Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/60

50 caught fire in 1855, at the time containing only one prisoner, who worked very hard to save his domicile, on the justifiable principle that he had been very comfortable in his lodgings therein, and was afraid in the future he would not be so well off; however, notwithstanding his exertions, total loss ensued. The Provincial Council had been alive to the necessity of making increased accommodation for the number of prisoners, unfortunately bound to increase by the increase of population, and so a new building was at once pushed on to completion on the site of the present erection. The gaoler, Mr Monson, who had held office since June 1851, got arrangements completed, and at once transferred himself and his single guest to the new quarters. The building was very inconvenient, and had nothing like room for its forced occupants, on some occasions numbering 26 and 27—mostly runaway sailors. Nor had the keeper any regular assistant. He had the moral support of the chief constable, and sometimes the presence of an unarmed warder, on whom no great reliance could be placed. The law of kindness was adopted, since that of severity could not be enforced. The prisoners were in the habit of coming up to town for their rations once or twice weekly, and being generally good-tempered tars, were often treated by the people; but when the hour for closing up arrived, a homeward-bound tack was at once followed, so as not to get the old man into trouble by locking them out. That many escapes were made is undoubtedly true, but the settlers generally aided and abetted the escapee, as the majority of sailors were not only very handy about a place, but also ever ready to put their hands to work. It was like a social gathering to visit the gaoler's garden (where Findlay & Co.'s yards now are) and find the prisoners busy among the vegetables being grown for their own use, and have the master himself pointing with pride to his strawberry beds, which, when the fruit was ripe, would be given to those of his boys who behaved themselves.

The new gaol was not by any means a place for the safekeeping of its inmates. By the simplest means the tenants could effect their escape by door or window, and even though a seven foot palisade surrounded the building, that was easily scaled by an ordinary mortal, and much more easily by an expert. It was a usual custom, too, for outside friends to pass in to the recluses