Sheltering Behind The Child

NZ Truth, Issue 985, 11 October 1924, Page 5

Sheltering Behind The Child

Parental Remorse

Why Ddes It Not Precede The Crime?

1 IS slir P'''sing how often grown men, when m trouble, hasten to shelter themselves from the, just punishment for their actions behind their children. Almost daily, from the criminal dock of the Courts of the country, comes the- wail of the plight of the wife family, .should the offender be sent to prison for any length of time.

At Auckland the other day a man appeared for sentence on two charges of theft of a particularly mean type, and counsel pleaded that the man had a wife and three children between the ages , of three 'months and AYs years, and he asked that this feature of the matter be taken into consideration. In another case m the same Court on the same day, a convicted thief, with a very bad reputation m the estimation of the police, put forward a similar plea of having a wife and five children depending upon him, even though he was, incidentally, deemed to be an idle and disorderly person. While .such anxiety and concern on the part of the father for his 'offspring ' may be

[natural m the time of trouble — and ! perhaps commendable to a certain degree — to attempt to take shelter behind innocent children after the commission of a crime, and a mean crime at that, ;is nothing short of cowardice. "While it is true that the greater share of the punishment often falls on the innocent and helpless, the amazing- part is that such "considerate" parents are so forgetful of their charges "before the. fact." If there was. the same thought for the interest and welfare of the dependants before the committal of an offence as there is often shown afterwards, when the day of reckoning comes, there would be a great deal less crime to trouble over.