"SCARCELY FAIR"

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2131, 24 April 1914, Page 8

"SCARCELY FAIR"

COMPARISON OF CRIME

SIR R. STOUT'S STATEMENTS CRITICISED '

1 Some interesting figures were, given ijjy-theKey.; W. A. Keay, when addressing a meeting of supporters of the Biblc-in-schools movement at St. Andrew's iiall last niylit. They aioso in reference to a- recent statement made by the Chief Justico (Sir Uobert Stout). Mr. Keay said that. ho Wanted to make a few remarks in defence of his country (Now South' Wales). Sir Robert Stout had said that'b.v comparison there was less crime in New Zealand, less juvenile crime. Ho was sorry Sir liobert Stout had made tho comparison of New Zealand and New South Wales, for it was scarcely fair. "In New Zealand," ho continued, "you have not a Jong black patch of convict history. ■Your land lias not been stained by tho infamy of a convict system. Now. South Wales has been stained, and 's stained to-day, to some extent. Before being sent in chains to New South Wales, tho convicts put on the hulks were men, 'hut they were devils before they arrived. They were not all bad men when they were deported; they were deported ■for trifling crimes. When tho history.of 'Australia comes to bo written,- tho history of tho convict system will bo tho blackest list that man has over landed Upon, and it will he a history which v.-iir'not be a credit-to Groat, Britain. 'Nevertheless, it belongs to the past, fiml.Ncw South Wales .is fast cradicating'tho convict.stain. "I- am sorry Sir Robert Stout mado comparison, and tho worst'of it is ■that it is not true. Ho said crime was decreasing,, and there ■wero decreasing juvenile offences.. It is not.true that they are increasing. In Auckland in 1904 there wero 12,4 juvenile offences; in, 1910' there wero 188 offences; in 1911 there were Ml; and lit 1912 there, were 184. In Christdiurch, in 1909, there were 110 offences; in 1910, 107; .1911, 196; 1912, 248. In Dunedin, in 1909, there wero 124; n 1910, 111; 1911, 71; 1912, 76. fln Wellington, in 1909, thero were 12<5; §nl9lo, 122; 1911, 152; 1912, 179. That is the position. "But, again, I happened to find this 'in place of,what Sir .Robert Stout had to say about the increase of crime in (Now 'South Wales. You must reraemhcr that't'his is held up as a reason why j the people should not have the Bible iu ■the schools. I find this: 37 gaols have ibeen closed in New South Wales, but irvou have not closed any in New Zealand. In 1885—and those figures are by an official —in 1885, in New ' >South , Wales, with a population of 98,572, there were 20,740 convictions, 'ffhat was the year before the Bible was iintroduced into the schools. On Decem'•her 31 of that year there were 2562 persons in prison. In 1912, with a population of 1,780,920, there wero- only (11,361 convictions. Do you see what I iiriean? The population almost doubled j itself, and the crimes wero reduced by, 'half. I make that statement because jit is being held up that the Bible ia' an rinsufficient remedy for the meeting of ■the crime of the country. With all ; New South Wales had to face, with all its black past,- all its convict state, that is the position; with, double its population, its crime is almost half what it was before the introduction of .the-Bible into the schools."- (Applause.) '