"THE WOMAN PAYS."

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 270, 12 November 1909, Page 3

"THE WOMAN PAYS."

(To the Editor., Sir,—lt i« no wonder, owing to the grpiit number of serious ehnrgps constantly iK'infr brought against young girls in 'our criminal cmrts. that a ioud demand i» being made that the scoundrels called men. who are the cause, should also be dragged before the public, and branded as what they are —the scum of society. I hold that where these men can be fixed j there should be a law making it a serious offence to neglect registering the birth of a c-hild. and in the cape of a married man being the offender, he should be punished worse that a bigamist. I I know of one ease of a married man with ! a wife an<! two children posing as a widower, ruining a young girl, and coolly a-kinij that his name should not be mentioned, as he would lose hi.*, billet and then; would be trouble with his wife. More of the case will be henrd of. or I am mistaken. When one thinks of the terrible position or the girl, the brokenhearted father or mother, and the smashup of a home, it mnkes one ask why the law should remain as it now stands in our boasted Christian country. Why i= there no law to seek out and punish these hell-hounds! What are our lawmakers thinking about! What if a daughter of tne of our Cabinet Ministers stood in the dock as -onic of these girls have to? I venture to -ay our laws would be changed. Any parent in the Dominion is in the same diinjj°r of hiivins? his or her daughter ruined. Perhaps after one or two eases of the "unwritten law" being enforced we may have a change: and from all I have heard such may yet take place not far from Auckland. Let the fathers and mothers of the Dominion who have children to protect take this matter up, and demand that those who ruin their girls shall be punished severely. The evil is a growing one. and strikes at the root of our social system and homes, and I hope soon to hear of a strong deputa-. tion of ladies and gentlemen waiting upon the Premier or the Hon. (I. Fowlds, and requesting that drastic legislation be placed on our Statute Books. As the law at present stands, a civil remedy is the only one. Many people cannot find money to go to court. Why not make the law that those unable to do so may invoke the aid of the Crown Prosecutor? A boy may be prosecuted with all the majesty of the law for stealing a few coppers, but the scoundrel who steals a young girl's honour, breaks a parent's heart, and drags an honoured name in the mire Iβ allowed by that same law to go scot free. Again I ask, Why!—l am, etc.. JUSTICE. CONFESSED CORRESPONDEXCE. "A Retired British Seaman" approve* of the decision of the Sailors' Home Committee ie refusing to allow a billiard table to be placed in The ilia-sion Hall. He regrets that a meeting of the Ministers' Association, held in Ouehunga, adopted a resolution against this. He thinks that a billiard table is entirely out of place in a building that was specially erected for the purposes of worship.

Mr. E. Jeffs, remiarkiing upon Mr. John Foster Fraser's statement with reference to seeing drunken men in Invereargill and Oamaru, stiys that if Mr. Fraser had made ordinary use of' his eves in Auckland and other cities of Xew Zeala-nd he would have experienced no difficulty in discovering drunken men.