The Te Aroha News Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Mornings. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1923 THE CRIME WAVE

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6411, 6 November 1923, Page 4

The Te Aroha News Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday Mornings. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1923 THE CRIME WAVE

THE Aromoho murder following so closely upon the Waikino tragedy has deeply shocked the public mind. A stigma has also been brought upon the fair name of the Dominion. The effect of such crimes here is to inspire feeling of horror and to a certain extent of dread, but in Australia and elsewhere they sully the good name of New Zealand. A certain class of Australian publication appears to aim ! at accentuating anything that will increase prejudice against this country in the minds of thoughtless and ignorant people. However much this is to be deplored the ‘fact of such dastardly crimes occurring is enough in itself to make the N people of the Dominion pause and think. They and kindred occurrences provide food for thought. The crime wave that has gone round the world of late years has no doubt been a consequence of the war. That catastrophe lowered the moral standards and weakened the social structure of civilisation. The insensate destruction of life and property in opposition to the teachings of true religion and the highest morality shook the church life of all nations and impaired the effect of the teachings of Christianity. That the prestige of the Christian teacher suffered in consequence is beyond debate. All this has had an evil result in the life of the people and the nation. While the better class have become careless and indifferent, the lower class have become lower ahd more debased. Crime does not appear so heinous'to a great proportion of the people as it did. There are more excuses made for it. People attempt to explain away to a great extent the culpability of the criminal. There is a tendency to transfer the responsibility and accountability to heredity, environment, social conditions and other circumstances. Accordingly punishment for crime is not near so severe as formerly. The mis-

ci cant is treated with greater tenderness and consideration. Where there is a chance certain classes work up mawkish sentimental feelings even for murderers. This modern tendency is pernicious in the extreme. Not only does the “means to do ill deeds make ill deeds done” but the absence of stern reprobation of them and the evil doer adds further encouragement to their commission. This modern attitude is opposed to eommonsense, the' teaching of Christianity and contrary to the laws of the natural world. Nature teaches us the great lesson that the universe is governed by law and that the infringement of law brings its penalty. One of the fundamental truths of Christianity is that sin cannot go unpunished. But much of the present-day tendency is an attempt to refute the laws of nature and revelation. We are often told that to adequately punish the criminal simply brutalises him—and this in cases where he has reached the extreme depths of depravity. What is overlooked is that the criminal class outside our gaols and beyond the preventive powers of the law can only be deterred by fear of the consequences of crime or by a change of heart. The former deterrent will only be effected where crime is firmly and sternly punished and the latter where true religion has its sway. A rightly constituted society must according safeguard the institutions of law and the church. Without them society would “go to the dogs.”