CRRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10020, 6 January 1896, Page 6

CRRESPONDENCE.

THE REEAL OF THE CONTAGIOUS ! DISEASES ACT. ! TO THE EDITOR. Sir,— I Tp agitation in New Zealand for the repeal ofthe Contagious Diseases Act has excited well interest in Great Britain, and keen regit was felt when the Repeal Bill failed to (ass last session. Mo political party in this coutry would tor a moment uphold the systfl of a C.D. Act to-day. I venture to say tit a deliberate attempt to pass one would Atroy any Government. But there is no de,re to try. With tlio exception of a handfubf military men, all the authorities agree tat the system was a failure; and even iijlndia where the superstition died hard, i has been killed by the report of the Any Sanitary Commission, which totally condemns it. We therefore viow with ajazemeut the difficulty with which frienJsbf repeal are met in New Zealand. There to evidently two classes of opponents; those Too favour the Act out and out, and believe n the State regulation of vice; and those two desire moral reform, and believe that byjome such law they can obtain it. To the lattf class I ask your permission to say a few wyds. Most prominent among them are the [embers of the Auckland Women's Liberal [League. I have warm sympathy with wmen's liberal organisations, and during the light years I was a member of the House c! Commons I supported every movement t-obive women political power. I gladly t'hedesirofor equal laws for men and women rhichthe Auckland League show; but they are, equalising in the wrong direction. Their rdolubion on the C.D. Act has mule them famous, but it has not convinced us of their wisdom. If I read the intention of their Resolution aright, it is that they wish ouly to have a C.D. Act provided i: shall be applied to men as well as to women, On those tvms alone would they enforce it. In ita presjiK one-sided iniquity they would condemn it They are impressed with the evil aritin; from disease, and I have nc desiro to minimise that. evil. But the ex perience o: England and India lins shown that the evil is not reduced by such an Act. I presume the Auckland Woman's Liberal League will not dispute tlio authority of our Army medal authorities who have abandoned the system as a failure. On the contrary, tie League seem to accept that verdict, for they place their hopes on the extension of the Act to men. Unless this can be carried, they say, the Act must be abandoned. Have they ever considered how to achieve this extraordinary result, which no other country lias attempted? Who are the men who are to ha examined and registered? It is difficult enough to deSne legally what is the meaning of the word "prostitute," and it has bten found impossible to bring nil prostitutes into the net cast by the C.D. Act. But how are the men to lie selected ? Thero is no class of men which in any degree corresponds to the unhappy class or profession of prostitutes yet the total number of immoral men is, of course, vastly greater than the number of immoral women. How is the policeman to pick them out? And if picked out, are thev to come up for periodical examination? Strongly as I believe in equal laws for men and women, I say that the Auckland Women's League has asked for an equality which is not merely impossible in practice, but which 110 draftsman could even embody in the clauses of a Bill. Such being the case, 1 claim that this League should aid the cause of repeal, and, still taking their stand on the principle of equality, should declare that a law which cannot be applied to men shall uot be applied to women. Another suggestion in a more detailed form has been put forward, namely, a Bill for the Suppression of Immorality by providing reformatories and rescue homes which are really prisons. This again is intended to apply to men and women alike; and in so far as it would punish solicitation by men as well as by women it would do good. But in the main it is little more than another C.D. Bill. It places the liberty of everyone in the hands of the police, with the certain result that it will operate more hardly against women than against men; it allows persons to bo arrested on the merest suspicion by a policeman, it gives the widest powers of conviction to the .Magistrate, and ic turns the rescuo home] into/ lock hospitals, and implies power of compulsory examination which it 110 L Rre ' n so many words to enact. _ Those of us who have examined the operation of the C.D. Act know exactly hov any Act of this kind would bo worked, and we warn the public against trying the expert menu

I venture to hope that New Zealand will tike its stand oil the total abolition of th : s ev 1 system of regulation and of dcsnotii police powers. Only those who have local knowledge can judge fully as t« what Ippislation for the preservation of public edit may most wisely be passed; but all sucii legislation, even when introduced with tin best motives, requires very careful sorutii'v. Meantime may I urge all sections to join is obtaining the repeal of the C.D. Act, anil thus remove a stain from the statute hook of the colony.— am, etc., t j Walter S. Bright MoL&bhv. Loudon, November 20, 1893. [We have a number of other letters on the a »i j* e Bubject ' including one from Mr. W P. Aldis, and ono (in reply to Rev. W. Beattv) from Rev. W. J. Williams. Wo do nee think it necessary, howover, to .insert them letters. The subject is one to whicii we do not care to devote a large portion of oir space at any time; and, as the City Council committee, is looking into the whole matter, we think it well to await the report of the committee. We, however, give the lcttw of Mr. alter S. Bright McLaren for sever?.! reasons. Mr. McLaren is a man of ability, and tor some time took a prominent part in English politics. But he and. everybody else who has written against us on the subject, lias mistaken the position taken up by ourselves and the Women's Liberal League, ft is notorious that prostitution, and especially juvenile, prostitution, has lately greatly in* creased in Auckland, Several good men ami good women have been anxious to do sonicthin? .to mitigate this dreadful state oi afiairs, and have found all action impossible in the present state of the law. But immediately they breathe the idea of dealing with this vast subject of morality and of public health, they are rushed at by a host of people who seem to have become cranks over this subject. The. very setting of an inquiry on foot is stigmatised as if it were a crime, Ihose people who have denounced all iuquiry are, it is true, mora noisy than influential. •J th ? c clergy of Auckland only a few have identified themselves with the opposition to inquiry, namely, the Revs., McNiooll, 'Williams, Peters, and Collins. None of these gentlemen have .taken any part in rescue work they have done nothing to mitigate the evils that exist ; they are simply armed with pocketful of printed'matter from a society in England. To lis it seems astound. "8 that a number, of men professing to be Christians and philanthropists should ~be frantic in maißting that there' should be no inquiry to see if anything can be done ti lessen the most potent sonl and bod? destroying evil of the age.-ED.]. v