"OUR GRAVEST PERIL."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 606, 8 September 1909, Page 9

"OUR GRAVEST PERIL."

ADDRESS BY THE VICTORIAN CHIEF JUSTICE. ' DECAY, OF THE RELIGIOUS SENSE. "Our Gravest Peril" was tho subject of au address delivered by tho Chief Justice (Sir John .Madden) before a congregation that tilled the Australian Church, Melbourne, on August 29. Sir John Madden said that tho subject had been brought under his notice by somo information relating to the marked and rapid increase of child-mothers in the Carlton Refuge. Everyono realised tho vital importance which the purity, chastity, and honour of a nation's women wpro to tho nation. If women were indisposed to regard virtuo and' purity as being of great importance, and if they, would not impress their importance on their children, then tho results Were so- far-reaching and disastrous that war, famine, and pestilence wore! incomparably milder afflictions. . Australians had achieved wonderful things:in their...country, and surely they could find means- to ameliorate the, evil or eradicate it altogether. However inadequate the .results., of. any . experi.merit might bey there-was. no-experiment which could;be half.so bad'as the experiment of doing nothing at all. Sir, John Madden .then dealt with the extent of .the ovil, and said that a littlo whilo sinco he had.tried a case in which the child-mother was barely over 12} years. If such things did not givo tho people cause to.pause and think he did- not know-what would.• Ho .remembered;,-, and thoy remembered,. a timo when, if any one ,instanco of. that kind had .occurred tho country .would havo- rung with horror. (Ap- j plause.) .Now the thing was coming to be regarded as.something that.was inevitable. -] .What were ■ the. causes. He would cav, and most peoplb would say, that one reason, and,' perhaps, tho greatest,, was that tho control • of thoso .parents had been lessoned m respect to their children. (Applause.) 'Another serious, cause was .that manifest decay .of,. tho religious sense. .' (Applause.) t Tho religious.:sense, was a great buttress of t tho moral character. Thero was. a viery great blank betweon tho end- of school life at tie ago of Hand tho timo.when..-tho boy or girl reached tho ago when they had-to .work for themselves. '/They! wanted means '.".whereby children-'could _bp trained during",'this .interval, and'institutions to which .they could bocompulsorily sent to receive that;trainiiiß. !(Applause.) The cadet system fo'f. schoolboys was good; but thore should bo.another system whereby boys, who wandered about tho .streets could' be physically ;'. : trained', brought under discipline,. and reminded/.pf 'tho responsibilities of their manhood, ;sV{|''pla'use.) ' ' ' " ; "' "* .'■ 'Thero. we're other remedies .in addition to 'the training of boys and girls after i-hey 'eft, ' There should ,1m something' in (ho ;nattiro of a, curfew bell for thoso children, and particularly girls, who hung about .the "streets at night., (Applause.)' Young girls ha'd no business there,-and should only be 'allowed'out with ■ their -fathers,. mothcrsi or brothers. 'It was also important that parks and gardens,should be.closed, say, at se\cn ; o'clock:' ' (Applause.) The beaohts should' !bo patrolled by the 'or other, officials.. ;who" should send all young girls, homo. (Ro nowed applause.) -■ .'. ■ '. : ; >".'