PRESS REPORTS ON CRIME.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 8 October 1926, Page 12

PRESS REPORTS ON CRIME.

To the Editor of the “Timiuu Herald.’’ Sir, — For a very long time past i have bad it on my mind, ami on my conscience, to protest against a grave evil which the public Press lias ill its power to remedy, and lor which indeed I am convinced that, tbe Press is largely responsible. 1. refer to the publication of nauseating details, particularly details of soul-sickening murders. Take, for example, the drowning of tbe children by the demented mother in Auckland recently. Those pitiful scones now live in the minds of thousands of our women, and men too, and what, result is likely to follow? Wh.v. just a repetition of that same horror, for one horror preying on the minds of thousands is certain to reproduce itself in some weak sfiot. I am certain that you will agree with me- that the same is true of crime of all sorts. It is not the cinema only 1 hat is responsible for inflaming the mind to tragedy and crime. It is the public Press of to-day, which paints tho pictures which are to adorn the mind of the nation,- and plays upon the strings of many a sensitive heart with ghastly result. Trusting that a more powerful pen than mine niivy pleat the cause of the public in this vital matter.—l am, etc., CONSCIENCE.