NATIONAL PERILS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 155, 4 July 1927, Page 17

NATIONAL PERILS.

YOUTHFUL CRIMINALS. LACK OF HOME TRAINING. "Half the crimes in this country are committed by persons under 21 years <>f age," was the serious statement made last evening by Commissioner James Hay, when speaking of "National Perils" at the 44th anniversary of the Auckland branch of the Salvatoin Army. The Hon. Geo. Fowlds presided over a large gathering in the Albert Street Hall. Commissioner Hay said he had been ten months in New Zealand and during that time had addressed some 500 meetings. His tour enabled him to study the conditions of life in this community. New Zealand like every other country had its national perils and problems. The commissioner added that if the Dominion was to go up in moral soundness, easy-going measures must be put on one side and more vigorous ones adopted. The greatest peril was in moral weakness and the vice of daily life. In New Zealand laxity in home training was taking a terrible toll. What education was doing on one hand, lack of moral discipline undid on the other. Commissioner Hay referred to the need for more serious reading, such as the study of religion and history instead of insipid sexual literature. He said modern pictures were contributing to modern thought, idealism and practice, but claimed that three-fourths of the pictures wero usually sexual. Commissioner Hay stated that the evil deeds of over half the boys in the Salvation Army homes could be traccd to the influence of pictures. He deplored the tendency of many citizens to go to picnics on Sunday instead of church, and added, "Life either elevates a nation or brings it down."