SECRET TRAFFIC

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 311, 26 August 1932, Page 5

SECRET TRAFFIC

j (Press. Assn.-

MT. EDEN GAOL INVISIBLE INK USED ! FOR SMUGGLED [ LETTERS j WOMAN AND YOUTH CHARGED

— By Telegn-pli— Cccy-Ight).

Auckland, Thursday. : For many months the Mount Eden prison officials and two detectives I have been trying to discover the secj ret of letters which it was known J were passing to and from the prison, I also how prisoners obtained supplies t of tobacco, postage stamps, writing I paper, and chewing-gum. Last evening near the prison deJ tectives arrested a young man after j he had dropped a broken tin over the i prison wall. To-day Alfred Arnold I Carey (19) and~-01ive Mary Carter (44) pleaded guilty to a charge '"of introducing tobacco, stamps and chewing-gum to the prison. Detective-Sergeant Kelly said the prison officials" had been much perturbed "hy clandestine correspbndence. One of the chief offenders was John Charles Carter, who wrote letters in invisible ink by writing in sodium bicarbonate on the back of j an ordinary letter allowed by prison authorities. By rubbing a warm iron ; over the letter the ink became visible. j Carter's wife replied in the same way, Magistrate Lenient Carey said that he had been asked 1 by Mrs. Carter to leave a parcel. This j was a very serious matter, as it unj dermined discipline- and might eni courage outsiders of a lawless nature [ to introduee to the prison articles far j more harmful than tobacco and writing material. Mrs Carter was in poor [ r-ircumstances, and was endeavouring j to support two unemployed daught- ! ers. Th© police were satisfied her liusband was the instigator of the whole thing. The Magistrate said the case would he a warning to others. Both offenders were liable to prison. Each would be convicted and ordered to come up for sentence within six months. If there were any more complaints both couM be dealt with on the present charge.