The Club Smoking Room

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 22, 27 May 1908, Page 4

The Club Smoking Room

By

HAVANA

THE treatment of criminals,” said the lawyer, “is always a matter of great difficulty. The greater the severity of the sentence the greater the prevalence of erime. When men were hanged in England fol’ comparatively trivial offences, crime was far more rife than under the more humane laws at present obtaining. To begin with, when men knew they might get hanged for theft they did not hesitate to commit murder to conceal their deed. And juries were very loth to convict. They felt that it was barbarous to hang a man for a small theft, and so they seized on every opportunity they could find to acquit the prisoner. At one time, not so very long ago, a petition was got up protesting against the severe sentences passed on burglars. It was pointed out that men liable to penal servitude for life for burglary, did not hesitate to resort to firearm's to avoid capture. The number of burglaries with violence showed an alarming increase, and when the sentences were reduced armed burglars became the exception rather than the rule.” “I suppose,” remarked the journalist, “that the most striking example of this was in the Mount Rennie ease. The death sentences passed then by Mr. Justice Windyer shocked the public conscience, and the horrible scene on the scaffold, when one of the men was slowly strangled to death, owing to some bungling on the part of the executioner, still further aroused public indignation. It was said that for months afterwards no jury would convict in similar cases, and crimes of this sort consequently increased enormously. All the same there are offences that require stern and drastic treatment. There are certain cases of assault that can only be adequately met by flogging. This is the one punishment of which the hardened ami brutal criminal really stands in dread. Physical violence shown to the defenceless should be met by physical punishment. I am sure many crimes could be stamped out altogether if the “eat" were more liberally ordered. Garotting was entirely stopped in England by the judges ordering a flogging in all eases that came before them.” <£■<«><£■ “It is unfortunate,” put in the padre, “ that when the system of prison camps was more or less on trial, there should have been so many escapes. Of course the mistake lay in not taking sufficient care in the first instance to see that only men of good* character were sent to these eamps. It must be distinctly disquieting to residents in the neighbourhood to feel that dangerous characters may at any time be let loose amongst them, and there is no character more dangerous than the escaped convict. To begin with, he must steal in order to get funds and clothing wherewith to make good his escape. Then he knows a heavy sentence awaits him on recapture, so he is not deterred from acts of violence to avoid being taken. I may say that I entirely approve of the system of prison camps. I think the idea of employing the prisoners in some form of useful and humanising work such as tree-planting is an excellent one. But the prison camp should be a reward for good conduct. and only those should be sent there who have earned a right to reward, and whose sentences have only a short time to run. No one would try to escape and run the risk of recapture and heavy punishment if he was about to be liberated shortly. But to sendl uieu who are known to be des|>eratc criminals, and who have long trims of unexpired sentences yet to run, to these camps, where the facilities for •scape are so great, is simple madness. 1

was in England when Peace, the notorious burglar, made his sensational leap from the train. He was handcuffed and guarded by two warders, and he had to leap through the carriage window when the train was going nearly sixty miles an hour. A great many people looked upon him as something uncanny, but when at the assizes the warders said he had escaped from the train, people thought he must be in league with the evil one. I believe if he had not injured himself by .his fall he would have succeeded in escaping altogether. It was wonderful how he could disguise himself and alter the expression of his faee. I knew the chaplain who attended him in prison, and he told me that Peace could disguise himself by simply moving the muscles of his face. He could look the saint or the rogue at will. He had been a churchwarden, but I don’t know which of these two expressions secured his election.”

<»«><s> “ Any real decrease in crime,” urged! the schoolmaster, “ can only be brought about by education. No system of repression or punishment can ev ?r be permanently successful. I see from recently published statistics that there is less crime in New Zealand than in any other part of Australasia. That does not look as if we were becoming pagans. And I believe the decrease in crime is due in part to our great prosperity, and still more to the high moral tone of our public schools. For, say what you will, the teachers in the colony do try and impress on the scholars the primary duties of go citizenship, andi even, if we don’t teach the Bible, we teach the children to be honest and truthful, and generous and pure minded. The native born New Zealander is seldom a criminal. You will find that most of those accused of serious crimes come from other lands.” <S> <?> <3> “It is not easy,’' replied the dominie, “to define the causes of crime. Mere education may only make the criminal more clever and more cunning. Environment has, of course, much to do with it. Children brought up in a vicious atmosphere are likely to grow up vicious. But you find criminals in all walks of life, and amongst them are fnany who have enjoyed every possible advantage in their youth. I believe good home influence is the best safeguard a man or woman can have, and of all home influences that of a good mother is the greatest. I am quite sure that the one pure and holy memory that remains to many who have lost all else is the memory of their mother. Life in the colony is robbed of many safeguards for young men. Public opinion is in many matters more lax. All the more need, therefore, that we should safeguard

home influences. The schoolmaster can never hope to take the place of the parent. The defect in our modern treatment of criminals lies in the fact that we do not give sufficient chance to men who have been in gaol to reform. We harry them and brand them as criminals, and only too many find their way back to prison again. For to a man who has once served a sentence. nJ ch of the dread of imprisonment is gone. He has lost self-respect, and unless we can restore that, there is little hope of real reform. It says but little for the success of our methods that there should be so many people who are habitual gaol-birds.” ♦ ♦ ♦ “The virture of the majority,” remarked the eyaic, “is the virtue of not being found out. And there is no person in this world so outwardly virtuous and pious as the man. or woman who is cusseious of undiscovered sin. It was the Pharisees, not Christ, who wished to cast the first

stone. I never meet a person who is harsh and censorious in judging others without wondering what crime of their own they are l trying to conceal. A woman who is hard on her erring sister is of course merely drawing attention to her own ugliness and laek of youthful eharm. I never knew a pretty woman to be hard on others. A man is probably meditating selling you a farm or inviting you to invest in a salted gold mine. A laek of charity covers a multitude of sins.”