The Standard. (PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND SATURDAY.) TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1874.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 151, 24 March 1874, Page 2

The Standard. (PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, AND SATURDAY.)

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 1874.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

Captain Gudgeon, as Chief of the Police in Poverty Bay, must have come to the conclusion that we are a longsuffering, contented people, and the Governments, both General and Provincial, have hitherto treated us with so much neglect, as to make his Department iu particular, at ouce a disgrace and a reproach. We recur again to the subject of gaol discipline and accommodation iu Gisborne, and in doing so affirm with all the warmth and earnestness of which we are capable, that with that worn out, tumble down, dilapidated, old eye sore, yclept a “ Block house,” either in its present or any other condition, —it is impossible for the police to do their duty, or for Captain Gudgeon and his subordinates to guarantee security to the inhabitants. We are tired of repeating the truism that the whole state of Justice Administration in Gisborne is in the worst, most ineffective, and pitiable condition imaginable, and if anything were wanting to more perfectly illustrate the grotesque travesties which surround the judicial decisions of the Gisborne Bench, than the instances we have often quoted before, we need go no further back than last Saturday, when Patrick Maher had to be released from custody—after two days sojourn out of seven—to make way for new arrivals —visitors more worthy of the keeping. “ Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.’’ should be the sign board over this official residence, for it is an hospitable characteristic more honored in the observance than the breach, and it is daily expected to be confirmed by the arrival of some two or three other vagabonds whom the police are after, when some one of those already in durance will regain his liberty on easy terms. We do not pen these remarks now, reflecting at all on the present Provincial authorities. We have had the personal assurance of His Honor the . Superintendent publicly stated, that this ; matter was one which alike demanded,

and should receive, his immediate attention. He positively, and we think properly, refuses to proclaim the Blockhouse a gaol, in which it is safe to confine prisoners, but we do trust that no further delay will take place in building a new one on the reserve set apart for gaol purposes. If we have to wait until the Council meet, it will make a big hole in another year before we have a secure building ; and the Superintendent and Treasurer must have seen quite enough to induce them to urge the Executive to instant action. It is one of those important public duties that can be very well undertaken by the Government without waiting for the Estimates, and for which the Council would grant indemnity backed up by the force of public opinion. There are now five prisoners, four of whom are Maoris, locked up in the Blockhouse, and amongst them is one Hare Mangu Mangu, a native of New Caledonia, a young scoundrel who has given us much trouble through his espousal of the cause of the natives. Captain Palmer refused, we understand, to take him on to Auckland ; and Captain Gudgeon has decided to represent these matters in a fqrcible way to the Government, as it is not at all improbable that this desperado will, if possible, make common cause with his confederate prisoners, aud give us a little more bother in endeavoring to escape.