The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1877.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 28, 24 January 1877, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1877.

Last session the Government proposed to erect a central prison at New Plymouth for the reception of convicts sentenced to a long term of imprisonment; and the friends of prison reform began to hope that a beginning was about to be made m that direction. The scheme fell through, however, m consequence of a fit of virtuous indignation on the part of the House, which felt scandalized by the facts that the locale of the new penal establishment was represented m the Legislature by a member of the Government, and was to profit by the labour of the prisoners, who were to have been employed m the erection of works for the improvement of the harboiir of New Plymouth. It mattered not that an establishment of the kind proposed was necessary to the carrying out of any effective system of prison discipline, and that a harbour of refuge on the West Coast of the North Island was a matter of Colonial interest. The moral sense of the House had received a shoek — bless the mark — and the project had to be abandoned. Some thought at the time that this did not much matter, as the Government 'were not ready to bring forward a fully developed scheme of prison reform, and the whole subject had not been suffi-

ciently discussed. Whatever force there may be m this argument, we fear that if we wait for a full-blown scheme of prison discipline on a gi'and and expensive scale, we shall have to wait a long time. It is not the want of ideas on the subject that has to be considered so much as tfe« want of money for carrying them into effect. The Colony cannot afford an expensive prison system even with a reasonable prospect of that system becoming self-supporting after the first outlay. But there might be something done m the way of classification of criminals, without erecting grand palaces for their reception like the proposed one at Tarauaki. Prisoners undergoing long sentences might be employed on such works as the Taranaki harbour improvements, on condition that the localities deriving immediate benefit from their labour should provide house-accommodation for them. The people of Taranaki would, we dare say, be only too glad to accept this condition, m order to have their harbour rendered available for export, and their rich district settled and cultivated instead of languishing, as it now does, for want of practicable outlets for its produce. There is no need of a big castle to put the convicts m. House-room is not so scarce at New Plymouth, we imagine, as to render it necessary to go to great expense m providing comfortable quarters for 100 or 200 convict labourers, and such expense as might be necessary for that purpose would be gladly borne by the municipality of New Plymouth and the Taranaki County, to whom harbour works seem to be a matter of social life and death, if we may judge from the strong representations made by the local journals on the subject. Nor need the convicts remain there longer than they are wanted, or be sent there m larger numbers than are likely to be required. In short, the system which we would suggest is that Grovernment should allow those localities which have important works to be performed to have convict labour gratis, on condition that, if necessary, barracks be provided for the prisoners by the local authorities. We have a notion that this plan would work, nor can we see that the classification of criminals necessitates imposing edifices for their reception, or expensive arrangements which partake more of an ornamental than of a useful character. Before quitting the subject we must notice another phase of it which has received a good deal of attention of late, and which can never receive more notice than its importance requires- We mean the method of dealing with youthful law-breakers. We refrain from using the word " criminals" m this connection, because it is often a misnomer as applied to the class of whom we speak — children who from neglect contract evil habits without knowing the wrong which they do, or who from bad example are led occasionally into theft and other misdeeds without being habitually depraved. The great requisite m such cases is to remove the child from those associations which have led him into sin, and to have him properly taught and cared for. It would be useless, m the present state of the public finances, to talk of expensive juvenile reformatories ; but there might be schools established m connection with some of the larger prisons for this class of children. Those schools should be penal establishments only so far as placing their inmates under restraint is concerned, and m all other respects their object should be educational. A suite of apartments m the prison carefully cut off from all communication with the adult criminals, and affording sufficient facilities for the classification of the children, would answer these purposes ; and a few establishments of this kind conveniently distributed throughout the Colony, would put a stop to the ruinous system of sending children to gaol m such a way as to make criminals of them.