The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4, 1882.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6507, 4 January 1882, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4, 1882.

Thebe is a man in Auckland named Plummer, who is a notorious criminal. What is less known abont him is that, as a criminal, he is the product of onr beautiful gaol system, of which we are always boasting so much. Daring the last few months Auckland has had ample opportunity of getting a taste of his quality. Burglary suddenly became an epidemic. The police were at fault, and the citizens were panic-stricken. The theory began to gain ground that an organised gang was in possession of the metropolis of the far North, Men even began to whisper of the connivance of the police. Many denounced the policy of economy which had reduced the police force below the standard of necessary efficiency. It was believed that, seeing their opportunity in the small number and overworked condition of the force, the criminal class had began to throw off all restraint. The citizens talked of forming a Yigilance Committee—to the horror of the timid, who straightway expected to see bodies of men hanging on the lamp-posts every morning, to the scandalous reproach of a law-abid-ing and properly-governed community. The police, daring the excitement, quietly went on doing their duty. When the panic was at its height, the announcement was made that the notorious Flnmmer (who had not long been out of a Southern gaol, where he had been serving out a series of sentences) was just arrested. Skeleton keys, and implements of burglary were found in his possession ; enough evidence was

collected to sustain several charges against him; and the' epidemic of burglary passed away, just as in Christ* church two years ago an epidemic of arson subsided on the arrest of a certain offender. One man, of great daring and great skill, had produced a panic in a large city, and defied the police single-handed for a considerable time. Plummer, we have said, as a criminal is the product of our gaol system. He began life in the neighbourhood of Auckland as a labourer. After a time he had some disagreement with his employer, who dismissed him and refused to pay him his wages. Being hot-headed and determined, he would not have recourse to the usual remedy. Instead of summoning his late amployer, he went down to his house, and helped himself to what ho considered his due, taking neither more nor less. Whether or not this seizure was accompanied by the violence which takes the form of a display of firearms, we have forgotten. This, however, was his first crime. It was a robbery, no doubt, but not a very criminal one. Being convicted, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, Plummer went into gaol without any morally criminal taint, and, if our information be correct, entirely ignorant of all the arts of a professional criminal. But he did not long remain ignorant. He had come to a good school, and he soon began to learn. For this kind of learning, time and application are as necessary as for any other. These conditions were neither of them wanting to Plummer. Though sentenced to but a short term of imprisonment, his rugged uneducated mind could not be persuaded to take any other view of his case than that he was the victim of injustice. Suffering under a keen, if mistaken, sense of wrong, he was always breaking the prison rules and making attempts to escape. The result was that he soon acquired the reputation of a dangerous character. His original sentence, as a matter of course, grew into a very much more serious period of durance. That is ever the fate of those who make attempts to escape from prison. Hence Plummer ensured himself sufficient time to profit by the schooling he was receiving at the country’s expense. The inclination to study was supplied by the fierce spirit which his treatment, following up his original condemnation, developed. After a time he got too much for the Auckland gaol authorities, and was sent down to Dunedin with some other notorious characters, to be under the superior discipline of Mr Oaldwell. There he soon gave the public a specimen of the proficiency he had acquired in his new trade. One fine day he escaped in a most daring and at the same time simple maimer, completely baffling pursuit for some days. Though the whole town was on the alert his capture was a mere accident. After that event it transpired that he had settled down to a career of systematic robbery in the quietest and most businesslike manner. He had already fitted himself out with clothes, and negotiated a number of tills in the most artistic manner —doing credit to his gaol training. Of course he had to expiate these crimes and the offence of his escape, by a further course of imprisonment. When finally released he seems to have taken with him the degree of Passed Master in the art of burglary. We have told the story in order to pointedly draw attention to the shortcomings of the gaol system. We are always talking of separating old offenders from new, yet the new offenders are always being taught the lesson of wickedness by the old. It is as notorious now as it was twenty years ago that in every large gaol there is a college for the thorough teaching of every department of the thief’s knowledge. We appoint inspectors to improve the condition of the prisoners. The result is that, while they pronounce against giving prisoners a healthy education, the prisoners give themselves an unhealthy one. This from the economical, which is the lowest, point of view, is bad. If the State cannot be induced to undertake the reform of criminals on moral grounds, the State can reflect that to make the punishment of criminals the hot-bed of cultivated crime, is the worst possible economy. If the Gaol cannot be made to diminish crime, it should not be allowed absolutely to increase it. Classification is the seed with which we are always going to reap the harvest of regeneration. The only harvest we do reap in the Gaol system is a harvest of increased, and far more dangerous crime.