JUVENILE CRIME.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13487, 5 June 1914, Page 6

JUVENILE CRIME.

HAS IT INCREASED IN NEW ZEALAND?

THII CHIEF JUSTICE AND REV.. R, WOOD. In conection with the Rer. Robert Wood's criticism of his statement receding tho decrease of juvemlo crimo, when charging the Grand Jury at Nelson recently, Sir ' Robert Stout has handed to us for publication the followin^ correspondence which has passed between him and the Rev. Mr Wood :— Mill House, Milton, sth March, 1914. Boar Sir Robert Stout,— In. the "Otago Daily Times" tho other day thercTappeared a Press Association report of some utterance of yours on tho decrease of juvenile crime as the result of" our secular system of education. Statistics may be handled in more ways than one, and your statistics do not soom to bear specially on the present generation of youth. For example, 1 have before mo a set- of statistics that contradict your calculations. Tho Wellington correspondent of the u™££ Daily Times" wired on September stn last year particulars of an appalling increase in juvenile crime in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, but not go in Dunodin. His figures are as tollow:— 9

Auckland—l9lo, 162 cases; 1912, 184 caaos. Wellington—l9lo, 105 cases; 1912, 1.79 cases. Christchurch—l9lo, 94 cases; 1912, 214 cases. En Christchurch the increase is over 100 per cent, in three years.

la Otago to-day the secular system in not a few schools is not in evidence. Religious lessons are given by'ministers when school is in. Not a lew schools are opened by the school masters with Bible-reading and prayer. 1 am not going to make use of information that has not appeared in the Press, but in the "Evening Star oi October 1, 1913, you will learn that by direction of the school committee the sckool at Kaitangata is opened daily with prayer, and the committee meetings are opened in this way. Ido not say that this state of things has a relation to the decrease of juvenile crime in Dnnedin. I shall be grateful if you can throw any light on the statistics I have quotert, which seem to contradict your Nelson statement. £ Pear I have a. great deal of sympaitny with John Knox's idea of the fnnction of. the State in education as ml forth in the "Book of. Discipline" : "OF necessity it is that your Honour bo most careful of the virtuous education and godly upbringing of the youth of thft realm." I Icnow you are always a courteous knight in correspondence, and hence this* letter to you.—Yours truly, (Eer.) Robert Wood.

Wellington, 14th March, 1014. My Dear Mr. Wood,—l am in receipt of your letter of sth inst. Somebody has been deceiving you about juvenile crime.. Here are the statistics furnished feo me by the Government Statisticiaa :— Distinct Convicted Prisoners under 20 Years of Ago Received into Gaol. "G." Proporiom per 10,000 of Mean Prisoners Population of Tear. Received. All As?es. 1887 ... 220 ... 3.69 1892 ... 140 ... 2.18 ]897 .- 125 ... 1.73 1902 .- 109 ... 1.57 1908 ... 124 ... 1.31 1909 .- 98 ... 1.0 l 1910 ... 100 ... 1.0 l 1911 - "85 ... .0.83 1912 ... 129 :.- 1.24 Secular education in France gives the saiTio resudts. In Reformatory Schools, for Crime. Under Religious Schools. Year. Boys. Girls. 1881 6,777 1,637 1882 6,256 1,565 1883 6,373 1,501 1884 5,661 1,318 Under Secular Schools. 1.901 3,568 690 1902 3,182 661 1903 2,897 468 • 1904 2,653 471 1905 2,521 475 1906 2,657 618

I have no later statistics. The percentage of illiterates in France has r'al.bn from—adults > 21.49 (who could not read or write) in 1870 to 5.20 in lfX)5. In 11 years the percentage per 1,000 of illiterate conscripts fell from 180 to 52. So in the case of serious orimea it fell from 3.90 per 100 in 1873 to X.II in 1903. tfveryone expected that the number in gaols in New Zealand would increase because of the indeterminate sentences and fcke reformatory sentences, but.notwithstanding such sentences and the increase of population, the number in priaoa on 31st December in eaoh year for the past six yoars has been (taken from p. 457 New Zealand Statistics, 1.M.2):—

1907 84? 1908 879 1909 98& 1910 881 1911 87S 1912 866 Tlisn take illegitimacy: — Table "G." Per 1,000 of Unmarried Year. ' Population. 1886 10.70 1906 9.72 ' 1911 9.24 For Krery 100 Births. Illegitimate. 1900 ... ... 4.63 19(09 4.61 1910 4.47 inn . ... * °p 1912 -.. »v 3.H Jf you go to New South WaUl?. where tho Bible-in-Schools League system prevails, you will find the perentage of illegitimate births is higher than in New Zealand. • Tri New South Wales it was:— 1909 • 6.44 1910 6.28 1911 6.14

In New Zealand it was:—r 1909 ... ... 4.61 1910 4.47 1911 4.09

hi the Commonwealth tho. into of illegitimate births was, from 1900-02, 13.3 per thousand of unmarried females and widows to New Zealand's 8.9.

It is difficult to compare the criminal statistics of different countries, because of three things':—(l) The laws are different,- (2) the efficiency of the police varies ; and (3) the convictions before juries vary. Ido not, therefore, make any comparison between the statistics of Australia and New Zealand.

Take our crime of all ages, and you will find, notwithstanding our indeterminate sentences and, our reformatory sentences (both of which have increased the number of our prisoners) that crime- has fallen.

The tables marked "G" are from the Government statistics. I hope you will not listen any more to fairy tales about an increase of our crime. | You mention in your, letter what I c*m loth to believe- is true of honest people and upright teachers. You tell me that in some schools of Otago the provisions of the Education Act are being violated by school committees and teachers, Bible lessons and religious instruction being given in school hours. If our people are so unmoral as to violate the laws we have made, I do not wonder that some people expect an increase of crime. I know you are honest, and will, when opportunity occurs, denounce such a proceeding. How would Protestants like Catholics to say Mass in a public school in school hours? Or a Mohammedan to < teach the Koran? No; I think in this you must be misinformed, as no righteous moral citizen would so violate our laws.

I notice you separate the district.>, and say that in Otago there is less javenile crime than in Auckland. _ This may be so, but a mere nominal list of criminals, without reference" to the population is most misleading. What is the-percentage per 1,000? To show, also, how misleading classifying crime by districts ; may be, I may mention that the three prisoners—and they were the only prisoners—found guilty in Blenheim this w.eek.. were all natives of Otago. and had been a very short time in the Marlborough district. If, however, districts are to be compared, there are many .things to be considered such as' climate, environment, heredity, etc., etc., and the crime amongst grown-ups. ►Since I am writing you 1 must tell you what you were accused of saying — namely, that the increase of strikes and the industrial troubles were caused by the want of Bible-reading in schools. Of course I know, with what has happened before your eyes in New South Wales, you could not have made such a silly remark. I may inform you that only one leader of industrial labour that has come before me charged with an ofFence arising out of the labour i troubles was by birth a New Zealandei. 'Some of those before the Court were l from New South Wales and some from Europe, and some even from Scotland where tho Bible is read in almost all the schools; but I need not enlarge, as I know you would not have made such a statement without an investigation of the birthplace and education of the leaders of those who set the law at defiance, though their action may nave been akin to the school committees and teachers —if such there be —who have violated the Education Act. . I need not say that I am astounded that descendants of U.P.s and Freekirkers should be found in tho ranks or advocates of State religion. It seems that all the fights for freedom in our fathers' days were in vain. Alas! that we should be found backsliding to the evil days when persecution raged. If the proposals of the Bible-in-Schools League are carried persecution will be present with us, for only a teacher that can repeat the shibboleth _of the most numerous sect in a district will have a chance of election, and we will no longer live in a free State. May I add that the Presbyterians and Methodists apparently assume that the most numerous party amongst the bishops and ministers of the Anglican Church approve of an undenominational education. This is not, I learned, the attitude of the "High Church," or, as some of them call themselves, the "Anglo-Catholic," party in England, and I doubt if it is the attitude of the same party in New Zealand. In the "Church Notos" of the London newspaper . the "Standard," there appeared on the 12th January, 1914, the follow-j ing:— I

Twenty years ago a considerable commotion was naturally aroused by the discovery that certain teachers in the London Board schools were giving religious instruction of a nature inconsistent with a belief in the Godhead of Christ. The incident was the starting point of a prolonged controversy, the ultimate effect of which was to convince thinking churchmen that the spiritual interests of Church children are not safe under the system of so-called "undenominational" Bible teaching. This conviction has often since then been reinforced by the occurence of various incidents, all pointing in the same direction. One such, which took place recently, seems worth recounting. In a certain county council school the head mistress, in reciting the dismissal prayers, used from the Prayer Book, as allowed by the council, 'the Third Collect for evensong, "Lighten our darkness," etc. The Collect ends : "For the love of Thy only Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ." Thereupon she was challenged by one of the teachers, who asserted that the words "Thy only Son" are not in the form authorised by the county council, adding that it is "not agreed that the Saviour was God's only Son." (|bviously the result of eliminating any Christian doctrine on which people' are "not agreed" is to sacrifice the consciences of those who believe more to the de-

mands of those who believe less

Is this proposal of denominational education also to be settled by a refer-

endum? Suppose the majority were to ask that the children be taught that in Church government the Episcopal system alone is Scriptural? Would the State have the. right to teach what the majority asks ? There is in this colony a, majority of people wJio believe in the Episcopal government of the Church.— With kind regards, yours very truly, Robert Stout,

Table "G." Year. 1887 1892 1897 1902 1PO7 1908 l'.«»9 1910 1911 1912 Proportion Prisoners per 10,000 of Received. Population. ... 2,639 ... 44.25 ... 2,16-1 ... 33.69 ..■. i;8S4 ... 25.84 ... 2.396 ... 30.03 ... 3,091 ... 33.63 ... 3,009 ... 31.64 ... 3,!o9 ... 32.51 ... 3,242 ... 32,66 ... 2.877 ... 28.35 ... 3,023 ... 29.09