IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1623, 6 November 1885, Page 2

IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT

11 How Debtors are treated in ArMingbm Gaol " is the heading of a series of letters which have b»en appearing the last month or two in the " EHesmere Guardian." a paper printed at Snath bridge, ahoat 30 miles from Christchnrcb. They have created qnit.e a sensation, and have had a marked effi-ct upon the orders for imprisonment for del»t issued l»y the Christ-clnm-h magistrates. People read of how for iio other crime than poverty, men — and women, too — have been sentenced to weeks' and months'imprisonment, which means semi starvation the whole time ; solitary confinement twenty honm ont of every twenty-fonr, and treatment in all ways as severe and degrading as that to which criminals are subjected. If th"se letters -ire faithful records of what obtains in Addington Gaol, then the Pi-horns Act nnder which Captain Hnme has intro dnred his abominably spvere treatment of debtors is repeatedly and systematically disregarded and ignored, and f his not from ignorance on the part of the gaoler or warders, hot in obedience to Captain H nine's direct instructions. The writer of tlv letters pledges himself to sul»Rtanti'ite every statement made in them, and I n-.ay say that, from inquiries I have personally made "of unfortunate debtors, I find that, in every matter which I have looked into h« is correct C*n yon believe that a dentor is s«archf d on entering the gaol, just as a criminal —every paper, letter, memorandum, pencil, pipe, watch, everything, in fact, kn^ nil tctaa) atatbiog. that b* stands np

in is takeu from him ? His height, weight, «ppearance. religion, etc , are eutered in a »**>k. If he thinks fit the gaoler can make the man strip naked in order that "any marks on his person" may be duly recorded. He cannot leceive auy letter from even his wife until tbk gaoler has first opened, read, and endorsed it If he wants to write to he* his letter has to pass through the same horrid c utiuy before it is posted, bi^mied with a huge stamp covering at least one third ;of t;ie envelop, bearing the words I " Addiugton Gaol." If she cilia to see hi iv she.loes so in a kind of cage divided into three compartments l»y two rows of rails — she standing in one co npart ' ment, and he in another, with a wa<der | listening for anything to be n ported , lietween them iv the centre, division. ! And remeinlter this: with the siini- ! starvation, and wiLh the solitary couliiiHinetit twenty hours per day, is the treatment the. law deals out to poverty, not crime : and all the while

we take credit to nut selves t'tat |h*t remnant of ktri>aiißin — imprison »>eul for debt — has l>eeu abolished in eulightened New Zealand. — Exchange.