The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3636, 8 March 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1883.

The story told in a brief Press Association teleoram from Dunedin, A\-hieh appeared in a recent issue is deplorable in the extreme, and a sad commentary on the vaunted civilisation of the nineteenth century, Avith all its aids to advancement in moral as Avell as temporal things. The telegramin question states that an influential deputation waited on the Premier, Avho is still on his per-e'l-rinations, urging the necessity of establishin<'- a reformatory to sever the criminal classes from tho neglected and destitute but non-criminal children. Air AVhitaker promised that the GoA'crument Avould favorably entertain the suggestion, the chief objection being Avant of flic needful funds. Archdeacon Edwards stated that in his opinion a reformatory Avas just as much if not more wanted for girls as well as boys. He gave many instances of boys avlio A\-ere so utterly depraved that the only place to send them Avas to the reformatory ; he also stated that not. long before a girl in the ranks of the deiui moitde Avas brought before the Resident Alagisfrate, and by him committed to the Industrial School ! There she would contaminate honest and chaste girls, Avhose misfortunes and not their faults placed them in the Industrial School. The reA\ gentleman made a still more alarming statement, on the authority of the head of the police, to the effect that girls of tivelve and thirteen years of age Avere in the habit of offering themselves to the proprietors of places of infamy, and avlio aa-ci-c rejected becntsr. (hey were too young I AYe think it AA-ill be readily admitted that in this respect Dunedin is probably no worse than many other toAvns in New Zealand. The establishment of reformatories for girls in a few of the large centres is therefore a necessity, and sooner or later the Government A\"ill be compelled by the exigencies of the case to legislate in this direction. The basis of this must be the one object of separating the criminal from the non-criminal population, so that the one may not contaminate the other. For a man who steals the gaol is tho proper place, but for a boy, whose training has been neglected, it is manifestly the Avorst place to send him; in the gaol lie will become associated with "gaol-birds" of the most degraded type, and his latter state Avill become Averse than the first, and the aim of the law will have been rendered of no effect, for instead of its punishment acting as a deterrent it will confirm the lad in all sorts of vices. The hnv recognised him as a criminal Avhen he was not one in reality, and by sending him to herd Avith criminals of the worst stamp, and learn their ways, the hnv made him a- criminal in real earnest. If, therefore, it be an unwise policy to send a juvenile offender to gaol to have all the vestiges of morality destroyed, is it not manifestly wrong to send girls of the criminal class into the Industrial Home, there by their bad lives and examples to contaminate those poor, neglected, but virtuous children, whom the State has elected to adopt and bring up to be good citizens. The contention, Aye maintain, cannot be gainsaid, and Aye trust the Government Avill not let this question entirely slip their memory. Tlie plea of Avant of funds may seem to observers to be a good reason for not complying Avith the request of the Dunedin deputation, but to our mind the Government should weigh avcll this one fact, that every boy or girl convicted of Avhat we may call venial offences, and sent to herd in our prisons with the scum of the population, adds to the total of the truly criminal classes, and thereby to the mouetary burdcu of the colony, by requiring police to re-arrest them, gaols and gaolers to keep them in ward, magistrates to try them, and eventually secure penal establishments Avhere they may expiate their crimes. It is a trueism to say that it Avould be far better for the country and more truly statesmanlike to spend a little money in the reformation of those aa'lio have strayed but a little Avay from the right path.