( 60 )
· Meeting held on Wednesday, 17th June, 1896.
Present: His Honour Mr. T. SERCOMBE SMITII, (Acting Puisne Judge), Chairman.
Hon. Commander W. C. H. HASTINGS, R.N., Acting Police Magistrate.
Dr. ATKINSON, Acting Colonial Surgeon.
The Honourable ALEXANDER MACDONALD THOMSON examined.
THE CHAIRMAN--You have been Acting Superintendent at the Gaol?
WITNESS-Yes.
Q-Can you tell us the dates?
A-From April, 1891, to March, 1892, and from March, 1895, to March, 1896. Q-Taking these two years-1891 to 1892 and 1895 to 1896-have the flogg- ings increased or decreased in proportion to the prisoners in the Gaol?
A-They increased largely last year.
Q-I have a return here for 1891-I do not know whether it is accurate, but we will take if for what it is worth--and in that year the total number of floggings was 244. Will that be about correct, do you think?
A-Yes, perhaps about that.
Q--And then in 1895 the number was 535 ?
A-Of course that would include cases sentenced by the Court. Yes, that would be so, it might be.
Q-Those cases would not form a very big proportion of the floggings?
A-No.
Q-Can you assign any cause for the increase from 295 in 1891 to 535 in 1895 ?
A-Yes. About September last year, in the course of my usual inspections, I came to the conclusion that the head turnkey was not doing his duty and that the cranks were not up to the proper strength. I ordered the warder to make a surprisé test of all the cranks immediately on receipt of the head turnkey's certificate. One morning, in doing so, he found that most of the cranks were very much under weight-under test -and a large proportion of them had no weight at all.
Dr. ATKINSON—No pressure ?
WITNESS-No pressure. Then the result of that was that all the cranks being up to the proper test, the prisoners, as I believed, entered into a conspiracy to refuse to do the labour, and the result was a large increase in the number of floggings.
Q-Comparing your terms of office, was there any marked increase or decrease in any special class of Gaol offences ?
A-The increase was almost entirely owing to refusal to labour.
Q-And that refusal to labour was due to the fact that the
pressure was increased?
A-It was due to the fact that the cranks were kept up to the test.
Q-Now in your opinion what class of Gaol offences are most common?
A-What flogging offences?