TREE PLANTING PRISONERS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 400, 20 June 1908, Page 3

TREE PLANTING PRISONERS

A Nice State oJ Affairs.

A prisoner who served a portion of his sentence at the Uungree camp, Marlborough, states that he was one of the leading spirits in a Campaign of persistent and systematic breaking of the rules of the camp. He had a number of grievances against the administration of prisons generally, and endeavoured to be brought before the court to state his case. He alleges a section of them had absolutely the free run of the place, although everybody was expected to keep within certain boundaries. As soon as things were fairly quiet in his cabin, he and his three mates would unscrew the lock of the door aud the three would roam the country to their hearts’ content, the other man remaining in the cabin to refasten the lock in case of the warder trying it at any time during the night. The officers, however, found out what was going on and padlocked the door, but the prisoners still secured their liberty by lifting one window frame. The inmates of another cabin adopted similar means to get out into the open air. This man further states that prisoners robbed a station aud a rabbiters’ camp, stuck up people for money aud tobacco, killed sheep, threw some of their tools into the river, smuggled drink into the camp, buried bundles of trees instead of planting them and cut the roots of others before putting them into the ground. The Minister of Justice doubts the truth of the story. This is the first he has heard of it, aud says it is a remarkable thing that the people alleged to have been stuck up and robbed never reported the occurrences. The Minister defends the scheme of tree-planting by prisoners, and while admitting that defects have been shown to exist, he contends that they are far outweighed by the advantages.