A BLOT ON CIVILIZATION.

NZ Truth, Issue 103, 8 June 1907, Page 1

A BLOT ON CIVILIZATION.

Mr Justice Co o per, who, last week presided over the- Criminal Court sittings i at" Wanganui, hit on: a very unpleasant; truth -in his charge to the Grand Jury. He said that he had occasion to make m every district iin -the colony on certain assaults against persons. It .was a blot upon civilisation. He thought he might fairly say that there- -was never a. sitting went by either m , the great centres or m the less populated districts, without one N or mote cases of alleged tampering with 'ypUng children being presented for investigation. Indeed, Mr Justice Cooper is not the only occupant of the Supreme . Court Bench of New Zealand who has been forced to the conclusion that there is something radically ' wrong with - civilisation' s progress m this colony.. Scarcely a Criminal Court sitting is held sny where .now / without .the calendar is abnormally - swollen -with offences of ■ a serious sexual nature,, and the fact of a swollen criminal calendar invariapiy evokes judicial utterances that should, but rarely do, form the text upon which ministers of Christianity should' hurl anathemas, m the shape of powerful sermons at a .sinful and ungodly country. The New Zealand criminal statistics are yearly, becomiing, matters, which the se'riousrininded need welj to ponder over. Crime;, we;. ■ know, will, ami never can. be,-eSecbially-suppr.es^--sed ; but when a decrease is- marked m one species of, crime and an increase m another m a more serious class is no Jess descuibetf as a Wot on our civilisation, the ;qiuestion naturally arises, where are our churches* an'i what are pur ministers of God doing ? It is not 'becoming m ''Truth," indeed: the paper is not called upon to justify all. that it has said and will continue to say on this: blot ; suffice to ■ say what a Supreme' Court. Judge seriously, describes as a smudge on the escutcheon o? civilisation, is, l>y that oily, sneaking, utray-trappins pietist, 'J. J. North, .jvfio gabbles glibly of euchre and! eucherihg jlike a card-sharper,, hastily r 'brushed to one side as^ "filthy sexual stuff," Indeed, if the truth has tovbe told, the-, ministers of God m Wellington, are too busily engaged m liritog their own pouches, and- seeking easy,: comfortable and luxurious livirigs./jtjo pay, or to attempt- -to pay any .. sejipus v heed to the immorality far, , iar:> too rampant m this colony. We doubt;' not, that were it- politic, that the notorious ; and the glib Gibb, and- the mealy-mouthed Moore would, from their, respective, pulpits. ; contrive rto prove that the Supreihe Court - Judges were,- to say .the .least ; m errors or yyrexe grossly ; exaggerating • when commenting on these caiffjil, sin's. and onslaughts on virtue and" chast|ity, : that, ■ form a vast percentage of the criminal cases that come up for trial at different periods- throughout the year. Moreover, the fact of such crimes being} committed- is a travesty on the Christianity of the country,; and there is no possible 'doubt'that of all the colonies of the southern world none Is so well served with priests, parsonsi, "meenisters," lay readers,, pul-pit-punoh'ers, or whatever else th6y are called than is New. Zealand..

Notwithstanding all this, parsons and bethels, and faithful adherents, New Zealand can honestly lay- claim to the fact .that it is one of the most sinful countries blessed with Christian civilisation and under the benign influence of British rule., Why does not the Church grapple with this hydra-headed monster ? Why, indeed. It is such parsons as North and Co-, who • complacently connive at the commission of such crimes. Th€y want the -public kept m total darkness of the fact that serious sexual crime is rampant, iii the colony. They want a suppressed that lets m light and tells", the truth about this ugly, grevious cancer, described by Mr Justice Cooper as a blot .' on. civilisation, and referred to 'by J. J. North as "filt ! \y sexual stuff." Let "Truth" but dare to give prominence to some carnal monster's crimes, and it is cursed as exercising a wicked and wanton influence ; but " it is ' a different tale, when the daily press is forced to open its columns for the insertion of reports of such Grimes. What ,-is a crlnie on "Truth's" part, though hardly regarded as a virtue oh that of the daily press, is nevertheless, a forced recognition of. the fact by the 'daily press that it is publicity that cures more than anything" else. One 1 should think, also, that the fatt that the telegraphic columns" of the daily fc«ss %eiißS SUM mm fe?9*tß .Gf,

these criminal offences, the same kind .which m "Truth, is ."filthy,, sexual stuff," ' would have moved' J., J. North and Co. to do something, ami, to say something ; of a practical nature oon.oern.ing; this canker ■worm m our very moral, clean-living" Christian state. Not ' even tire remarks of Supreme Court Judges can move the cierical crowd, who act the emu. They metaphorically hide their heads m the sand, when. danger is scented, and keep them there, by their too well studied indifference to their, unsavoury surroundings. While the cannibal of the South' Seas is being bribed with rum into professing Christianity, while young men and women who feel they have a mission m life are \ being prepared for the glories and crown of martyrdom m the Cannibal Islands and m China, ■where the starving Confuscian will gladly embrace anything which promises food and -raiment, New Zealand is rearing and fostering Jn her midst human "beings, said fa be Christians, whose deeds are denounced as a blot on civilisation. . Could there be a sadder, a greater commentary oh the failure, the . uselessness of the par^ son m our midst ; the parson ; whose ear is ever cocked for the "call!' that means more '"boodle" and bigger fools and more flats to wheedle and rob- It ill 'becomes this nasty and notorious , 'helot North to talk of -"filthy -Sexual stuff" when Supreme Gourt -'Judges are moved" to make such references to it,, as did Mr Justice Cooper .at Wanganui last week. North's duty is he-re pointed out to him.. If he ] be a- Christian, a ; true disciple of 'Jesus Christ, let him give up his lucrative pastorship m Vivianstreet and let. him go forth into the high-ways and -the by-ways and there •preach to the people of a love of purity and ohastity. North and his kind are dogs m the manger. They fervently close their eyes and ears to the awful depravity and degradation of little worse • than savages m a civilised community^ They wish the truth silenced ;■ they wish to make it appear that New Zealand is a paragon of all that is clean and virtuous and wo© 'betide any unfortunate man who proclaims that the world is full of deadly sin- More than once this • paper has had to take to task; silly, but well-meaning tourists,, who have wandered through the land and have Jxeen struck and by • the 'utter absence of •■■ serious crime m New Zealand. The tourdstseason is "off" a>t. present, and the tourist is not 'heard m the 1-ajnd, otherwise 'some very seasonable comments might have been made. To tell the truth ■is not always a pleasant duty y tout a lie, the deadly. lie, so dearly loved by the parson, when dealing with, a matter of this description is calculated to do far reaching damage ere truth grapples with it and overthrows it. Arise North and Co-, do your duty or leave it to others, who do not want it, but are forced to it, by the Christian clerics criminal apathy.;