The Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 29, 1871.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 431, 29 May 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 29, 1871.

One of those sadder phases of our social life which occasionally appear, was presented in our Police Court to-day, when two very young children appeared to answer a charge of burglary. The cases arc remanded, but as this is not for enquiry into the truth, but in the interests of mercy, we are warranted in drawing attention to the circumstances. One child is about "nine years of age, and the other seven, but either from neglect or some other cause, they both presented a much younger appearance. They were found to have broken a window, chisselled out the glass, and having so effected an entrance, to have carried off a large quantity of articles. What to do with children-experts in the most serious class of crime is a question difficult to solve, and the Court was fairly nonplussed. If convicted, as it was apparent they must be if the charge were pressed, the doors of the Neglected and Destitute Children's School are closed against them, and in the absence of a Reformatory they must go and herd with the hardened crimiuak at Mouni Eden. Surely to make provision for such a case would not over-tax the ingenuity of our legislators and social reformers. It should be no more expense subjecting children to punishment suited to their offences and their tender years in a place set apart for the purpose than to carry out the same discipline iv circumstances which will constitute for children literally a school of crime. The Neglected and Destitute Children's Asylum, or the Industrial School, as it appears to be indifferently called, is excellent so far as it goes, and as a preventive to vicious habits is, perhaps, even more hopeful of good results. But the difficulty in the way of punishing children that are really found transgressing the law, aud especially those evincing an aptitude for| one of the worst forms of crime, is one that should not continue. If offenders such as those poor little unfortunates that appeared in the Police Court to-day are punished with imprisonment, law and justice may be satisfied, but criminal tendency will be simply further developed. If they are discharged, impunity is held out to juvenile crime, the benefits of which will be availed of, not by children alone, but by those who are ready to guide them in paths of vice. This position of affairs -is one that really demands attention, and we trust that the frequency and apparent increase in child-criminals wilt receive that prompt treatment which is due to a pjhase of criminality fraught with so important results.