GRAVE NATIONAL PERIL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 59, 7 September 1909, Page 8

GRAVE NATIONAL PERIL.

CHIEF JUSTICE MADDEN ON AUSTRALIAN HOME-LIFE. The Victorian Chief Justice (Sir John Madden) gave an impressive address in the Australian Church at Melbourne on 29th ult. on "Our Gravest National Peril." Australia, the Chief Justice said, might retrieve her position from defeat by a foreign foe, but if the purity of her women broke down, and they failed to have the regard they should have for home life, and if the maternal instinct — that instinct for establishing horne — failed, then Australia would, indeed, be in a bad way. At the present time, we occupied so prominent a position as regards temperance and the diminution of crime, that it would be a fearful thing if the disposition amongst our women towards impurity, and the loss of self-respect could not be checked. He ventured upon the subject with some misgivings and hesitation. The subject had been brought under his notice by the ladies of the Carlton Refuge, owing to the alarming increase of child-mothers in that particular organisation. Every body must realise what vital importance to the nation must be the chastity and purity of its women. If a mother would not impress upon her children the importance of honour and chastity and purity, the results would be incalculably destructive compared with which war, famine, and pestilence would be merely fiction. If a country allowed its people to slide into sensuality, such a country could never rise to a position of importance and prominence. He quoted statistics showing ail alarming proportion of girl-mothers. What, he asked, was the cause? One reason, and perhaps the greatest, was that the control of parents had been lost in respect of their children. It was said that character should be formed in the home, and why should the Legislature interfere? That was well and good, but if parents would not exercise discretion to keep their children from destroying themselves, who would do it if not the Legislature ? In going on circuit he had been horrified at the extent and vastness of the knowledge of evil things displayed by child witnesses. He also attributed much of the prevailing evil to the manifest decay of religious sense. There was a very grave blank between the end of school life at tho age of fourteen and the time when a boy reached sufficient maturity to work for himself. Institutions were wanted where boys could be trained, and to which they could be compulsorily sent. A second line of defence was also wanted for those who had out-grown the cadets, and were idling around the streets. Something in the nature of what had been called a "Curfew Bell" should be established for the young people.

At the Benevolent Trustees' meeting to-day, Mr. Short (acting-chairman), addressing an applicant for rent and food, remarked : "I don't think that we, as trustees administering public money, should give assistance to people who even occasionally have a glass of liquor." The applicant, on being informed that no rent would be allowed, refused to take food, but afterwards changed his mind. Outpatients at Wellington Hospital contributed £15 5s in fees during the fortnight ended yesterday, which amount is £10 less than the contributions during the corresponding period of 1908, but a few shillings more than the amount received during the immediately previous fortnight of the present year. In-patients' receipts for the latest period totalled £130 12s 8d; for the fortnight immediately preceding £85 5s 6d. For the fortnightly period ended sth September, 1808, it jvaij £163 12s 2d.