‘LAW CANNOT TAKE OVER DUTIES OF HOME AND CHURCH’

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 October 1948, Page 2

‘LAW CANNOT TAKE OVER DUTIES OF HOME AND CHURCH’

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. The lightness of the criminal calendar was commented on by Mr Justice Finlay in his address to the grand jury when the fourth quarterly sessions opened in the Supreme Court at Auckland today. There were only 20 cases, he said, compared with the 40 odd wjiich, in recent years, had become the normal number in the district. Burglary was still prevalent but had not found its way into the calendar to any great extent.

“Burglars never understand that the day of retribution always comes,” His Honor remarked. There had been crimes of violence in the community, but there had been a welcome subsidence. The list mostly involved people of normal type. The weak man would always be with us, until we returned to the cardinal virtues of uprightness, honesty and good character generally. “We will not return there,” His Honor concluded, “unless we realise that the law, as an instrument of social control, is very limited and can never take over the burden that, in the past, has been carried by the home, the school and the church —all organisations which have been proved so effective in inculcating the principles of good character and responsibility. You will see how the breach of these principles lies at the root of the causes you have to consider.”