Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/234

characters, life in that prison seems to have been, like the place itself, simple and primitive in the extreme. It has been currently reported from the early days of the Province, that the inmates of the gaol, with their custodian, formed a very happy family, and that Mr. Monson was wont to freely send numbers of them into town on errands, and even sometimes to grant them permission to take a stroll, with the warning, however, that if they were not back by lock-up hour they would not be admitted. Such was Dunedin gaol as late as 1858. But it was not destined to continue,—that is, as the Dunedin prison—though for several years afterwards it still served the purpose of a dormitory. The increase in population, and in the proportionate number of prisoners, necessitated the erection in 1860 of a larger and stronger prison—the stone building that now forms the western portion of the present gaol; and shortly afterwards the debtors' prison, was built—the iron building that now forms the eastern end facing the bay. (In the year 1874, when the Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt Act was passed, this portion of the gaol ceased to be a debtors' prison, and it was then turned into a dormitory for female prisoners). The additional accommodation was not provided too soon, for in the following year (1861) the goldfields were discovered, and then hordes of all classes poured into the colony from near and far, and among the newcomers were too many of a decidedly criminal stamp. Then also was formed the large and efficient police force, under the superintendence of Commissioner St. John Branigan; and so well did Mr. Branigan's men cope with the evil-doers, that in the space of twelve months the new gaol, as well as the old building, was crowded to such an extent that the then commodious chapel had to be used as a sleeping place. The contrast between the gaol of 1855 and that of 1862 may here be emphasised. In the first-mentioned year, when the prison was destroyed by fire, it had only one prisoner; in 1862, with all the large additions, the accommodation was altogether too inadequate—seven years' "progress" with a vengeance. But the tide turned, and—also through the vigour and watchfulness of Mr. Branigan's force—many of the criminal newcomers found Otago to be an unfavourable field for their operations, and deeming discretion to be the better part of valour, they gradually, upon their release, betook themselves