DENS OF INIQUITY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13754, 5 February 1919, Page 4

DENS OF INIQUITY.

It has long been suspected that houses of ill-fame were numerous in Wellington. The exposure which has been made by a Wellington newspaper of tho conditions existing in the capital city will do much good by arresting public attention and thus causing the light of criticism to be thrown upon them, with the result that they will be swept away. None but the simple-minded would wish details to be suppressed—glossing over and covering up almost invariably means aggravation of an evil. Tho greatest menace a nil danger is tho fashionably dressed .lezebel. We shall probably see a, number of women ''cranks''—of which Wellington has more than its share —setting out to prove that there are no fashionable dens of ill-famo in Wellington, and that a. fashionably dressed woman could not possibly misbehave herself. The unfortunate part of the business is that the police receive very little support in their efforts to wipe out these fashionable dens of infamy. Wellington has given us evidence of this in the past. Immediately a. fashionably dressed woman is hauled before the court on a charge of conducting" a house of illfame, a number of fashionably dressed female cranks set out to show that the police are wrong, and that the accused is a much-maligned woman. But if the woman is poorly dressed—well, these same fashionable female cranks would not lift one finger to defend her. It is to be hoped that the police will be able to wipe out these fashionable dens of iniquity—but they will never be able to do it properly until the law is amended, and the loop-hole of escape at present allowed fashionable evil-doers is done away with. All sensible people welcome tho publicity given by the press regarding evil blots in their midst, and it is to be hoped that the light which is being thrown on the state of affairs in Wellington will result in a cleaningup of these glittering dens of iniquity.