Waking From A Long Sleep

NZ Truth, Issue 1146, 17 November 1927, Page 6

Waking From A Long Sleep

QAN it be that the. increase* m crimS' is ■having a salutary effect upon at least one department of the Government?' There are things that point that way, and not before it is needed.

There have beeii some comments from the Supreme' Court Bench oyi the manner m which the Prisons Board extends an injudicious leniency where >it is . not merited by hard facts. • , • Benevolent wrongheaded n*e s s has negatived considered punishments of . the judiciary, /and Snade the efforts of police and Bench to suppress crime more or less futile and ineffective.,-: ; Leniency to wrongdoers has recently verged ,on the ridiculous, and crime has not decreased, while the subterranean solicitations of idealistic cranks have had a far too weighty sway. - , If a halt is about to be v called, it will oe m the interests of the public as a whole, for discipline by the State is every bit as. essential to the community m general as it is m the domestic circle, where lack of. restraint incubates the germs of dishonesty or vice.