The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 3, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4165, 3 July 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 3, 1876.

Duhedin may really be proud of its people. It is not free from the vices incident to all cities, but there is a very liberal and generous feeling pervading the community towards all who are in distress ; and seldom does it end in mere expression of sympathy, as usually practical measures are adopted for giving relief. We imagine, therefore, it is an oversight on the part of our Municipal authorities that no means are provided for conveying petty offenders to and from the Police Court without exposing them to the perhaps unmerited shame of marching a mile through crowded streets where every passer-by examines the line of delinquents and haply sees among them an acquaintance, a quondam friend, or a dependant. We regard the moral effect of this exposure as calculated to injure the unfortunates by inducing in each of them a feeling of severe moitification to which they have no right to be subjected, and which in many instances is a hardening process, Classic history tells of a practice among Spartan fathers, who it is said used to make their slaves drunk and parade jthem before their sons in order to disgust them, and lead them to dispise a vice that reduced men to such degradation. Very possibly there may be some among us who would defend our practice of exposing petty offender on siuiihu* grounds. But very fortunately for mankind, thia Spartan barbarity, like many other notions lauded in classic history, js exploded ; for apart from the abomination of doing evil that good may result, the j world'* experience is that the lew tiien,

women, and children know of evil, even in others, the better citizens they are likely to become. Familiarity with the appearand of crimo deprives it of half its ugliness; just us fauiiliarity with danger denudes it of its tenois. As a consequence the prison mystery is not very terrible to those accustomed to see the morning's batch of prisoners: children become accustomed to it, and its moral effect is to induce iudifference. As a deterrent exibitioD, therefore, it is as powerless for good us Punch's Pappet Show, where wifc-beatiug aud tricking the policeman and the devil by a scoundrel are smoothed over by buffonery, 'J he effect ou the prisoners themselves is, however, more deplorable. In the first place we regard it as unwarrantable that persons not convicted of any offence should be subjected to exposure that is not even contemplated in the punishment awarded, on the charge against them being proved. Ninetynine out of one hundred of those who are thus made the gazing stock of hundreds, or mayhap thousands, have been merely guilty of indiscretions which society condones for five shillings or a day's imprisonment. It is bad enough that for such petty faults the victims should have to plead before a bench and a number of of the Police Court who find .amusement in its proceedings. But this must be considered the inevitable consequences of their misconduct. It must be so if justice is to be dispensed impartially. It is equally necessary that all judgment should be in public, so that a true record of proceedings should appear in the public journals. However trivial the offence, it is the sacrifice an individual has to make for the preservation of the liberty of the whole. But the law does not contemplate unnecessary publicity. It deals with a prisoner against whom a charge has been proved, and professes to discharge without a stain one who establishes his innocence. But through our practice in Dunedin the stain is already imprinted. Many who see the innocent one in the ranks of the accused recognise him as one who has done something to bring him within the pale of the law, and may not learn that he was not guilty; and consequently the moral and material injury may be the blasting of his reputation and prospects. If it bo replied that instances are rare in which persons are charged with petty offences who are not guilty of them, it may be so; but they are sufficiently common to warrant us in recognising the probability that, among a given number, so many will be guiltless. We contend, therefore, that for their sakes, for the sake of public decency, and for the sake of justice that seeks no further penalty for an offence than the law provides, the prisoners who appear before our police magistrates should be conveyed to and fro in-a van in which they are freed from the annoyance of publicity before trial, and can be conveyed back to prison without exposure after sentence. Twenty-four hours' imprisonment for drunkenness does not mean " and walking through a mile of streets for everybody that likes to look at one.'' When the Magistrate's Court was near the gaol but little moral injury could result. It was far away from the business part of the town, and but a step from the gaol to the Police Court. But things are different now. There is a long distance between one of tho lock-ups and the City Court, and between the Police Court and the Gaol; and therefore it is high time tho system followed in all cities assumed to be civilised should be adopted here. Years ago Melbourne had its police van, and we believe that the matter has only to be put before tho public to insure its beiug done.