THE PRISON CIRCULAR.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2496, 21 March 1881, Page 4

THE PRISON CIRCULAR.

Thus the “ Tablet,” in reference to the prison circular :—“ What have we got in New Zealand ? Are we about to found a Bastille ? Has His Excellency the Governor commenced to set his seal to Ictirea de cachet / Are our excellent fellow-citizens the governor of Dunedin Gaol and his compeers in other parts of the Colony even now engaged, at all hours of the night, in excavating oubliettes ? Or have there been lettres de cachet and oubliettes in our gaols all along, and are the powers that be terrified out of their lives lest the screams of the victims and the debris of human bodies shall come within the notice of the public ? However it be, a man of much importance, who signs himself ‘ P. A. Hume, captain, inspector of prisons,’ has issued strict orders that all things are to be carried on rigidly under the rose, and that the mischievous newspapers are to be given no information whatever, unless it come to them in the way of red tape and the Circumlocution Office. There may be those however, who are of opinon that the less mystery there is made about anything connected with our public institutions the better. If there is anything connected with their circumstances or management that the authorities consider undesirable for the public to know, it is plainly a state of things that should not exist; and it ought to be the first duty of an inspector of prisons to remedy it, and see that nothing goes on there that may not be published to the whole world. We cannot congratulate this gentleman signing himself ‘P. A. Hume, captain, inspector of prisons,’ on his circular of orders; it is a very foolish document, and betrays the mere emptyheaded martinet. By the way, whose particular protege is the gallant captain, and where did he come from ? Does anyone know besides some Minister ? Meantime it is an insult to the Press generally to imply that it is ready to publish idle gossip * surreptitiously obtained, and calculated to do mischief.”