JUVENILE IMMORALITY

Southland Times, Issue 16746, 27 May 1911, Page 5

JUVENILE IMMORALITY

THE POSITION IN DUNEDIN. (Special to the "Times.’’) DUNEDIN, May 26. At the tenth annual meeting of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, the President (Rev. Canon Curzon-Siggers) in a thoughtful address urged the raising of the age of consent from 16 to 18 years, the provision of a house of detention for mentally defective females, the sterilisation of the unfit, and the adoption of a curfew system with the object of having all girls and boys in their homes at an early hour. Each of these measures was supported by the relation of cases that had come under the notice of the Society or from the results that such measures had actually brought about in America. Mr W. Burnett (Mayor) said that the matter contained in the Society’s report had filled him with horror and dismay, and he suggested that the key to the problem lay In the provision of better homes. Mr J. F. Arnold, M.P., agreed with Hi is view, and laid stress on the necessity of instructing young people properly in the fundamental facts about themselves. Mr H. D. Bedford said that, from experience in America, lie thought that public sentiment was ripe for the adoption here of the curfew bell. The whole tone of the speeches indicated a deep dissatisfaction with the morality, especially of the younger portion of the community, and the conviction that there was a very grave situation requiring to be promptly faced. Canon Curzon-Siggers said he hoped the Society would shortly make an example in the Courts of several young men who had taken a young girl with them to their week end camp.