FLOGGING AND CRIME.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 48, 25 February 1913, Page 4

FLOGGING AND CRIME.

We believe that Mr. Justice Edwards ■will find that he has the. pufblie sentiment of 4his eomntunity entirely with him in. regard to the itrttctkwj of flogging for certain criminal offences. It i≤ monstrous that in a civilized country •■children, of tender years should, be exposed to the risk of such terrible physical and moral injury as the commission of euch crimes involves; and aaiy form of punishincnt which without infringing the peneral principles of humanity can 4re repirded as a deterrent should in our opinion be invoked in such cases. Kveryone is, of course, familiar \vith the outcry that is raised -when -a, judge ordere a prir>nner to, be. ilojrped. Hut we muat confess that we can see nothing effective in th<-. arguments generally employed against uhe practice. To .say that flog ging is necessarily demoralising is. to condemn all forms of physical chastisement. We do not beiieve that boys are ever the woree for physical punishment if it is administered in a judicial spirit; and the e-xcurtc for it in their case is that it certainly acts as a deterrent from further misdeeds. The lower animals are certainly amenable to discipline of this sort; and we are not prepared to admit that a man—"for since the howirng- wild disclaims him, man he must bo. styled'"— who is capable of committing a sexual offence upon a young child is more likely to be demoralised and degraded by flogging than an ordinary dog- We are, ot course, well aware that tendencies of thii sort are frequently due to mental weakness or disease, and this renders it necessary to discriminate carefully in such cases. With every desire to support the authority ot" the Supreme Court, and to nphold the principle? that Mr. Justice Edwards laid down, we are inclined to think that such a ca.se as that of trie oldest man sentenced yesterday might well eoiru» within the limits of senility and lack of mental oantrol, due to age, raid that the interests of the community would be met here, by prolor,™ed imprisonment. But, apart from this, we agree entirely with the Judge's dictum that flogging does act as a deterrent,; and that in sach cases "rt should certainly be tried. There ar? ' natures to which , the dread of physical pain will always appeal more strongly than any ota'er argument. The objection to (logging on the ground that it i M demoralising" we regard as merely morbid sentimentalism; and we have no sympathy -whatever with the agitation that has been worked up recently in Engiand against the. flogging clause in the "Wnite Slavery" *:5iU. lv our opinion, men who make a living out of the shame and degradation and misery of women well deserve floggimr; and those soft-hearted people who cannot bear Io think or the infliction of pain upon criminals of this .type may well "be asked to reserve their sympathy and their tears for t.he innocent victims of such degraded and demoralised specimens of humanity u-s received sentence at the Supreme Court yesterday.