The prisoner "WTlliam Duffy, recently con victed at the Supreme Court of attempting to commit a rape ujton a child at the Dunstan, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labor, and to receive twenty-five Liuheß with the "cat," underwent the latter punishment: on the 14th inst., in the Gaol, in the presence of the Provincial Sur geon, Mr Caldwell, Governor, and other officers of th« gaol. The " cat" was wielded by a tall powerful man, formerly a boatswain in the Royal Navy. When the prisoner was brought into the yard to be strapped to the triangles, he was very pale, and although evidently entertaining a wholesome dread of the " cat," hj& remained quiet. The punishment was meted oat in the stockade yard, where the prisoner was strapped to the triangle. T'ae instrument of punishment was ft cftW«nuie<tftUß, the handle of which

was twenty inches in length, about the size of an ordinar} ♦ffice ruler, to the end of which were fastened the nine tails, which were of cod line, hard, well-twisted twine, aud on each tail were three hard knots. It was such an instrument that anyone and knowing its use, even though not pos sessed of over-sensitive feelin s, would begin to feel his flesh creeu. When the first stroke fell on his back, it had the effect of sn electric shock, coming him to exclaim, "Oh !" The strokes meantime continued to fall on his back with the greatest regularity, and after some more whining, he was re leased from the apparatus. The suffering was evidently intense, tach lash, delibe rately placed, left its mark, and at the conclusion Duffy's toack presented, the ap pearance of a swollen, discolored mass of flesh. The punishment which this prisoner has received will assuredly be remembered by him for years to come, and had some of the prisoners in the Gaol been present to witness what flogging in Dunedin Gaol really means— they would have carried away with them a lesson which could not fail ts be productive of good as a deterrent of crime. 