Evening Post. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1914. MORALITY BY LEGISLATION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1914, Page 6

Evening Post. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1914. MORALITY BY LEGISLATION

More and more the State is expected to be the guide, philosopher, and friend of infants, boys and girls, young men and women, the middle-aged, and the veterans*. Reformers of all sorts do not look so much to the individual parent a& to the State for the inculcation of better morals and greater piety all round. It is peculiar how the parent seems to be relegated to the background as someone who has been tried and found unfit for the pioper training of children. This immense faith in the prowess a paternal Parliament was the chief characteristic of the deputation of women who called on the Hon. H. D. Bell yesterday. Generally, the speakers urged that, though " white slavery " did not exist in this country, the Government should be vigilant to check any attempts to establish such a traffic, and procuration should be made impossible. It was urged that women police should be appointed to assist in the protection of children and girls in parks and other public places, und the suggestion, a good one, found favour with the Minirter.

This experiment has been pronounced a success in Chicago, and, tliough the scope for the feminine patrols is not so great in New Zealand cities, there is enough ground for helpful activity by competent, cool-headed officers. Lady Stout remarked that the societies for which the deputation spoke desired the a-ge of consent to be raised to twenty- | one years. That plea is well meant, but it is against the principle of all sound human law. No Government, except by craven fear of defeat, could ever yield to such an order, and if Parliament was foolish enough to pass such a law it would not have the support of public opinion. It is unfortunate that such impracticable extremist ideas are advocated year after year by women who genuinely though mistakenly believe that ■ such attempts at compulsory celibacy up to the age of twenty-one years would do more good than harm. Such pathetic over-confidence in a statute is unfortunate because it excites opposition even to less unreasonable reforms for which the societies can offer better argument. It is well for these bodies to be told in friendly frankness that among a large proportion of the public they are stis* pected of a design to make everybody "goody-goody" by hook or by crook. This judgment is not just, but the feeling does exist, and it is for tlie societies themselves to decide whether that feeling i» to increase or decrease. One disadvantage of the legislative broom in the house of humanity is that the dust may be merely disturbed ; the air is unpleasant until the dusfc settles down again into the old, places. $A Government, alone, can provide ' only a mechanical superficial morality for society. The commission of crime can be reduced, or even stopped in , certain public places— but the landscape is too wide for the beats of the police. Also there will 4>e private places for everi If parents are stupidly lax with their children and allow them to run wild, no amount of statute law will make them moral citizens.