TARANAKI GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

[From the New Zealand Gazette.]

G. F. Bowen, Governor.

WHEREAS by an Ordinance of the Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Colony of New Zealand, intituled “An Ordinance for the Regulation of Prisons,” Session VII., No. 7, the Governor is empowered from time to time to make such rules and regulations as to him may seem fit touching the duties of the officers of any public gaol; the classification, diet, instruction, treatment, and correction of the prisoners therein; and generally, to prescribe all such rules as may be necessary for the good discipline of any public gaol, and the safe custody of the prisoners therein:

And whereas by an Act of the General Assembly of the said Colony, intituled “The Secondary Punishment Act Amendment Act, 1863,” it is enacted that it shall be lawful for the Governor from time to time to make such rules and regulations as to him shall seem meet for the employment, safe custody, management and discipline of convicts under sentence of penal servitude, and to enforce the observance of such rules and regulations by solitary confinement for any period not exceeding one month at any one time, or for three months in periods of one month at intervals of at least one month each, by placing in irons, by whipping not exceeding fifty lashes at one time, by imprisonment not exceeding twelve months in addition to the original sentence, and by such prison discipline as may be prescribed in that behalf: Provided always that no rule or regulation awarding any such punishment as aforesaid shall come into operation until a copy thereof shall first have been published in the New Zealand Gazette:

Now therefore, I, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, Governor of the Colony of New Zealand, under and by virtue of the provisions in the said Ordinance and Act respectively contained, do hereby make the following Regulations for the purposes hereinbefore recited, and do publish the same to be in force within the Province of Taranaki: And I do hereby revoke all regulations now in force in the Province of Taranaki, heretofore made for the purposes hereinbefore recited, or any of them.

Given under the hand of His Excellency Sir George Ferguson Bowen, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Her Majesty’s Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and Vice-Admiral of the same, at the Government House at Auckland, this twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy.

Donald McLean.

RULES AND REGULATIONS.

Gaoler.

1. The Gaoler will reside in the establishment, from which he will not absent himself for a longer period than twelve hours, without the written authority of the Superintendent of the Province, and will be responsible for the discipline, management, and safe custody of the prisoners, the impartial enforcement of penal discipline, and the introduction and maintenance of habits of industry, cleanliness, order, and obedience among them, and in the establishment generally.

2. It will be an important part of his duty to ascertain that the prisoners are correctly instructed in labour, and so placed as to preclude their carrying on improper conversation, unheard by the officer in charge. He will therefore frequently, and at uncertain hours, visit the working parties.

3. He is to see that all the officers under his charge perform their duties in strict accordance with the Regulations issued for their guidance.

4. He will be at all times ready to receive any complaint or application made by any of the prisoners, and report the same to the Visiting Justice or Justices.

5. He will use all precautionary measures to prevent the escape of prisoners, and with that view will visit and inspect the wards, separate apartments, cells, and every division of the establishment, frequently, daily and nightly, and will see every prisoner once at least in twenty-four hours.

6. He will see that the utmost economy is observed throughout the establishment, and that the labour of the prisoners is made as productive as possible.

7. He will not allow prisoners, under any pretence whatever, to be employed, either singly or in detached parties, without being under the charge and personal observation of an officer.

8. He will not permit any strangers to sleep in the apartments of the officers without written permission, nor any person to have intercourse with the prisoners without authority also in writing, and then only in the presence of an officer.

9. He will keep a journal, in which he will enter every extraordinary occurrence, and