EXTRAORDINARY SCANDAL IN A GAOL.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 235, 14 March 1885, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY SCANDAL IN A GAOL.

Some extraordinary revelations have been made to us by a recent arrival in Auckland, who some time ago served a sentence in a certain Southern gaol. If his statements are to be credited, and we see no reason to doubt them, the charges he brings forward are far more deserving of a public inquiry than the now celebrated "Dunedin Gaol Inquiry." The gaoler has been many years in the office he now holds and has, until recently, recruited his staff of warders from amongst his old comrades (he is an ex-army sergeant) or those who have in some way placed themselves in his power, and by this means he has been enabled to keep his irregularities so long from the knowledge of the public.

As an instance of his power over his warders my informant mentions the case of an assistant, who is a brutal half-caste Maori and Frenchman. This 3iian was dissmissed from the gaol service in another district for drunkenness, but, by means of a forged testimonial, obtained his present appointment. The gaoler is aware of the whole cirumstances m connection with the forged testimonial, and holds the knowledge like the sword of Damocles, over the head of his subordinate, who is Ids most abject slave. Another warder has for a wife a woman who is little better than a drunken prostitute, and who lives with her husband in the married quarters of the gaol. This man would be instantly discharged'were his wife's character known to the authorities, so the gaoler holds him in a leash by the threat of exposure. With a staff so constituted it is not to be wondered at that the gaoler has found it very easy to pursue a long course of peculation with impunity. My informant gives a list of many articles which the gaoler has made for his own private use by prison labor, and out of Government materials, and by giving the value of each article he shows a portion of the amount of which the gaoler has so long defrauded the Government.

Under the head of " Peculation " he gives the following : — lst. A set of harrows for the gaoler's farm, value £15, made in prison workshop from Government iron. 2nd. A diningroom sideboard, also made in the prison from Government material and by gaol labour, value £10 10s. 3rd. A writing case and stationery box, made of New Zealand woods, do., do., value £2 2s. 4th. Ironwork for an elaborate children's swing-chair, made for a friend of the gaoler's, do., do., value about £1. sth. Material for the erection of a stable, cowshed, and forage and harness-room, taken from the gaol to a section of land belonging to the gaoler and there erected ; the building was put up by outside labour, but the material (all Government property) taken from the gaol is worth about £40. 6th. A stable wheelbarrow, made for the gaoler's stable, value £1. 7th. The gaoler has been in the habit of feeding his private horse on Government forage ; the value of oats, hay, and bran of which the Government have thus been defrauded, if only calculated for the last five years, amounts to no less a sum than £140. yth. Each prisoner in the gaol is entitled to iUozs. of soap per week ; the gaoler has never issued more than 2ozs. to 2^ozs. per man, the rest being consumed in his own household. Calculating this also for only five years, and taking the average number of prisoners per week at twenty, we find that the gaoler haspurloined 4061b5. of soap, which, at 4d per lb, amounts in round numbers to £7 15.?. 9th. borne time ago a number of new blankets were purchased for the use of the gaol. Of these no fewer than twenty unbranded pairs were shared between the gaoler and the married members of his family ; the blankets so confiscated would be worth about £25. 10th. A horse-cloth, value £2 10s, was made out of gaol blankets for the gaoler's private horse. 11th. The lamps in the gaol corridors are supposed to be kept burning all night, and during the winter months the prisoners are allowed lights in their cells until eight o'clock. Neither of these rules are carried out. The lamps are destitute of oil, and the prisoners are compelled to sit for hours in the misery of darkness until bed-time bell rings, .whilst the gaoler uses the gaol kerosine and candles in his own house. This item, also only calculated for five years, amounts to £40.

My informant says he could give many more instances of the gaoler's thefts : such as the purloining of expensive tools from the carpenter's shop for the use of his son, &c ; but he has given enough to show what has been going on for years. He, however, proceeds to deal with a number of irregularities of a somewhat less criminal nature. A prisoner undergoing a penal sentence was in charge of the carpenter's shop, and carried the key about •with him. By order of the- gaoler, whenever a tool was wanted for the works, the warder had to get a written, order from the gaoler, which was presented to the prisoner, who thereupon permitted the warder to accompany him to the door of the shop, but not to enter, and there waittill he handed out the tool wanted, thus presenting the anomaly of a warder being subordinate to a convicted felon. It after - wards transpired that the reason was that the man was doing some private work for the gaoler, who was afraid that someone might "split."

The gaoler has a singular antipathy to cold water. This is shown by the fact that for years the prisoners under his charge were

very rarely allowed to bathe. For instance, one man served a sentence of three years and, never had a bath ; another, two years under the same circumstances ; another has nearly completed a sentence of two years and was only recently allowed a bath ; another lias nearly finished eighteen months, and having begged for a bath, was allowed one as a great favour. The gaoler has been in the habit of permitting the straw in the prisoners' beds to be unchanged for years. Its condition may be imagined. One man, the same who asked for a bath, prayed for some of the straw from the stable a nd was refused.

Until very recently the gaoler always left the matron in charge of the goal during Ms temporary absences. On one of these occasions a prisoner was confined to his cell for abusive and obscene language to an officer. The matron heard of it, and on her own responsibility ordered his release. The regulations distinctly state that all interviews between prisoners and their friends must take place in the presence of an officer, and in a room provided for the purpose ; yet in defiance of tlus a female prisoner only a short time ago received a visitor who was allowed by the matron to be alone ivith her in her cell for ticenty minutes.

But a more flagrant irregularity than these occurred a month or two ago. The gaoler gave to a warder for the purpose of being cleaned the whole of the firearms belonging to the gaol. The arms were all loaded, and the gaoler gave special instructions that they were not to he unloaded 10 be cleaned. The warder, not earing to soil his fingers, or being timorous of cleaning loaded firearms, took them into a workshop where a prisoner was working alone, gave him the arms to clean, and left him with the door wide open. Some time afterwards the gaoler went to the shop to give instructions with regard to some work. He was some considerable time alone in the shop with the prisoner, who had a loaded revolver in his hand the whole time. After leaving the shop the gaoler took no notice whatever of the gross fault committed by the warder in supplying a prisoner with arms and ammunition. Had the prisoner been so minded, how easy it was for him to have shot the gaoler dead, and represented it as the result of an accidental explosion ; or the revolver might have gone off and the prisoner been tried for murder. As the officers in the gaol never carry arms, how easy would it have been, also for the prisoner to have armed himself with what arms he liked, rendered the remainder unserviceable, and locked the gaoler and the officers up in separate cells. Then, possessing himself of the keys, he could have issued clothing to every prisoner in the gaol, and, opening any gate he liked, could with ease have walked out, accompanied by every inmate of the gaol, and locking the gate behind him, and taking the keys with him, would have considerably delayed pursuit by leaving the officers confined in separate cells in different pai*ts of the building. The prisoners who ■would not have seized the opportunity of escape thus presented to him. would be one in a thousand.