THE SOCIAL EVIL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1332, 9 September 1897, Page 19

THE SOCIAL EVIL.

to the editor. Sir, —Your able and honest article on “ The Social Evil ” deserves all praise, and to those who have considered the question unselfishly there can be no doubt of the truth, of what you say. As to the C.D. Act, no examination that can be made under the Act can prove whether a woman can communicate disease or not j and once a woman has been infected with either of the “ contagious diseases ” she is always liable to spread infection ; so that to keep the certified ones pure and prevent disease it would be necessary for those in authority to run a sort of public harem on the most carefully-regulated hygienic principles ! There is no absolute remedy for the so-called social evil, aud never will be, but much can be done to mitigate the terrible results, especially to women. And I would point out here that it is not only those engaged in the “ trade ” that * suffer the majority of the special diseases of women are probably due to their husbands having been infected before marriage. In the first place, the venereal diseases should be placed on a footing similar to cholera and small pox lb should be made a penal offence for any person, male or female, to communicate any venereal disease to another person, or to act in such a way as to run any risk of communicating such disease. A man who would knowingly do such a thing is not fit to be called a man, and should be so treated that he would not be able to do the same again. Doctors and chemists should be compelled to report these cases to the registrar, and the registrar should keep a list for reference in cases of prosecution for communicating disease. This list could not be by any means complete at first, but heavy penalties for not reporting cases, and an Act making people also report themselves under penalty for failing, and a changing public opinion would make it tend to perfection as time went on. The list would be no hardship to anyone, and might be made a useful guide to those about to marry! Were these things carried out with a firm hand and impartially, public opinion would soon change and assume a healthier tone.

Women would learn to respect a man who avoided prostitutes. They would find it out that it was not necessary for a young man to go to them unless he was a beast, they would learn that men are what they make them and expect them to be. The moneyed libertine, who knows not what true love is, would no longer be received with open arms by society, while his poor sister who has only followed the same instinct as he has is looked upon as an out- j cast. The shameless counterjumper who | imagines every girl has as little control as | he has would, instead of being the pet of . his little society because he could sing well or crack a good joke, find himself snubbed and brought into a proper frame of mind, while his unfortunate sister, looked down upon by everyone I before, would be taught to respect herself and look the world in the face in spite of tho fact that her affections were I set upon the earth. Society, which con- i demns a girl for one fall from what it has specialised as being tho essence or all virtues, and which panders to tho shameless wretch who has the heart to bring a girl to such condemnation and then leave her, is itself composed in great degree of persons who are, or have been, themselves no better, perhaps worse. And what right then has it to judge. There are women here, condemned for their love by society to a life of unhappiness, who will, rise up in judgment against society and condemn it —in the first place because, not being without sin, it threw stones, and in the second place because it saw evil in its midst and took no steps to remove it far away. Is there no true, Losing woman in Wellington who can go on giving crumbs to the sparrows, even if they sometimes peek her fingers in return ?

Is there tfo hgatt broad enough to realise th'6' fact that what is natural should not be allowed to be degrading ? Is there' iiorfe to loot below the. surface and see that the social evil ie not due to the natural instinct at all,- and that' the girl who has the instinct strongly developed is at heart ike truestgirl P The root of, the evil is the disease’ that attends. Abolish that, and the social evil is gone. The old Maoris had no- “ social evil,” because they bad no sexual diseases'r they had the same, and oven stronger, instincts, than we have, and before marriage they indulged them. They were as shrewd and intelligent eta we are, and much more kind-hearted and generous than e most of us, and much less celfish ; and had there been any “social evil" it would have been confronted and feattl&if with at once. When it did come It wrfeJ when a ship’s crew had friendly com'ifiunie&tion with the shore and infected the natives a*d it was a good old custom to attack and massacre that crew and proclaim those infected on shore. Let that be our plan here. Let us proclaim the diseased;persons amongst us and remove the cause of the spreading of infection and we shall be a clean people, and the social evil will sink into insignificance. am, &c.,- Nanakia.