THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1898.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10901, 4 November 1898, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1898.

The question of injury arising from the publication of the accounts of suicides is raised by a correspondent in another column, and as it is one that has no doubt suggested itself to many minds, we think the subject is jme deserving of consideration. With much that has been advanced by our correspondent we cannot but agree, oven if we may not bo disposed to accept this conclusion. We are painfully aware of the great prevalence recently of suicides, and there can be no doubt that the statement of one suicide may be the suggestion to another. In fact, in the case of the suioide of Chemis, which recently occurred, such connection seems to have been shown, and the reference made some days before his death by the unfortunate man to the suicide of the member for Tuapckti, which had just occurred, shows at least that he was brooding over the subject; and it is quite conceivable that in the morbid state in which his mind was, his predisposition may have been stimulated by the example before him. We say it is possible thtit with reason trembling in the balance the final and fatal impulse may have been given by the previous suicide, and for this one cannot feel otherwise than regret. But while this may have been so, it seems very certain that unless this morbid condition and predisposition had existed, there was nothing in another mans suicide to make anyone enamoured of such a violent exit from existence. But in considering what may or may not be for tho general good, we may properly question whether it is a duty in fixing a general rule [ to be governed by what is confessedly an exceptional condition; M id whether the deterrent influence of such a shocking tragedy, or at least the natural revulsion which it causes m thousands of minds, may not more than compensate foi the evil which It may possibly have done to one or , two minds in a morbid and excel)- , tional condition.

. For we must tea., in mind that it is not in suicide alone that this tendency to reproduction is found. Murder, burglary, garotting, and many other crimes are found to have this tendency to induce a repetition of themselves, and we are all familiar with the fact of epidemics in crime. ffe can hardly think that the occurrence, say, of a case ° setting, Will have a tendency to produce ° general desire for stogC neneighbour in minds that are i n a healthy moral condition or that it £lf a ? y . tenden to reproduce itself except in those whose mind" are predibposed to crime. Op the contrary, we think that the report if a ~ case of violent garotting . will lather tend to produce in the public " nd 0 stronger love of law and o dor, and a wholesome revulsion of feeling against the garottcr and h>'s Sf tA eV6n though it ma have this tendency to stimulate a few criminal minds to active crime, would E e to mmW \ lbll:il b oettei to conceal everv m'mo >„•

... 5 incite other per ßooß }° ,of it migh v . j t not, oft the oriWPnl L held that the contrary* um 7 sioity thrown on • fullest HgW °f P ig QJie 0 f the the occurrence o pr6 valenco . be,. P"- l n h » pi. Vw » i of crime, and _ dto a . sense of i awakened ii »° ißno tonlya whole. l seife-defence, which itse ]f, ; sol ne thing for the e f iUoOT . It but. becomes. whole community Ihe mmda „orMd state, and with a • were in ft nl ° . cl<imina i viol moe, ; tendency to note ° unsa{o tW . it would Py°% g0 charged with the ■"tf r»Mme»re of evetv ™?' ; 'Si JS»»' tbt '™ rbi melancholy, .od they do »»« ?»* Hite ft lar-re section or mankind, the feelin" produced in the ordinary mm by M account of suicide is one of „L of horror and revulsion, and the Ue Shocking the details the B*o^ is to composite feeling. A ? er . nothing naturally _ attractive in the , picture of a suicide. Wo may be ! drawn, perhaps, by pity, and the dea ' of the stillness and the rest nußht be attractive to a melanchohac, if th were all that was presented. _ But everything that- suggests suffering, 01 mangling, or blood must in the nature ! of things be repellent to human nft- < ture, and so far as it is realised must tend to neutralise the softer emotions and the sense of rest and peace; and it is not improbable that if we desired to make suicide attractive and suggestive, even to the melancholy morbid mind, wo should divest the narrative of ail its shocking and repellent features, and bathing the scene in an atmosphere of serenity and softness, say merely" found dead.'" Admitting then, that even the mere mention of suicide may become an incitement to the weakened morbid reason to go and do likewise, we maintain that the realistio details in as far as they shock or revolt ordinary human nature must, in the nature of things, act rather as a dissuasive and deterrent; for we can hardly conceive of anyone that personally gazed on such a tragedy in all its hideous details who would not bo repelled from thoughts of suicide. We are free to admit that suoh painful details as sometimes characterise an account of suicide are not grateful reading to persons of refined and sensitive minds, and to merely cater tc the natures of those who revel in coarse sensationalism would be unworthy newspaper work. But do those who see objections in the publication of many things that might easily be passed over in silence ever balance the debit and the credit in the principle of publioity, or do they ever realise the evil that is lurking in a policy of concealment ? Taking, for example, this matter of suicide. Does anyone realise the benefits accruing from the absolute publicity that must be given to the nature and the causes of every sudden death? In this case or that 1 case, or half-iv-dozen cases it might not make the slightest difference. But let the policy of secrecy and concealment be known to be the settled policy in relation to inquiry into violent deaths, and who could count the danger that would be hanging over the community ? And so in relation to crimes in general and inquiries of every kind, publicity in respect of them is irksome oftentimes, and is resented sometimes by the general reader as matter about which nobody has any interest, and even as being objectionable in itself. And if the ends Qt publicity, as affecting the public weal, could bo compassed in another way, we should probably all have reason to be contented with a conspiracy of silence. But this publicity is the concentration on the interest of every individual of the protecting care of the whole community. The humblest outcast, no less than tho ermined judge that tries him, has his rights and safety guaranteed by it, and let wrong be done him, and not the jury of 12, but a whole world of watchers may give its verdict; and the fire of sympathy will pass from mind to mind till a wave of indignation or emotion is aroused that may swell and roll with force enough to shake a throne.