The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1895.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 308, 30 December 1895, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1895.

Per tiiff oansa that lacks assistaiios, For tho wrens that nasfla reoistanoe, i'or tho fctura in the distance. Asi the sooil that wo can fio.

It is now more than twelve years ago sincej after considerablecorrespondence in the papers with regard to the necessity for such an organisation, the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was established. This Society, in proportion to the public support it has enjoyed in the way of subscriptions, has done a good work in the direction of protecting from cruelty and thoughtless ill-treatment the dumb creatures which as the companions or servants of man live at his mercy, to minister to his pleasure or material wants. The generous instinct that prompts towards the compassionate treatment and the protection from injury of the weak and helpless, is one of the noblest attributes of a refined humanity. There is no law upon the Statute Book of any country which affords a stronger evidence of the progress of*civilisation in its highest spiritual sense than the British enactments against the infliction qf needless suffering upon the brute creation. In every British community there exists a strong public sentiment which is in sympathy with such legislation, and which regards with detestation acts of wanton cruelty committed against poor dumb creatures, that are powerless to protect themselves against their cowardly aggressors.

We believe that in Auckland the love for animals is as general amongst all ranks of the people as it is in all other Anglo-Saxon communities, and yet the fact remains that the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, after an existence of twelve years, is in some straits for want of the needful iunds to carry on its good and righteous work. We learn that an annual income of as .little as a year is all that is required to enable the Society to maintain a position of efficiency, and yet we are told that there is the greatest difficulty in raising this sum in a population of fifty or sixty thousand for an object with which public sentiment is so much in sympathy. At present the Society are in debt to their late inspector, and when this liability is paid, at the personal cost of the Committee, there will be no funds to go on with u.nleas the public come to the rescue and provide .at once £50 or' in subscriptions towards the expenses of the ensuing year.

The number of convictions for cruelty secured by the Society should not be by the public as the measure of its activity. The true functions of such a body are preventive rather thau punitive. The very existence of the Society, so long as it has the funds to employ an active and vigilant inspector, has a tendency to prevent breaches of the law. The number of cautions given to offenders far exceed the number of cases actually brought into Court, which in twelve years have amounted to 134, resulting in'the payment of 103 in fines, &all of which go to tbe Government, and are, therefore of no financial benefit to the Society.

Before an alteration of the law a few years ago no prosecution could be instituted for cruelty to animals later than a month after the alleged offence was committed, and thus several flagrant cases only came to the knowledge of the Society too late to take proceedings against the offenders. The time within which an information can be laid was, by an amendment of the Police Offences Act, moved by Mr Jackson Palmer, extended to three

months, creating an increased safeguard against the infliction of cruelty with impunity in country districts. Experience unhappily shows that without the restraints of the law much needless suffering would be entailed on animals, more often owing to thoughtless carelessness than to deliberate and malicious cruelty.

Besides its functions in the direction of enforcing the law the Society, if uroperly supported, mid exercise a heneficenb educative influence by the dissemination of suitable literature amongst the schools, inculcating sentiments of compassion and sympathy for animals, to be carried into practical effect by the formation of Bands of Mercy, which have had a very good effect upon the rising generation in Great Britain. T,he Auckland Society were also instrumental in preventing the wanton destruction of the beautiful sea birds which frequent our coasts, the good results being, seen in the great increase in the number of these birds which frequent our harbour of late years.

We cannot but believe that it is only necessary in Auckland to point out the need for popular support to this deserving organisation to secure the subscriptions required to carry out the noble and unselfish aims of its promoters. About a fifteenth part of our city and suburban population could supply the whole sum required for a year's operations at the cost to each person of one shilling. But many could give a guinea more easily than other's could give a shilling, so that if all contributed according to their means, the Honorary Secretary and Treasurer oi the "Society, Mr Jame's Burtt, would not have to wait long for the funds so 'urgently required just now.