THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1187, 18 May 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1872.

It is most probable, amongst other subjects likely to be discussed and possibly dealt with during the next Parliamentary session, that the general management of the penal establishments of the Colony, and the necessity for the erection of a Central Gaol, at which all long-sentence convicts can be kept, will engage considerable attention. In addition to the disposal of the elders in the criminal classes, provision will or should be made for the treatment of juvenile offenders, a class that we regret to say is gradually increasing, and that promises to be as troublesome a social element in New Zealand, as it has already been found in Victoria. Up to the present time reformatories are unknown in this Colony, and the youth of either sex who come within the clutches of the law have to be sent to the ordinary gaols to emerge, in a majority of instances, worse and worse every time that they are subjected to the process of imprisonment, owing to association with older and more hardened criminals. There is not in any of the gaols in the Colony, with the single exception of Dunedin, any opportunity of classification, and even that, though the best, falls far short of what is required. The reforma--fnnjr ajratmn in. Vip.fcfw*'" ' lna k o »** mHciuled with the most gratifying results, for youths or girls sent there are taught trades, and, when . released, are enabled, in a majority of cases, to at once earn an honest living. The sharp tooth of want is done away with, and only those, inherently vicious, return to the paths of crime. "Besides these salutary results arising out of reformatories by the system of management in vogue, they are in a great degree self-supporting, the product of the labor of the detenus being sold and applied to their maintenance. All kinds of trades are taught, and are followed, as a general rule, with avidity. Thsre can be no doubt that when the question comes before the House, some proposition for the introduction of kindred establishments in New Zealand will be made, and it is to be hoped carried out, for the great advantages arising from them must be patent to all who for one moment consider the subject. In addition to reformatories, industrial schools are greatly needed for the maintenance and education of neglected or destitute children, and the children of criminal parents ; no doubt this important subject will also be brought under consideration. With regard to the erection of a large central gaol that shall afford all the requisites of security and the safe-keeping of its inmates, the want of such a building has been greatly felt. Only very recently a desperate character named Robinson escaped from Auckland gaol, and by the latest accounts, was .still at large. So unsafe is that building that the Provincial authorities have recently sent nine other long-esn-tenced men to Dunedin, and arranged with tho local Executive there for their maintenance. Other instances of the same insecurity are constantly occurring, and the want of a large central establishment cannot be other than generally recognised. If such is erected there will then be space in the local gaols for classification, and it will not longer be necessary to mix up the young and old, the hardened and those who have only taken their first step in guilt, and much of the contamination of prison experiences will be avoided. An idea has lately been started in our contemporary the Southern Ctoss that one of the numerous islands of the Pacific should be taken possession of, and converted into a penal settlement, after the fashion of Norfolk Island of late years. Emanating, as it does, from the paper of the Colonial Treasurer, it is by no means improbable it lias originated with that gent!. -nan, and also that some like proposal may be made to Parliament. We certainly disagree thoroughly with such a course, both on the ground of expense in forming such a station, the cost of conveyance of criminals, maintenance of the institution, and the risk of escapes. The old fashioned ideas ia reference to such convict settlements are exploded, and hell-on-earth, as Norfolk Island was termed in former times, will uot be tolerated again by any British community. If a central gaol is built properly, and officers appointed for ics governance who are thoroughly qualified by experience for their posts, it can be conducted at but slight expense, for the convict's labor, as in many other parts of the world, can be made almost

to pay their cost. We believe that in the adult prisons of the United States, as in the Victorian reformatories previously referred to, every pi'isoner sentenced to a long term has to learn a trade, if he does not possess such knowledge on being incarcerated. Encouragement is offered by allowances and indulgencies to the quick and industrious, as well as curtailment of imprisonment, where the criminal conducts himself specially well. A similar system has been partially introduced in Dunedin by permitting confinees to work af their own trades, and stimulating them to exertion by a similar method of reward, but we are not aware of unskilled convicts being taught any handicraft in the manner referred. The whole penal problem is a most important one, and one that demands most carefully dealing with. On the one hand offenders against the laws are not to be treated too tenderly, but on the other hand such measures ought to be adopted towards them as aie most calculated alike to punish and at the same time reform, where reformation is possible. The legislature will no doubt devote their best energies to the questions we have referred to, and it is to be hoped that the result of their deliberations will bear profitable as well as practical fruit.