ROLL OF COUNCILLORS.

Evening Star, Issue 3226, 23 June 1873, Page 3

ROLL OF COUNCILLORS.

The following table shows the result of the elections so far as they have gone Waihola -A. Molliwm*- • * O. Waikari *H. Driver* * - -G. North HarlF E. M'Glashan* . - - G. Riverton -T. Daniel* . - -G. " ; ” • W. H. Reynolds* - • G. ” .H. ». Fish* • - * g* ” - G.K. Turton - - - £• . B. C. Haggift - - * G. . J. Bathgate* - * - G. Pt. dhalmere H. M’Dermid* • - - G. Oamaru Town J. M‘Lean* - - G. MUton - J. L. Gilhee* - - G. Oteraniika • A. Kinross - • G. Taieri • J- Shand* * * * G- „ -D. Reid* - - - - O. ;; .J. Allan* ... - O. Clutha • J. L. C. Richardson * O. „ J. MNeil . - -G. Waikouaiti •J. Mills - • - ' Matau - H. Clark* - - - - O. Waitahuna - G. F. 0. Browne* - * G. Mount Ida - R. Oliver * * ' g* „ •C. A. DeLatour - -G. Oreti - Jos. Rodgers - - - G. Lakes • B. Hallenstem* * ■ G. . R. Clarke • - * Waihopai •W. Wood* - - G. Dunstan -J. Hazlett - * Oasnaru Oy.- G. M. Webster* - G. Moeraki - C. de V. Teschemaker • G. Tuapcka - H. Bastings* . . - G. •J. C. Brown* - - - O. Ciiversham -R. Stout* - • * G. Peninsula - W. A Tolmie - * ■ G. Invercargill • G, Lumsden* • G* Waihemo • J. M’Kenzie* • * * G. Blueskin -J. Green* * * * * X* Aparima ♦ J, Gumming - - * G. Mataura • J. A. R. Mensies* * • G. Kawarau • D. Mackellar - * * ■ N * * Sat in the last Council. JUDGE RICHMOND’S LAST CHARGJE. We print below the charge of Judge Richmond to the Grand Jury of Marlborough, delivered on the 9th insi Our reason for this is that it deals with questions of paramount interest to the whole Colony:— Mr Foreman and Gentlemen of the Grand

Jury,—l have to announce to you that there is a blank calendar at the present Circuit Court; so that, unless some bill should he preferred by a private prosecutor, or you should have some presentment to make, I may at once discharge you. Considering that there has been of late a large influx of strangers into the Province, occasioned chiefly by the public Works in process of construction, this state of things is gratifying. In connection with the large immigration now going on, it will bo interesting to observe the criminal statistics, as tending to throw some light upon the quality of the new-comers. No person of intelligence interested in the Colony, and certainly no old colonist of this Island, mindful of the principles, and I might say the aspirations of the founders of our several settlements, can be indifferent to this vital question of quality, or be content with the more addition of a certain number of figures iu the returns of population. The increase of exports and imports, which must result from an increased population, can be in the view of such persons no certain index of real progress. Such an increase may occur whilst a country is retrograding in everything which makes a people really prosperous. Witness, for example, the extraordinary increase of the material wealth of France under the Second Empire; whilst she was actually, through the operation of moral causes, sinking in the scale of civilisation, and losing her position amongst the nations of the world. It is the often repeated lesson of history to “ seek first ” something very different from material wealth. Woe to us, if we allow ourselves to fancy that modern British Colonies are exempt from the operation of this great

moral and spiritual law, and free to bow down with impunity before the golden calf. _ When we consider how feeble an interest is commanded by such great social questions as the education of our youth and tlw treatment of our criminals, as compared with the all-absorbing topic in each settlement, how it shall secure to itself, out of our common stock, the largest possible wealth-producing expenditure ; nay. when we see even those things which are essential to physical health neglected, and death left at the door in our undwined or halfdrained towns and hamlets, whilst eagerness for gain confines expenditure to undertakings which seem to promise a money return—-it will, I thinV, be admitted that we are in some real danger of forgetting the ends of life in pursuit of the means of living. There is just now a great cry for the hasty increase of immigration, with a view, no doubt, to augment the revenue, and keep down the rate of wages. Having regard to the existence of goldfields throughout tfabs|9 Colonics, it is not likely that our solitary efforts in this direction can produce any very decided effect lam speaking of schemes for the promiscuous importation of labor, and not of that healthy kind where people come out to joiq their friends and relatives. But I have no concern with the merely economical aspect of the question. Our function here is to take notice of what affects the moral health of the community; our right and duty, to give warning of tendencies which threaten to increase crime in the country. As wisely might we reSlenish our wells with sewage water from Lonon or Manchester as pour into these Islands, without discrimination, the surplus population of the cities of Europe. As regards the actual quality of the present immigration, I do not at Off prpfcnd to speak. The criminal statistics Bfay be expected to fqnpsh hereafter some indications on this subject; though it must be admitted that these are a very coarse test, and for various reasons a somewhat uncertain one. In particular, we must remember that paucity pf convictions may indicate the diminution not of pripie, bpt f>f the efficiency of the police. I observe a disposition (which is a pari: of the social phenomena I have been commenting

upon) to reduce the force of the police to a point which threatens to impair its efficiency. On occasion of a maiden assise at Nelson, T lately told the Grand Jury there that we ought to make the event the subject, not so much of self-laudatory remarks--such as those with which our newspapers are wont to feed our local •vanity—as of reflection, that a blank calendar Is, all things considered, far too great a rarity in New Zealand. With our opportunities, 1 believe we might all but obliterate the criminal class. But for the unpleasant fact that Australasia still retains the penal taint due to the English practice of transportation, I should sav, without hesitation, that the existence of a criminal class in this quarter of the globe argues gross mismanagement in the rulers of this group Of Colonies, Inoculated, as we have been, with the virus of hereditary crime (for since the days of gold we may identify ourselves with Australia, in this respect, and in our old gold producing districts nearly every calendar comprises “ old hands,”) I still believe that by the adoption of a stem, yet _ merciful, r'em of penal discipline, we might hope ost to extinguish professional crime, and as it were blot out the recollection of Norfolk Island and Botany Bay. I have often indicated in public my ideas on this subject, and am not now going further to enlarge on it. It is enough to say, that it would be the fundamental principle of the system to punish, or I would rather say extinguish inveterate and incurable criminality by the confinement of the offenders in a special penal establishment for life. If I rightly understand the author of a very remarkable satirical fiction, on the model of the renowned Gulliver’s travels, which has recently appeared in London, and has attracted a good deal of attention there, the same expedient, tc be carried out the same way, has occurred tc the witty end philosophical writer. I may mention tna|b the author prgtpilds |p have discovered a nation In a high state pf civilisation, who m many ways reverse our notions of things. Amongst other peculiarities they treat crime at disease, and disease os crime. People are senl to gaol for a catarrh; and for pulmonary consumption get penal servitude for life. Measles arc highly criminal, more especially in an adult; ana their statutes, when it is desired io render an Act penal in the highest de-

Ee, declare that the offenders “ shall deemed guilty of typhus fever.” Thit norous, and. at first sight, purely fantastical inversion of things, may lead the thoughtful reader to many reflections ph our treatment ol the questions both of the public health and ol crime. Some whom we treat as invalids mighi iiot unreasonably, perhaps, be dealt with ai criminals. I do pot know that we should b( far wrong in finding a man guilty of deliriu « tremens* OtKer modes in which, individual impair their own health, and thereby that o future generations, might fall under the sam consideration. On the other hand, abstineuc ftrom crime, in some men, seems to be, to th enfeebled wpl, as impossible as free breathin to the astiunajip, or the proper assiroilatiw H food io the dyspeptic, A hppjdfcl fa

such incurables, whefe a stern but benignant discipline might leave them still just so much of their natural liberty as they were capable of using, would, perhaps, be to them tlie most merciful treatment they could receive at the hands of their fellow men; whilst society would be protected from their ravages, and by their enforced celibacy the human race would be a gainer. The book I refer to has special interest for us, as it bears internal evidence, not to be mistaken by a New Zealand colonist, of having been written by one of ourselves. I commend its perusal to any who take an interest in those deeper social questions whereupon depends the real wealth of nations. But as to any improvement in our terribly defective arrangements for the repression of crime, I am well aware that it is not to be hoped for in the present state of the public mind. Not the less should those who think as I do on the subject, and more especially those entrusted with the administration of criminal justice, continue to raise their voices in reprehension of this public neglect. _