EDUCATION AND CRIME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 17, 1 September 1893, Page 27

EDUCATION AND CRIME.

(To the editor of the Evening Star.)

Sib, — In his paper on " Education and Crime " Mr Whetter tries to •how that g >dlees — in other words, a secular— system produces tbe the highest morality. I say " godless " because "secular" pertains to things temporal and worldly, not spiritual or holy. No teacher has a right to give a child a moral lesson. Tbe Education Act Bays th« teaching must be " secular." Anyhow, I will prove that morality cannot be taught without religion. To be consistent, like France and Victoria, we ought to exclude the word " God " from our school books. That we have not done it shows that Christianity still influences ns.

Mr Whetter'i tables, for the comparison of crime, are unreliable. Nearly all of them ara based opon "convictions " only, and include minor offences. Now, convictions are much more difficult to obain in. tome countries than in others, and what may be considered a minor offence in one country may not be so in another. Hence all criminal experts take as the fairest teat the number of charges respecting serious crimes that are viewed alike in all countries. Tbe absurdity of Mr W better's test is evident when we think that the Susie person convicted (Bay) forty times for drunkenness — which is no crime — would count thirty-nine times more in the police records, and therefore in his tables, than one who committed murder I

No doubt the number of convictions all round have decreased, bat this does not prove a relative decrease in crime and immorality. Besides, other factors have been at work :

1. Mere intellectualism makes people more cunning, and, though they may be morally guilty of all the crimes in the Decalogue, it enables them to escape the poliosman's clutches.

2. Lessening tbe honrs of labour has withdrawn thousands from vicious surroundings and thrown them more into their wives' and children's company. L- 3, The moral influences of Christianity, in so far as they have a bold upon the nation's co Krncp, are still in power for good. 4. The temperanoe crusade, led and sustained almost wholly by religious men and women, has decreased the number of drunkards, and therefore of convictions.

Bat all the belt criminal specialists contradict Mr Whetter, and say that crime and immorality are increasing. For instaoce | Havelock Ellis, in " The Criminal" (p. 295) nyi : " The level of criminality, it is well known, is rising throughout the civilised world." William Douglas Morrison (of H. M. Prison, Wandsworth) in his book " Crime and its causes " (p. 135), says that Mr fioland P* Faulkner demonstrated before the American Statistical Association that the native-born Americans committed more crime than the poor and more uneducated foreign-born population in America, which does not ssy much for tbe more cultivated " brain matter " of the former. And what about the more cultivated people of France, where a rabid system of secular education exists ? On page 13 of the same book M. Henri Jolly " estimates that crime has increased 183 per cent., and that it is steadily rising." Really, France had better make peace with the Jesuits again. And look at tbe exceedingly refined "plastic nerve matter tendenices" of the better educated portion of our Victorian cousins, who were responsible for the teething mass of political and commercial rascality there. And in the United States Messrs A. D. Wells and Howard Wines, eminent criminal specialists, say in " Recent Economic Changes" (p. 345), that " crime is increasing faster than the growth of population." And Dr Mischler, of Vienna, and Professor Von Lizt, of Marburg, say that " fifteen million of persons have been convicted by the German criminal courts within the last ten years, and tbe outlook for the future is sombre in the last degree" (pp. 12 and 13, "Crime and Its Causes.") America is a striking contradition of the assertion that as religion gets divorced from edncation crime decreases. Alex Winter, F.S.S., in " The Elmira Reformatory," shows (p. 6) an enormons increase of criminals and offenders against the law in the United States thus : Proportion of prisoners per 1,000,00 inhabitants.

In 1850 ... ... 290 prisoners In 1860 ... ... 607 „ In 1870 853 „ In 1880 , 1,169 „

or an increase of 400 per cent, in thirty years ! " But the Unite Sates is tbe dumping ground for the|riff-raff of Europe." Not so. 1 have already shown that the native-born Americans commit the most crime. Beside?, it is generally the best conducted and most energetic and adventurous spirits that corns from Europe with a laudable desire to better their prospects. I will now show that there are more crime and immorality in Australasia than at Home, notwithstanding Mr Wbetter's inference that the average " nerve matter" of colonials is more sensitive to ' consequences " than tbe race from which we sprang. But as Mr Whetter'a tables are all at sea, let us take the serious crimes dealt with by Buperior Courts from the ' Tasmauian Official Record ' for 1892 (p. 408), a most reliable publication, to be Been in oar AtheDseum : — Proportion of serious crimes dealt with by superior courts—average for last five years. Committed for trial per 10,000 persons. Western Australia ... ... 24 9 Queensland ... ... ... 14*8 New South Wales ... ... 14 8 New Zealand... ... ... 9 1 Victoria ... ... ... 8 8 South Australia ... ... 74 Tasmania ... ... ... 69 Scotland ... ... ... 5-9 Ireland ... ... ... 5 0 England and Wales ... ... 4 6 This table shows that the " keenest memory for consequences " exists where denominationaUem and religious teaching and not where secularism exis's. If a " man's moral character depends largely upon the physical condition of his thinking machinery—the brain," how is it that our more highly educated colonials do not show better results? But let me fortify my facts. I take tbe following from Hayter's ' Victorian Year Book, 1 1810-91 (p. 401) :— Deaths from violence of all kinds during a series of years. Proportion per 100,000 living. Queensland ... ... ... 1638 Western Australia ... ... 161*7 New South Wales ... ... 1117 New Zealand... ... ... 957 Victoria ... ... ... 946 England and Wales ... ... 757 Tasmania ... ... ... 745 South Australia ... ... 742 Scotland ... ... ... 72*0 Ireland ... ... ... 391 Here again the balance is largely against Australasia. Then take the deaths from suicide on tha same page :— Proportion per 100,000 living of deaths from suicide daring a tsries of years. Queensland ... ... 13.5 Victoria ... ... 11.0 Western Australia ... ... 9 2 New South Wales ... ... 9.3 New Zealand ... ... 9.0 South Australia ... ... 8,9

.Tasmania ... ... o.a England and Walei ... 6.9 Scotland ... ... 4 0 Ireland ... ... 1.7 Evidently tte colonies think suicide tbe best way of avoiding " consequences." But one of tbe beet tests of a country's growth in morality is the rate of illegitimacy. Hayter (p. 808) gives :— Illegitimate births to every 100 children bora, 1881-88. Scotland ... ... 8.5 England M . ... 4 9 New South Wales ... ... 4.4 Victoria ... ... 4.3 Tasmania ... ... 4.1 Queensland ... ... 88 Heir Zealand ... ... 2.6 Ireland ... ... 2 5 Hepe the eoloniee show np, well ; bat while in the United Kng> do* the rate keeps about the fame from year to year, unfortunately |n each colony except Tasmania it has steadily increased from 1872 to 18**, tnni :— New South Wale* ... ... 4.03 to S 33 Victoria 2,99 „ 4.98 Qoeeftksland 2.92 „ 4.68 Tasmania 4.40 „ 4.00 New Zealand ... ... 1.42 „ 3.32 South Australia ... ... 2.26 „ 2.47 Bo that we are forging ahead. Mr Whetter avoids these facts ; aod why did he than Ireland in bii paper 1 This country tops the lot in its " memory tor oonsequences," but its education is entirely opposite to that advocated by Mr Whetter. All through it will be noticed that Tasmania, irrespective of ite being a convict settlement, has an excel* lent record. Strangs to say, this is the only colony that practically maintains denotttlnationalism.

Till Australasia reverses these tables, it is fruitless to argue ahont the moral effects of secular education. I yield to no one in my admiration for what it has accomplished ; but surely the addition of moral culture would strengthen it. How can that be called a ■ational system of education that excludes the most national element of all in the production of character and conduct. Mr W better's explanation of the scientific law of cause and effect is another worn out view of the Christian precept "As ye sow so shall ye reap." Bat are we sowing the seedß of righteousness— that which exalts a nation ? Will Itarning the three E's or a scientific education do it t Mo, emphatically I Ttyey merely stimulate the intellect, and have no connection with quesiions of purity, reverence, resignation, holiness, sympathy, aelf-«acriflce, humility, patiencr, etc., which cannot be taught properly without the introduction of religion. Children have (1) A physical, (2) an intellectual, and (3) a spiritual nature. We provide for the first two, but ignore tbe most important as if it had no existence. Children cannot rise bigber than their teaching any moie than a-atuam can rise higoer than its source. How can we expect them to resist tbe secret and other temptations that beset them wbsn we let their conscience rust t We might as well txpect an atrophied limb to suddenly jump into healthy, vigorous action.

I have no patience with those who say that the Btate baa no right to teaob religion, bo long as religion is the basis of morale and the Bute expects the riding gsneration to be moral and upright it must give religion! teaching. But Mr Whetter says you can make children moral by giving their brain, nerves, and muscles, a k*ea memory for pain and pleasure i Of all theories this is the moat impracticable. Lots of things give pleasure that are decidedly immoral, and vice vertm. Look at the self-denial and pain and Buffering that a mother undergoes for the sake of her wayward boy, and ttte sufferings of those who give their lives for others. Indeed, we often nee the most exquisite pain allied to the sublimest moral achievements. Moreover, pleasure to one person is displeasure to another. One likes alcoholic liquors in moderation, and never seems to suffer, while another would is soon think of taking poison, Mr Whetter says nothing about this. Will he furnish a catechism of what produces pain and what pleasure ? What is bu standard of appeal 1 I'm afraid it is in the land of chaos.

Nothing but a rigid application of deep religious convictions to •very-day life will force morality higher and higher. The contrary It true lo proportion ai religion is thrown overboard. To prevent Instruction from becoming a weapon in (he bands of crime we should

give a larger share to moral and astbetic than to intellectual and scientific educa ion. The utilitarian eohool decreases the moral spirit in children by robbing them of the power of doing good for its own sake. Hence the utility of Christian teaching in the prssent state of the human mind. Teachers like Mr Whetter should welcome it as an aid in cultivating the " plastic nerve matter " of the child-like mind, and thus produce a more refined and cultivated memory for consequences than can be done under the present rigime.—l am, etc., Joseph Braithwaite. Dnnedin, August 22.