The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 438, 1 October 1880, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1.

The extent to which Government interference permeates every nook and corner of our life in these days of hypercivilisation has often been the subject of remark, and eminent writers have dwelt on the evils attendant upon the practice being carried to the extreme which appears likely to become usual. It is a singular fact that tlm most advanced Liberals—those called doctrinaires — perhaps push the doctrine.of interference of the State in private affairs to a greater extreme even than any contended for by the advocates of the most pronounced despotism. This doctrine and the practice resulting therefrom has spread immensely—we were about to write alarmingly—while the present generation hns been growing to manhood. In all British Colonies the tendency is to adopt the modes, of thought prevalent in the Mother Country, with just a tendency to exaggerate them. We believe this is the explanation of the fe#ling prevailing in the Australasian Colonies as to Government interference, but, whatever its cause, the fact is indisputable that we do look to the Government to do for us a host of things which. our fathers *"elt the responsibility of doing for themselves. Let us just glance at what a paternal Government does for a citizon of New Zealand. It presides at his birth, taking care that the professional assistance necessary on the occasion shall be rendered by some one possessing its confidence. It " registers " him when a few days old ; it vaccinates him gratis within a few weeks ; as soon as he is fit, and sometimes sooner, it puts him to school, and superintends his education from his A, B, ab, up to his B.A. degree. When he grows up it does not relax its paternal care. It insures his life for him; it scrutinises the solvency or otherwise of any benefit society he may wish to join ; if he goes into business it collects his debts for him ; if he gets involved, it takes charge of his affairs, and settles with his creditors ; if he falls Bick, it puts him into a hospital or an asylum ; and when he reaches the last stage of all,|it superintends his obsequies and provides as to how, and when, and where his morttil remains may be interred. All this is utterly irrespective of the watchful care of his safety, comfort, and convenience, displayed all through his life by that vast army provi 'ed by the State to be a terror to evildoers, and called the police. When we notice the outcry that is constantly made for the police to attend to this, that, and the other petty annoyance of the respectable classes, we can hardly realise; the fact that within the memory of men not old there were no police in the British Dominions. Their introduction, as we all know, was due to Sir Robert Peel, and hence they have derived two of their slang appellations.

We constantly hear of people demanding of the Government to do something for them which they ought to be

thoroughly competent to do for themselves. But a case which we have just come across in a contemporary puts all instances of the kind completely in the shade. Here it is:—" At the R.M. Court, Timaru, on Monday last, George and William Tozer, two boys, aged respectively four and nine years were charged with wilfully damaging private property at Albury, The father of the accused said their mother was quite incapable of managing thorn, and he should he w c'onixiDuTe/towards their support if they were sent to the Industrial School.,«- It appeared from the statement of the police that the present was not the first complaint that had been made against the children, and His Worship ordered them to be srnt to the : Industrial/School, also that their father should give 15s per week for their support."

Talk about a paternal Government after this! The epithet is not half sufficiently expressive. The Government under which such cases are possible deserves to be considered maternal, not to say grandmotherly in its care for its subjects of all ages and conditions. Fancy a father and mother invoking the aid of: State to assist them in managing a child four years of age ! And the State benevolently steps in to protect society against the, ravages of these two firocious ruffians aged four and and nine jeara respectively, and to save their parents the trouble of—well, smacking them. We tremble at the precedent which appears to be here established. We expect soon to hear of the majesty of the law being invoked to punish Master James Pickle, who has wickedly and = maliciously smashed his sister's doll ; or of Miss Milly Mischief being brought up in the custody of a gigantic policeman, charged with having wilfully inked her pinafore.

Seriously, those in authority should steadfastly set their; faces against being called upon to interfere with the natural duties of a parent. If the imbecile parents of the two infants referred to above had been held pecuniarily responsible for any damage done by their offspring, it does not require much sagacity to conclude that they would haye found- some means of controlling" them, and would not have abnegated in this cowardly manner the responsibilities cast upon them by Nature.