (says the “Home News”). Sir Julius, anxious to secure the best man for his Government, threw the appointment open to general competition, and was overwhelmed, as might have been expected, with applications from all manner of men. Somewhat diffident of his own powers of selection. Sir Julius wisely consulted the head of the Prison Department in this country, Sir Edmund Ducane. There is every probability that the vacancy will be filled by a thoroughly competent man. It has been offered to, and will no doubt be accepted by Captain Hume, late of the 79th Highlanders, who has been for some years past in the Prison Department. He began his service at Millbank, one of the oldest as it is one of the largest prisons in the metropolis ; thence he went to Dartmoor as deputy governor, where ho had the Tichborne claimant in custody. After that he passed to the great convict establishment at Portland, and lately he has been at the head of the great prison works in progress at Wormwood Scrubs. Experience such as his cannot fail to be useful to the colony he is to serve, especially that which he has most recently gained. The prison at Wormwood Scrubs is the very latest model of its kind, and it has been constructed entirely by prison labor at a minimum of cost. If the New Zealand Government has it in contemplation to rebuild its prisons, Captain Hume will be just the man to supervise the execution of the work.