JUVENILE CRIME IN MELBOURNE.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 30, 20 February 1863, Page 3

JUVENILE CRIME IN MELBOURNE.

-' (From the Age.) The amount of juvenile vagrancy and ; depravity, in Melbourne i 8 but very imperfectly known. -It, is in. the lanes and alleys, and back slums, Bnd the haunts of thieves and the worst characters, that the evil is fully disclosed". Some, are employed by dissolute parents to beg and thieve for .the subsistence, of their unnatural protectors, getting themselves but a scant share j of the plunder, and making sure of a cruel beating should they on return chance to be unsuccessful. -Others are actually encouraged tothief as a calling, and it now and then happens that the police are able .to lay hold of some colonial Fagan reaping the fruits of such ill-gotten gain?. 1 1 may be seen by the records of the police court that stealing lead has almost become a branch of. the profession, and the gathering^ of rags and bottles and bones is not infrequently made a pretext for juvenile depredations. But it is not confined to petty thieving. We have ouv juvenile burglars, .housebreakers and " stickers up." We will mention: & glaring case that occurred but a short time ago. A boy of about ten years of age was caught in the act of endeavoring to break into a store, 'and a pair of pistols was found on his ■person. The detective asked him what he had the pistols for. "" What for," replied the urchin, " why to slioot anybody that stopped me.*' It .appeared that the youth confessed that he intended to carry off a cash'box that wa& in the store ; and the detective asked him how he knew the cash box wa9 there. *' Didn't 'I pipe' it iti the 'day time, to be sure," said the young' ruffian with the most perfect nonchalance. "But you wouldn't shoot a person,", said tKe/ Detective Officer. •' Wouldn't I just squib" was the reatly reply. This boy had just come out of jail where he had been confined for three months for stealing lead. On this ocrasion he was committed for trial along with another boy a little older, and a partner in the premeditated robbery. The Bench, of course, as in duty bound, availed themselves of the oppertunity of calling attention for the hundreth time to the necessity -of a .reformatory, which of course everybody present admitted, and there the matter ended. It is curious to note how these young vagrants live, that is, how they eat, drink,, and sleep. Numbers of them are perfectly homeless, and get shelter and food in the best way they can from the fruits of either their vagrancy or th'eiving. A coffee stall supplies some of them, perhaps, with a meal in the day, on which they are obliged to subsist, with an occasional picking here and there., Those who have neither reputable nordisreputable homes sleep in some empty house, or failing that, find some hole or corner within they pass the night. As illustrating the growing want of a reformatory we may mention that it is generally received as an undeniable fact, that juvenile depravity has greatly increased of late. Yei more than a year ago a return was prepared by order of the House, of Assembly, showing the number of children under fonrteen years of age committed to prison in the colony within the previous two years, also the nature of the offence and the term of imprisonment ; and a similar return respecting youths between the ages of Hand

20 years. This return, which is before us, discloses the following state of things:— There a>e 80 under 14 years of age, and 199 between 14 and 20, all males, confined in the Melbourne Central Jail during that period ; and 76 males, and 65 females under 14 years of age, and 210 males, anil 22s females between 14 and 20 years confined in other jails throughout the colony during the same'period. The offences were for stealing money and goods, vagrancy, attempt at burglary, damaging property, drunkenness, obscene language, burglary, assaults, notorious conduct, housebreaking, stealing gold, sheep stealing, receiving stolen property, false pretences, breach ol the peace, and a variety of other offences of a more or less serious nature ; the terms of imprisonment ranging from a few days up to three years. It would appear from the above that nearly one-third of the convictions have been in Melbourne. As showing the nature of some of the cases brought before the Melbourne Police Court, we give the following :— E. L. was brought before the Court on the 2 1 si December, 1857, charged with stealing three boilers, which he did for the purpose of selling them for old metal. He was then 12 years old, and his father, who was a man of good property, begged him off, and promised to send him up the country to school, which promise he did not fulfil. Since then the boy has been brought up about a dozen times before the Police Court for larcency, vagrancy, J»nd disorderly conduct. His father has since died, and his mother lives on the property, which will fall to the youthful reprobate on his comingof age, he being about seventeen or eighteen at this time. K. P., 14 years of age, received a three months sentence at the same time that E. L. was first brought up. Since then he has received three sentences, one of twelve months for " sticking up " a big boy in Richmond Faddock, and another of twelve months for stealing lead. He is now confined in Pentridge and is described as an incorrigible tbeif; T. Hi., alias? Tommy the

Slikchargie4£witli^^ iafterwayd^ afterwards lie 1 was iou nd) in tlii.e :coirvjjan y of; the bpyjii.} P;; wholiad taken; tbe a^is hf ' JBees jvi hgV ? Th>ly werefbu n d co»n cea ) ed in j a private ho^ and -i discharged . with a ' caiisiorii . It- was? Alii ioofc the alias of MTornin >v the jl^uC' and;he assumed the Leadership of all the j iiyentle thieves in Melbourne, and, used to marshal them to the Princess Theatre every night, where they used to hiss. arid encore, the performance as it suited their; fancy, until they at last hecame such a nuisance that the' leader of the gang was, arrested for vagrancy and. sentenced to twelve months at • l'enrridge. The City Police Magistrate on visiting Pentridge, saw him there in solitary i confinement, and considering the punisment severe, got him released, after serving three months.. About three months after his liberation he appeared under another a zzs charged with stealing lead and was let off. In the following month he was brought up for stealing from a dwelling, anJ again let off, and in the following month he a-sain appeared before the Police Court charged with being a rogue and a vagabond, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. Shortly after coming out of jail he wasbrought up three several time 3 before the court, and on the third occasion he had assumed another alias, and wasfound heading a mob of boys at the corner of Stephen street, and using obscene language. He was then fined ten pounds, or three months' imprisonment. Three months afterwards he appeared again for committing a violent assault, and was ordered to find sureties to keep the peace. A week afterwards he was hailed out by his father. Two days had elapsed only when he was again apprehended for vagrancy, and discharged with a caution ; and the same day he was apprehended again for burglary, committed for trial, convicted, and wassentenced to three years on the roads. The above are a few instances of the state of juvenile depravity in Melbourne. They are far from being exceptional cases, but such as occur from week to week, and month lo month, in our police courts ; and our ol»j-?ct in giving these hrief and imperfect descriptions of the festering evil will be atlained if it st ill more impresses upon our readers the urgent necessity for a juvenile reformatory and industrial home. — Weekly Age.