The Waipawa Mail WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1938. PASSING NOTES. PRIME MINISTER’S PRAISE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 142, 24 August 1938, Page 2

The Waipawa Mail WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1938. PASSING NOTES. PRIME MINISTER’S PRAISE.

Last week the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, was good enough publicly to express sincere thanks to the Press of the Dominion for the very full publicity they had given to the social security legislation. Praise from such a source is praise indeed. But surely Mr Savage should be able to appreciate the fact that this publicity was called for. The bill provides news, real news, whatever one’s views may be as to the proposals contained therein. There had been so many diverse utterances as to the extent of the alleged superannuation and as to the cost of the whole scheme that the public were, naturally, anxious to know the best —or the worst, and it was the duty of the Press to supply that information. The papers would have been failing in their duty if they had not done so. But when it comes to publishing extended reports of Ministers’ activities, such as the ceremony of opening State houses, the Press are surely the best judges as to the news value of such reports. Some Ministers think differently, and complain that they are not getting a fair deal. Still, it is very gratifying to have Mr Savage’s expression of appreciation. A SAD REFLECTION. In passing sentence in the Supreme Court at Wellington on ten young men—the oldest apparently only 26 —for various crimes, mainly breaking and entering and theft, the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) was constrained to remark on the distress he felt at having to deal with such cases and the difficulty of a Judge to know what to do for the best in the interests of society and of the offenders themselves. “The calendar,” he said, “to-day is a very sad reflection upon conditions of modern life.” One of the worst features of the series of cases, not otherwise connected with one another, was the fact that nearly all the offenders had against them a substantial “list” of previous convictions and, as his Honor pointed out, were qualifying to be declared habitual criminals. This

for young men in their twenties is indeed “a sad reflection upon conditions of modern life.” Wellington’s calendar unfortunately is not unique. Similar eases have confronted Judges all over the country and similar warnings have been delivered from the Bench against the consequences of embarking on a career of crime. It is easy to understand the distress of Judges in having to impose sentences which as penalties may fit the crime, but may not reform the criminal.