A TREE-PLANTING CAMP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 14, 10 February 1909, Page 4

A TREE-PLANTING CAMP.

Christehurch, Friday. A special reporter of the Press who paid a visit this week to the llanmer prison tree-planting camp writes: The men who for their sins or misfortunes are giving compulsorily free service to the country at llanmer prison -amp are engaged iii the production of in artificial forest. The camp is not of very ancient establishment, but for all that the face of the country has been completely changed by the process of tree-plant'ing. The site of the camp is •lerhaps a little over two miles from the ownship. One cannot help feeling that 'he lot of the prisoner at llanmer is ■nit an altogether unhappy one, and .vtien viewed beside Hie comparative rigor of His Majesty'.-, Lyttelton institu•ion which in more nuregeuerate days might have been his lot. he has much to "be thankful for. The work in the fields, in the llowor garden, or in (he •abbagc pa leh has a certain attraction. sviid the "confinement'' endured is almost is much of shadow as of reality. The prisoners are at work during the day. but after the evening meal they are alowed' opportunity fur recreation. Certain boundaries are defined, and the limits the prisoners may go, but no further The Saturday afternoons, are •■davs oil'," and the time is beguiled with cricket matches against any team, scratch or organised, which may evince a desire to try conclusions. On Sundays there are church services, and the day is -pent in the restful fiwhion approved bv a paternal State. The men's w'liar"s or huts arc. on the whole, models of cleanliness and neatness. I'au-.|\ accommodates two men, and the occupants appear to combine to vie with the men in the other huts in the matter of decorations. Some of the walls are almost covered with pictorial cuttings and post cards. The favorite subjects are stage beauties and boxing champions, racehorses and politicians making good (birds ami fourths. There is ail "Australian" whare. tenanted by two sons of the Commonwealth, who proudly display ■•Advance. Australia." emblazoned on a banner, as their chief decoration. There is a "Maori" whare. occii, l_by two natives, in which the pictorial trimmings are intensely "early New '•■»■ land''' in character. Another whare is used as a library and reading-room, and still another as a billiard-room. 'I he billiard-table is a very ingeniously-con-structed alfair, and it is said that, some marvellous breaks have been made on it by experts with the cue. The table was the joint invention of two young Maoris, there ar lly twenty-one prisoners in the camp at. present, though there is accommodation for more than double that number. The camp is in charge or Mr. Murphy, who is assisted bv Mr. Carlvon. There are any points of interest about the place and the men who inhabit it, and after a visit onemust come away with a fuller understanding and better appreciation of thro work Of the tree-planting camps.