FLOGGING AS A PUNISHMENT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1683, 25 February 1913, Page 4

FLOGGING AS A PUNISHMENT.

■ Although most, people' will Tead : with much; satisfaction to-day's telegranv reporting, tho treatment, meted ,out by Mr. Justice EDWAEDS.'in the cases of sexuaj; that came before , him in" Auckland,' there are one' or two 'coiiiments';which"''nced to''bo made. : '-' Wo'iieail -''Hardly say'that Judge Edwards acted- most wisely; -but, it.ought not/to.'be 'overlooked that part of his' wisdom /consisted in the,boldness and vigour"with which he applied his. opiniqn', If it is a dis-' paragoment of our excellent Supreme Court Bench'to say/i£,jwe regret it,'. but we do think' that our Judges-have not bean as consistent as "theyi ought to have been' in their: treatment of sexual crime. They have never left anybody; in doubt" "as 'to ! the' abh'orr rence in which they hold these offences .or .as to the severity-of punishment which they have considered' due', to the offenders ; but they -: have' shrunk unduly from resort to the lash." Thai is why Judqe Ed.wards's treatment of the' Auckland cases is as striking as jit is politic—two qualities- that do hot,alwaysgo together.' His Horiour announced; that in/future he would order the lash in'tho case of every criminal offence against littlo girls, and he declar.qd that "warnings were given to this,-class.of prisoner over and 'over' again,-'' so' that "it was clear thatthe lash was. the only practical punishment"' for the suppress-, , ion of these offences. Since the lash, added to imprisonment, is the most that a Judge cah;do, in the present state of the-law,"iri the way of punishing and deterring this sort of, crime, we are bound to agree with his Honour. But on the whole', tho present state of the law is unsatisfactory. That it will not be a pleasant law to amend, from the point of view of members,of Parliament, cannot, however, be held to' excuse Parliament' from the 1 duty, of amendment. There are some of course, who object, on, those so-called "humanitarian" principles which are so often advanced to the" detriment in other fields than the field- of criminal law, to th'p "outraging", of the sanctity of the criminal's back." But if the corporeal skin, becomes tenderer as the moral skin becomes tougher, ] as has been, suggestcdvthat ig a happy circumstance of which our Judges ought to take the fullest advantage by accepting, as a standard- and a. precedent Judge Edwards's wholesome, and courageous treatment; of the Auckland criminals.- '