AN AUCKLAND SENSATION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 22358, 24 September 1889, Page 2

AN AUCKLAND SENSATION.

A MINISTER'S VJalt TO HAUNTS OF VIOB.

SHOCKING REVELATIONS.

[Pkb Press

Auckland, September 24 A sensation hi s bean caused to-day by tbo publication ot a letter by the Rev G. B Monroe, a well-known Presbyterian clergyman, and formerly one of the prominent ftdvio&tes for the repeal of the Ooutigious Diseases Act, giving an account of a recent night visit to houses of Questionable repate, In the ooaupiny of the police* He says :— " Oar visits round the city were not oocfined to what msy be called slums, where the criminal and depraved are expected to ooL'grtgate, for we entered places of questionable repute In some of the most respectable localities, and certainly loonid not bave believed that there were euoh large and magnificently famished ' Houses ' In a comparatively small city like Auckland, with Its presant commercial depression. We antored twenty-four houses, snd called a>about thirty. In these houses wo found over rixty girlo, many of them Intelligent and well educated, and jadglng from appearances they must ha7o onoe moved In respectable circles. During tie time the Uoutaglouß Disgaßßß Apt w^a ip force there wete eevonty-five professional proa^i-r tutes known to the police, but there are now at I< aat 400, not spenkng of about another 400 who are suspected, The majority ot ti>>) gtrls | saw wero between the agoa of fifteen and twenty, and I ana safe m atutlng that there are eporea living lives of vice who are vary rauph undee fifteen yenrß of age. When the Oontaglooß Dlaoaseß Aot was In exlßtenoe juvenile proatltatlon was aloioßt driven from our otreeta, but not? you could not walk from top ti bottom of Queen atreot on a Saturday evenlug without meeting at least fifty young girls who ac living a life of vice. It is usual to argue that vice was driven Into secrecy by thoCoaUgloua piaoaaes Apt, bat I learned from my vlalta that saah was nbt tho' oaee, for women under Vbp saiyeill&noe of ■ the pollco were only top ready to Inform upon others. They werp ; than iv ' /aol driven out of jthe ply, but now they are ! oom ld g In every day' and If something h \ not done soon to stem the Increasing tide ! of vice It will be simply impossible to keep 1 our youths pure. I also learned from my visits that the Christian Oburoh In all her branches Is only working: on the Burfasa, and thgt there Ib a uusi of oorruption beneath our p?eaeat god benevolent machinery ; 'but how aooh' la to be reaohed I cannot sty ■It may bo oaid th»t tbe Salvation Array reaches and saves bohio of. these D)ifortiio»teß, and I do not dUpate tW$, but J »m ooniiden r t they could not reach tbe qltsa I refer to."