LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12588, 19 August 1910, Page 8

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, August 13. "The Council met in the afternoon. The debate on the second reading or ■«the Crimes Act Amendment Bill was by the Hon. Carncross, who -generally approved of the measure, avhicu, ho said, had a noble aim to ele--vato the orimijial. He, however, urged Jthat i)rovision be made for limiting the age of those sent to reformatories. It v.ould baa mistake to place in reform- . -utories men who had spent many years in criminal pursuits. In regard to "leaching prisoners trades, he thought '.;.''£•* to the interest of the trades unions ■•:•& well as to the criminals' that the* "latter should hiiye- some means of earnjjig a livelihood upon liberation. The Hon. Loughnan commended tho - »ew system of prison reform, and defended the proposal to teach prisoners ■irades. Pie believed the proposed systom was a very fine one, based upon rational methods of treating the criminal. Tho Hon. McGowan did not think it right to use the funds of the State so teach skilled trades to those who forfeited their places in .society, ana soertaiuly ;t was wrong to pamper crinn■nals in the way proposed. He condemned the proposal for Prisons' Board, maintaining that the Minister had no right to shirk his responsibilities. The debate was adjourned, and the '^Council rose.