JUDGE DISTURBED BY CRIMES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25243, 23 July 1947, Page 9

JUDGE DISTURBED BY CRIMES

AUCKLAND DISTRICT OFFENCES LACK OF HOME TRAINING (P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 22. , Crime in Auckland and district is disturbing in the view of Mr Justice Callan, who addressed the grand jury at the opening of the criminal session of the Supreme Court to-day. He said the large proportion of dishonesty by young people indicated lack of home training. He was glad to be able to say that the criminal calendar was light, his Honour said, but he reminded the grand jury that it had to deal only with cases in which accused persons had pleaded not guilty. From week to week throughout the year on each Thursday the Court had dealt with offenders who had admitted criminal offences. Up to date this year there had been 117 such persons sentenced lor serious crime and the number for the last three months had been 64, so that before they jumped to the conclusion that the city and district of Auckland was freer from crime, merely because of this light calendar, they had to remember these figures.

Young Offenders Many more than half the offences committed by persons who came up for sentence were offences against honesty, and a disturbingly large proportion were committed by young men. It was a disturbing feature that the great bulk of car conversions and substantially more than half the breaking and entering offences continued to be committed not merely by young men ' but by very young men. His Honour directed attention to the 1 message broadcast by Field-Marshal Viscount Montgomery, in which he reminded his listeners that the strength of a nation depended in the last resort on the character of its people and that this character depended on the foundation training in the home. “The nature of the business I have mentioned as coming before the Court appears to indicate that there are at least some New Zealand homes where parents are failing in the duty which ihis distinguished visitor mentioned,” said his Honour. “Indeed, I am not surprised that this should be so. Every time a Judge has to sentence a prisoner he sees a report on the life history of the prisoner. Separation of Parents “In these reports week after week I have been struck by the circumstances that in case after case of youths going wrong they have not had home training, because the home had been broken up by the parting of the parents. It seems to me natural enough to suspect that those human beings who have proved imperfect in their performance of the duties of husband or wife are also imperfect in the duties of parents. Even if that were not so, training has to be given in the family home and once a home is broken up a child losing one parents has lost half its birthright.” Divorce statistics showed that divorce had increased greatly. In any country where that had happened it was fortunate if, as a consequential result, crime had not also increased.