The Hastings Standard Published Daily TUESDAY, SEPT. 7, 1897. JUVENILE PROSTITUTION.

Hastings Standard, Issue 419, 7 September 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

TUESDAY, SEPT. 7, 1897. JUVENILE PROSTITUTION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do. '

The morality of the Empire City is considerably shocked and scandalised by the knowledge that juvenile prostitution exists within the purlieus of the city. The cases that have been before the Supreme Court during the past week have aroused the community, and it will be remarkable indeed if something is not done by Parliament to mitigate this social evil. Child prostitution is not a matter of yesterday, nor is it peculiar to Wellington ; all large cities harbor this evil, and in seaport and garrison towns it is very prevalent ; but this fact is no excuse for exhibiting any indifference in the matter, nor accepting it as a necessary evil. It is an unsavory subject to deal with ; but it js a public matter, and we are glad to notice that in Wellington the ladies of the Women's Christian Temperance Union do not flinch from their obvious duty under the circumstances. The chief cause of juvenile depravity is undoubtedly due to laxity of parental control in many cases, and more so to the eriminalty of the parents themselves. In the cases that have come before the Wellington courts it was shown that the parents exercised no control whatever. Little girls were allowed to stay away from home at nights, and for successive nights, without even exciting the curiosity of the parents. Permitted to roam the streets at all hours of the day and night, to go where they would and sleep where they may, can there be any wonder if with such license vicious children become demoralised and choose the paths of. crime ? In the Wellington horrors want of parent control appears to be at the foundation of the mischief, and this being so parents should be made to sutler for what must be regarded as criminal neglect. In some quarters there is an opinion entertained that the C.D. Act would tend to suppress this phase of the social evil. We doubt it. The C.D. Act would no doubt prevent the spread of venereal diseases, but girls under 1G cannot be registered as prostitutes, the age of consent being fixed at 16, and consequently thisre would be no good in the Act so far as juvenile prostitution is concerned. The ladies of Wellington have, as we have said, not flinched from discharging their obvious duties in this matter, and in a letter published in the Evening Post of Saturday last and signed by the executive officers of the Women's Christian Temperance Union the subject is ably discussed and at considerable length. The following excerpts from the letter in question will be instructive : —" At a drawing-room meeting which was held last week to discuss this subject and

attended by the leading ladies of the W.C.T.U. and representative women in charitable work it was agreed that the Government should be memorialised to bring in a Bill to deal with this question of juvenile depravity. It was decided to request the Government to appoint women constables, who should wear a distinctive dress as a protection, and who should have the power to arrest young gir3s who might be found on the wharves or streets at night, and were suspected of leading immoral iives. It was also agreed that the parents of the girls should be punished. . . The parents should be made to feel that it is upon their shoulders that the responsibility lies, and that it is not the business of the State to do what they are in every way capable of doing without its assistance. .... If there was a system by which female constables (the character of the women would have to be most carefully considered or the evil would be intensified) had power to arrest girls, and a reformatory in which such cases could be held under control for a number of years, say till the girls were twenty years of age and had learned to value their good characters, we might very soon eradicate this evil of juvenile prostitution."

The proposal of the ladies as contained above will need to be very carefully examined and fully discussed. There is danger in assigning arbitrary powers to arrest to constables whether male or female, however exemplary their characters may be. A wrongful arrest would-be a serious matter to the innocent victim, and we doubt whether there could be any compensation for such a mistake. It would almost be better to require that all young girls under the age of sixteen shall be accompanied by a male attendant when out at night after 10 p.m., making those not so attended liable to arrest. But any hard and fast law would be liable to inflict great injustice on innocent girls, and the best remedy therefore is for society to discountenance what is really the cause of all the mischief the want of parental control. It is a very'delicate subject to deal with and as unsavory as it is delicate ; but it must be faced, however disgusting it maybe. The disclosures in Wellington are terrible, and the brazen immodesty of the girl prostitutes is beyond belief. We make no apology for referring to the matter in our columns.