Truth ABOLISHING THE BROTHEL.

NZ Truth, Issue 150, 2 May 1908, Page 4

Truth

ABOLISHING THE BROTHEL.

Published Every Saturday Morning at Luke's Lane (off Mannersstreet), Wellington, N.Z. Subscription (m advance), 13s. . per annum. SATURDAY, MAY 2, 1908.

In another column of this issue "Truth" publishes a letter, wherein a correspondent urges upon the police the great necessity of entering on -a crusade against the brothels of Wellington, whioh our correspondent declares are fairly numerous, particularly m tony quarters, and which, further, are practically winked at b^ the police so long as they' sue conducted quietly, and do not become nuisances to the equally tony neighborhood. This paper prides itself on its independence. A genuine grievance is tfaadily ventilated, and the two sides qf every question have always been given their proper prominence. It. is not to be taken for granted, therefore,! that m publishing the letter mentioned this paper echoes its sentiments, or/concurs m the opinion that the police should enter into any harsh crusade against the harlot. What the eye does not sec "the heart cannot grieve, and if there are m existence m Wellington an extraordinarily large number of brothels, it might be just as well if these places should, if maintained without giving offence to the world without, be allowed' not to flourish, but to remain quiet anil inoffensive. This "Truth" admits is at once a ticklish and delicate question. It is a miatter for plain speaking, food, as it were, for calm reflection, a subject, that cannot be approached and grasped with kid, or even silk gloved hands. No one willingly enters into the lists as an advocate of the brothel, or the friend of the harlot, and

we have not the slightest doubt that if any man stood on a public platform and earnestly advocated the licensing of brothels and prostitutes, he would be hounded down and publicly assailed and ducked m a horscpond by a so-called moral mob, so warped m mind, so stunted m the fcpirit of tolerance that the accumulated reason of centuries would be lost on them. On the other hand, so maudlin, so meagre, so narrow, so m/orally misguided is tho public mind of to-day that "Truth," doubts not that were a man, or even womjan, to urge on the .mob the wrecking o! brothels, the imprisoning of harlots, the mob would be one on the question, and to show what we really mean "Truth" invites the reader to peruse the few reflections made by Dr. Zillman, a Sydney cleric, m his article on the Tomb's Prisons of New York, which we republish on another page. To touch even on the fringe of brptheldom and its surroundings requires circumspection and grave attention. The public, the sensible and liberal-minded, would far rather close its eyes and its ears to the fact that brothels exist m the city. We know they exist, the police know they exist, and quite easily, too, could the police suppress them if necessary and if still further necessary m the interests of public morality could succeed m gaoling the inmates. People can . be no more made moral by Act of Parliament than can, the thief be made honest by the thought of the Criminal Code, or the drunkard made sober by temperance lectures or prohibition orders. We have Acts of Parliament intending to make us honest. Go and find an answer m the prison cell. We . have our Licensing and other Acts regulating the drink traffic. Go and search the hotels, the homes', the private residences, 1 the streets, and the police station. We have out drunkards with us now, we have had them m the past, we will have them when Wellington's cemetery accommodation is taxed to its utmost. We have Acts of Parliaments making a crime of harlotry, of brothel-keeping, and <Tespite all these Acts we have brothels and harlots. Burst up one brothel, another, like a mushroom, will spring up m a night. Gaol ,the harlot and our street paves wjll lie strolled by her the same evening. There is no remedy for it. We read of harlots m Mexico and Peru long before the Spaniards set foot there. Even where the glories of Civilisation and Chrisitianity have nbt spread she is. She is m Wellington, and despite police activity, or inactivity, here she will remain. Maybe, as "Truth's" correspondent points out, dreadful disease foliowed m her wake, and young lives may have been ruined. That is not the fault of the harlot, however, she is only the circuniistances of her environs. She is only, perhaps, what others have made her. She is the product of the natural viciousnegs of man. If man can be made moral then let us have an Act of Parliament that will have both ( a moral and nhysical effect. Such, of course, is impossible ; it is an absurd idea. Far better it -is to wink, or even close our eyes to what is. going on around us, though it such places overstep the bounds of decency and outside decorum, let the police act swiftly. But after all, is it m the power of the police to suppress that which it Is impossible to suppress ? Our -correspondent perhaps means well. It is some sort of consolation that such places thrive m the tony quarters of our city, and the fact does not speak too eloquently of the morals of the men folk of the "naicest" quarters'. However, serious as X.Y.Z. may he 4 'Truth" cannot agree with him m "urging the police . to enter on aw' such fruitless crusade. t It is a deep question, one which even the licensing system has failed to solve, a problem which is not going to be solved by a few paltry police prosecutions. Certainly, the growth of these brothels must he kept m check. It doesn't do to advertise the fact that Wtellliwgton is a city of "drums."