THE STRAYING GIRL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11119, 2 July 1914, Page 6

THE STRAYING GIRL.

REFORM NOT SO EASY.

MUST COME FROM WITHIN.

NEED FOR SECONDARY AGENCIES.

What is to ho done with the girl or voting Avoiiian that, jwsrssing most of the qualities for success in lite. turns aside for wrong-doing and under the hardening influence' or prison walls, bills fair to join the irreclaimable criminl ranker 1 Reform her; yes. but not on ci• misulsit)u. " Relonriation oy compulsion !" said a social worker to ;i "Star" inquirer. "Itis a coatradictiun in tonus. ■" Tho i"isf> of Xossie Carter supplies n problem for criminologists. Hero is a girl bent on living by [also pretences she is an uncommon typo in New Zealand. Sbo has broken promises ol retorm; promises perhaps only used to escape from prison walls.

PREVENTION ANT) CI'RK. "You luive to reiorm people by stealth.'" This was the essence of an interview with a Christchurch minister. He wished his name to be withheld, a.s he was not. too closely in touch with the reformative prisons in New Zealand. but he admitted a study of criminology. He remarked that he was not too hopeful of the relurinative effects of the, prisons, from what he. knew of them, and looked rather to secondary agencies to effect the best results. There was a conflict, of opinion. On ono side there were those who believed in punishment. and on the other side reformation. The Government in making 'provision for reformative treatment had done well, but to be effective it.should bo entered upon in the early stages, at the first symptom of a criminal career. That was being done to a large extent, through the Government s reformative institutions, the Juvenile 1 Courts and so on, but ho was satisfied that as far as the hardened offender was concerned the reformative treatment at present- employed was not effective.

OUTSIDE AGENCIES. '' There are agencies associated particularly with the Christian Church,'"' continued the speaker, " which aim definitely at the reformation of criminals, and which, to a large extent, are successful; and my own feQling is that the proper line for the Government to pursue would be to secure more co-opera-tion between itself and these agencies; or, indeed, new agencies might be created. I hose wlio are guilty of crimes should certainly be punished for their crimes, but at the same time punishment should be tempered with mercy. Those undergoing reformative treatment should be handed over to other agencies, and. subject to good behaviour. thov should enjoy a certain amount of liberty to be forfeited at once at any symptom of a return to a criminal career."' OCT OK THE TOWNS. " The suggestion of the Government to replace the present antiquated and altogether inadequate prison at Lyttelton is a long step in the right direction. Speaking generally, most of the crime centres in the cities, and couutrv life is a healthier life, and a life that does not tend in the direction of certain forms of crime. If these men who have fallen into criminal habits were taken into the country to do iarm work, a great deal would be done to lessen the crime that exists at present iji New Zealand.

THE WOMAN'S BURDEN. As society is organised, a woman that takes a'step in the wrong direction is very much more heavily penalised than a.man; and it seems' to me, that now that women arc taking such an active interest in problems of social reform affecting their own sex they should give attention to this and formulate some better scheme of reform. The thing is hopeless at present. The whole thing falls back oil the problem of the homelife of the people. Unless there is a, revival in homelife or the. care of children and home discipline, the best and finest- scheme of social reform will fall short. "We may be solving the problem at ens!, while at the other end conditions exist which perpetuate the problem from generaltioii to generation. In many homes children simply share the experience of Topsy. who just 1 growed up.' " ON THE RIGHT TRACK.

" We are conscious of the. problem, and are, trying to grapple with it. and that is a good thing. The tendency is upwards, and if we can only discover a wav not to do it. some good is achieved. Men seek a more humane attitude towards criminals, and a large clement, of the crime which - is at present a perplexity we are grappling with. If we could deal with the liquor traffic and the Gambling evil, we should eliminate a large amount of the obvious crime in a generation."

GOOD WORK BEING DONE. Mrs A. Kaye, who is well known in connection with all charitable and Christian work in the eitv. interviewed on the subject ,of the reformation of young girls, said that it was an extremely difficult subject upon which to express views. She said that the ideas of the Government, and the work that it was already doing, were excellent. The work was very difficult but it was in her opinion being done oil the right lines. Mrs Kaye said that greater classification would improve the present system' a great deal. Girls could not be reformed by Act of Parliament, it was an individual matter, and she wa-s convinced that the* only real reformation came when a girl whole-heartedly accented the Christian faith and jjot the power of the Holy Spirit in her heart. Some girls reformed up to a certain pitch ; there were stages in their reformation, but the. only real safeguard was bv the girl becoming a Christian. Every girl had to be. treated to a certain extent according to her character arid her temperament. One good way was through the a flections. One had to get to understand the motive underlying the girl's wayward tendency and have some knowledge of her previous history before deciding upon the course to follow with regard to her.

Dealing- with the particular case of the girl Carter, -Mrs Kaye said that, there was a girl who evidently was normal in every respect and who went deliberately to sin- 1 here may have been a motive for her actions, but if it was simply'a ease of vanity and desire, for possession of something that did not belong to Iter, then the matter would not be helped with a display of sentimental sympathy. That was the fault of the age, she said, and it was found in all directions. People who did wrong must be shown the extent of their sin before any attempt was made to redeem them. Mrs Kaye said that she was not in a position to deal with the reformative treatment accorded women in prison, but she thought that in such cases it would be doing no good by displaying sentimental sympathy, ft was a great pity that there was a tendency sometimes to condone sin in this manner.

The case was. different with regard to girls who were not normal or able, to control themselves. The Government' was doing all possible for such girl?, hut- ior others who were outside the &cope of Te Oranga she favourer] the establishment of a farm colony where such people could be kept, if necessary for life. Such a. colony would Ue more for pirls with vicious tendencies, who had <4Ol. beyond control. Hut the root of the whole matter was the parents. If they could only bo reformed ami brought to realise their responsibilities towards their children