The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1880.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1011, 11 May 1880, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1880.

It must be painful to the communities of the colony to learn how frequent are the offences committed \tpon woman and young girls by men f^uL' sometimes by mere boys. But must be still more painful to discover that in not a few instances these charges have been " trumped " up by bad women for the mere gratification of a revenge, or from pure unadulterated malice. It is a satisfaction to know when these offences have been proved that the judges pass very severe, but at the same time deserved sentences. It is, however, unsatisfactory to know that when such charges have been disproved, that the accusing women are allowed to escape unpunished. These kind of charges preferred by females are so easily made, and so difficult to refute, that when they are not sustained immediate punishment should be dealt out to the false accusers. That this is not tbe case, shows that there is something defective in our criminal laws which, demand a remedy. Still, the crime we refer to is of terrible frequency, and the sentences passed on offenders can scarcely be too severe.

At Wellington, only a week or two b&ckj a ruffian, named George LONGHURST, was found guilty of rape, and sentenced to ten years penal servitude, with fifty lashes added. Qfee-halfof the flogging he bos already received. The other half will be inflicted in due time. There is unfortunately a maudlin feeling in the minds of many that when a death seufceuCe follows on the crime it should be remitted, and no effort is left untried to obtain a reprieve, as was the case some months ago in Sydney, when two youths' were condemned to death for a most aggravated offence of this nature. So great was the pressure brought to bear that the Government was compelled to yield and the death sentence was remitted to one of imprisonment. The Premier, indeed, withstood the senseless howl with admirable firmness as long as there was the faintest hope of striking a vigorous blow ab tbe savage lan-ikinism that seems to reign supreme in the capital of New South Wales. He no doubt felt the seriousuess of cutting oft' two

young lives as much as any of the men or women who so frantically called for mercy on their behalf ; but he pointed out that there were some things dearer than life, and that it was for the sake of those things that he desired the law should take its course. But he was at length overborne, though it is probable he yielded only on account of the extreme youth of one of the criminals. Offences of this kind are we say becoming frightfully common in our own Colony. If we mistake nob, there were some seven or eight cases of assault with intent before the Supreme Court at one of its recent sittings in the North Island. A fact like this is not flattering to our Colonial civilization, and causes us to compare unfavourably for instance with America, where, however rough the exterior of society may be, it is said that women are perfectly safe from harm or molestation. Such ia not the case in New Zealand, nor indeed in any of the Australasian Colonies. The Americans have been somewhat ridiculed for what is called their ostentatious respect for woman, and we fear the sentiment is not quite 80 strong as it was, the national manners having, it is alleged, sensibly deteriorated since the time of the Civil War ; but if they err in this matter, let it at least be said they err in their honour and on the safe side. Their republican gallantry is, notwithstanding all its oddity, infinitely preferable to the brutality that characterises so much of British and Colonial manhood.

Our wife-beating and wife desertion, to say nothing of the more deeply criminal offences under consideration, are a national disgrace, and has been hitherto treated with far too much leniency. One of woman's undoubted rights is the right to be protected from violence and wrong. She is something it must be admitted a trifle provoking, but she is the weaker vessel, and there is at any rate no possible excuse for the slightest affront to her honour, which ought to be held as inviolable as her life. But it is precisely here that the colonial character so lamentably fails. Indeed, it can scarcely be affirmed that there is any high cousoious respect For woman as woman among us. In this regard wedecidedlyreqiureagreat deal of Americanising. And while the evil is noticeable enough in the country, it has grown perfectly rampant and altogether intolerable in our towns and cities. It is well-known, for instance, that women cannot pass along the streets of either the larger or smaller towns of the colony after dark without annoyance and insult ; and we are sorry to add that the offenders do not belong exclusively to what are styled the lower class of population. Says the Dunedin Herald, writing on the subject. Roughs aud larrikins are bad enough in all conscience, but the well-dressed blackguardism that hems and jeers and jostles on the public pavements is much worse ; and if public opinion should fail to impress the young gentlemen to whom we allude with a sense of decency, we trust the police will receive instructions to keep their eye on them. As the law is a capital educator, a few examples would have an excellent effect on the lewd and insolent crew. Their manners would doubtless be greatly improved, to say nothing of their morals; nor do we see why they should be allowed to pursue their pranks any more than the grosser kind of offenders whom the Bench is treating to hard labour and the lash.