DOMINION'S MORALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18089, 13 May 1922, Page 10

DOMINION'S MORALS.

DIFFERENCE OF OPINION.

SOUTHERN MAGISTRATE'S VIEW.

AUCKLAND THE WORST TOWN.

[BT TULEGJUTir. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

CHRISTCHTJRCH. Friday. Remarks made by tho Chief Justice, "Sir Robert Stout, and Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., in regard to a wave of crime passing over New Zealand, formed tho subject of a number of interviews in Timaru. The local magistrate, Mr. E. D. Mosley, said : "I am not prepared to take so gloomy a view of the present conditions of the community and of the future which will dove'op from it, as Mr. Cutten has expressed.. I seo so many influences m.'iking for improvement, somo of them comparatively now influences, tho full effects of which aro not yet attained. There- is really a great amount of effort devoted to social improvement which unobtrusively is affect"mg public opinion. Auckland is notoriously rather worse in somo respects than other centres of tho Dominion. This would be accounted for partly by climatic conditions, partly by the fact that Auckland is a largo city and a largo seaport with a considerable tern- ! porary population arriving from Aus- ' tralia, the Islands, and America. The ovils referred to by Mr. Cutten are reflections of weak homo life. In the warm climate of Auckland the* home has not the same value to young people as in cooler districts. Except in wet weather the homo is chiefly a place to eat and sleep. Such a staio of things, of course, tends to weaken parental control." Mr. Mosloy agreed with Mr. Cutten that there is too much pleasure socking in this country. Police Inspector Willis, who has had 40 years' experience as a po'ice officer, said ho did not see any sign of desreneracv in the people of this Dominion. "Tie beliovcd the crime record of New Zealand compared, very favourably indeed with that of any other part of the Empire Looking back over his long experience, he could not seo that the moral condition of tho country wavS worse now than before the war or further back.