Cruelty to the Aged

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 106, 13 June 1885, Page 3

Cruelty to the Aged

One of the least lovely amenities of colonial life is the con&picuouslack of reverence for age. The old adage that "Age commands respect " is by no means acted upon by the vigorous youth of this in some respects ever-free country, and tho " larrikinism " of our juveniles is, avc fear, developing into most inhumane and barbarous sentiment in our young men. The adage is perhap3 too sweeping, but no one can gainsay that age, vrhon respectable, is doubly entitled to respect. Yet this is what we are informed took placo in Canterbury recently — the facts being elicited at the inquest on the body of Edmund Robinson, an old man of seventy years, who was knocked down by a buggy noarKangioru. bays tho matter-of-fact Press Association reporter : — "Tho evidence showed that C. W. Chinery, F. Gimory, and George Backman, three younc mon who wore driving in the buggy, placed tho old man, who was insensible, on the side of the road where a horseman could have ridden over him, and then went on two miles to Rangiora to inform the police. They took the horse out of the buggy, and one of them went to get his hair cut before taking any steps to get relief to the sufferer. The night was very dark and windy A considorable time elapsed before they returned to the spot with a constable, and drove the sufferer to a doctor. Tho medical evidence showed that the deceased died from long standing congestion of tho lungs, brought to a climax by the shock of the accident. " The reader probably expects to hear after this that the three wretches dignified with the title of "young men" were committed fo,r trial for manslaughter. Nothing of the sort. Thoy were "severely censured" by the coroner, and dismissed with a few words of advice. We make bold to say that had any trio of young blackguards driven over a cow or horse and loft it to die of its injuries, there would have been a chorus of indignation from the public, and a sharp prosecution by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Even hares and pigeons are protected from cruel treatment. Is not a man— even aa old man of 70 — of more value than many hares or pigeons ?