THE LASH FOR BURGLARS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9252, 3 June 1908, Page 2

THE LASH FOR BURGLARS.

BRITISH COLUMBIAN METHODS. In British Columbia they are trying the lash for burglary. Burglary is a crime which borders, so nearly on, murder that no ordinary punishment can suffice for it. It is not only a crime against property — which is bad enough — but a possible and even probable crime against the person of th© owner of tho property. In this respect it is akin to highway robbery or a city holdup A man ie put in such a position, that he cua hardly help fighting the thief, and an armed thief is. very likely to commit murder if that be the onlj path of escape. We* hear' (says the 'Montreal Star") a grgat deal about the reformative side of prison life. At times we cannot help getting the opinion that many people look upon prisons as places appointed where men of criminal instincts can be gathered and gently .taught the folly of crime. But there should be a sharp line drawn between young cbaps who have been forced into a life of crime by circumstances arising from poverty and other social misfortunes for which they have been little to blame, and men who set deliberately about crime as an easy means of earning a livelihood. We may be anxious to reform the former, but we must inflict punishment upon the latter which will deter his followers from following his bad example. Tiie deterring effect of prison life is quite as important and far older than . the reforming effect, and we ought not to lose -sight of it. Burglary, robbery by _ violence, and all forms of crime which menace the person must be severely dealt with, and it will be interesting to see how the British Co- , lumbian experiment with the lash re- - -ult^j.