CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 299, 15 December 1923, Page 11

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT.

(To the Editor.) >*>ir.—The "Star's" necessarily condensed report of the address at the I, last meeting of the Auckland Justices' Association lias been sadly misinter- , preted by some of your correspondents. There was no advocacy of torture or the introduction of Mosaic expiations. On the contrary, our legal system was declared to be. as near perfection as humanly possible, except that we were going too far in coddling real criminals. The purport of the paper ivas to point out that we began at the wrong end. The three main sources of crime nre well known. Yet we do not make proper efforts to warn our children about them as we would about I noxious weeds, poisonous reptiles, or ] other evils. If in two roughly similar communities the medical authorities in one case devoted their attention to keeping disease out. and in the other concentrated their efforts on curing sickness, neglecting drains, quarantine, education and other means of fighting disease, it is obvious which would | have the Ibetter result. Tt would be unwise for a man to turn his child into a garden where fruit of different kinds, poisonous and wholesome, were growing, without pointing out to the child the difference, especially where the noxious kinds were the most attractive; yet, wo have done this for generations. J How long are we going to continue? Can •Wβ logically reproach the child 'afterwards if lie suffers through our neglect? The responsibility is with the ! community in very many cases. I should like to remove any impression that may exist aibout our Prisons J Board not being of use. It is only one part, and a small part, of its many duties, this dealing with habitual criminals. The splendid work it is doing in other ways, such as the real •reform of prisoners in tree planting J camps, the training of our young , I prisoners in the Borstal Institute, ]nI vercargill, dealing with others retained ]on reformatory sentences, requires only to be known to 'be appreciated. In these activities we may claim we are in the front rank of the world's communities. —I am etc., J. VT. POYNTON.