THE "CAT " IN THE DUNEDIN GAOL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 286, 24 July 1873, Page 6

THE " CAT " IN THE DUNEDIN GAOL.

The prisoner William Duffy, recently convicted at the Supreme Court of attempting to commit a rape upon a child at the Dunstan, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labor, and to receive twenty-five lashes with the "cat," underwent the latter punishment on the 14th inst., in the Gaol, in the presence of the Provincial Surgeon, Mr Caldwell, Governor, and other officers of the gaol. The " cat " was wielded by a tall powerful man, formerly a boatswain in the Royal Navy. When the prisoner was brought into the yard to be strapped to the triangles, he was very pale, and although evidently entertaining a wholesome dread of the " cat, " he remained quiet. The punishment was meted out in the stockade yard, where the prisoner was strapped to the triangle. The instrument of punishment was a cat-o' -nine-tails, the handle of which was twenty inches in length, about the size of an ordinary •ffice ruler, to the end of which were fastened the nine tails, which were of cod line, hard, well-twisted twine, and on each tail were three hard knots. It was ■uch an instrument that anyone handling it, and knowing its use, even though not possessed of over-sensitive feelings, would begin to feel his flesh creep. When the first stroke fell on his back, it had the effect of an electric shock, causing him to exclaim, "Oh !" The strokes meantime continued to fall on his back with the greatest regularity, and after some more whining, he was released from the apparatus. The suffering was evidently intense. Each lash, deliberately placed, left its mark, and at the conclusion Duffy's back presented the appearance of a swollen, discolored mass of flesh. The punishment which this prisoner has received will assuredly be remembered by him for years to come, and had some of the prisoners in the Gaol been present to witness what flogging in Dunedin Gaol really means — they would have carried away with them a lesson which could not fail t» be productive of good as a deterrent of crime. It may be useful to close by an affirmation of the opinion that flogging is a proper punishment, and the only punishment for the brutal, cowardly wretch who acts as the man tied up this day did, and that the dread of the "cat" deters criminals from repeating the crime that brought him under its fearful swish. "Ah, Mr Caldwell," said the prisoner Duffy to the governor of the Gaol, as he visited the cell after the operation, " I'm not afraid when I hear a footstep on the corridor now ; but every stir I heard afore frightened me : I thought they were coming to fetch me for the cat. " Itis a pity that the cowed, crest-fallen features of the flogged criminal could not be photographed, and his helpless squeals repeated by a sound-board, so that they might be seen and heard by the rest of the criminal fraternity in their cells and by their " pals" outside. The lesson would not be to the disadvantage, as some maudlin philanthropists try to persuade themselves ; but clearly to the advantage of our common humanity.