THE H.B. TRIBUNE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1911. THE “CAT” FOR RUFFIANS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 50, 9 February 1911, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1911. THE “CAT” FOR RUFFIANS.

In view of the increase in the number of offences against children of tender ages being so marked as to call forth an expression of deep regret from Judge Chapman at the opening of the criminal sessions at Wellington last week, the question naturally arises whether the punishment served out is sufficiently severe to prevent the committal of the crime. It will be remembered that only last week the Western Australian Legislature passed an amending Act to the Crimes Bill, making it compulsory on Judges to inflict the penalty of the “cat” on prisoners convicted of such offences, and the opinion is freely stated in New Zealand that some such enactment should be established here to protect the little children. There is a great outcry against leniency being shown to South African natives who have trangressed the white man’s law; and the outcry is fully justified, but after all is said and done the crime which is growing in New Zealand is of equal, if not of greater enormity, if such is possible, and, being committed by members of a civilised race, the offenders must surely merit a similar punishment to that demanded for the blacks. The subject, all will admit, is an indelicate one to deal with in print, but the law reports published in the daily papers disclose so shocking a condition of affairs that we feel justified in appealing to the public to demand that a deterrent influence be introduced immediately into the law courts that will be sure, speedy and severe. There should be no compassion shown to offenders of the class we refer to. Sympathy to the criminal is alleged to be responsible for much of the crime which is committed to-day. This was spoken by the Clerk, of the Home Office,, who in the introduction of a Blue Book, published in London last week, attributed the steady in-, crease of criminality in. 'England and Wales to the growth of compassion, the mitigation of prison discipline and the relaxation of public sentiment regarding crime. In another place in this issue we publish . the opinions of British criminologists on the deterrent influence which sentences of corporal punishment exercise on criminals of the ruffianly type and. we leave it to the authorities here fee say whether corporal punishment in the form of the “cat” should not be part of the punishment administered to the ruffians in New Zealand who are polluting the country with their vile practices.