A SOCIAL LEPER. Tommy Taylor with the Gloves Off.

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 256, 27 May 1905, Page 6

A SOCIAL LEPER. Tommy Taylor with the Gloves Off.

MB. Tommy Taylor, M.H.R., stirred the heart of the country last week with that clarion speech of his at the Social Beform Conference, in Christchurch. The story he told of that factory foreman who had deliberately planned the ruin of a young work-girl of fourteen years, and had left her to die in her trouble, struck the resounding chord of indignation. If the facts are as recited, and no one has arisen to call them m question, a foul wrong has been done, and the pity of it is that the scoundrel escapes the retribution winch should swiftly follow the crime. * * * There are few public men who would have taken up the case so strongly as the member for Christchurch has done. He made it a personal matter, and, under threat of puoacly impeaching this factory foreman, he obtained his dismissal from the responsible position he '& alleged to have so disgracefully abused. "He has got to leave this town, ' said Mr. Taylor; "if he will not go of his own accord, I will impeach him by name the next time I address my constituents." • * Now, there are two points that strike us in connection with this case. The first is that if Mr. Taylor is absolutely sure of his facts^and he speaks of affidavits having been made m support of them — he should have laid down no conditions whatever Driving the alleged forcible seducer of childish innocence out of a particular employment, or causing him to clear out of Christchurch, is only paltering with the evil. The man sneaks out in security, and may start the same rascally game with impunity in some other community His offence being so rank and dastardly, Mr Taylor ought to have publicly branded him jbo ensure the protection of innocent maidenhood elsewhere. He may have purged Christchurch of a moral canker, but cvi bono if it starts afresh to fester in Dunedm or Wellington ? ♦ » » The other point is the necessity for making the law more stringent. As Mr. Taylor has pointed out, it was a mistake on the part of the Legislature to limit to one month the time for laying information in cases of offences of this order. The intention was all right. It was to make more difficult that class of imposture which seeks to impudently blackmail reputable men by preferring baseless charges of sexual offences. But the case that MiTaylor has brought forward shows that a greater wrong is done in letting villainy escape its just deserts If the month's limit had not been imposed this foreman, who abused his trust and violated every sentiment of honour and every manly instinct to gratify his animal passion, might have been brought to book and punished as he deserved. • • * Society demands the protection of the weak. The abolition of the month limit may make it a. bit easier to levy blackmail. Men, however, are abler than young girls to ta.ke care of themselves. There should be no easy loophole for escape to the

ruffian who delights in the meanest and the basest conduct, and is restrained by no sentiment of pity foi the weak and inexperienced. When such cases come to the surface, let us hope there will always be a Taylor to throw on the fierce glare of the electric light. In any case, the law should be effective to do its part