YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18195, 14 September 1922, Page 6

YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS.

From a source which must be accepted as authoritative, the report of the Prisons Department, comes a statement of an increase in the number of youthful offenders against the law. The cases referred to are the residuum after elimination of those dismissed with a reproof, admitted to probation, or given some other type of corrective treatment. The report deals only with tho number received by tho Prisons Department, and therefore presumably convicted of offeuces carrying a definite taint of criminality. That there should be a growing number of young New Zealanders, whether by birth or adoption, turning to the crooked path of a criminal career is utterly deplorable. Life in a favoured land such as this should offer prospects bright enough to stir the dullest imagination,. and to convince its possessor of the folly of compromising his future by breaking the law. This happy result is not achieved, and the circumstances which lead the head of tho Prisons Department to sound a pessimistic note should be taken very seriously by all citizens. Lack of parental responsibility is the cause suggested by the report. If that be a correct diagnosis it unfortunately discloses a situation which will not cure itself. Ono organisation is selected for commendation. The report again emphasises the need for and the good work to be done not only by that organisation, but by all similar to it which seek to impress upon the growing generation the virtues and the benefits of good citizenship. It is easy to argue that such agencies should not be necessary. It is, unfortunately, also easy to prove by evidence such as the prisons report that they are. They seek to supply something which is wanting in the training of the young, and until it can bo shown they are no longer needed they must be supported. .