The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Tuesday, October 21, 1879.
Subjoined are the resolutions m substance which it is proposed should be moved at the public meeting to be held to-morrow evening, m the Masonic Mall. The first is : — " That this meeting views with much tineasiness the unsatidtautory state of atiaird m Poverty .bay aa exisuug between tne Europeans and the Maoiies iv reapeco of tueir lands ; therefore it is moved that a committee be appointed to draw up a petition for presentation to Parliament, explaining the great injury which is being done to the towns and districts of Pov ecr y Bay; and requesting t Q at L an d Co« rtß » presided over by judges > appointed for the purpose shall set at properly appointed places to decide upon aU disputed claims. That this meeting further ask that steps be taken to prevent the Maories entering upon lands occupied by Europeans settlers until their claims have been decided by the judges appointed to adjudicate upon them." "We think the above very tem-perately-worded resolution will even meet the views of the party who rank themselves tinder the bannerof the Repudiationists. Who will hesitate to say that the state of matters just now m our districts are not unsatisfactory, and that immediate measures should be taken to obtain the presence of competent judges to decide disputes between the Maori and the European 1 The gross apathy on the part of the Government towards the people of Poverty Bay has been the cause of muoh of the troubles which embarrass us at this time. The second resolution proposed to be moved is : — " That the Government, failing to take action upon the prayer of the petition to be presented, a committee be appointed to watch over and' protect the interests of the the Europeans until the constituted authorities have given such protection aa will ensure the peace and safety of the towns and districts." ' The third resolution is : — "That this meeting condemns the action of that section of the Newspaper Press which advocates and tends to encourage the acts of the party known as Repudiationists." It will be seen that whatever way the convening of the meeting was drawn up, and it is confessed that it was drawn up hurriedly and imperfectly, that a much broader view of the question was m the minds of those who attached their signatures. Tomorrow evening, then, will show whether the people of Gisborne prefer to allow affairs to remain m their disturbed state, or whether they will make some legitimate effort m the cause of peace, and order, and good Government.
It is time, we think, that the subject should be enquired into, whether education is the preventive of crime, as it is so universally supposed to be. The education of the people* doubtless tends to sweep away . many unwholesome prejudices and false beliefs which bebjng only to the ignorant, and education certainly must contribute to individual happiness. The man or woman who can read the- literature of the language m which either has betn trained, must ceitainly have more of life's enjoyments than those who cannot ; birt if we are to take the addresses of the Judges of the Superior Courts, addressed to the Grand Juries, it will be hard for one to- bring himself 'to believe that education really mitigates the enormity and number <of crimes which are committed. In the old country, crime has become increasingly prevalent of late years, notwithstanding the great efforts made by philanthropists aud others to remove the agencies that were believed to have caused and fostered it. The general diffusion of education and the amelioration of the coudition of the working class were looked upon as the means whereby not « nly drunkenness but crime was to be diminished, if not altogether prevented. This belief was until recently almost universally accepted. It incited good men to devote themselves to the advancement of every project that had for its aim the elevation and enlightment of the masses. Nor had the efforts made been altogether barren of result. On the contrary, improyemeut has to some extent been effected m the direction sought ; but it is now only too certain thnt the causes of intemperance and crime lie far deeper than believers m the all-sufficiency of education and general prosperity imagined. Our short and easy methods are one by one failing us. Not only can men not be made moral by Act of Parliament ; it must now be realised that men's honesty cannot be assured by teaching them to read, write, and cypher. Believers m | education as a panacea fur all moral ills will have to revise their creed. If poverty aud iguorauce were the only causes of crime, this Colony should be almost entirely free from it ; for there are here none so poor and ill-informed as to be driven thereby into war against society. But m reality crime is prevalent here ; indeed, Mr. Justice Johnston has asserted that the average of crime m JNew Zealand is far above the average m England aud Wales. While painting out thiß fact, Hid Honor acknowledged nia inability to account for it. Of one thing, however, he was sure — it is not owing to the distressed condition of the community. Kef er dug to the subject of crime the Dunedin Herald says : — A consideration of the character of the cases tried iv our own Supreme Court bears out Mr. Justice Johnston's statement. In Dunedin the prisoners, almost without exception, were well-educated aiid had occupied good social positions. Indeed, so far from ignorance having been the cauue of any of the crimes charged, several of them were such as only men of exceptionally good education could have perpetrated. The public mind is slow to realise that it has been radically -wrong m its hypotheses as to the cause and cure of crime. That it has been wrong there can be no doubt. Something more than an abundance of food ' and raiment and mere secular instruction uiuot be provided iv order to make and keep men good. What is really needed it is not easy to say. Something mure than the mere fear of man is necessary ; aud the tacts winch are now being gradually, but forcibly brought to light, mad ua to ask whether something more tuan purely secular education is needed.
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Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 930, 21 October 1879, Page 2
Word Count
1,063The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Tuesday, October 21, 1879. Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 930, 21 October 1879, Page 2
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