DOMINION NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 81, 26 May 1911, Page 5

DOMINION NEWS.

WELLINGTON EXHIBITION. OUTBREAK OF FIRE. (Per Press Association.) Wellington,, May 2G. There was a small outbreak of fire at the Exhibition yesterday. It was in a stall next the Minimax exhibit but when a rush was made for the cylinders they wore found to be empty. The permanent lireraen, however, pulled down the blazing draperies, without any damage being done worth speaking of. WRITS FOR USEL. (Per Press Association.) bap.er. .iiny 2R. Writs have oct-.n servo..! on Geo ge Nelson and the ‘Tiastugs TifLune - ' by lan Simson, claiming £3OOO • and £2OOO respectively for alleged libel, contained in a letter recently published. The cases, come on for hearing at the Supremo Court next month.; THE ACE OF CONSENT. A. MINISTER’S INDICTMENT. By Telegraph. —Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. At the annual meeting of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children to-day, the president (Rev. Canon Curzon-Siggers) urged the necessity for raising the age of consent. The society’s report showed that in certain percentage of illegitimate cases girls became mothers just on or just over the age or 16, and some of them within the age of 17 years were mothers for a second time. He said there was a growing tendency for young fellows to go foi week-ends and to arrange for girls to go with them. He hoped very shortly to make an example in the police court of one such case. The speaker urgea making provision of a house of detention for girls who became mothers bj immoral means. He also raised the question of dealing with the mentally unfit, and said that while ,the Government made some provision for males mentally defective, there was no provision for mentally defective females. He strongly urged sterilisation as treatment for the defectives of society. He had very strong feelings on the subject of applying the curfew law so as t'o keep young people off the streets at late hours, and inculcate a taste for home life. He felt the state ol morality in Dunedin was not what it should be, and, unfortunately, Dunedin was no worse than other places. He hoped the Government would appoint a commission to inquire into and provide means for checking the birth of the