Second Edition. REPORT ON N.Z. PRISONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 91, 20 April 1915, Page 6

Second Edition. REPORT ON N.Z. PRISONS.

SATIS p»6to r y ST at eme n t by THE MiNI'ST>ER. I*KK PRESS ASSOCIATION. Wellington, April 20. Interviewed by..the "Post," , Mr, Headman (Minister of Justice), said he believed that nfore useful work was ( being done by the prisons than ever in the history of the Dominion, and the operations were . conducted on more: systematic principles.- Auckland prison was the convict establishment, and the final j wing was bearing completion. When the money was available it was proposed to take steps to establish a separate institution for females, and it was hoped that that would enable them to commence a satisfactory system .. of classification at. lhat prison. There were nearly sixty prisoners at the new gaol at Waikerie, about ten miles from Te Awamutu, where a wing to accommodate eighty prisoners would be -'completed within six months. Kegarding the Wellington gaol. Mr Herdman said that as soon as the building at Point Halswell was completed, the men would be moved out of town. That would mean one penal establishment at Wellington. Instead of three hundred and fpHj thousand trees being planted at. Point Halswell, ninety thousand more would be put in during the coming winter. When the newprison near Templeton. Canterbury, was completed, the South Island would have-enough prison accommodation -for many years. When the war clouds, rolled away he. proposed to introduce legislation which would enable the Crown to release prisoners of good behaviour upon probation, and remedy any injustice which may arise* from the imposition of unequal punishment. It would also be necessary for the State to take charge of inebriates at present at Rotorua and Pakatoa. If those institutions were controlled by the Government it would insist upon all the inmates being employed in a healthy and suitable occupation.