EVADING CAMPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 172, 24 July 1933, Page 3

EVADING CAMPS.

YOUTH AND CRIME.

JUDGE'S STRONG COMMENT

NOT DUE TO POVERTY,

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, this day

Addressing the grand jury at the opening of the Supreme Court criminal sessions to-day, Mr. Justice Reed said the crime of breaking and entering was undoubtedly increasing in New Zealand. Thirteen prisoners had been sentenced last Wednesday, ten being for breakin" and entering, and all of these prisoners were single men who were eligible for relief camps. His Honor said he thought it well that the public should know that it was quite exceptional to find that destitution due to present economic conditions had anything to do with the commission of crime. Where a man had been driven by real want to commit crime some measure of sympathy with him was natural, but such a reason in this type of case was extremely rare. A large number of these crimes, his Honor added, were committed by single men, who were of mature age and eligible for camps, and yet who preferred to stay in towns and live on the proceeds of crime rather than earn an honest subsistence by accepting relief work. A very grave responsibility rested upon those people—some 110 doubt acting on what they conceived to be a matter of principle—who actively deterred men from going to camps. They could appreciate surely that by doing this they were assisting the manufacture of criminals. The judge added that when that particular class of crime was prevalent probation could not be granted for first offenders. Speaking of youths under 21 committing such crime, his Honor said the large majority lived with their parents and were not in need of food or clothing, but were actuated by a spirit of adventure. Indirectly the spirit of unrest of the present time tended to remove those restraining influences that in normal times would curb the active expression of this spirit of adventure. In his charge to the grand jury his Honor said he regretted that the calendar was heavier than usual, but this might be only a passing phase. The grand jurv returned true bills in all cases.