Truth A SIMOOM OF SIN.

NZ Truth, Issue 181, 5 December 1908, Page 4

Truth

A SIMOOM OF SIN.

Published Eveey Saturday Morning at Luke's Lane (off mannersstreet), Wellington, N.Z. SUBSCRIPTION (IN ADVANCE), 13S. PER ANNUM.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1908.

Notwithstanding the taunts of that section of the daily press of New _ualai>d which under the cloak of respectability pursues a policy of self-pouncing, or otherwise legalised blackmail, "Truth," I which has its faults and is none the worse for the possession of them, is not going to allow the sittings of the Criminal Courts m the chief centres to conclude without remarking once again oh the painful prevalence of sexual crimes, the offenders being males of from youth to the silvery-haired septuagenarian, while m the vafet majority of cases the victims have been innocent children, who, though with one or two exceptiors suffering no physical injuries, have sustained a moral blight that succeeding . years of maturity will never wholly : efiace. Perhaps this subject is an unsavory' one, and to quote t n e unco gujid daily, but dishonest press, the matter is a nauseating one, tjie publicity attending which Wing calculated to act as an influence for evil. It is a iirue saying that "there are none so blind as those who will not see." There are none so deaf as those who refuse to hear, and if the daily press, from motives not difficult to perceive, persist m entirely ignoring this social canker, the least that might be said of the clean and 'respect- 1 able daily press is that it is failing m its duty to Ike people of the Dominion. Not, however, teing included m the respectable category, and 'its columns (vide the respectable press) not. having the saving grace of humor or 'wit, "Truth" m this matter prefers to play, will play, and has always^ played, a lone hand, consciousof the fact that "it is only pointing the way that sooner or later be followed by the press that nowadays pretends; that its columns are such that, m q<uacK j language, wild not offend tfhe most fastidious". BUt when all is said and done,: there is- really no ;need for "Truth" to justify its attitude. The sinister silence' of the daily press on the alarming increase throughout the Dominion of dirty,, filthy and > diabolical sexual crime is ; « sufficient at anyrate for any honest paper to raise its voice, as it were, to save at least innocent children from the cruel, lecherous clutches of the sexual . maniac, whose .presence even m -gaol, .we beljeve, calls for the framing of special; regulations. • ilnciden tally, ii must, as' recently pointed out m these columns, be a-, matter of congratulation to .find,. that intthe calendar of the concluded criminal sittings m Wellington the' most conspicuous by their absence were crimes oh wonieh and children, the first time, as Mr, Justice Cooper, with dignified satisfaction^ remarked, for eight years. What, however, Welling-; ton lacked has been, as far as New Zeal-; and criminal statistics are concerned, more than supplied by the cases which their Honors, the Judges of the Supreme , Court, and juries have had before them m. Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. | In. Auckland the criminal calendar teemed tfith charges o! indecent assault, indecent [exposure and other crimes of a: sexiual I nature, and we were not at all unprepar- [ ed for the reported scathing and butspok'en utterances- of Mr Justice Edwards uV bis charge to .the Grand Jury, and even 1 then "Truth" is forced to the conclusion that the daily press wittingly V or ' unwittingly suppressed portions or his ..Honor's charge, ' because thcis'e> : utter ances-t weighty judicial utterances—were, opptise<i to the policy of "cleanliness." Bah '.indeed, one might easily pass over Dunedin, where- the Johnson charge of; rape, the Smith case, . and ' others comprising indecent assault, attempted rape, etc. , etc., were such that that- centre of Presbyterian piety shows that, morally it is as rotten as Dead . Sea fruit. However serious and shocking, as were the charges heard m the Dunedin Supreme Court, the horrible, ~the sickening, the appalling nature of the sexual charges heard before Justice JDenniston and Junes at Christchurch is m itself, a good and valid reason why the New Zealander-lyorp, of those who claim .New Zealand as home, should bow their heads m shame and sorrow to find that the holiest of holy cities should have become the hotbed of the worst son df sexual offence, viz., that where the victim's were yotirig and innocent children who were ensnared by soine monstrous ruffian arid then violated. If ever there was occasion for a Supreme Court Judge to give vent to his feelings, not only as a judge but as a man, not 'as a law-giver t?ut as a law-a>bider, that opportunity wab afforded Mr Justice ,Denniston. But tlie Judge could only express his astonish ment; such things he though impossiblePar be it from "Truth '<• even suggesting,' what a Supreme Court Judge! should or should not do, but judicial, utterances, stern reproof, threats of dire punishment to evil-doers, while, perhaps, making excellent newspaper pabulam, tend more i than anything else' to strike terror into the heart of the evil-doer, and carries deterring- influence on those evilly inclined. i Judges certainly, have no prerogative to pose as moralists,' but they alone have the opportunity denied most men. True, : the newspapers are singularly silent, bat that silence is actuated by motives that are distinctly dishonest. -Moreover, it is Inot remarkable m the circumstances thai one or two Supreme Court Judges have refrained or late from commenting, on the fact that a certain paper was m the habit of giving wider prominence to these sexual crimes than the dailies. Such prejudicial remarks have been more than once noted m these columns, but the fact now remains that Judges believe that a careful, circumspect publicity does more than anything else to clear the polluted atmosphere, and so far as this paper is concerned, it has ever willingly obeyed the mandate of judges where the proscription Of -evidence is concerned, • .hurt it cannot be denied that Judges are loth to make any order for the suppression of evidence or, facts, because a Judge must always bear m mind that an Autocratic attitude is not m keeping with the principle of the administration of .'Justice and that where the judicial Bench has attempted to m iany way curtail . the . Liberty of the Press, the Press and not the Bench have gained m Strength. Apart, however, from this, the shocking nature of the sexual crimes that have of late been investigated m our Criminal Courts is such that "Truth" believes that the greater the publicity, the less becomes the danger to chittdren. It is not the children of the poor alone, : that at any moment are liable to become the victims of some debased and depraved male monster. It is a danger . that the rioh man's darling runs, and to minimise this danger, to afford greater facilities for the protection of the children of the rich and poor alike, "Truth"* believes m telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the bare, naked truth. Slowly the time is coming when (.here must be evolved some drastic treatment of the mentally and morally depraved. The lash has failed ; leniency is ludicrous. The present remedy is to be found only m severe and lengthy, or even indeterminate, sentences for the human beasts wh» deh'le what, they touch.