Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1886. JUVENILE CRIME.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7612, 8 December 1886, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1886. JUVENILE CRIME.

The remarks made by Chief Justice Sir James Prcndergastin his charge to the grand jury yesterday are worthy of careful perusal and consideration by thoughtful men. More especially do we refer to that portion of the charge dealing with juvenile oiTcnders. His Honor spoke strongly, but not ono word required further justification than tho calendar before him, which showed that two youths little more than fifteen years of age wero charged with house-breaking, and one of similar years with forgery. All these boy? are of respectable parentage, and the theory of hereditary taint may bo dismissed as failing to afl'ord any explanation of their indulgence in crime. Nor, so far as the circumstances are known, have these lads been subjected to any specially unfavorable associations. Last, but not least, it cannot be pretended that they wore driven lo crime to secure food or shelter. Indeed, none of the conditions generally recognised in old countries as favorable to tho development of vicious instincts have been present, in these instances, if the available evidence is to be credited, and some other and loss direct predisposing cause must bo sought for. It is evident that Sir Janios Prendergast was at a loss to account for the development of criminal proclivities in those lads by any ordin-arily-received theories, and he cast around for some explanation specially applicable to these particular cases. The cynolus-km

at which ho arrives is a very sad one. 11l effect it is that we have here a strange example of extremes meeting, and that while ill liftglaml want drives youths to crime, hero the e-xCiting cause is exactly the reverse — an excess of lnxui-y. He did riot, apparently put this foi'waid. aft a sufficient or ade.qiiaU explanation, but as the only one available., lie reasoned, from e/l'eot lo cause', and. pointing out 'lll&fc hi tiawke's Bay lioyij generally employed at higher wages than elsewhere in the colony, and that, of late at least, Ilawko's Bay has had an unenviable experience in juvenile depravity, he coupled llio two facts together, and suggested thai indirectly the former niiglil produce Iho klter-. It is not a pleasant reflection that the very Opportunities of rising in life wincii high wages give should in /some caste |}& so perverted as to lie niado llie predisposing cause 6'f vice, 'i'he key-note of his Honor's ai^umen't,.is contained in \tli^ sentence, '.' Certainly one Ss T e d \o believe, from qbseivatioh,. that boys of this age, when they easily earn high wages, are apt to get into very bad habits." Is not this a melancholy reflection upon the curly training of these boys ? One father, evidently grief'Stl'lcken at the disgrace brought upon him by his son, was in Court, and in i'opiy to an observation from the Chief Justice, SOh'owfilliy admitted lilat .lie feared he halt been, y liio, c.asy," .with tl'ie boy. jt. is a,,ce\'tain fact that in Now l2eaJaiid there is a growing tondency ■ 1,9, this evil- of -relaxed parental control. The connection may not at first bo apparent, but we are inclined to ascribe this to the high rales of wages generally ruling. In the first place higher wages mean more indulgence, and the every-day fare of many boys in New Zealand v.'onld be looked upon as a luxurious feast by their Compeers in the Old Country. With the absence of the necessity for restraint in appetite disappears one valuable educating medium. It may be pleasant to parents to indulge their children, but if it struck them that in so doing they were lobbiug their children of valuable lessons in self-restraint would they not often refuse asked-for indulgences? Youth is plastic, and easily, receives impressions for good Mr evil, arid in youth alone the lejsbn of self control — that niost valuable of all lessons— can be inculcated. Solomon laid it down that to spare the rod meant the ruin of the child, and we fear that in New Zealand too little attention is paid to this golden rule, enunciated as the result of observation by the shrewdest obsqrvcr of ancient days. In veriest childhood the lesson must be commenced, for later it may never be taught. Not only does every passing year confirm habit and render the young nature less impressionable, but the opportunities of self support caused by the demand for the labor of- well - grown boys or girls may render nugatory the attempt to teach late that which should have been taught earlier. In the special case we have before referred to, the father, who had to admit that he was " too tasy " with the boy in the dock, also stated that the lad ran away fronl home when thirteen years of age, and had since lived away, It was not so stated, but it is a fair inference that the boy i'au away in consequence of an attempt to exert on thirteen years the parental influence and control which should have been stamped on the toddling child in petticoats.

His Honor did not address himself directly to the question of parental responsibility. His special province was not so much to inquire into the causes of juvenile crime as into the best methods of dealing with it. While ho did not say so explicitly, he sufficiently indicated that he has little faith in those institutions known as reformatories or industrial schools, and most observers will concur in his apparent conclusion. Such institutions may . havo a useful and reformatory influence on lads who are not vicious so much from choice as from necessity, or from evil associations. But we doubt their utility in reforming youths who have placed themselves within the reach of the law through the unrestrained exercise of a vicious spirit. And in thelarge number of cases where boys havecommitted offences without duly considering the criminality of their actions, injury rather than good is likely to accrue from the surroundings and associations of a reformatory. Some philanthropists have endeavored lo reclaim the bad by association with the good. The experiments may have succeeded in individual cases, but, generally speaking, such association cuds in the bad leavening the good instead of the good overcoming the bad. And it is the common verdict of most who have studied tho working of reformatories that youths not naturally inclined to bo vicious, and who by judicious treatment might be made useful members of society, are made decidedly worse by association with those of more distinctly criminal instincts. Besides, after all, an industrial school o r reformatory is little more than a gaol, and the degrading associations of such a place may dog the inmates' footsteps through life, and thwart them at every attempt to rise.

The Chief Justice favors an adaptation of the <% boarding-out" system now often applied ■with marked benefit to pauper children to those who may when young violate the law. He pointed out yesterday that the First Offenders' Probation

Act did not meet such cases as those he was contemplating, and instanced an unauthorised experiment of his own at the last sittings of the Supreme Court here as indicating the direction which lie thought reform should take. We, need not revive a very painful case by enteriug into details — suffice it to say that he took upon himself to release a convicted prisoner upon a philanthropic gentleman in town undertaking the responsibility of affording an opportunity for reform. His Honor would like the law to delegate express power to the Judges to license out or apprentice young convicted prisoners, endowing their employers with the- authority necessary to enable effective control to be maintainedNo doubt periodical reports would be required by the Court, or at any rate the employers would bo at liberty to return their apprentices for good reason shown, and adequate punishment would be in-' llidtQd liy tlio Court. Of conrso his Honor did not enter into dolials— he merely gave a broad sketch of an idea. But his remarks ahoiv thufc lie wna not speaking merely upon the impulse of tho moment, but after careful consideration of a dillicult subject, and in the interests of .society we hope that ho will bring his scheme in a more complete form before those whose duty it would be to initiate the necessary legislation.