The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES." GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1948. CRIME AND THE NEED FOR DISCIPLINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22707, 4 August 1948, Page 6

The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES." GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 1948. CRIME AND THE NEED FOR DISCIPLINE

THROUGH a recommendation by the grand jury in Napier a section of New Zealand public opinion has once again pressed for the reintroduction of capital and corporal punishment. This line, taken “in view of the serious crimes being committed against society,” should be approved by all people who feci that the present “enlightened” age has not yet produced the ideal social structure in which the law of the land can be faithfully kept without the aid of strong deterrents to wrongdoing. The explanation that crime automatically increases after a war or any other departure from normally placid conditions docs not now altogether satisfy. Too large a proportion of the increase in crime has been taking place among a younger generation (not mere child delinquents), who can never have felt the impact of war and who enjoy conditions of living and employment which certainly offer no excuse for lawbreaking. Naturally the Napier grand jury would not associate capital punishment with offences committed by the young and immature, hut their inclusion of corporal punishment in t heir .recommendation opens up a relevant train of thought. A class criminally inclined will always be with us—the smaller the better. But one of the disturbing aspects of the position today is the incidence of crime among a section of the younger people with no criminal background whatever. This points to an irresponsibility, or lack of moral fibre, which is sorely in need of a corrective

Tn some parts of the Dominion, for instance, senseless vandalism is rife, and authorities concerned for the preservation of public assets find it hard to believe that this sort of thing will ever be stopped without the repressive aid of corporal punishment—even if it is only placed on the Statute Dock and used as a threat to hold over the heads of the irresponsible ones- Nobody, of course, would want to retain the severity customary in the Victorian age, and the popular hope would he that the law would never have to operate to the limit of its power. That, however, does not alter the fact that the Napier grand jury and others who submitted similar recommendations acted in the interests of the community as a whole when they advocated the reintroduction of corporal punishment. Thought should also he given to conditions in the home and at school, where character is fundamentally moulded. Between parents and children and between masters and pupils there has been a notable and valuable access of friendliness in the past two .generations. These improved relations should never be destroyed. But there is a real danger of discipline in the home being so relaxed or abandoned as to undermine gravely the task of the teacher. Teachers nowadays have to cope with classes so large and unwieldy as to forbid the personal supervision which they would naturally like to bestow in accordance with the tenets oi: their profession. The home is the first foundation for the larger community life. Too often that community life is marred by carelessness, selfishness or an enervating spirit of complacency which can Pc almost as bad as positive vices. Tn the home heed should be paid to discipline in its widest sense. If that is done, the problems of later life should be great ly eased.