CRIMINALITY IN NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12425, 14 February 1901, Page 6

CRIMINALITY IN NEW ZEALAND.

COMPARISONS WITH THE OLD ~ ' COUNTRY. REMARKS BY MR JUSTICE EDWARDS- ■ • ' WEsn Mr Justice Edwards, at the Su- : premie Court yesterday, ■was sentencing a man ■'•paaned.Wdffiam KMey to six months’ imIprisoninent, with hard labour, for damaging [a Perris wheel,; he said that the, prisoner had a bad record, and it was doubly lamentable that he was a native of this colony. His [Honor, continuing, said he believed that ~ ’some’ ingenious gentleman, not wholly uni : [connected with the Press, had published articles dealing with the records of this colony, [as compared with those of the Old Country. His Honor;,however, did not know that the Writer -had shown that there was a difference in conditions of life-. In. this colony, ;a person who, was honestly inclined, and who displayed ah ordinary amount of indus- [ try,‘was not under the slightest temptation to become a criminal. In countries like ■England, and, especially in a .great metropolis like London, people were born into criminality, and were bred! in it, and they jfcad no resources but criminal ones. Persons who were bom in New Zealand came ’from parents who had had sufficient enterprise to come out to the colony, where they 1 jnade homes, and led respectable lives. Natives of New Zealand also had all the advantages of a healthy up-bringing, jLad a magnificent cEinate. ‘ If, under such circumstances, large numbers of them became [criminals, as ;he had said before, and as he teaid again, it was a lamentable fact, and Was an evil for which philanthropists, imighfl [well seek a cause, ’ ■ -, .'