The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1901. YOUNG PERSONS' PROTECTION BILL.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXV, Issue 168, 23 July 1901, Page 2

Established 1866. The Marlborough Express. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Tuesday, July 23, 1901. YOUNG PERSONS' PROTECTION BILL.

This measure, as the Hon. Mr Walker admitted when introducing it in the Council on Thursday, is an old friend. In our opinion it is an " old friend " whom it would be well were Parliament to " cut" straight away, for we cannot see how in any way it can be productive of good, whilst we are more than satisfied that some of its provisions may lead to a great deal of evil. The object of the Bill is laudable enough, being the establishment of a system of prevention under which children in the larger centres of population will be, so it is contended, much less likely to drift into a permanently criminal or immoral life. In the larger New Zealand cities it is notorious that an absurdly large amount of liberty is given by certain parents to their children who are foolishly allowed by those whose first and sacced duty is to watch over their moral welfare, to roam about the streets to a late hour, thus running serious risk of incurring moral contamination. Wo believe, however, that the evil in question has been grossly exaggerated, and that in many cases it is assumed that these "young persons" are drifting into immorality, when, as a matter of fact, they are tempted, through the crowded and cramped state of their homes and by a mild climate, which renders the more purely indoor life led by Old Country children, to play about the streets. Sometimes, it is true, they become mischievous and develop larrikin tendencies, but on the whole we refuse to believe that New Zealand children are any more inclined to vicious courses than arc those of other countries. We therefore contend that there is no real and urgent need for the passing of legislation of a grandmotherly character; legislation thevery report of which will give our children a bad name in other countries, and, worst of all, legislation which, in our humble opinion, will tend to increase rather than to repress the very evils complained of. The Bill will create a small army of inspectors, who are to be invested with absurdly farreaching rights. These inspectors can practically arrest any child who may be found in the streets at a certain hour, and should, in the opinion of these new judges of morality, they find the parents nob sufficiently alive to the necessity af ihiM■s^ii "■' '~f?<yt'*~ r7i'-t&*~' nnO "°^~ —"■""—*"*■"] forthwith to a " shelter," and be then brought before a magistrate, who lias the power of committing them to an industrial school. We will admit/ anticipating a criticism which is suye to bo mado by some of our readers, thajb cases have occurred in some of our large centres, where quite young gir|s have been proved to have been leading an immoral life, and the published details have, we confess, been extremely shocking. But these cases will and do occur in all large centres of: population!, young girls born and bred, in the slcfms taking quite naturaliy to the hideous life of the prostitute. But the fact that these isolated cases do occur does not, in our opinion, justify the passing of legislation which would afford possibilities of tyranny utterly repugnant to tho British mind. There are surely a sufficient number of moral and charitable agencies afc work in our large towns for the evil of juvenile vice to be dealt with discreetly and completely, without the aid of an army of. inspectors who might establish in this Colony the ignoble tyranny of. the Parisian agents de-s moeurs. We should not be surprised, wore this Bill to pass (and we sincerely trust it will not), that tho cry would soon arise for an "inspection of the inspectors." As the Hou. George McLean very rightly remarked when the Bill was before tho Legislative Council on Thursday last, "the effect of the cjauso empoweringthe inspectors and females of discretion to take children home or to shelters would have the effect of at once branding such, children as semi-criminals." No one denies there is a certain amount of open prostitution in our big cities, and that consequently there is a risk of some young girls becoming contaminated by association with them on the streets. But jt is the duty of the police to deal with tho fallen women, and the police have already ample power to deal with children' who may be found in brothels. Ifc is quite another matter, however, to bring a now army of police into existence, and to give them the ridiculously extended powers as provided for under this Bill. The measure has passed its second reading in the Council, but it is safe to assume that some of its most objecable features will be amended in committee. When the Bill comes before tho House of Representatives it is more than probable that ifc will be amended out of existence. Such, at least, is the fate which we should desire for it in the People's Chamber,