THE Evening Star. WEDNESDAY,JULY 21, 1869,

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1937, 21 July 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. WEDNESDAY,JULY 21, 1869,

The Otago Institute may now be considered fairly afloat. Its first general meeting was held yesterday, its rules were adopted, and the objects of the Society defined. Practically the subjects that will be brought within the range of its investigations are illimitable, and it is wise not to restrict them, as every year new fields of investigation are opened up. Mr BnoDle’s suggestion that social science should form one of the subjects to bo included in its range is a good one, for whatever knowledge of physics may be attained, it should be subordinated to that higher range that applies all attainments, moral and intellectual, to the development of human happiness. While the knowledge of things around us has been advancing with rapid strides, the moral condition of mankind advances slowly, and in this branch of science much remains to be done. Governments, that theoretically are established for the express purpose of forwarding the objects marked out

by pi'ofess»ra of social science as the most to be desired, have often pi’oved the greatest hindrances to their attainment. Doctrines are handed down from generation to generation and accepted as true, which act perniciously, and cramp and fetter human energy. Tt is only within a very few years that investigation into the elfect of laws and institutions upon the moral and material well-being of man, has been systematically entered upon ; and even now those who devote themselves to the study of social science are looked upon by the mass of mankind as amiable visionaries, wasting their time in unprofitable speculations. It is for societies like the Otago Institute to dispel this idea, and to place before the community facts and deductions which may tend to the improvement of our civil condition. The events of every-day life show how much need there is for sound views, based upon definite principles, to take the place of those ill-defined and vague ideas upon which must of our customs and habits are founded. There is scarcely a public question that is discussed upon grounds that can be looked upon as established on well-ascertained reasons. There is not a tax levied by a Government that is not suggested by considerations of the ease with which it can be collected, rather than by its fair and equitable bearing upon the means and condition of the tax-payers. There is hardly a fine levied for non - performance of a known duty that does not point to a careless disregard of the rights or reasonable requirements of others. It is not in the higher courts of law that these moral delinquencies are the most frequently manifested. The evidence of wide-spread thoughtlessness, and pervading want of information on social science, may be best obtained by visiting the Magistrate’s courts. It is there where an enquirer obtains a knowledge of the deep uuder-cnrreut of vice that is kept out of sight as much as possible by those who practice it. And when it is considered that the cases brought into court are but bubblings of the stream, the mere exponents of its existence, it must be evident that even in this, perhaps one of the best ordered communities in the world, much may be done for its improvement. The half-dozen drunkards that fall into the hands of the police daily do not represent one tithe of those who equally with themselves have wasted substance, degraded their position, and endangered their health by over-indulgence in intoxicating drinks. The brothel keepers who are occasionally compelled to stand in the dock, only indicate that they have through their shamelessness laid themselves open to the visitation of the laws, while the numbers who have had the tact or prudence to avoid exposure, carry on their licentious calling, publicly unknown. The petty thieves who receive summary punishment tell of another development of the criminal class; but the depredations thus brought to light do no more than indicate the numerous losses to which the community is subjected. Were punishment certain, there would be little crime. It is because the many escape, and the few are detected, that a criminal class exists. It is hardly likely that any who live by crime can ultimately escape. Sooner or later, some clue will be found to their habits and characters. But in many instances, years elapse before they are brought under the provisions of the law. With the causes and remedies of these disturbances in the moral world, Social Science has to deal. It investigates the operation of opinion, literature, law and custom upon the human mind. Many of its disclosures are startling enough. Were all the results of the labors of social economists known, they would tend to incite thought in the most heedless. It is certain that many subjects that come within the department of social science, and which it was supposed existing institutions were sufficient -to deal- with, require very different handling from that which they have hitherto received. The efforts of moralists in times past only show their knowledge of the existence of moral disease. Their remedies and resonings have been only operative upon that limited class who, suspecting its existence, have been prepared to accept them. But to be really effective, they must go further. They must be prepared in such a form as to commend themselves to the minds of the youngest and most illiterate. It is the province of social science to show how this may be done, and if some of the members of the Otago Institute would undertake this special branch of investigation, they would find the field sufficiently wide and so deeply interesting as to pay them richly for the labor, with the additional incentive of conferring a lasting benefit on Society.