DEATH PENALTY

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25732, 18 February 1949, Page 5

DEATH PENALTY

Sir,—Women can prevent murder when they assume responsibility for. creating better people and providing better training. Suggestions: four hours weekly compulsory education for all girls 17 to 20 studying nutrition, psychology, child welfare, etc.; minimum requirement for marriage, a home science diploma; marriage licences to be isued by a board consisting of a psychiatrist, doctor, geneticist, and stock-breeder; all sub-normal people to be sterilised; family allowance to be used by Government to provide balanced meals in schools; children to be rehearsed daily in all manner of provocation in order to learn to act compassionately in all situations; a psychiatrist to be censor of radio plays, films, and literature. If murder can take place under these circumstances the parents and teachers should be indicted. —Yours, etc., JOHN BURBRIDGE. February 16, 1949.

Sir,—l am not M. Jennings who wrote on this subject; I definitely agree with members of the Dominion Council of the Women’s Institutes that capital punishment should be reintroduced.—Yours, etc., M. M. JENNINGS. Waiau, February 15, 1949. Sir, —The cure for murder was wrapped in swaddling clothes and was rejected.—Yours, etc., EGLON SERCOMBE. February 15, 1949. Sir. —Those who advocate capital punishment lack knowledge. Those of us who can live a good moral life, and those of us who have no black sheep in the family, have a lot to be thankful for. As I see it, those who commit crime are not so much the bad people of the world as the unfortunates. who in fact need help and not additional suffering and punishment. An overdose of the sins of their atacestors has been transmitted to them; home environment has been against them: and although they know the difference between right and wrong, they lack the moral strength to do the right thing.—Yours, etc., J.H. Hokitika, February 13, 1949. Sir,—The matter is one in which the churches generally should not shirk their spiritual responsibilities. Indeed, the people of the various congregations await spiritual guidance. Have the churches the courage to tell the people, or must this vital matter be left to the politicians?—Yours, etc., CONCERNED. February 16, 1949.