South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2330, 4 September 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1880.

A Press Agkxcv telegram announced the other clay that the Nelson gaol enquiry was not likely to lead to anything. This is not at all surprising, for gaol enquiries arc invariably barren. It is impossible from the way in which they are managed that they should ho otherwise. They arc among the things which arc aptly designated hideous farces. It rarely happens that the skeletons of the cells emerge into daylight, and when they do ample care is taken that they shall speedily vanish. The officers of a gaol have nothing to fear from an enquiry, beyond the temporary inconvenience of manufacturing evidence. JP apprehensions arc justified anywhere, it is on the part of the prisoners. Should they have instigated the enquiry, or should the enquiry have been instigated by somebody on their behalf, then woe betide them. The Spanish Inquisition was an enlightened and fair tribunal compared to a modern gaol enquiry. No star chamber trial has ever excelled it, for excluding the light and distorting the truth. The torturers with their instruments of torture at hand, arc simply invincible. The rigor, ous and exemplary treatment of the wretch who dares to assail them, is a standing menace to their accusers. Then again they arc tried by their friends and coadjutors, surrounded by hirelings, and the witness who despises intimidation is of course discredited. The Invercargill gaol enquiry was simply a broad burlesque, and the member for Riverton, who caused it to be initiated, had his pains for nothing. It was practically impossible for that enquiry to cud otherwise than in smoke, seeing that it was one tribunal sitting in judgment on another, —a commission of magistrates testing the legality of an inquest. The principal witness had boon effectually disposed of, and plenty of time had been allowed for the prison gag to be adjusted to the living. The Nelson gaol enquiry is another case in point. It has arisen out of the disclosures made by a warder, who, shocked by the cruelties practised on prisoners, resigned his appointment. The allegations of this officer, as published in the Wellington “ Chronicle,” show a state of affairs that is simply revolting. It is stated that not only prisoners, but in one instance an imbecile whose mental condition entitled him to compassionate treatment, was subjected to gross illusage. Two enquiries have taken place into the circumstances. The first, conducted by visiting justices, who for years have been on the most amiable terms with |tho gaol staff was ad 1111110(113' a sham. The second, which is now taking place, is likely to be as barren as the first, for the tribunal has undergone but a slight alterationWo arc in a position to state that the Minister of Justice lias been remonstrated with as to the constitution of the new Hoard, and it lias been pointed out to him that by allowing one of the justices who presided at the previous sham enquiry to take part in this second one, the investigation is rendered a farce. That, like every gaol enquiry that has ever been known, it should be a farce, may possibly have been a foregone conclusion. At all events the proper steps have been taken for renderit barren, ineffectual and unsatisfactory.