CRIME IN N.Z.

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1920, Page 3

CRIME IN N.Z.

‘COM-MENTS orj on*I131«‘. J'USTIC'I’-3 :V, ' (Own'Correspondent.) ~ . AUCKLAND, November 8. Some. interesting obs-ervations upon crime in New Zealand were made by the‘ Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) in ‘the ‘ Supreme Court tllls morning. His‘ Honour,~ addressing the grand jury, said that although there was a large number of prisout‘/I's, crime W 35 not -mCl.e~aSing' in New Zealaiid ; on the contrary,- it was . ‘decreasing. lf they considered the number of prisoners r913/ave to the population itavould be seen-it,was’only half, according to the proportion of the old da,VS-‘" Last year, according to the" pOpllla’ololl, 11"" number of prisoners‘ was not much more than two-thirds of what it was thirty years ago. There had been a gradual diminution of crime right through New Zealand, and, added the ohjef.,'[l{stice, a pleasing feature was that there was less crime amongst those who were New Zoaland born and educated than among those from other places, there being avdifference of 17 per cent. in favour of New Zealaniders. taking only those Over 15 years of. age into consideration. That no doubt was caused by the fact that our education and upbringing was better than it was in many other oouniries. If they compared it with some of the Australian colonies, whose system of education was not the same as ours, they would see that New Zealand stood out well so far as crime was concerned. If progress was to be made in our social life everyone must take an interest in the changed attitude towards crime. That change was especially noticeable in England. In many places there special doctors had been set apart to examine criminals and prisoners. A Birmingham doctor had pointed out lately that he found amongst prisoners convicted in his town" that a large maiority Of them had some mental deficiency. Anyone who had to do with prisoners in New Zealand would say the sani'e thing. In a great number of our prisoners there were mental defectives, dezgenerates, and sexual de--s‘renel'ates. Some perhaps were sufferin<_z_ really from what mieht have been the sins of their fathers or grandfathers. Thev had come into the world with that burden. With this realisation the old idea of “an eye for an eve. a tooth for a tooth,” had been abolished.

His Honour pointed out that there were many objects in sentencing pr!soners, one of the chief being; the chance of reforming and making good citizens out of the offenders. Efforts in that direction harl been very successful. For example. 92 per cent. of those put on probation were doing well, 70 per cent. of those sepal'ated for reformative treatment had been siiceessfnl, and there. had also been :1. eonsirlerable reform amongst halfitnals. Girimzg his own experience, the Chief Justice said that he had been connected with Courts for nearlv fifty roars. zmd had been on the Prisons Boarrl. since its inception. He had fonwl that the ma_iol'itv of prisoners coming before him had some mental «flefeet. Manv had a chance of being cured. and the attempt was made. That was whv the open air treatment had been ndonted :i.nd the Borstal svstem institiited. The prisoners dirl va.lnr~..bl° worlr—-i:hrm.<ands oi nonnlls worth—instead‘ of filling: in their time turning an iron evlimler as he Had seen men emnloved. T.ool\'ing back over sixtv W-'~rs. one conlrl see that our .°.eoial_ lite had improverl. All that we needed to still further improve it was to get rirl. of some of the temptatinns in our cities. lf we had less vlrinlz and less waste. ._an'cle a more inrlnstrions spirit amongst us. we would see an enormous improvement in the social life. '