" MORE HASTE LESS SPEED."

Evening Post, Volume XX, Issue 168, 21 July 1880, Page 2

" MORE HASTE LESS SPEED."

+ The Government have all along professed the utmost anxiety to push on the work of the session — and no one will, probably, doubt the sincerity of their profession in this respect, but it is useless to disguise the fact that their present mode of procedure is not the best that could be adopted to attain the end in view. Instead of bringing forward two or throe of the most important measures and getting them through their several stages with all speed, consistent with due deliberation, they have allowed bill after bill to be shelved for the time being after passing through a whole, or even a portion of a stage, and now they have quite a number of partially-considered bills on hand, while only two Imprest Supply Bills, the Maori Prisoners Bill, and another small native measure have passed all their degrees. The Licensing Bill, introduced at an early period of the session, is still in a transition state. The Charitable Institutions Bill has not yet been committed, the Regulation of Elections Bill is not yet out of committee, the Estimates aro not nearly through, and tho debates on second reading of several measures are in an unfinished condition. The cause of this may be found to a great extent in the anxiety of the Government to gratify the House, and to give them as opportunity of debating a number of important questions at as early a period of the session as possible ; but the practice has not resulted in forwarding the business of the country. There is still another cause of delay, arising out of the abolition of the sessional order for adjourning half an hour after midnight. A large section of members find it very inconvenient to sit into the small hours of the morning, and the result is that when the Government insist, as they frequently do, upon going on " a little longer," a " stonewall " is set up, and all further proceedings blocked. We have recorded several cases of the kind, and another instance occurred this morning. At 12.45 a.m. a proposal was made to adjourn the debate on the Native Land Sales Bill, bat

the Government objected} urging that it w. s necessary to pres3 on with the *rcrk. A division resulted in favor of the Government, and then a motion was made to adjourn the House. Some threequarters of an hour wa3 wasted in discussing the former motion, time was lost in dividing on the second one, which was also lo3t, and then the first motion was repeated by another member, and ultimately carried, just one hour being thrown away on useless talk. The Maoris were the Btonewallers on this occasion. We cannot help thinking that when at so late an hour a cry for adjournment is raised the Government would Show tact mote by graciously giving way, especially as they have found from experience that they cannot force on the business against the will of even a minority. It is politic to humor the Opposition in small matters occasionally, j and no beneficial results are likely to accrue from an attempt to rule them with a rod of iron. „___ __ _„^___ CRIMINAL STATISTICS. • + Some interesting information as to the nature and prevalence of crime in the colony is given in the annual reports of the Superintendents of Police for the various divisions. All have to record an increase of crime, although it does not appear that the increase is of an alarming nature, or indeed much more than could be expected considering the growth of the population, &c. In regard to the North Island Division, Superintendent Shearman reports that during 1878, 7127 offences came to the knowledge of the police; 193 persons were committed for trial, 5538 summarily convicted, 999 discharged, 6730 prosecuted, leaving 397 offences undetected. In 1879 there were 8204 reported ; 328 committed for trial, 5955 summarily convicted, 1360 discharged, 7643 prosecuted, and 561 undetected, showing an increase of 1077 in the total number of offences reported over the previous year. Of these 135 were committals for trial, 417 summary convictions, 361 discharges, and 164 in which no arrests were made. The greater portion of the increase appears under the following head'.Dgs; — Arms Actj arson, assaults, bankruptcy, breaches of the peace, broaching cargo, cruelty "to aninialß, cutting and wounding, Destitute Persona Act, embezzlement, escaping from legal custody, false pretences, Female Employment Act, forcibly entering premise 3, housebreaking, illegally on premises, indecent exposures, larceny, Licensing Act, malicious injury, Merchant Shipping Act, Naval discipline, neglectod and criminal children, obscene and profane language, Public Works Act, railway regulations, riot, sureties of the peace, threatening language, and wi'e desertion. The principal decrease — Assaults on the police, breaking and entering premises, Distillation Act, drunkenness, Foreign Seamen's Act, gambling, Lotteries Act, neglecting to maintain children in industrial and training schools, obstructing railway lines, breaches of Prisons Act, breaches of Rural Police Act, sals of spirits to natives, Slaughterhouse Act, vagrancy, and Weights and Measures Act. Superintendent Shearman remarks that 50 per cent, of the apparent increase is to be accounted for by the more a<. curate records now kept by tho police. The decrease may in some instances be attributed to similar causes, and both to an increased energy on the part of the police. It is impossible, however, to look at this list without observing the remarkable manner in which it indicates the growing scarcity of money in the colony, and the absence of sufficient employment. It is a well-observed fact that when a country is ia a state of prosperity t h e amount of drunkenness also increases in a proportionate ratio. This is a lamentable condition of things, but it is, nevertheless, a fact that admits of no gainsaying. It may be mentioned also, en passant, that the number of marriages increases also — in fact, the marriage-rate is usnally regarded a3 a very good index of the prosperity of a country. We are hardly sufficiently " advanced " as yet, however, to regard matrimony in the light of a crime, and hence this latter circumstance does not enter into our present consideration. Applying the observed rule in regard to prosperity and drunkenness, however, to the list given above, we find, as is to be expected, that with the fall in wages there is also a decrease in intoxication. On the other hand, we find the want of money and sufficient employment produoing ugly frmt3 in the shape of an increase in such crimes as breaches of the Bankruptcy Act, and Destitute Persons Act, embezzlement, false pretences, house-breaking, larceny, neglected and criminal children, and wife desertion. It is also a noteworthy fact that the actual increase is confined principally to the large centres of population where numbers of people were unemployed, and this affords an additional stimulus to the Government, if any were needed, in their efforts to draft the unemployed from the crowded towns into the country districts. It is apparent from the police reports that want is by no means the only cause of crime in the colony— that there are many people who are criminal from what Artomus Ward would call pure " cussedness." Says the Superintendent of the Otago Division :—: — " To the excessive use of intoxioating liquors may bo ascribed many ills such as crime, lunacy, poverty, and misery — this is a glaring fact — yet many cases can be quoted that nothing short of an innate disposition to evil, an averseness to honest labor and industry, and a determination and contentment to live and prey on others, actnate some of the criminal class." Those imbued with this latter phase, remarks Superintendent Weldon, are the most difficult to contend with. Education even does not seem to be a remedy, nor do prison life and habits prove a sufficient deterrent. In fact, the only hope that the worthy officer has of their reformation is in adopting the professional panacea of what he somewhat euphemistically calls "long sentences to substantial hard labor and industry." This at best, however, is but an unsatisfactory remedy, and " How to get rid of our criminals " will no doubt continue for a long time a hard nut for legislators to crack.