The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1921. VALUABLE PRISON LABOR.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 November 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1921. VALUABLE PRISON LABOR.

The report recently presented to Parliament, showing the earnings of the Prisons Department as the result of the employment of prisoners on the work of reclaiming, breaking in, and improving land, as well as on other industrial operations, is a striking tribute to the success of that intelligent and humane system of the treatment of prisoners that is now proved to be a most satisfactory success. Attention is properly called to the fact that the prison population in the Dominion is partly composed of derelicts who are unable to work, also of old men only capable of doing the lightest tasks, as well as a number whose previous occupations. unfit them for manual labor. Against these drawbacks to the profitable employment of prison labor, it is asserted that the really able-bodied, competent prisoners are working fully as well as, if not better than, men employed at similar work outside. The two outstanding facts in the report are the gratifying amount of the earnings of prisoners, and the valuable result of their labor in increasing the productive power of the country. During the last five years the cash receipts and credits pf the Department totalled £116,917, having risen from £9867 in 1916-17 to £39,136 in 1920-1, and had all the actual earnings last year been brought into credit, the total would have reached £46,423. Although the operations connected with the Auckland prison quarry materially augmented these receipts, the chief feature of the scheme is the farm work at Waikeria, Paparua and Invercargill. At Paparua sheep raising and cropping have been the mainstays, ■while at the other two farms dairying is carried out. successfully. No more relialjle testimony to the value of this farm -work—direct and indirect—can be given than the faet that Waikeria property was acquired, by the Department for about £3OOO in 191213, has now a market value of £23,000, due in large measure to effective cultivation, while other improvements, such .as institutional and farm buildings, are valued at an additional ten thousand pounds. It is also pipasing to uote that the reclamation of about 2250 acres of rich estuary land at Invercargill by prison labor, as , the result of which the land reclaimed from the sea is carrying splendid grass and crops for dairy and other stock, the Department received a block of six hundred and fifty acres which, at the present value, is worth at least twen-ty-four thousand pounds, and is expected to double in price in the next decade. Thus what was a mere muddy waste now forms a valuable addition to the Dominion’s producing power, while it has given useful and profitable occupation for prison labor that formerly was a burden on the community. A coi’responding success has been met with in the operations at Templeton, where the increase in the value of the land was set down as thirteen, thousand pounds, and that of the buildings at ten thousand sterling. In a few years, therefore, prison labor has succeeded in raising the value of the land on which it was used to the extent of £lOB,OOO, a performance that clearly demonstrates not only the beneficial nature of the system, but the zeal and intelligence of the prison officials in charge of the several works. Now that the results achieved have established the success of this system of turning prison labor to such good use, there should be no hesitation in making the utmost of this opportunity for improving I waste and poor lands, which are possible of being converted into valuable State assets. Not only, ffiip a system. Q* this nature be-

come of immense intrinsic value in the course of time, but it is likely to prove beneficial in its reformatory phase, as well as enabling payment to be made to the prisoners for their work, while it helps to reduce the cost of detention of the useless derelicts and physically unfit portion of the criminal class that is always passing through the hands, of Justice. There must be a considerable quantity of land now set down as useless for settlement purposes, yet if taken in hand by the Prisons Department could be converted into producing areas. Every acre of such land added to the producing power of the country is so much to the good, so that it is satisfactory to learn that a proposition is now under consideration by the Government that will, if accepted, result in much useful work in the interest of settlement. It is not every prison head official that has the necessary qualification for this farm and improvement work, but experience has proved that the right men have been chosen to superintend its development, and it would seem a wise policy for the Department to eneourge the best results by means of special money grants to those officers engaged on this work who secure a good return for the labor expended. By that means the benefits of promotion, without transferring the officers to other positions where their special fitness for developmental work is wasted, could be safeguarded, and their experience be put to a more profitable use on the land. The report is most encouraging in its record, and as to the prospects of increased benefits in the future. The Department is certainly deserving of congratulation on its work.