MORAL LAXITY

Southland Times, Issue 21219, 21 October 1930, Page 8

MORAL LAXITY

INDEX OF HIDDEN EVIL

STATISTICS “TERRIBLY

ELOQUENT”

FACING THE FACTS

(Per United Press Association.)

Wellington, October 20. Declaring that the statistics of immorality in New Zealand quoted recently by Mr A. G. Butchers were "terribly eloquent,” Canon Percival James, in a sermon at St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, said that all the sound elements of society must come to the aid of young men and women. In the fight for chastity they were assailed in the present age of transition with novel perplexities and temptations, and just now the odds seemed marshalled against them. There was nothing new in the savage ferocity of the attacks upon Mr Butchers during the past week on account of passages in his book which dealt with the moral laxity disclosed in the statistics of extra-marital conception, and Mr Butchers had shown that the statements in his book were mainly quotations of figures officially published in the New' Zealand Year Book.

“I am well aware that fallacies may lurk beneath the figures,” declared the preacher, “but Mr Butchers' inference regarding what might happen in the future to girls now in our schools if the present tendencies persist, will seem to fair-minded people who can weigh all the evidence to be at least a possible inference from the figures quoted. The plea made by Mr Butchers and others does not rest upon any inference —it rests upon facts. They speak for themselves. The figures are terribly eloquent, and they must be considered as an index of the hidden evil that cannot be measured by statistics. Every one know’s that the extent of sexual immorality must be greater than that disclosed by the figures. This fresh discussion in the public Press should be a challenge to all patriotic men and women to face the facts rather than disregard the facts and abuse the individuals who have the courage to direct attention to the facts. To me it seems incomprehensible that anyone can find comfort or satisfaction in it. There may be other countries in which this moral evil of unchastity is as bad or ever worse than in New Zealand, but we must deal with the evil that has been shown to exist in our own land.”