OFFENCES AGAINST CHILDREN

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12999, 15 December 1902, Page 9

OFFENCES AGAINST CHILDREN

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —The limitation to Section 196 of the Criminal Code prescribing the. period within which prosecutions for offences forbidden, by that section may be brought, as now of no value. Any prosecution which could have succeeded if brought within the time limit of Section IS6 may now take place under Section 188 as an indecent assault. The punishment under Section 188 is a liability to seven years in place of five years under Section 196. In fact, the minor offence is more severely punishable than tho major one under section 196. Section 196 ia useless. There is no limitation to the time within which a man may be prosecuted for indecent conduct towards a femalo under sixteen years. A different view of tho law prevailed for some years after the code was passed, and some very shocking cases went unpunished in certain parts of the colony. ■ But some time, ago, in Auckland, Mr Justioc Connolly, whose ideas of punishment ought to satisfy the most exacting, interpreted the law as I now state it. lam also informed that the Chief Justice has decided in th® same way as •MiJustice Connolly. If the Children’s Protection Society/can bring under the notice of the police any case of indecency towards girls under sixteen, they need not, in the meantime, fVar the time, limitation to Section 195.—1 am, etc., LEX. '