The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY. MAY 18. 1881.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3736, 18 May 1881, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY. MAY 18. 1881.

How MUCH has been written on " Religion, Education, and Crime," and yet how little has been satisfactorily proved by the columns of figures which have been compile! in reference to this trinity of subjects. It is sometimes urgei that ignorance is " the parent of crime," and it is argued that if we spread more widely the "blessings of education" our criminal statistics will be considerably diminished. When we examine the arguments which are based on this assertion, we find a very large portion of the crimiual class possess that kind of knowledge which, it is alleged, will act in other instances as a deterrent from crime. According to the latest statistics published, which were for the year 1879, we learn that there were 5,460 prisoners in the various gaols in the Colony. Of these 49 were of superior education, 4.169 could read and write, 341 could read only, whilst the ignorant, those who could neither read nor write, were only 901. Now from this it would appear that instead of ignorance being the source of crime, it is rather the reverse, for the number who can read and write predominate. It would be wrong, however, to say that this was conclusive evidence against the assertion that "education decreased crime," because, education being so universal, those who could read and write would naturally form the larger portion of the population. According to the census published in 1878 the total population of New Zealand was 409,979, which includes men, women and children. After deducting the children under the age of five years, we find that there arc 340,261 persons — 309,416 of whom can read, or read and write, and 27,892 who are unable to do either. There are 2953 persons whose education is stated to be unknown, but we have not taken their number into account. Now, if anyone will take the trouble to calculate, they will find that whilst one in every seventy persons who could read, or read and write, was at the date mentioned in the gaols of the Colony, there was only one in thirty of those who may be put in the category of ignorant. The fact that a man may be able to read and write and yet be a rascal, is seized upon by denominationalists as an argument in favor of the State attempting to impart something more than mere secular instruction. They say that a man's moral and religious nature as well as his intellectual faculties ought to be educated. But then we know that religious education is by no means a guarantee against crime. On the contrary, it is often used as a cloak, or a mask, and where the resolution is good it is often too weak to resist temptation to break the law. Thus we find the prisoners in our gaols for the most part classified according to their religious denomination, but these figures are of little value for the purpose of any calculation. We have only referred to this matter in a casual way, because it is so often asserted that " education decreases crime." Having referred to statistics and found that it is not so, we thought it would be as well to disabuse t'ae minds of those to whom that cant phrase has become almost a proverb.

Maj jb Atkinson admits that the Property Tax is inquisitorial — but it has a worse feature, it is vexatious. Everybody having paid what was demanded, thought they would have breathing time for a few months ; but they are not to be so blessed. We publish a notice in auother part j of to-day's issue in which persons who have become liable to taxation under the Property Tax since the assessment roll for 1880-81 was made up, are required to send to the Commissioner statements of tkeir property ; and persons now on the roll who have acquired further property since the roll was completed have to inform the Government of it. The formes for filling in will not be sent round as was done on the last occasion, but persons are required to get them from the Post-office, and to do the work themselves. The penalty for neglecting to make the return is £100 and treble duty ; and the Government threaten persons if they neglect to send in the return to immediately proceed against them.