JUVENILE DEPRAVITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10126, 8 May 1896, Page 3

JUVENILE DEPRAVITY.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— started this subject with the design of making people think, not with the design of solving the difficulty. The whole community must belie itself before that is done. I only wish to point oat some causes people can remedy themselves. If every pair of parents did their duty thoroughly, making their homes.au attractive and improving environment to their children instead of a repulsive one from which they are glad to escape into the street, a great deal more would be achieved. Thank you for putting my questions about public opinion iu such prominence, they are as you say the most important questions for the community. Jar. Wapstraw, in & late issue of the okkald, gives evidence of having thought over the subject, and for that reason his letter is worthy of attention. Moreover, he contributes a little to the elucidation of reasons of depravity by menliouLg crowded neighbourhoods. He asks me several questions. They seen near enough to the main subject to call for answers, Free-will comes under the head of heredity, but it is biassed by other inheritances as well; environment influences it constantly. Temptation is a spiritual factor of environment. Both heredity and environment are very comprehensive terras, and are quite capable of beiug used in their fullest sense by Christian teachers. Regeneration is a correction of natural heredity and the infusion of a new heredity—(comparethe term "second Adam") —brings the human heredity into God's service. But neither the daily press nor our subject are rightly loaded with theological discussions. Moral reform is not "to be obtained only through the operation of natural law." People who will insert " only " where it is not wanted are the bane of all discussions. My conception of heredity and environment is not a materialistic or rationalistic one, and human heredity is not annihilated by regeneration. lam quite aware of the ignorance on the subject. Supernatural power is an environment, and cleanses heredity. My critic did not read my letters carefully. I want parents to take this to heart, because it is so necessary that they should make their heritage as free from need of correction as possible, and their children's environment as pure and Divine as possible. Our land system I refuse to discuss here; it savours of being a red herring across the track we are following up. But practical knowledge of people makes me deny that suburban landlords are the only power that huddles people into towns. Congestion of population demoralises undoubtedly. But uo one specific can rectify an evil which has so various causes. Socialiitio specifics are like golden chariot pills. Here Again the question of public opinion comes in. Are the peoplo ripe for a reformation in morals, sooial or individual ? Do not many people care more for respectability than true molality ? The most carefully cultured lady, with the choicest environment money can buy, is often morally worse than many a slum girl, because the latter may have a Divine environment the other may lack.— am, etc., W. Edward Lush.