The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1873.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 234, 29 September 1873, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1873.

A Society with a very humane object in view was formed about twelve months ago in Melbourne, and has recently presented its report at the first annual meeting. It is known as the Prisoners' Aid Society, and was established for the purpose ol taking up the work of dealing with criminals just where the Government leaves it. Ita mission is described by the Australasian as follows: — "It regards tha prisoner no longer as a subject for punishment, but as an afflicted and erring brother, who, by wise sympathy and timely aid, may yet be recovered. Its object, in short, is the moral restoration of the prisoner after his sentence has been completed. It seeks to divide with the State, and in a perfectly legitimate way, the duty of extirpating crime. The State is concerned only with the prevention of offences, and deals out the necessary punishment. The Society undertakes, to some extent at least, tbe moral cure of the offender. At all events, it endeavors to assist him in his attempts to gain for himself an honest livelihood." The other Australasian colonies cannot do better than follow the example set by Victoria in this respect. It is true that we have not in New Zealand what is known as the criminal class. Criminals we bave, of course, but tbey are not the representatives of any particular claßß of sooiety, nor are the surrounding circumstances favorable to the raising of such a class. The densely-crowded cities of the old world and the poverty that is to be found in theni are wanting here, nor does the same amount of ignorance exist in our midst that prevails in the large towns in England. Years and years of familiarity with crime and debauchery have been needed to produce a "criminal class" in England; as the father was so is the son, as the mother so the daughter, and from generation to generation there have been handed down traditions of the boldness and daring of the most hardened of offenders against the law, until the children have learned to look upon it as a thing to be proud of to emulate the deeds of those who have gone before them. Against such a state of things, although it does not now exist here, and cannot do so for many years, we yet have to be on our guard, and next to the education of the young the most effectual way of doing this will be by taking care that those who have undergone a period of confinement in our gaols shall not go forth hardened and utterly lost to all self-respect to contaminate those with whom they are brought in contact. Because a man has committed an offence against the law for which he has been imprisoned, it does not of necessity follow that he has entered upon a course of vice and crime, but if at the expiration of his sentence he is to be turned adrift on the world without a penny in his pocket, and to be scouted and shunned by his fellow men, the probability is that it will not be long before he renews his acquaintance with the inside of a gaol, his freedom meantime having been devoted to the work of initiating others in a similar course to that which he perhaps entered upon in a moment of weakness and temptation, but in whicb he would not have been confirmed had be been treated more charitably, and with greater consideration after having undergone hie punishment. It may be that in a colony such as ours tbe difficulties in the way of forming such a society as that of which Melbourne boasts would be insuperable, owing to the fact that there are so many centres of population, each of which bas its own gaol and police regulations, but much may be done in the direction pointed out, by the matter being taken up by a few philanthropic individuals in each of our chief towns. The following extract from the Australasian shows that a somewhat novel method of dealing with prisoners is proposed by the Melbouroe Sooiety, bnt at the same time one that contains some show of reason : — Sir Redmond Barry, one of the chief movers in the matter, " would like to see criminals allowed a substantial return for their labor as soon as they were imbued witb a proper idea of the guilt that had brought them to the position they found themselves in." He thinks that " prisoners on entering the gaol should be told that they would not be released until they had a certain sum of money to their credit." The mode in which this system, as we understand it, would be worked is this: — After a certain period of probationary imprisonment, the prisoner should be told that he roust earn a certain sum of money, that he would be supplied with suitable work, and would be paid for that work at a rate considerably below the ordinary rate of wages. Further, he should be told that when that sum had been earned, be mnst also earn in tbe same manner a certain amount, the whole of which would be applied to his use upon his discharge; he should also know that his discharge would take place as soon as he had earned the prescribed sum, and not before. In this way the abridgement of his imprisonment would depend upon himself. If he was active and industrious, he might accomplish his task in a comparatively short

time. If he was well conducted, no deductions in the shape of fines for misconduct, would be made from his earnings; He Would have thus acquired habits of industry and self-control. He would have paid the whole cost of his maintenance, and he would have a sufficient capital of bis own for a new start in life. Possibly, in the latter part of bis imprisonment, during the time in which he was working for himself, some relaxation of the severity of penai discipline might well be allowed, and thus the prisoner might be gradually prepared for complete restoration to freedom. It is needless to point out what an effect upon a prisoner's mind must be produced by the knowledge tbat the commencement of his freedom depended upon himself. Nor would such a change at all detract from the terrors of imprisonment. The severity of the labor would not be diminished, »nd all the pains of temporary slavery would still continue. But there would remain the hope of accelerating the day of release, and the moral improvement produced by cheerful work, as against the sullenness and desperation of forced labor. When such a prisoner obtained his release, he would be much more amenable to the good influences of such a society as the Prisoners' Aid Society than a man whose spirit was broken, and whose powers of self-reliance and selfcontrol — never, perhaps, very strong — were, from long disuse, almost obliterated A further and incidental advantage of this system would be the facilities tbat it would offer for the maintenance of discipline. There would, then, be rarely any occasion lior cumulative punishments, or for solitary confinement, or the lash. A simple fine would then bring with it an amount of terror which we can now scarcely realise. Ifc would mean, not a punishment to take place at some distant time, or additional suffering to be at once undergone, but the deprivation of something whicb was already acquired, and that something the equivalent of so many days of long-expected and much desired freedom. We may, then, readily, believe tbat Sir Redmond Barry was not guilty of any exaggeration when he said that, "if the existing system of prison discipline were altered Boiewhat in this direction beneficial results might be obtained."