Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 5. 1914.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10892, 5 March 1914, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 5. 1914.

SIR Robert Stout is a very zealous supporter of our secular system of education, and has taken the opportunity of speaking from the judgement seat in commendation of it. His position lends hia statements an authority and a prestige which they would lack if not made from inside the encasement of robe and gown of the Chief Justice of the country. It invests him with the attribute of infallibility. But an examination of the figures upon which he must rely to prove that juvenile crime is decreasing so rapidly in New Zealand, and that we are so much bettor than our fathers, will tend to check any airs of pions ostentation we may have been inclined to put on. Sir Robert Stout is said to have quoted statistics showing a general decrease in crime from 44.25 per thousand of the population of New Zealand in 1887, to 38.35 in 1913, and the decrease, he asserted, could only be explained by the excellence of our system of national education. Evident y he believes bis deduction from the figures is the only poiaibie one because he wishes it to be so. But in the calculation of the psy oholo|ioal and physical causes which influence public morality, it is not like a social philosopher to jettison all possible causes but the one be patronises. Taking into account the influence said to be exerted by meteorology it might have been the weather, or perhaps a more whole hearted laying on of the general parental rod.

SIR Robert Stout was probably referring more particularly to juven- ! ile crime by the New Zealand born. But crime by children under 15 years of- age has always been statistically negligible, and the same may be said of the ages between 16 and 20. The number of New Zealand born prisoners under 15 years of age has ranged from two to seven annually, and between the ages of 15 and 20 have grown only from 83 to 96 per annum in the ten years ending 1912, While, therefore, crime has decreased in proportion to juvenile population, we cannot share the assumption of the Chief j Justice that we are drifting into innocence at a mirao ulous rate. And, as everybody knows, and Sir Robert Stout as well as anybody, tbe number of juveniles committed to prison for crime tends to grow leea and less in this com-

passionate age, and statistics dealing with the matter less and less reliable. : We are quite willing to oon cede the three R’s their full share in the moral regeneration of. the' young as far as their influence can be traced. But it would require a more searching psychological analysis to determine that share than anybody is capable of. In regard to the general field of crime, we fail to see anything tb justify Sir Robert Stouts’ optimistic figures. in 1903 the number of summary convictions in the country amounted to 30.19 per thousand of the population. In 1913 they numbered 33.67 per thousand. If education is the determining moral factor in a country, can the increase be due to the national education system?

APPARENTLY the Imperial Go veraruent is shrinking from the issue which the Home Rule Bill is pro voking and are about to throw the onus of decision on the question and its responsibility upon the electorates. The members of the Liberal Party no doubt feel in,face of the catastrophic position that has gradually attained its ominous pro - portions that it would be better to suffer defeat at the polls than to provoke civil war. In fact an appeal, to the country is their only posklble refuge from one of the most stupendous tragedies of modern times. On the one side there is a grimly determined army of resistance in Uisser, there is a -possibility chat the Imperial Army itself would refuse to operate against Ulster, a “solemn covenant” of resistance being signed by the most influential men in England, which discloses the weakness of the position there. On the other hand there are the Nationalist members who are coercing the Government to give them the whole Bill and threatening secession if any concessions are made to Ulster, The Government could, of course, abandon the vitjil clauses of the Bill. But abandonment of these would also imply the abandonment of dignity and a state of humiliation that no British Minister would tolerate. It is a case of that sort of dilemma that is described as being between the Devil and the deep sea and the only chance of extrication is political suicide.