The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1871.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 405, 28 April 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1871.

The daily records cf the police, and the calendars of the Supreme Court, show the folly of the present treatment of gaol-birds. Mercy to a first offence is becoming and wise, considering the weakness^ of human nature. But when we see criminals brutalised and shameless, who practically laugh at the restraints of society, society should haveno compunctions of conscience in putting its hand on them, and giving them such a squeeze as will make their nerves twinge. The Colony of Victoria, as the recognised scene for experimental legislation with advanced ideas, appears to have taken up this phase of the great criminal question ; and having fixed the point as to the necessity for making criminals pay for their own support, propoaes now to deal with the worst classes of them in a manner likely to penetrate to their sensibilities. As we observe by the latest Australian intelligence, the Government of that colony, taking a stride in advance in the endeavour to deter from crime, has submitted to the Parliament at present sitting an amendment of the criminal law, with the object of introducing the lash more generally into prison discipline. When we consider the proved inefficiency of the present system of penalty, that it aims only at the mental feelings, where in many cases sensibilities are wholly dead, and when we see the actual visible effects of prison discipline, not in deterring, but even encouraging the repetition of crime, making gaols to be, as they have been described on high authority, "schools of criminal ty," we canuot help feeling that something more effective in the way of correction must be devised. There is a strong repugnance in the mind to the use of the lash, but in this psychological peculiarity we fail to see any argument against the use of the lash on hardened criminals. The abuse of anything is no argument against its use, and if the practice (■.'•: nnginthe army and navy has producedu /avulsion of feeling against the cat-o'-ni s-tails, that is no reason why this iusi; iment might not be made to do good * .vice in our gaols. The tyranny which too much characterised the relations of officers anu men in the service of t!ie country in former j rears found only ;; too ready instrument of expression iv the use of the lash, but we have no grounds for supposing thai: such excesses and arbitrary conduc: could have place in our prisons, which are so subject to the scrutiny of the public and of the Press. As a deterrant from crime, the lash has few equals, and its application to garotting and arson has been found to produce most beneficial results. Anyone conversant with the criminal classes knows that after a certain stage in crime, a return to gaol is invested in the eye of the criminal with no terrors ; but, on the contrary, is often hailed as a pleasant provision when occupation in his peculiar calling fails him. Our present prison discipline is a proved and utter failure ; and the experiment which is now about to be made in the prison discipline of Victoria, in applying the lash to the back to eradicate criminal tendencies from the mindj is deserving of the careful observation of all who feel an interest in questions relating to the criminal classes of our population.