The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JULY 25, 1887. LEGISLATION NEEDED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1618, 25 July 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, JULY 25, 1887. LEGISLATION NEEDED.

As reported m our Saturday's issue, some foolish person has of late betn amusing himself by playing "the ghost," m Trevorton and other suburbs of Ashburton, thereby alarming women, children, and sometimes belated pedestrians to a greater or less degree. There ate m every community some semless fellows only oaejdegree removed from the category of " insane persons," who find amusement m terrifying women and children without reflecting — if indeed the power of reflection be still them, which we very much doubt, — how serious the consequences may prove. Such, it will be remembered, some short time ago, played their pianks m and around Timaru, Wellington, and at other places m the colony, with the result that several persons were so terrified that serious consequences, m one case, if we remember rightly, fatal consequences ensued. In our own locality we hear that two females are seriously ill from the effects of fright — m one case, we believe, it is thought that the consequences may prove extremely disastrous. Now, without offering any opinion as to whether a husband or father, whose wife or child may have suffered injury through the senseless action of the ghost, would be justified m shooting it, we may remarkr that it was not until such a course was threatened at Timaru, that the nocturnal maraudings of the individual were put a stop to, and we only know what we should do under such circumstances. In the present state of the law such offenders can only be proceeded against by a very clumsy and round-about process. " The Police Offences Act, 1884," simplified matters as regards a large number of offences, but unfortunately this latest phase of insanity had either not developed itself or, if so, had escaped the notice of the Legislature, and we think it would be well if the Act weie amended m the next session, by making ghost-playing a penal offence, punishable by. imprisonment without the option of a fine. We have any amount of Acts for the protection of the property, life, and even health of the people, and we see no reason why the ghost-playing business should not be included among the offences against the latter, seeing that it is capable of producing very lamentable results, and that by no possibility can it be made to subserve any good or useful purposes.